Question

What were conditions like in Europe in the 800s

Answer 1

Basically Europe of this period was similar to what we think of as the Wild west. Charlemagne's Frankish Empire has essentially disintegrated into a decentralized federation of feudal lords, meaning the Church had lost much of its power in modern day Germany, France and the low countries. Knights were nothing more than thuggish bands of soldiers beating taxes out of the peasants, the Muslims controled the Iberian peninsula (Spain) and were pushing on the Byzantine Empire in the east. Norsemen had began their raids on europe in 793 at Lindisfarne, beginning the Viking age. The eastern lands of Europe were essentially frontier land of tribal barbarians. Europe in the 800s was plain and simple chaos.