An Introduction to the History of Western Europe

275. The scholars and learned men of the Middle Ages were but little interested in the world about them. They devoted far more attention to philosophy and theology than to what...

263. In 1848 the gathering discontent and the demand for reform suddenly showed their full strength and extent; it seemed for a time as if all western Europe was about to underg...

167. There had been many attempts, as we have seen, before Luther's appearance, to better the clergy and remedy the evils in the Church without altering its organization or teac...

117. While England and France were settling their differences in the wretched period of the Hundred Years' War, and the little German principalities, left without a leader,[212]...

97. The interest of the Middle Ages lies by no means exclusively in the statesmanship of kings and emperors, their victories and defeats; in the policy of popes and bishops; or...

105. In dealing with the history of Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the following order has been adopted. (1) England and France are treated together, since...

209. When we meet the words "French Revolution," they are pretty sure to call up before our mind's eye the guillotine and its hundreds of victims, the storming of the Bastile, t...

183. The great question which confronted England in the seventeenth century was whether the king should be permitted to rule the people, as God's representative, or should submi...

245. The activity of the extraordinary man who had placed himself at the head of the French republic was by no means confined to the important alterations of the map of Europe d...

141. Martin Luther was of peasant origin. His father was very poor, and was trying his fortune as a miner near the Harz Mountains when his eldest son, Martin, was born in 1483....

112. The influence which the Church and its head exercised over the civil government in the Middle Ages was due largely to the absence of strong, efficient rulers who could coun...

84. It is natural to ask whether the commanders of the great army which made up the Church proved valiant leaders in the eternal warfare against evil. Did they, on the whole, re...

227. We have now studied the progress and nature of the revolution which destroyed the old régime and created modern France. Through it the unjust privileges, the perplexing irr...

133. By far the most important event in the sixteenth century and one of the most momentous in the history of the western world, was the revolt of a considerable portion of nort...

9. Previous to the year 375 the attempts of the Germans to penetrate into the Empire appear to have been due to their love of adventure, their hope of enjoying some of the advan...

92. Since the development of the rather new science of political economy, historical writers have become much interested in the condition and habits of the farmer, tradesman, an...

149. As Luther neared Eisenach upon his way home from Worms he was seized by a band of men and conducted to the Wartburg, a castle belonging to the elector of Saxony. Here he wa...

4. No one can hope to understand the Middle Ages who does not first learn something of the Roman Empire, within whose bounds the Germans set up their kingdoms and began the long...

256. There is no more important chapter in the political history of Europe than the reconstruction of the map after Napoleon's abdication. The allies immediately reinstated the...

218. It was necessary, in order to avoid ruin, Calonne claimed, "to reform everything vicious in the state." He proposed, therefore, to reduce the _taille_, reform the salt tax,...

56. The history of the kingship in the eastern, or German, part of Charlemagne's empire is very different from that in France, which was reviewed in a previous chapter. After a...

158. For at least a century after Luther's death the great issue between Catholics and Protestants dominates the history of all the countries with which we have to do, except It...

[148] It must not be forgotten that the monks were regarded as belonging to the clergy. For the various new orders of monks and the conditions in the monasteries, see Munro, _Me...

40. Feudalism was the natural outcome of the peculiar conditions which prevailed in western Europe during the ninth and tenth centuries. Its chief elements were not, however, ne...

129. Two events took place in the early sixteenth century which fundamentally influenced the history of Europe. (1) By a series of royal marriages a great part of western Europe...

51. The country of western Europe whose history is of greatest interest to English-speaking peoples is, of course, England. From England the United States and the vast English c...

28. Charlemagne is the first historical personage among the German peoples of whom we have any satisfactory knowledge.[39] Compared with him, Theodoric, Charles Martel, Pippin,...

203. In the last chapter we reviewed the progress of affairs in eastern Europe and noted the appearance of two new and important powers, Prussia and Russia, which, together with...

