A History of Greece by Nicholas Doumanis

Author:Nicholas Doumanis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan Education UK

BYZANTIUM AND THE WEST (1095–1180)

Until the First Crusade, Latin Europe barely rated in Byzantine and Near Eastern strategic thinking, although Norman forays into Italy and the Balkans had given the Byzantines a sharp taste of feudal military power. When the First Crusade succeeded in conquering much of Syria and Palestine, the eastern Mediterranean was suddenly exposed to an exuberant force that proved exceedingly hard to dislodge. Since the mid-tenth century, Latin Europe, which included all regions that came under the direct spiritual authority of the Bishop of Rome, had developed into an ideologically coherent and more affluent world. The Latin Church or Papacy had also become a much more ambitious organization that sought to make good its claim as the supreme authority over all Christians. A parallel development was the equally striking rise of Europe’s feudal aristocracies and their ability to amass formidable, if unwieldy, military retinues. The growth of Latin self-confidence was mirrored by a declining regard for Byzantium’s moral authority, which was demonstrated by a more forceful insistence on Papal ecclesiastical supremacy and by the propensity of Latin monarchs to claim the Roman imperial heritage. With Papal support, the Ottonians in Germany began a process of renovatio imperii Romanorum (renewing the Roman Empire), which included the crowning in 1027 of Conrad II as ‘emperor’, and the creation of the ‘Holy Roman Empire’.

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