Renaissance in Western Europe. It was a period full of plagues, famines, and wars.
The name "the Dark Ages" was given by an Italian Scholar named Petrarch, who
compared the life before and during this period of time, and decided to name it
"the Dark Ages". However, were the Dark Ages completely dark? Were there any
possibilities that the Dark Ages were actually bright? Yes there were. If it was from
a peasant's point of view, the Dark Ages would be completely dark since they
were impoverished. But if it was from a king's point of view, it wouldn't have been
that bad.
In a king's point of view, The spread of Christianity was one of the greatest
event and legacy of the Dark Ages. In 496AD, King Clovis of the Franks united
all the barbarian tribes into the Frankish Kingdom. The kingdom was connected
to the Catholic Church and Clovis himself was announced the pagan root. At this
point, a Christian king's power rose to its zenith. He had connections with the
church, which provided both physical and mental assistance to the king. Physical
assistance as in money, and mental assistance as in advises. With the support of
the Catholic Church and the teaching of Christianity, the king received internal
peace and the ability to rule the kingdom successfully.
In 541AD, the Justinian Plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague, killing at least 40%
of the city's inhabitants in the Eastern Roman Empire and 60% of the total population of
Europe. The plague even returned periodically until the 800s and those who were
poor (usually peasants) were always the first victims. On the other hand, if one
was a king, he didn't need to worry as much as a peasant, did he? He lived in
a castle, where there were servants and doctors who protected him from the
epidemic. Emperor Justinian himself survived from plague. But there were
other serious problems that the king faced. The citizens couldn't afford to pay
taxes, which infuriated the king. Plus, the kingdom became weak from the
decreased population. Both problems left the city in total anarchy. Even though
a king was less likely to be killed by the plague, the Justinian Plague was still
one of the darkest events during the Dark Ages because of its consequences.
In 732 AD, the kingdom of France suffered from the Moorish invasion,
which was also a dark event in the period of the Dark Ages. The Moors believed
that they were to rule the world to bring God's justice. The Moors kept charging
in. They crossed over to France with 50,000 men, and it was almost impossible
to defend. Thousands of the French people were killed brutally. From the king's
perspective, it was a very dark period of time. Charles the Hammer Martel tried
to defend so many times, but they all did not work. He suffered greatly from the
desperation of not being able to defend for his own land. His people died one
after another, and his position of king seemed so vulnerable that could be taken
over by the Moors any time. Though in the end, Charles the Hammer Martel
trained a powerful army that withdrew the Moors, but the event was still generally
dark.
Another example of the influence of Christianity was that in 780 AD, King
Charlemagne executed the Saxons, who refused to convert to Christianity during
the Saxon Wars, which was also known as the Massacre of Verden. From a Christian
king's point of view, it was the right thing to do, and this was definitely a bright event.
Charlemagne believed that Christianity is the only religion that could help reach peace
and justice. Therefore, he tried to christianize them from their native Germanic
paganism, but did not succeed. A Christian king would have wanted all the people in the
empire to be Christian, so they can all go to heaven in the afterlife and retrieve
eternal peace.
Charlemagne even brought book education to the kingdom. This did not just benefit
the common people, the kings gained knowledge at the same time, which helped the
kings to rule the kingdom more efficiently. Charlemagne's reign has often been referred
to as the Carolingian Renaissance because of the thrive of scholarship, literature, art,
and architecture. He opened schools that taught the culture and learning from other
countries, which he obtained throughout his vast conquests. This did not just benefit the
common people, the kings gained knowledge at the same time, which helped the kings
to rule the kingdom more efficiently.
Another dark event was the Vikings Invasion.The Vikings were thugs who came to the
villages and robbed the inhabitants in 900AD. At first they just robbed the commoners, so
it didn't do a lot of harm to the kings. But later on, they started to conquer territories. They
destroyed the local monasteries, and such actions infuriated the kings. It was also considered
a very dark era since the king was very troubled about how to stop the invasions. In the end,
King Alfred the Great still expelled the Vikings, but the consequences of the invasion created
was still catastrophic.
There are bright events such as the spread of Christianity, and dark events such as the Justinian Plague, Moorish Invasion, and Vikings Invasion. Based on the fact that there are both dark and bright events during the Dark Ages, this is definitely incorrect to say that the Dark Ages were completely dark. It really was based on the different perspectives the different characters had. The name "the Dark Ages" deceived people from knowing what actually happened and whether the events were dark or bright. The dark events were extremely dark, unforgettable, and miserable; the bright events were extremely bright, beneficial, and influential. Therefore, in a Christian king's perspective, the Dark Ages were not very dark, but were fairly bright instead.