Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year AD 1000 - Hardcover

Reston, James

 
9780385483261: Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year AD 1000

Synopsis

A rich, panoramic, illustrated popular history traces the victories of the kings and popes of Christendom against the seemingly invincible Vikings, Moors, and Hungarian Magyars, shaking the world and confirming the popular belief that history was about to end.

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From the Inside Flap

rld of 1000 A.D., when Vikings, Moors, and barbarians battled kings and popes for the fate of Europe.

As the millennium approached, Europeans feared the world would end. The old order was crumbling, and terrifying and confusing new ideas were gaining hold in the populace. Random and horrific violence seemed to sprout everywhere without warning, and without apparent remedy. And, in fact, when the millennium arrived the apocalypse did take place; a world did end, and a new world arose from the ruins.

In 950, Ireland, England, and France were helpless against the ravages of the seagoing Vikings; the fierce and strange Hungarian Magyars laid waste to Germany and Italy; the legions of the Moors ruled Spain and threatened the remnants of Charlemagne's vast domain. The papacy was corrupt and decadent, overshadowed by glorious Byzantium. Yet a mere fifty years later, the gods of the Vikings were dethroned, the shamans of the Magy

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