If there is one phrase guaranteed to make a medievalist twitch today, it is 'The Dark Ages'. Why is that?

Originally, the term suggested a period of cultural and economic collapse at the end of the Roman Empire, followed by several centuries of stagnation. Literacy declined, records were few, and the civic virtues associated with the classical world disappeared. The Western Empire was replaced by a series of petty, rapacious successor states. Life was uncivilised, bloody, and short.

For decades now, the totality of that image has been challenged and undermined by scholars. The period from AD 500 - 1000 witnessed great social, economic, and political developments, and what is more, we can indeed read about them from sources written at the time. The course will explore these changes, including the triumph of the Roman Church in the West, the boom in trade in the Baltic and along the Russian rivers, and the settlement of a new North Atlantic zone.

In the East, the period also witnessed the rise of Islam, as well as, the growing power and influence of Byzantium, the continuation of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean.

10 weeks, Thursday 14 January – Thursday 25 March (incl., with half-term break on 18 February)

RJW F202102

£60 (individual registration); £80 (for two people on the same screen!). To register, please complete this form.

Should prior commitments mean that you are unable to attend the whole course, it is possible to book for individual sessions, at a cost of £8.50 per one-off session.

This course schedule may be of help:

The Dark Ages: Exploring the Early Medieval World

Week 1. Romans and Barbarians

Week 2. Christianity and the Empire

Week 3. The Making of Byzantium

Week 4. The Western Successor-States

Week 5. Justinian's Reconquest

Week 6. Merovingian Gaul

Week 7. The Rise of Islam

Week 8. Britain and Ireland

Week 9. The Lombards

Week 10. A New Empire in the West

To register, please complete this form.