Medieval History Essay Examples and Topics

Introduction This essay will explore the history of Western civilizations through the works of Einhard in his famous book titled “The Life of Charlemagne”. Einhard was conceived to a family of considerably inferior status in society. His parents took him to the monks of Fulda. This was one of the most prestigious learning institutions within […]

Introduction Many areas of Western Europe, particularly Italy, Germany and England had greatly advanced in various areas by the beginning of 12th century AD. For instance, there were advances in social organization, technology, education and economic systems (Haskins 73). The need to acquire new knowledge and develop institutions of leaning was rapidly increasing, especially in […]

The crusades were religious wars in Europe. The wars began because the people in West Europe wanted to take back Holy lands that hand fallen into the hands of the Muslims. The crusades resulted from religious revivalism in Europe. The religious wars lasted for a period of two hundred years with eight crusades. Historians say […]

The Mechanical Water Clock of Ibn Al-Haytham (Discover the golden Age of Muslim Civilisation par. 5) The first simplest water clock was invented in Egypt about 1500BC. This simplest form of clock was known as the outflow clepsydra; it is shown above from different viewpoints. The water clock had the shape of a cone that […]

The world that humans live in today was shaped by the rapid economic growth that was witnessed in Western Europe over the last 1000 years. This growth was attributed to developments in various sectors including political, social and economic sectors in that region. Western Europe went through a period of sustained growth that had never […]

Cohn, Samuel. “The Black Death: End of a Paradigm.” The American Historical Review, vol. 107, no. 3, 2002, pp. 703-738. Samuel Cohn, Jr. opens the article by noting that the ravages of HIV/AIDS and the threat posed by biological weapons have rekindled the interests in the Black Death. However, he argues against most of the literate […]

Introduction Even though the Roman and the Mongol Empires were located in separate continents, they shared some elements in common. Similarities existed in terms of their organization, leadership and justice system among others. Similarly, both empires were large; they covered large geographical areas with huge populations. In enhancing administration, both empires were divided into distinct […]

The emergence of trade routes marked a major development in the history of humankind. Observably, the rise and fall of most classical empires played a crucial role in these historical developments. Indicatively, the sociopolitical and economic elements provided the greatest center stage for these historical advancements. In addition, the economic and religious factors also had […]

Introduction War has been defined as a clash between two groups which involves intentional use of arms in fighting each other, mostly for political gains. War is a brutal and cruel way to solve some state problems. For example, people have used war to determine who benefits from which resources in the country or who […]

Introduction There were at least eight crusades in all but four of them were the major ones. The crusades started in the year 1095 with the appeal of Pope Urban II to the European Christians and ended in the year 1291 with the downfall of Acre. Pope Urban II appealed to the people of France […]

Introduction Throughout history, trade stands out as the single most consistent pillar of global economic development. For many countries across the world, the extent of their development is defined by the level of involvement in trade at both local and international level. Wahl argues that it is widely acknowledged that medieval trade played a significance […]

Introduction Historical events are directly or indirectly responsible for the prevalent issues in the contemporary world. For instance, the aftermath of the Second World War is directly and indirectly responsible for the business and economic landscape that the world enjoys today. Similarly, occurrences such as the Black Death, the late medieval demographic crises, and the […]

The three texts delve into the Anglo Saxon period in detail. Bede’s text is considered one of the most insightful texts during this period, with its focus on the religious issues of the day. The text gives an insight of the spread of Christianity in England, a factor that eliminated pagan practices in the region. […]

Plague refers to a disease spread by fleas which are infected by their hosts, in most cases rats. The fleas used to change host especially after the death of the rat, and the next host they preferred may have been human being. During that process, they infected humans. Plague was first experienced in Europe in […]

The Christian Crusades resulted to great damages in terms of loss in lives and destructions of properties. The barbarism and wickedness of crusaders lead to destruction of cities, attack and murdering of innocent children and women. The motivating factors behind these crusades included; protection of the Christian holy places from Muslim possession, propagation of Christianity […]

Whenever history is trying to conceal something from the mankind in the depth of its wisdom, there are always the people who dare to take a glimpse on the truths that are hidden from the rest of the world. These were called the crusaders, and the fame of theirs was spread all around the world, […]

Introduction During Middle Ages, Spain witnessed the rise and development of various literal traditions. Three major religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism in the Iberian Peninsula contributed to the existence of different intellectual communities, beliefs and practices. Due to the presence of these religions, conflicts and traditions were common as each entity pursued dominance over each […]

