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Europe in the Tenth Century: Continuity and Change

Module description

Did tenth-century continental Europe experience a dark age?  Contemporary commentators have described it as such and the view has persisted ever since: threatened and invaded from outside by Vikings, Magyars and Saracens, resulting in political turmoil and rising militarisation, and increasing intellectual timidity. In this module you will examine various aspects of the evidence for this picture in order to ask: how far is it an accurate description? Taking a comparative approach, you will use contemporary sources from the time to investigate the social, political and cultural developments in France, Germany and northern Italy between c900 and c1000.  You will work independently and in a group, including participating in a group presentation.

Module aims - intentions of the module

You will need effective communication and analytical skills, oral and written, to complete many of your modules and in a job after you graduate.  This module aims to help you develop your skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material, and in reporting on your work.  It provides you with an opportunity to explore an area of history in more depth, and helps you to develop the depth of understanding you will require to study more specialised areas of history. It will also give you an opportunity to work in a team on group tasks.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Be aware of the various developments in the history of continental western Europe in the tenth century
• 2. Make a close evaluation of the key political, social and cultural developments of the period
• 3. Evaluate the main themes in the subject and to collate information upon, and evaluate in greater detail, those aspects of the module discussed in seminar and especially those topics selected by students for their coursework

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse the key developments of the period
• 5. Collate data from a range of sources, both primary and secondary
• 6. Interpret primary sources
• 7. Trace long-term as well as short-term historical developments
• 8. Recognise and deploy historical terminology correctly
• 9. Assess different approaches to historical writing in areas of controversy

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 10. Work both independently and in a group, including participating in oral seminar discussions
• 11. Identify a topic, select, comprehend, and organise primary and secondary materials on that topic with little guidance
• 12. Produce to a deadline and in examination conditions a coherent argument

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Lectures:

• Introduction
• Outlook
• Tenth-century People’s Views of their World
• Europe in the Late Ninth Century: the Carolingians’ Legacy
• Invaders and Neighbours: The Myth and Reality of Relations between Latin Christians and their Neighbours
• Political Transformation and Legitimacy
• ‘The Little Kings’ of the Tenth Century Part I: Images of Tenth-Century Rule
• ‘The Little Kings’ of the Tenth Century Part II: the ‘Rules’ of Political Life
• A New Roman Empire?
• Mentalities
• Conflict in the Tenth Century: Feud, Rebellion and Negotiation
• Lordship and Communities
• Soldiers of Christ: Aristocratic Male Identity
• Just Wives and Mothers? Female Aristocratic Identity
• Cultures and Belief
• Lord Bishops
• The Tenth-Century Monastic Reform
• Religious Enthusiasm: the Cult of the Saints
• Lay Beliefs
• The Ottonian Renaissance
• Apocalypse Then
• Social Transformation
• The End of Slavery?
• Violence and the Peace of God
• The Feudal Transformation
• Phantoms of Remembrance
• Was the Tenth Century a Dark Age?

Seminars:

• Contemporary views of the tenth-century
• The Collapse of the Carolingian Empire
• Encountering the Other
• The New Roman Empire
• Trial by Ordeal
• The Beginnings of Knighthood
• Queens and Abbesses
• Sins and sinners
• Millenarianism
• The Feudal Transformation
• Was the Tenth Century a Dark Age?

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 3000 word essay and take home exam, as in the original assessment.

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• H. Fichtenau, Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders, trans. P. Geary (Chicago, IL, 1991) 
• The New Cambridge Medieval History, III: 900-1025, ed. T. Reuter (Cambridge, 1999)
• S. Hamilton, Church and People in the Medieval West, 900–1200 (London, 2013)
• S. MacLean, Ottonian Queenship (Oxford, 2017)
•  K.J. Leyser, Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society: Ottonian Saxony (London, 1979) 
•  K.J. Leyser, Communications and Power: The Carolingian and Ottonian Centuries (London, 1994) 
•  T. Reuter, Medieval Polities and Modern Mentalities (Cambridge, 2006) 
•  J. Dunbabin, France in the Making, 843-1180, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 2000) 
•  C. Wickham, Medieval Rome: Stability and Crisis of a City, 900–1150 (Oxford, 2014)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Internet Medieval Sourcebook: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook2.html 
• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11330 

Key words search

History, medieval, European, Vikings, France, Germany, Italy