Northern Italy and much of eastern Europe, for example, never became fully feudal societies large tracts of Spain did not belong to Christendom for many centuries the concept of chivalry only came to the fore comparatively late in medieval times, and so on. However, in terms of those features we associate with medieval society вЂ“В feudalism,В chivalry,В ChristendomВ and so on вЂ“ the location changed over time, and never really covered all of Europe. Changing frontiersД«y definition, the civilization of Medieval Europe lay in Europe. It ended with such developments as the Italian Renaissance, the fall of Constantinople, the Age of Discovery, and the spread of printing. It opened with the Black Death, which swept through Europe, killing perhaps a third of its people and having a huge impact on society. From about 1350 to 1500 the period of the late Middle Ages was a time of transition, seeing the emergence of modern Europe.

The period of the High Middle Ages, from about 1000 to 1350, was the high water mark of medieval civilization, leaving a durable legacy in the soaring cathedralsВ and massive castlesВ which sprang up all over Europe. The Christian Church, already highly influential by the time of the western Roman empireвЂ™s fall, strengthened its hold on society. Western European society was reshaped with the rise of self-sufficient estates (or manors), then of horse-soldiers ( knights), and finally of feudalism. Literacy, and with it learning, all but vanished. Long distance tradeВ shrank, the currency collapsed, the economy mostly reverted to barter, and the townsВ diminished in size. The five-plus centuries after the fall of Rome (up to c.1000) have been called the Dark Ages, and witnessed a dramatic decline in the level of material civilization. The thousand-year long period of western Medieval Europe can be divided into three main phases, of unequal length. It was one of the most fascinating and transformative eras in world history. In fact, though, modern historians regard these centuries as the cradle of the modern age, a time when many elements of our society which we value вЂ“ democracy, industrialisation, science and so on, had their roots. We still get an echo of this in the ideas surrounding the term вЂњGothicвЂќ вЂ“ dark, gloomy, foreboding. In fact, the term was coined by later historians, and means вЂњMiddle AgesвЂќ, which might today be rendered as вЂњin-between timesвЂќ вЂ“ that period which came after the high civilizations of theВ GreeksВ andВ Romans, and before the high civilization of theВ Renaissance: an age of barbarism, ignorance, illiteracy and violence. The period of European history which we call вЂњMedievalвЂќ is usually regarded as consisting of the thousand years or so between theВ fall of the Roman empireВ in the west (in the 5th century), through to the period of theВ RenaissanceВ in the 15th century. Fetteresso Old Inn (now a private house) / Photo by Russ Hamer, Wikimedia CommonsД®xploring the thousand-year long period of western Medieval Europe.

Expanded towns and cities