This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...of central Europe. It was mainly these changes which caused these bands of unruly warriors to leave their native land in such numbers. Lip to this time the Scandinavians had been divided into numerous peoples, subject to hereditary kings (who were the heads of the different districts) and to the warlike nobility (the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 Excerpt: ...of central Europe. It was mainly these changes which caused these bands of unruly warriors to leave their native land in such numbers. Lip to this time the Scandinavians had been divided into numerous peoples, subject to hereditary kings (who were the heads of the different districts) and to the warlike nobility (the jarls). The supreme power, however, rested in the whole body of free citizens. But in the course of the ninth century a centralizing tendency made itself felt even in Scandinavia, and led to an increase of the royal authority, which hitherto had been very limited. In Norway, in the second half of the ninth century, Harold Harfagr (i.e., 'the Fair-haired') subdued the petty kings and the haughty nobles who were in league with them. In Denmark, about the same time, Gorm the Old attained a similar position. More slowly, and amid many vicissitudes, the same tendency toward union under a single ruler made its way in Sweden. This course of things made many of the former petty kings and jarls disgusted with their country, in which they had, up to this time, enjoyed unlimited freedom. Moreover, many thousands of the great body of free peasants, the very core of the nation, did not wish to remain under the new regime with its numerous exactions, and gladly followed the call of the adventurous leaders who promised them battle and booty and new homes in sunnier and more fertile lands. Thus new and very powerful motives united to drive the northern Teutons to the conquest of foreign countries. Chaptp: r Vii. THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE, THE ROMAN AND GREEK CHURCHES AND THE MOHAMMEDAN WOULD IN THE ACE OF THE CAROLINGIANS. THE acknowledgment of the Carolingian power as the legitimate successor of the Roman empire of the West was greatly facilitated by the pitiable w...
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