Introduction Inquisition is perhaps one of the most studied topics in medieval history. A proper understanding of European history can never be understood without delving deeply into the issues surrounding inquisition. Religious conflicts that started off with inquisition intensified and introduced European nationalism. Secular rulers started to assert their authority against encroachment from the church. […]

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth century marked the collapse of one of largest civilizations, as well as the beginning of radical cultural and social transformations. Hence, the Empire initiated the significant changes in all spheres of life including culture, art, politics, and philosophy. The newly emerged civilizations, therefore, applied to […]

Introduction It has been argued that The Medieval Iberian Peninsula was quite influential and memorable for its diversity in terms of politics, language, culture, religion and ethnicity. As a result, there are several authors and historic experts who have come to conclude that the people of Iberia positively affected the Middle Age, describing the society […]

Introduction In his second edition book, Medieval Iberia, Olivia Remie Constable describes the Iberian history in relation to the relationship that existed between Muslims and Jews together with other religious groups of that time. This essay synthesizes the tributes and Jizya imposed by the Moslem rulers in the 12th century Medieval Iberia, based on Constable’s […]

Every city in the world has its foundation stones, often enfolded in legend, conjecture, traditional beliefs and odd truths (Hollis 21). In an attempt to scrutinize these stones for evidence, this essay aims to outline how London looked like during the Roman age, particularly in terms of possible layout, mode of business, size, religious orientation […]

Dubbed a great event in history, Roman Empire is a collective term referring to the time when Rome, North Africa especially Egypt, Europe (West Europe and South Europe), Queen’s land (Britain) and Asia Minor were under the influence of dictatorial rulers (Wolfram 3). Extant literature in history shows that there are many reasons that contributed […]

During the medieval times, the church was a dominant phenomenon that exercised control over almost all realms of life in the western world. The church had control over politics, forming one of the greatest beneficiaries of taxes. It was also actively involved in educational matters, controlling educational institutions and the ideas of philosophy. As expected, […]

Introduction The word crusade is a common word among the modern Christian especially in the developing countries where open air Christians meetings are common. The term crusade in such meetings refers to a meeting or rather a gathering whose main purpose is to convert people to the Christian faith. However, originally crusades referred to the […]

Introduction The Black Death was, no doubt, the greatest population disaster that has ever occurred in the history of Europe. The name is given to the bubonic plaque that occurred in the fourteenth century in Europe killing millions of people. The plaque began in the year 1348, and by the year 1359, it had killed […]

West European Studies Feudalism refers to military and political practices in medieval Europe that occurred amid the 19TH century and 15th century. Sacking of Rome by Visigoths resulted to feudalism in Europe. This spearheaded (Brown, Elizabeth 1065) the Romans living in Europe to move back to their native land abandoning the land in Europe without […]

One of the major reasons that led to the fall of the Roman Empire was the decline in morals particularly among the emperors, nobles as well as the upper rich classes. For example, Emperor Tiberius had kept young boys in his palace for his homosexuality;and Emperor Nero often ordered for male slaves to be castrated […]

The medieval ages were populated with wars waged for differing reasons. Some of the most remarkable and expansive wars waged were the Crusades. The first crusade was summoned by Pope Urban II in 1095 and it was labeled the “war of liberation” aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land from the Muslims [1]. The Christian army […]

The Knights Templar is believed to be a religious military order that carried out its activities for approximately two centuries during the Middle Ages. The order, which grew rapidly in membership and power, had numerous different names and its members had numerous other titles. This Western Christian military order began as a small gathering of […]

Introduction Termed as Europe’s greatest ecological disaster, Black Death plague swept the continent at an amazing magnitude. Evidence shows that Black Death plague became prevalent in the West during the middle years of the 14th century[1]. Generally, when the plague struck no one knew how to prevent or treat the disease but many people resorted […]

Introduction The extent of the primitiveness in the first millennium is quite incomprehensible to the current mind. The mind and the environment have radically evolved to the extent that primitive history seems to be very incredible. This essay is going to analyze how life was at the turn of the first millennium in England as […]

The European Middle Ages, popularly referred to as ‘dark ages’ can only be described by one word, ‘barbaric’. This was after the fall of the Roman Empire that had ruled for almost 500 years. Hooligans, Hans, barbarians and Goths came from all directions, East and North, sweeping down Europe. Many buildings and architectural structures that […]