The Shortest History of Europe

by John Hirst

That is what happened in 476. Not a big, final battle. Odoacer, a German chieftain, took charge, but he did not call himself emperor. He called himself King of Italy. The regalia of the Emperor of the West — the crown and the great robes — he packed up and sent to Constantinople, where there was still an emperor, whose overlordship he acknowledged. The Germans were captured by the glory of what they had inadvertently conquered.

For a time, Roman law and German law operated alongside each other. You were tried according to your ethnic origin.

Roman law had clear principles of justice, which judges applied in particular cases. The early judges were makers of the law and their decisions were then gathered into codes; the greatest was assembled by the eastern emperor, Justinian, in the sixth century.

German law, on the other hand, was a regularised form of vendetta, with judges holding the ring. Injured parties and their kin sought recompense from offenders and their kin. Even in cases of murder, the matter was settled by payment to the kin of the murdered person — how great the payment depending on th...

The Romans established guilt or innocence by the examination of evidence and witnesses; the Germans in trial by ordeal of fire, water or battle. For example, a suspect’s arm was placed in boiling water; if the arm was not healed after three days, the suspect was guilty. Suspects were thrown into water; if they floated they were guilty, if they sank they were innocent. Tw...

Everywhere, the trial by ordeal operated with priests present to ensure that God produced the correct outcome. In this matter the Roman church went the German way until the twelfth century, when the church was influenced by the rediscovery of Emperor Justinian’s Code and priests were told not to participate in ordeals.

German warriors supported a Roman Christian church which preserved Greek and Roman learning.

Only one German tribe in the west produced a long-lasting state; this was the kingdom of the Franks, which grew, as you see on the map, to cover modern France and parts of Germany, Spain and Italy.

The Frankish kingdom reached its greatest extent under the rule of Charles the Great or Charlemagne. After his death, the kingdom broke up. Modern France is not the direct descendant of the Frankish kingdom; France as we know it had to be put slowly together by its later kings.

Most of modern England was in the Roman Empire; Scotland was not. The Romans went to Britain late — only in the first century AD — and they departed early. They left in 410 AD

When the Romans left, the native society of the Britons was still intact; it had not been obliterated by 300 years of Roman settlement.

Then in the fifth and sixth centuries, German peoples — the Angles, Saxons and Jutes — crossed the Channel and invaded England. This was more like a complete conquest. The Britons were over-run and their societies survived only in Scotland, Wales and in Cornwall.

Then, from Ireland and from Rome, missionaries went to England to convert these newcomers to Christianity. The role of Ireland in the conversion of England is one of the amazing stories of the survival of Christianity.

When the empire in the west was invaded, the Irish were safe; they then re-Christianised England and sent missionaries to Europe as well.

the Irish know themselves to be the saviours of Christendom.

The next great invasion was Islamic. It occurred in the seventh and eighth centuries, the two centuries immedia...

Muhammad won over Arabia for his new faith by conquering its pagan tribes and forcing them to submit. In his life he was a more influential figure than Jesus: he founded a religion and established it in a wide territory. At the time of Jesus’ death, there was nothing of Christianity. After Muhammad’s death, his followers continued the conquests with even greater success.

A Muslim army advanced well into France but was defeated at Tours by Charles Martel, leader of the Franks and grandfather of Charlemagne. The Franks saved Europe for Christianity.

The Muslims were ruthless conquerors of Christians, but gentle rulers. They allowed Christians to continue their worship, but as non-believers they had to pay a tax; Muslims paid no tax.

Spain under Muslim rule became, in the Middle Ages, the most civilised part of Europe.

Let us summarise the outcome of three conquests. First, in western Europe a melding of German and old Roman and Christian. Second, in England a complete German takeover and then a reconversion to Christianity. Third, in the Muslim world — in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain — Christianity died out but Greek learning was preserved and transmitted to Christian Europe.

The Vikings or Norsemen were the last of the invaders, marauding through Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries, the two centuries immediately following the Muslim advance.

Their great longboats were a terrifying sight. They had a very shallow draught — they needed only about a metre of water under them — so they could sail a long way up the rivers. If the river got very shallow, they would launch small boats, which they carried with them, and continue. If they met some sort of barrier, they carried their boat around it and kept rowing.

But while they were looking for precious objects, they plundered to survive, seizing food, horses, women and taking more than they needed. They were determined terrorists. Not just raiding and robbing but plundering on a large scale, burning and looting; even things they could not carry away with them they destroyed.

The Vikings or Norsemen marauded through Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries.

The Germans had come by land. The safest place from marauders seemed to be islands in rivers or offshore. Monasteries had been built in these places and now they were easily plundered by these sea-going raiders.

The Norsemen could range so widely without opposition because governments were weak; they had no regular system of tax, and while they could put an army together, these invaders did not come by land.