EARLY MIDDLE AGE FEUDAL STATES
EASTERN FRONTIER KINGDOMS (about 1000 A.D.)

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In the period after Charlemagne's death, the Slavs and Magyars had pressed against the frontiers of the East Frankish kingdom. By the middle of the tenth century the tables were turned and the historic German drang nach osten, or eastward pressure, was acquiring a real impetus. As a consequence, the states which were forming in east-central Europe often developed cohesion as they resisted the German advance.

Slavic resistance was not uniformly successful. The early development of the Czechs had been associated with the ancient principality of Moravia. It was there that the missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, had introduced the Slavonic liturgy. But after the Magyar invasions and the fall of old Moravia, Bohemia replaced Moravia as the political center of gravity. German and western ecclesiastical influences increased and Latin replaced Slavonic in the church's liturgy. Eventually, as we have already remarked, it was the destiny of this young West Slavic principality to become an hereditary fief of the Holy Roman Empire. Yet Czech culture proved stubbornly resistant to German pressure. The political authority of the duke within his own domain was, for that age, extensive and the imperial administrative system was never introduced into Bohemia.

The West Slavs who inhabited the basin of the Warthe and Vistula rivers were more successful in maintaining their independence. Under the Piast dynasty (960-1370.) a loose confederation of tribes was organized into a duchy of Poland, which eventually became the most powerful state in east-central Europe. The shrewd Miesko I married a Czech princess and accepted western Christianity (966) at the hands of Czech rather than German clergy. A native Polish bishopric was established at Poznan and, somewhat later, Poland was taken under the special protection of the Holy See. Boleslav the Brave (992-1025), in wars against Germans, Czechs, and Russians, extended the frontiers of Poland to include eastern Galicia, Silesia, and some territory beyond the Carpathians. His religious policy also tended to confirm the independence of the young state. Gniezno, shrine of the distinguished Adalbert of Bremen who won a martyr's crown as a missionary to the Prussians (997), was made an archiepiscopal see. Shortly before his death, Boleslav was crowned king, thus signalizing the establishment of a new and promising Slavic kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Magyars were also laying the foundations of an independent state. Under their early rulers, of whom St. Stephen (997-1038 was the most famous, the Hungarians had adopted Christianity and a settled mode of life. The ecclesiastical organization was kept carefully free of German domination. And the crown with which Stephen assumed the royal title was blessed by Pope Sylvester II.

Farther east, the Russian Slavs were making remarkable progress, particularly in the principality of Kiev, which was established by the Norsemen. A development of the first importance was the marriage of Prince Vladimir to a Byzantine princess and his conversion to Christianity (987). Thereafter, with the growing influence of the church, Byzantine cultural influences permeated Russia. Under Yaroslav (1016-1054) the state of Kiev attained the zenith of its power. A thriving commercial metropolis, second only to Constantinople in eastern Europe, it was noted especially for its churches. St. Sophia and the many other edifices, richly adorned with frescoes and mosaics, rank among the finest examples of medieval Byzantine art. Unfortunately, the brilliant promise of eleventh-century Kiev was not to be fulfilled. For in the period following Yaroslav's death the state was divided among the various branches of the house of Vladimir. Medieval Russia suffered from chronic political division.

The Byzantine orientation, so noticeable in old Russian Culture was also characteristic of the Serbs and other southern Slavs who were separated from their northern brethren by the intrusion of the Magyars. "Meanwhile, down on the Adriatic coast and islands, Neretvians (Slavic rebels) and Slavic leaders from those islands were both fighting against the Venetians who were occupying the islands at that time. (See islands which were occupied by the Venetians indicated by dark print on the map on page 195)." There were, however, other exceptions. The inhabitants of Croatia-Dalmatia, close to the old dividing line between the east and west parts of the Roman Empire, remained within the orbit of western Christendom. First conquered by the Franks, Croatia became a kingdom when in 924 Tomislav accepted a crown from the pope (Pope John X, [914-28]). In 1102 Croatia joined with Hungary, thus firmly establishing its western cultural orientation.

(Excerpted from HISTORY OF EUROPE by
Carlton J. H. Hayes, Seth Low Professor of History in Columbia University
Marshall Whithed Baldwin, Professor of History in New York University
Charles Woolsey Cole, President of Amherst College
Published by the MacMillan Company, New York, 1949

Compiled by Marko Marelich
Retired Mechanical Engineer
San Francisco, California December 11, 2004