Middle+Ages+Artifacts

When Charlamagne was appointed as king of half of his father's land, he showed his military might by suppressing a rebellion in the opening years of his reign without the aid of his brother, Carloman. After his brother died suddenly in 771 leaving Charlamagne as the sole ruler of both territories. As one of his first actions as king was to conquer Saxony. The conquest, beginning in 772 would last for over 30 years. In addition, Charlamagne conquered the Lombards from 773-774. Charlamagne was also a deeply religous man. According to historians, he attended mass regularly and honored the pope, bishops and abbots. While he was conquering Saxony, he was determined to convert their them from paganism to Christianity. However, the Saxons resisted mightily. Charlamagne saw himself as a "new David", in reference to the KIng David in the Bible. He saw himself as God's anointed with responsibilities over God's people and the church. Charlamagne's model of Christian Kingship remained the model for much of the rest of the Middle Ages. His close ties with the popes in Rome influenced political events long after his death. Charlamagne is widely proclaimed the greatest medieval king and his achievments were unsurpassed. || she had a vision from God to lead the French Army. She was only 17. Joan of Arc led the French to a victory in the siege of Ore'leans. This was a turning point in the war. In addition, she helped the French win another victory, the Battle of Patay. Though these victory did not end the war, it helped raise French moral while it was low helped raise French moral at a time when moral was low. In the long run, it helped the French to ultimatley become victorious In 1920, she was declared a saint. || This image shows King Richard the I the Lionheart. KIng Richard was the king of England during the Third Crusades. Many stories are told of his bravery and military genius that he earned the title the Lionheart. Often he would fight greatly outnumbered and still be victorious. Though none of his victories had lasting importance, Richard still showed England's military might. ||
 * [[image:Charalemagne.jpg width="332" height="485" align="center"]] || This image depicts Charlamagne with his wife. Charlamagne was one of the most powerful kings of the Middle Ages. During his reigh from 768-814, he created a political system that would influence Europe for the next thousand years. He was a mighty warrior, a deeply religous man and a capable ruler.
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 * [[image:Joan_of_Arc.jpg width="255" height="363" align="center"]] || [[image:Richard_I_the_Lionheart.jpg width="257" height="333" align="center"]] ||
 * The picture shows Joan of Arc. Originally, she was just a peasant girl but

12th century, the papalcy was located in Avignon. Rome at the time was politically unstable and as a result, Pope Clement decided to stay in Avignon, a city on the border of the Holy Roman Empire and France but techinally, was a city of the Holy Roman Empire where it was politically stable and he had the protection of the king of France. Pope Clement thought Avignon would be the perfect place for the temporary home of the papalacy because not only was Avignon a small town where he could have a certain degree of freedom but he could make a peace treaty between France and England. When Clement died, his elected sucessor Pope John XXII officialy declared Avignon the location of the papalcy. As time passed, more popes that were elected were French. Basically all of the members of the clergy were French. Many people at the time thought that the king of France, because he was so close, was influencing the popes. To make matters worse, in 1348, when the first wave of Black Death was beginning to be felt, Pope Clement Vi had just doubled the size of the papal court and it was more lavish than before. This was the beginning of the Great Schism which saw two or three popes ruling at one time, swaying the faith of many Christian's in the Church || This is an image of people burying victims of the Black Death in Tournai. Tournai was one of the many towns hit during this widespread plague. The Black Death wiped out over one third of the population of Europe-25 million people. There were actually three forms of the plague. Bubonic plague had a mortality rate of about 50-100% and gave a person painful swelling of the lymph nodes to the size of eggs; black areas on the skin; fever, chills and headaches. In addition was exhaushtion, muscle aches and a horrible smell. People generally died after 2-7 days and the mortality rate was 50-100%. Victims could also get Pneumonic plague or Septicemic plague which would have killed their victims in less than a day and the mortality rate was just under 100%. The plague produced many results. Some people decided to no longer put their faith in the church. Others decided to live for the moment. As a result of the Black Death, there was a drop in prices because demand was low. The survivors of the plague witnessed the raising of prices because supply was low and so services became expensive. Monarchs made laws to fix prices. This may have led to the Peasants Revolt of 1381. Overall though, the Black Death changed the history of Europe and hastened changes already set in motion. ||
 * [[image:Papal_court.jpg align="center"]] || [[image:blackdeath_picture.jpg width="444" height="248" align="center"]] ||
 * The image shows the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France. For much of the