From the Fall of Rome to the Black Death--1000 years of Darkness?
A thousand years of darkness?
Well, yes and no. By the time the Roman Empire fell apart, things were quite bleak. There was no Pax Romana, which means that political and social stability were hard to find. There were no Roman legions to enforce the rigidly structured society of Rome.
It wasn’t that the German barbarians destroyed this social order—the collapse of Rome created a vacuum of power and social structure. The Germans simply moved into the vacuum. And there were no Romans to prevent it.
Instead, there were many small feudal lords, each with his (and it was almost always his, not her) customs, power, and limitations. Beyond these local lords, it would have been very much a hand to mouth existence for many people.
Because there was little social order and even less security, travel and trade suffered terribly. Not only did the shipping and marketing of goods across Europe shrink to a tiny trickle compared to the glory days of Rome, but the trafficking in ideas did as well. Pirates, brigands, and greedy local lords put an end to all of that.
Cities, the centers of trade and social structure, lost their livelihood and fell into ruin. Even though the population moved into rural areas, the overall population still decreased. A series of very cold winters and poor harvests made life a struggle at every level.
The invaders grabbed what they could, often taking over the best agricultural lands so that they could feed their own people. They admired the fabulous wealth and culture of Rome, but were in no position to try to maintain it, or recreate what had been lost.
One of the few institutions that did continue as a viable force was the Christian church. The church gave what little bit of cultural unity to the West that it could. Even that was relatively little, at least during the first half of the Middle Ages.
The feudal system meant you inherited your position in society: warrior (or noble) religious, or worker. And there was no escape from that fate. You were what our parents were, and what your grandchildren would be.
One of the few institutions that did continue as a viable force was the Christian church. The church gave what little bit of cultural unity to the West that it could. Even that was relatively little, at least during the first half of the Middle Ages.
Yes there was a pope in Rome. He didn’t really have much power or authority, and Rome was a shell of its former self, but he existed. And he served as the leader for the local church throughout Europe. In that way, his power was substantial.
Those local monks and priests were the everyday expression of the power of the church in their communities, and they were quite a viable influence. Missionaries sent out by the Irish monasteries (Ireland, until the Vikings came along in the late 700s, had escaped the worst of the northern migratory disruptions) helped to bring to the German tribesmen to the East of them aspects of the Roman-Latin Christian legacy that otherwise would have been lost entirely to Western Europe.
There were parts of the church that took on the pretensions of the imperial order, notably in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. Here for a while the imperial order hung on, avoiding most of the onslaught of the Germanic migrations of the 400s (which took place largely in the West)--even undergoing a brief revival under the very capable Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian (mid-500s).
But the church's moving up alongside imperial authority was to cause its collapse in the East--in contrast to its survival in the West. At a time in the Roman East when the imperial order was losing touch with the masses--again, because of taxes, loss of family lands, etc.--this was a poor time for the church to decide to go imperial. And the church paid dearly for this mistake in the 600s when Arabs came into the East the same way the Germans had come into the West two centuries earlier, finding a moral vacuum there among the people, who were quite willing to let these outsiders replace the imperial order that they no longer respected.
Islam connected people and trade between Spain and Indonesia--creating a demand for the riches of the East in the West, and a way to deliver those riches.
Thus in rejecting the imperial order the Easterners rejected also the Christian order--and Islam easily moved in to fill the moral gap. Once the Arab-Muslim revolution got underway, it quickly rolled back the Roman-Christian Imperial or Byzantine Order to make way for Islam.
Islam rolled across Syria and Palestine, across Egypt, across the long sweep of the African coast all the way to the Atlantic. And then in the early 700s it crossed into Spain, and moved under momentum of its enormous power all the way up into central France. There Islam was turned back by a German-Christian army that prevented the rest of Western Europe from falling under Arab rule. Consequently, Islam had to content itself with holding only Spain in the West--and even that got chipped away at slowly over the years by a Christian "reconquest" or crusade to restore Western Europe to Christ.
The Role of the Church
The last time we checked on those Roman Villas, they had fallen to the barbaric Goths, Huns and Vandals. As they were both beautiful and self-sufficient, they made pretty darn good palaces. And we know the Goths were barbaric because they drank their beer straight, not watered down the way civilized Romans did.
Over time, some of the villas became the centers of small towns, while others were donated to the church in the hopes of achieving everlasting salvation. These were somewhat sophisticated deals, not unlike the way an endowment works today. A wealthy landowner would deed some of his lands to the church—often vineyards. In return, the church would celebrate a number of Masses for him, and often went so far as to absolve him of most of his sins. (A thousand years later, this was one of the practices of the church that incensed Martin Luther.)
But the members of the church were among the most literate of Europeans, and the Roman texts on agriculture were carefully studied. It was no surprise that the vines tended by the priests seemed to do better, and the wines tasted better, than those made by the lay community. A donation of land to the church usually was accompanied by an agreement that a percentage of the wine each year would be paid to the donor. And that wine, from some of the great vineyards in Europe, made by the most knowledgeable winemakers of the time, was likely to be better than anything you could make at home.
So you gave the land to the church. Their experts tended the vines and made the wine, and gave you an annual supply of the good stuff—often in perpetuity. The eternal salvation was just the icing on the cake!
Why were the cloisters and monasteries so successful in those days? A cloister (or Monastery) was a self-contained economic unit, with a focus on prayer and agriculture. As such, they were powerful economic forces.
While the local villages were “burdened” with small children, nursing mothers, and others who could not generate a full day’s work in the fields, the monasteries were sup-plied with a singularly focused work force. Many were quite specialized in their field. This meant that there was some interest in building expertise in everything from cooking to viticulture and enology. They became the reliquary of enology and viticulture. As custodians of the past, they became the foundation of the future of European wine. And it made the church one of the largest landowners in Europe, and encouraged them to pursue excellence in winemaking.
The monasteries compiled all of the current learning, and passed it on from one generation to the next, sometimes in erudite texts, sometimes as folk tales. One early story tells of Saint Martin and his donkey, which ate all the upper levels of the vine. At first St. Martin was horrified. But the next year the resulting vines grew back better and stronger, thus teaching the world to prune grapevines. Vines are still pruned in many parts of France on St. Martin's Day.
A key figure in the history of German wine was Father Lorsch. He was highly regarded as a winemaker, and many nobles donated vineyards to him. In return, they received both immediate rewards, in terms of his wines, and eternal rewards to benefit their souls. Pipin, Charlemagne's father, was the most important noble to do this, and his participation encouraged many others to do the same. Father Lorsch thus became the preeminent winemaker in Europe, and is still venerated as such today in Germany.
And Monasteries?
St. Benedict left very specific rules every element of life of the Benedictine brothers, including how much wine they should be allowed to consumer. As a general rule, the answer was a pint of wine per day. But Benedictine was a charitable monk, and within those same rules, he suggested that the abbot use his own judgement. Benedictine urged some flexibility in this matter, based on the size of the monk, the effect the alcohol had on him, and his need. It was a truly enlightened policy, but one that would be hard pressed in today’s litigious society and blood alcohol content tests.
In the medieval times The Byzantine Empire was the most powerful political entity in Europe. But even there, viticulture was work of monasteries and a few private individuals. These wines were exported throughout the world, providing important revenue for the monasteries and their oligopoly. The best of these Byzantine wines came from the islands of Chios, Thasos, and Crete, and the mainland regions of Thrace and Cappadocia. By the decline of the Byzantine Empire, both wine production and wine commerce were greatly reduced. What was once a Roman wine trade throughout Europe and the Mediterranean had shrunk to a tiny trickle of wine traded locally. These were the Dark Ages for wine, as well.
France was founded by Germans
Charlemagne was born c. 742, before his parents, Pepin III the Short and Bertrada, were married. Because of his possible illegitimacy, he and his younger brother Carloman were to divide and share the Kingdom of the Franks (and the Holy Roman Empire) but this lasted only three years, until Carloman died. Charlemagne then became the sole King of the Franks. For the next 28 years, Charlemagne waged wars of conquest and united most of the lands of Western Europe. He also influenced the political and social life of all of Europe.
His first campaign was intended to drive the Moors out of Cordoba. But the complicated campaign (which depended on a plot for an internal revolt as well) failed, and Charlemagne retreated to Aachen to save his Kingdom from the Saxons. The campaign is immortalized in the Chanson de Roland, an epic poem honoring the afterguard, who fought off a ferocious attack by the Basques on the retreating army. Charlemagne eventually got his kingdom in Spain by conquering Barcelona and its surrounding region in 801.
His government was loosely centralized and relied upon the loyalty of local nobles. Charlemagne sent his officials, two by two, one lay, one clergy, on yearly trips through the kingdom. These missi dominici (sent by the ruler), were responsible for hearing legal cases and spreading the king's law, as well as establishing schools for all children. This emphasis on education was a signature of Charlemagne’s reign, and utterly remarkable for the time. However, at the time of Charlemagne's death in 814, the system was beginning to break down as corruption flourished and local magnates began to assume more power.
In 800 on Christmas Day, Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor in gratitude for the king's having rescued him and saved Rome. The Frankish Royal Annals record that one of the king's advisers suggested the coronation to the pope; however, Einhard, his biographer and a scholar at his court, reports that the coronation surprised and angered the king. Scholars attribute the anger to the fact that Charlemagne considered the pope to be one of his subjects.
Charlemagne was a learned man who knew Latin and Greek. He frequently studied Augustine's City of God, and his court was home to several leading scholars, including Alcuin of York. Scholars at his court developed Carolingian miniscule, a script that is the basis for modern printing and cursive.
The king was also active in the affairs of the church. In 794, he convoked a synod in Frankfurt to discuss flood relief, adoptionism, and icons. To fight adoptionism, the participants at the synod drew on the arguments of the Council of Toledo (589) to use the phrase filioque in the creed to combat Arianism.
Please note that Arianism has nothing to do with WWII. Arianism was a religious doctrine that denied the divinity of Christ and focused on the dissimilarity between the Father and Son. The Son was created and, hence, had a beginning unlike the eternal Father who always existed. Arians believed the Son was subordinate to the Father; he earned his rank from participation in grace or adoption by God.
Charlemagne was buried at Aix-la-Chapelle, or Aachen. Antipope Pascal III "canonized" him at the request of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, and the familiar golden statue is his reliquary. Legend says that Charlemagne rests now, armed, at Oldenburg in Hesse, where he awaits the coming battle with the anti-Christ.
Charlemagne also gives his name to the greatest white wine vineyard in France—the Corton Charlemagne in Burgundy—a vineyard that provided wine to the King.
And the official Language of the English Court was French
After the Norman Invasion of England, in 1066, the ruling class was Norman---these were originally Norsemen (thus the name) who had settled in Northern France. They spoke French. They were Vikings. And because there were questions about the succession of the English Crown, William the Conqueror, whose roots were Viking and who spoke French, became the kind of England.
And for the next three hundred years, the official language in the Court of the King of England was French. Robin Hood spoke English, but the evil King John spoke French. As did his brother, Richard the Lion-hearted. And everyone else in English nobility.
And this didn't get sorted out until the two countries fought about it for a hundred years, which is why it was called the Hundred Years' War. Joan of Arc was the young French maid who led the French troops to victory...and was burned at the stake by the English for being a witch.
Good times.
The Knights Templar
The wines of Commandaria were initially created for the Knights Templar. These knights were volunteers, dedicated to protecting pilgrims on their way to the Holy Lands, and dedicated to attacking Moors wherever they might be found. There were eventually defeated by the Saracens, and forced to leave their stronghold on Rhodes. Since none of the European nations wanted to host this troop of avaricious mercenaries, they were given the island of Malta. Also known as the Knights of St. John, and the Hospitaller Knights, they created wines on Malta that may be among oldest existing styles of wine. These wines were usually drunk four parts water to one part wine. But even so, those who constantly overindulged were said to drink like a Templar. The rent they paid the King of Spain for the island of Malta was a falcon!
In England, there was regular religious observance of The Wyn Moneth (October). St. Dunstan revived the monasteries after the Viking invasions, and these were frequently the sources for English wine. In contrast to the Benedictines, the monks in the Battle Abbey in Sussex drank one gallon of wine per day, and more if they fell ill. For the celebration of the holidays, the English priests used a special two handled Wassail Cup for the holiday Masses.
The Only Social Escape was the Pilgrimage--to Santiago, to Jerusalem to Canterbury...
Chaucer:
He drinketh ipocras, claree, and vernage
Of spyces hote, t'encresen his corage
This was the only option for Medieval people to travel, and it became a big business. Churches promoted their relics, and pilgrims not only traveled to see the world, they also shared their stories and carried knowledge, and grapevines, from one place to the next. Garnacha, Carninena, and Monastrell were all carried to the Rhone region of France by pilgrims returning from Santiago de Compostella.
By the time of the Norman Conquest, vines were grown, and wine made, in a substantial number of monastic institutions in England, especially, southern England. The legacy of street names (such as Vine street or the Vineyards) in London and provincial towns and cities - suggests that vines and vineyards were certainly no great rarities.
At the time of the compilation of the Domesday Survey in the late eleventh century, vineyards were recorded in 46 places in southern England, from East Anglia through to modern-day Somerset. By the time King Henry VIIIth ascended the throne there were 139 sizeable vineyards in England and Wales - 11 of them owned by the Crown, 67 by noble families and 52 by the church.
Of course, the Norman Invasion brought French language, French monks, and French wine. Because the invasion came from Northern France, it is likely that they brought primarily wines of the Loire Valley. During the time of Henry II and the evil King John, there was a trading fleet of 1,000 vessels plying the Channel, bringing more claret to England than they drink today, despite the fact that the population then was only 2 million. Even so, the main drink in England during the Middle Ages was beer, either strong or weak, with mead and wine only for special occasions. As in most parts of Europe, the water was unsafe, and rarely drunk.
