Early Middle Ages

From the late 4th century Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons and other peoples moved into Roman lands, partly driven by the Huns. They founded kingdoms: the Visigoths in Spain, the Ostrogoths and later the Lombards in Italy, the Franks in Gaul, the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. Around 500 the Frankish king Clovis was baptised a Catholic, which won him the support of the Roman population and the Church.

Charles, king of the Franks from 768, conquered the Saxons and the Lombard kingdom and on Christmas Day 800 was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III. His court at Aachen gathered scholars from all over Europe, and his scribes developed the clear Carolingian script, the model for our lower-case letters. In 843 his grandsons divided the empire into western, middle and eastern kingdoms - the distant beginnings of France and Germany.

Monasteries following the Rule of Saint Benedict, written in the 6th century, became centres of prayer, farming and learning. Their scriptoria copied the Bible and the classical authors - much of Latin literature survives only because monks copied it. Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries converted the Germans, and in the 9th century the brothers Cyril and Methodius created an alphabet for the Slavs.

In the East, Emperor Justinian (527 – 565) reconquered Italy and North Africa, collected Roman law and built Hagia Sophia. In the 7th and 8th centuries Arab armies took Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Spain. From 793 Viking ships from Scandinavia raided the coasts of Europe, but Vikings also traded, settled Normandy and Iceland and, as the Varangians, helped found the state of Rus.