Page images
PDF
EPUB

PERIODS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY

PERIOD I., 476-918

[blocks in formation]

PERIODS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY

General Editor-ARTHUR HASSALL, M. A.,

Student of Christ Church, Oxford.

THE object of this series is to present in separate Volumes a comprehensive and trustworthy account of the general development of European History, and to deal fully and carefully with the more prominent events in each century.

The Volumes embody the results of the latest investigations, and contain references to and notes upon original and other sources of information.

It is believed that no such attempt to place the History of Europe in a comprehensive, detailed, and readable form before the English Public has yet been made, and it is hoped that the Series will form a valuable continuous History of Mediæval and Modern Europe.

Period I.-The Dark Ages. 476-918.

By C. W. C. OMAN, M. A., Deputy Chichele Professor of Modern
History in the University of Oxford.
[Published.

7s. 6d.

Period II. The Empire and the Papacy. 918-1273.

By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History at the Owens College,
Victoria University, Manchester. 7s. 6d.

[Published.

1272-1494.

By R. LODGE, M.A., Professor of History at the University of

Period III.-The Close of the Middle Ages.

Edinburgh. 7s. 6d.

[Just published.

Period IV.-Europe in the 16th Century. 1494-1598.

By A. H. JOHNSON, M.A., Historical Lecturer to Merton, Trinity, and University Colleges, Oxford.

7s. 6d.

Period V.-The Ascendancy of France. 1598-1715.

[Published.

By H. O. WAKEMAN, M. A., late Fellow of All Souls College,
Oxford.

6s.

Period VI. The Balance of Power. 1715-1789.

[Published.

By A. HASSALL, M.A., Student of Christ Church, Oxford.

Period VII.-Revolutionary Europe. 1789-1815.

65. [Published.

By H. MORSE STEPHENS, M.A., Professor of History at Cornell
University, Ithaca, U.S.A. 65.

Period VIII.-Modern Europe. From 1815.

[Published.

By W. ALISON PHILLIPS, M. A., formerly Senior Scholar of
St. John's College, Oxford.

[In the Press.

THE DARK AGES

476-918

BY

CHARLES OMAN, M.A., F.S.A.

FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE AND DEPUTY CHICHELE PROFESSOR
OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY Of Greece,'

'THE ART OF WAR IN THE MIDDLE AGES,' ETC.

PERIOD I

RIVINGTONS

34 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN

LONDON

.1901

Fourth Edition

HARVARD COLLEGE

Jan, 28, 1941

LIBRARY

From the library

John L. Thorndike

All rights reserved

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

IN spite of the very modest scale on which this book has been written, I trust that it may be of some use to students of European History. Though there are several excellent monographs in existence dealing with various sections of the period 476-918, there is no continuous general sketch in English which covers the whole of it. Gibbon's immortal work is popularly supposed to do so, but those who have read it most carefully are best aware that it does not. I am not acquainted with any modern English book where the inquirer can find an account of the later Merovingians, or of the Mohammedan invasions of Italy and Sicily in the ninth century, or of several other not unimportant chapters in the early history of Europe. I am in hopes, therefore, that my attempt to cover the whole field between 476 and 918 may not be entirely useless to the reading public.

I must acknowledge my indebtedness to two living authors, whose works have been of the greatest possible help to me in dealing with two great sections of this period, Doctor Gustav Richter, whose admirable collection of original authorities in his Annalen des Fränkischen Reichs makes such an excellent introduction to the study of Merovingian and Carolingian

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »