In 1076 A.D. (C.E.), the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV knelt in the snow outside a castle in the Italian Alps. Pope Gregory VII, who had excommunicated Henry, was inside. The twenty-six year old German King earned himself excommunication for expressing his wish to appoint German Bishops, rather than the Vatican choosing the Bishops. While this was a devastating blow, in the end, Henry's display worked, and his excommunication was lifted.

Scenes such as this played out less frequently as monarchs consolidated their territories and citizenry, and conceived their own governments and political support without the Vatican's instruction. Although the Vatican still exercised considerable political power, the Late and High Middle Ages marked a time when nation-states arose in Europe.

Essential Questions

• What caused the formation of European nation-states in the late medieval period?
• How did the formation of nation-states in the late medieval period effect Europe?

 

Warm-Up

As you will learn in this topic, many of the European nation-states began forming around the same time during the late Middle Ages. Make a hypothesis about why all of them developed within such a close time frame. What might have caused one nation-state to form in response to the formation of another nation-state?