238. The aristocratic military leaders of old France had either run away or been discredited along with the noble class to which they belonged. Among the commanders who, through...

197. We have had little occasion hitherto, in dealing with the history of western Europe, to speak of the Slavic peoples, to whom the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, and many other...

191. Under the despotic rule of Louis XIV (1643-1715) France enjoyed a commanding influence in European affairs. After the wars of religion were over, the royal authority had be...

66. Frederick I, nicknamed Barbarossa, i.e., "Redbeard," who became king of Germany in 1152,[118] is the most interesting of all the German emperors; and the records we have of...

73. Of all the events of the Middle Ages, the most romantic and fascinating are the Crusades, the adventurous expeditions to Syria, undertaken by kings and doughty knights with...

78. In the preceding pages it has been necessary to refer constantly to the Church and the clergy. Indeed, without them mediæval history would become almost a blank, for the Chu...

46. There is no more interesting or important phase of mediæval history than the gradual emergence of the modern national state from the feudal anarchy into which the great empi...

17. While the Franks were slowly developing the strength which Charlemagne employed to found the most extensive realm that has existed in Europe since the Roman Empire, another...

24. Just as the pope was becoming the acknowledged head of the Western Church, the Frankish realms came successively under the rule of two great statesmen, Charles Martel and hi...

178. The last great conflict caused by the differences between the Catholics and Protestants was fought out in Germany during the first half of the seventeenth century. It is ge...

21. It would be difficult to overestimate the variety and extent of the influence that the monks exercised for centuries in Europe. The proud annals of the Benedictines, Francis...

35. It was a matter of great importance to the world whether Charlemagne's extensive empire was, after his death, to remain one or to fall apart. He himself appears to have had...

63. Among the writings of Gregory VII there is a very brief statement, called the _Dictatus_, of the powers which he believed the popes to possess. Its chief claims are the foll...

[373] Baber claimed to be descended from an earlier invader, the famous Timur (or Tamerlane), who died in 1405. The so-called Mongol (or Mogul) emperors were really Turkish rath...

1. History, in the broadest sense of the word, is all that we know about everything that man has ever done, or thought, or hoped, or felt. It is the limitless science of past hu...

[98] Arnulf, the grandson of Louis the German, who supplanted Charles the Fat, died in 899 and left a six-year-old son, Louis the Child (d. 911), who was the last of the house o...

[323] For English mariners and their voyages and conflicts with Spain, see Froude's _English Seamen in the Fifteenth Century_. The account of Drake's voyage is on pp. 75-103. Se...

[27] Matt. xvi. 18-19. Two other passages in the New Testament were held to substantiate the divinely ordained headship of Peter and his successors: Luke xxii. 32, where Christ...

[63] See an example of this form of grant in the seventh century in _Readings_, Chapter IX. The reader will also find there a considerable number of illustrations of feudal cont...

[50] These lines are taken from a manuscript written in 825. They form a part of a copy of Charlemagne's admonition to the clergy (789) mentioned below. The part here given is a...

[79] Henry's family owes its name, Plantagenet, to the habit that his father, Geoffrey of Anjou, had of wearing a bit of broom (_planta genista_) in his helmet on his crusading...

"READINGS IN MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY" aims to stimulate the student to real thought and interest in his work by bringing him right to the sources of historical knowledge and ena...

The excellence of Robinson's "History of Western Europe" has been attested by the immediate and widespread adoption of the book in many of the best schools and colleges of the c...

This topical outline is arranged to accompany Robinson's "History of Western Europe" or to correlate with "Readings in European History" by the same author. It is not a lecture...

It is now generally recognized among teachers of history that the text-book should be supplemented by collateral reading. Professor Robinson's "Readings" will supply a need that...

Western Europe," and closes with an account of the Italian cities during the Renaissance. Volume II begins with Europe at the opening of the sixteenth century. The Abridged Edit...