The Black Death destroyed everything in its path, including the monastic work force in Britain, and with it, the wine industry. Following that, The Dissolution (During Reformation) eliminated the monasteries entirely.
While this would have had a major impact, it is not exactly clear why the number of vineyards declined subsequently. Some have put it down to an adverse change in the weather that made an uncertain enterprise even more problematic. Others have linked it with the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Both these factors may have had some part to play but in all probability the decline was gradual (over several centuries) and for more complex reasons.
From that point on, the wine industry of Britain has been a footnote--until today!
Food in the Middle Ages
In 1099, the first Crusader knights arrived in the Holy Land, with the goal of liberating the Holy Sepulchre from Muslim rule. As part of their defensive measures to protect Jerusalem, and to make the enemy's advance more difficult, the Muslims destroyed all the agricultural infrastructure around the city. After conquering the region, the Crusaders were forced to resettle the area and build farms around the city to supply food and wine to the population who rapidly resettled there.
There is no doubt at all, however, that the Muslims had the upper hand in culinary matters. The Crusaders found a culinary paradise here, a remnant of the glorious Arab heritage of the courts of the caliphs in Baghdad and of the Persian kings. Arab and Egyptian cooks quickly found their place in the kitchens of Frankish high society in Jerusalem, Ramle and Acre, teaching the knights some of the pleasures of the East. The high gastronomic culture was enriched by an elaborate tradition of music, dancing and literature accompanying the meal, which turned it into a true banquet.
The Europeans were very impressed by the local products: ananas, figs, sabra fruit, sugar cane, citrus fruit, wheat, and superb grapes. The wines of the Judean hills were famous for their excellent quality. In summer, wine was chilled in snow brought in straw-covered carts from the distant mountains of Lebanon. Snow was also used to cool fruit juices, the sherbets which were early predecessors of today's sorbets.
It was here that Christian Knights learned that you could be a warrior and an educated man. Their Islamic opponents lived in wondrous palaces, ate luxuriously, and studied learned texts. This while most of European nobility lived in cold stone castles without a book in sight.
The Franks also adopted the eastern custom of using many spices, often to excess, as a sign of their great wealth. Commonly used spices included sumac, mustard, saffron, cloves, cinnamon, rosemary, and coconut, licorice root and lotus fruits were also used, bearing witness to the trade routes running between East and West. The consumption of ready-cooked food was also common, bought in one of Jerusalem's many markets.
Indeed, one of the most prominent architectural features of Crusader Jerusalem is the complex of markets which still serve the merchants of the Old City. The old chicken market in David Street is now used as a fruits and vegetables market, while the modern Butchers' Street was originally intended for fresh produce and was called the "Street of Herbs". The most famous of all was the central market, known as the "Street of Bad Cookery" (Malquisinat), whose merchants specialized in the production and supply of cooked food for the numerous pilgrims who flocked to the city.
Dining in the Middle Ages
If you were a noble, or invited to a noble's table, you sat in strict accordance to your social position. The higher your status, the closer you sat to the head of the table. The food all started at the head of the table, and those people ate what they wanted before the dishes were passed down to the lower status diners. What you got was what was left over from your social superiors.
Food was served on platters, and you ate with your hands, no forks. A knife was used, and the proper technique was to grab a chunk of meat (if you got any!) with your hand and take a bit, Then use your knife to cut off the chunk you had bitten, Replace the remaining meat on the platter.
Meanwhile, you didn't get a plate, you got a trencher--a hard, flat round piece of bread baked dry. This you used to rest any food you wanted to eat. At the end of the meal, you could eat this trencher (thus the expression, to eat like a trencherman) or pass it down the table to those less fortunate...or toss it to the dogs lying under the table in expectation of such treats.
Nobles lives in castles, although some were a lot less fancy than you might expect, and certainly cold. Meals were served in the Great Room. which was also the dormitory for all guests. Tables and chairs were moved aside or hung from the walls after dinner, and all the guests slept together on the floor of the great hall. The host and hostess would have their bed to one side, surrounded by curtains for privacy. Only the greatest castles would have lots of rooms, bedrooms, and options.
Of course the poor ate much less. If they were serfs, they usually ate what they grew, if they had enough to do so, or collected from nearby fields. But all meat and game was owned by the nobles, and poaching was a capital offense. Actually, the nobles had the power of life and death over all their serfs, so anything could be a capital offense if a noble so decreed.
All travelers and pilgrims carried their own spoon, often in the band of their hat or some other convenient location, so that they could eat soup when it was offered. It was not the responsibility of the inn to provide spoons or knives. Inns served a single menu--whatever they served that day was what you ate. And if you arrived late, it could be all gone.
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