Course: GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLE AGES

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Course title GENERAL HISTORY OF MIDDLE AGES
Course code KHI/PBH12
Organizational form of instruction Lecture + Seminary
Level of course Bachelor
Year of study 1
Semester Winter
Number of ECTS credits 4
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Drška Václav, doc. PhDr. Ph.D.
  • Tomíček David, Mgr. Ph.D.
Course content
1. The disintegration of the Late Antique world, the migration of peoples and the emergence of "barbarioan kingdoms", the social structure of the "new tribes", their elites and the East Roman Empire. 2. The Frankish world. The Frankish migration, the Merovingian empire, the Pippin-Carlovian empire, the empire of the year 800, peak and fall of the empire. 3. The Church in the early Middle Ages. 4. The struggle for investiture. Causes of the Investiture Controversy: proprietary and landed churches, the Cluny-Lorraine Reform, the Saalian Empire under Henry III, the policy of the Empire after the accession of Henry IV, the Roman papacy: reforms after the accession of Leo IX, Gregory VII, the course of the conflict, concordats with England and France, the Concordat of Worms. 5. Islam and europe. The background and origins of Islam, Mohammed, the Umayyad Empire, the Abbas Empire, Arab Hispania, the socio-religious development of the Arab world, Arab culture. 6. Western (Latin) Europe in the Middle Ages. Frace from the division of Verdun to the reign of Philip II, England from the Anglo-Saxon invasion to the reign of John the Landless. 7. Central Europe under the sign of imperial universalism. 8. Anglo-French conflict in the 12th and 13th centuries and its results: the centralized monarchy of Philip II and the England of Magna Charta as an !early form of modern statehood". 9. Byzantium and the Orthodox world. Byzantium at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries, the weakening of the empire and the expansion of Islam, iconoclasm, the mission to the Slavs, Photios and the schism with the Latin Church, the end of the Macedoninan dnyasty, the Komnenos, the Angelians. Late Byzantine society and the rise of the Turkish Ottoman Empire: internal and external problems of late Byzantine society, attempts and union with the West, late Crusades and Ottoman expansion - political conditions of the Balkan Peninsula and their changes. 10. European expansion and prosperity. Stabilization after 1000 and its economic and social consequences, internal colonization: methods and forms, external colonization: the Crusades to Palestine - socio-economic and political motivations, religious assumptions. Characteristics of long-distance trade-views of contemporary scholarship, the main trade routes and their development, trading techniques and the development of monetary relations, trade ant the "traditional" medieval elites, the attitude of the Church; the emancipation of urban society and views of modern scholarship, its internal organization, its relationship to feudal ties (using the examples of Flanders, Hana, Italy) reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula and the emrgence of Christian states in Hispania, their development up to the early 15th century. 11. Papal politics from the Concordat of Worms to the emrgence of the Avignon papacy. 12. The "centralized" monarchies of Western Europe. 13. The spiritual and cultural movements of the early Middle Ages. 14. Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.

Learning activities and teaching methods
unspecified, unspecified, unspecified, unspecified
Learning outcomes
The given course is comprised of one semester, always held during the summer semester of the academic year. It includes a four-hour lecture and a two-hour seminar a week. The lectures serve to introduce students to the basic subjects of medieval studies, to develop basic knowledge of the development of medieval European society and to acquire information about the current state of research. The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to basic methodological and methodical processes of medieval studies via working with selected sources and literature. Emphasis is laid on successful interpretation of text and on heuristics of the discipline.
The student knows the basic methodology of the fiels, has an overview of the current state of research, can characterie the key problems and themes of medieval studies, knows the basic development dendencies of Europe in thi period
Prerequisites
None

Assessment methods and criteria
unspecified
Regular attendance at seminars and active work according to the teacher?s instructions, passing a writtentest and an oral exam.
Recommended literature
  • Bednaříková, J. Stěhování národů. Praha, 2003.
  • Brooke, Ch. Evropa středověku v letech 962-1154. Praha, 2006.
  • Collins, R. Evropa raného středověku. Praha, 2005.
  • Drška, V. - Picková, D. Dějiny středověké Evropy. Praha, 2004.
  • Ehlers, J. a kol. Francouzští králové v období středověku. Praha, 2003.
  • Franzen, A. Malé církevní dějiny. Praha, 1995.
  • Huizinga, J. Podzim středověku. Jinočany, 1999.
  • Keller, H. Ottoni. Praha, 2004.
  • Lawrence, H. Dějiny středověkého mnišství. Brno, 2002.
  • Le Goff, J. Intelektuálové ve středověku. Praha, 1999.
  • Le Goff, J. Kultura středověké Evropy. Praha, 2005.
  • Mundy, J. Evropa vrcholného středověku. Praha, 2008.
  • Rapp, F. Svatá říše římská národa německého. Praha - Litomyšl, 2007.
  • Tauer, F. Svět islámu. Praha, 1984.
  • Zástěrová, B. Dějiny Byzance. Praha, 1992.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester