What Country "Led" the Middle Ages?

[XanderZone]

When fantasy games have that medieval element, what country in the middle ages are they mostly referring to? Would it be Germany, France or Ireland or another? On the other hand, which language was considered the "main" language. Was it Latin, Old English, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon? Thanks for answering, I've just been dead curious lately and need to know.

[Xtacle]

The countries that come to mind would be France, England and to a cultural extent, Italian republics/kingdoms. In games it is almost always England and France though.

[Landin55]

Germany and Russia if we are talking about Warhammer. But most medieval fantasy worlds develop their "main" faction on England I would say.

[Milchshake]

Uhhh many modern countries didnt even exist in the middle ages. So saying England, France, Germany, or Russia, is silly.

I'm voting for the Carolingian Empire. Then maybe the Normans or the Vikings.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

When fantasy games have that medieval element, what country in the middle ages are they mostly referring to? Would it be Germany, France or Ireland or another? On the other hand, which language was considered the "main" language. Was it Latin, Old English, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon? Thanks for answering, I've just been dead curious lately and need to know.

Until the 1100s the Atlantic was largely controlled by the Vikings. Portugal and Spain were largely in charge of the international shipping routes between the 13th and 15th centuries, in particular the Portuguese controlled the Cape of Good Hope and I believe the Spanish controlled the Arabian Sea. The Venetians controlled much of the traffic throughout the Mediterranean Sea. The British hegemony didn't take off until later, from the 15th-16th centuries and onwards. The Arabs controlled the Mediterranean and the Arabian Seas until the 13th-14th centuries when the Crusades ended.

[Kraenen]

Probably Arabia? Their golden age happened around then. China might be worth looking into as well, I often hear of them being very advanced in science and literature.

[Ashnazg]

When fantasy games have that medieval element, what country in the middle ages are they mostly referring to? Would it be Germany, France or Ireland or another? On the other hand, which language was considered the "main" language. Was it Latin, Old English, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon? Thanks for answering, I've just been dead curious lately and need to know.

Most of the countries you see today came around when nationalism became an idea.

Play Europa Universalis to get an idea how many countries there used to be.

[Thallidomaniac]

If I recall, the Turks (predecessors of modern-day Turkey) held some world dominance later on in the Middle Ages. China was also around as a significant country, barring the era where Genghis Khan and the Mongols annexed almost most of the world, including China.

[Purlina]

What is the Mongolian Empire for 500.

[Deleted]

England / france for most things. Northern (viking) elements are also often present, as well as pirates / corsair (so spain, portugal, italy).
But definitely the whole background and main architecture/societies/landscapes are generally french/english.

EDIT : the thread title is very different than the questions you are actually asking. What WE depict in video games as being medieval isn't necessary representative of who "led" the middle ages.
But to be honest no one led anything, this era was really long and so many things happened, great civilizations, empires, armies all around the globe

[Deleted]

Swedish vikings of course.

[Thalian]

When fantasy games have that medieval element, what country in the middle ages are they mostly referring to? Would it be Germany, France or Ireland or another? On the other hand, which language was considered the "main" language. Was it Latin, Old English, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon? Thanks for answering, I've just been dead curious lately and need to know.

Germany and Ireland have only been countries since the Victorian era.

[Mihalik]

Middle Ages European culture had very little in common with today's Europe.

Almost none of the current legal entities really exist back then as we know it.

Western Europe was largely dominated by the bickering Franks and English, whom had both had territorial claims both on mainland Europe and in the British isles. In the North the Danes where a thing. Denmark was more or less the cultural and political center of Scandinavia. Until the much latter rise of Sweden as a political actor.

Spain has two eras, pre Reconquista and post Reconquista. Much of Spain was dominated by the Cordobese Islamic Caliphate for a few hundred years, until slowly the christian kingdoms of Asturias, Castillia, Aragon and Leon (and a number of other minor kingdoms) pushed the Caliphate out of the peninsula, until the union of Castill and Aragon bringing about a dual kingdom that later became Imperial Spain. Spain had major influence across much of Europe, stretching as far north as the Netherlands and dominating central European politics via the Hapsburgs.

Early middle ages central Europe was pretty much evenly split between the Holy Roman Empire (which wasn't Holy, Roman or an Empire, but rather a loose federation of German principalities), and the Kingdom of Hungary. And Eastern Europe was mostly split between the Poles and the Lithuanians, Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire. The Mediterranean was mostly dominated by the Italian Merchant City States such as Venice/Florance etc. and for a brief time by the Christian Kingdoms of the Levant (Jerusalem, Malta, Cyprus). And later the Ottoman Empire was a thing. And Russia was dominated by different Principalities, aligned with the Byzantines, later the Ottomans or Mongols etc.

Again most of these countries could hardly by called that by todays standards. It was absolutely normal for a single country to have a number of different peoples living in it. People lacked the idea of "Nation" or loyalty to "Country". People owed loyalty to God (the Church) and Liege (Lord/Prince/King/Emperor, insert nobleman of choice).

The point of unity in Europe during the Middles Ages was Faith. Christians and non Christians (pagans, Vikings, Muslims, Mongols). And Christians divided themselves by those fell under the area of the former Western Roman Empire and followed the Roman Rite and those who fell under the Eastern Roman Empire's Easter Rite (Catholics vs. Orthodox).

Those who fell under the Roman Rite, shared cultural values and customs. Pilgrimages, taxes, music, trade, art, noble houses, (it was common that there would be a king in Hungary and another one in France who would belong to the same House), they used Latin as the defacto language of commerce, administration and art. They would go to Crusades together etc.

Those who fell under the Greek Rite did the same within their own sphere. Unfortunately after the fall of Constantinople, there was a massive disruption in the development of Eastern Christianity, and they became heavily influenced by Ottoman values and culture. So for example the Renaissance was largely skipped in areas like Russia or the Romanian Principalities or in Greece, and those regions really only started catching up in the early 18th Century.

What I am trying to say here with this wall of text, that of you want to understand Medieval European culture, you should be looking at Religions instead of countries. Post Renaissance Europe is a different deal altogether.

[Mormolyce]

The Middle Ages saw a lot of power shifting between major European Empires (which also shifted borders, names, or outright ceased to exist) so you really can't just point to one "leader". At different times the biggest player was England, what is now France, a variety of states that now roughly coincide with Germany, a shifting network of alliances in Italian city-states, Spain to some degree... really it was all of Europe.

If we're talking games though, they are usually influenced by High Fantasy, which was a genre that owes almost all of its existence to Tolkien. He was trying to create an English mythos comparable to the European fantasy mythos, so naturally his works were very Anglo-centric with other Western European influences. So traditional fantasy games continue in that mold. However modern fantasy has diversified a fair bit.

[Endus]

If you mean the groups which led into the fantasy tropes we know today, particularly the idea of jousting, peasant/serfs, feudal lords, and all that, then it was pretty much true of all of Western Europe. There were some regional variations, but fantasy tends to mix them all together in a jumble, anyway.

If you mean who culturally defined and united the region in that era, the answer is the Church. They were a political entity at least as powerful as a kingdom, if not moreso, throughout the period. While they didn't have borders, they owned more land than most nations did.

[zephid]

When fantasy games have that medieval element, what country in the middle ages are they mostly referring to? Would it be Germany, France or Ireland or another? On the other hand, which language was considered the "main" language. Was it Latin, Old English, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon? Thanks for answering, I've just been dead curious lately and need to know.

England and France were the powerhouses of the middle ages.

[Mercadi]

And Eastern Europe was mostly split between the Poles and the Lithuanians, Kingdom of Hungary and the Byzantine Empire. The Mediterranean was mostly dominated by the Italian Merchant City States such as Venice/Florance etc. and for a brief time by the Christian Kingdoms of the Levant (Jerusalem, Malta, Cyprus). And later the Ottoman Empire was a thing. And Russia was dominated by different Principalities, aligned with the Byzantines, later the Ottomans or Mongols etc.

Don't forget the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (PLC). Love that piece of history. It was a state unlike any other, and lasted for quite a while (more than 2 centuries).

Both the nobility and simple folk had power, many cultures united under single administration and prospered (even Jews were tolerated). For clerical business they used Ruthenian language. For someone like me, who is familiar with some slavic language, Ruthenian looks beautiful (judging by remaining documents from that time).

I am a bit mad Belarus (a country located in the midst of where PLC used to be) had to go with a stupid southern dialect when they had to choose which language becomes its national.

And about Russia aligning with Ottomans or Mongols, I don't remember that happening. Yes, it was subjugated by the mongols for a long time, but it was not an alliance. As soon as mongols divided and weakened, Muscovy rebelled and later expanded into what we knew as Russian Empire and later Russia. They were constantly at war with Tartar hordes and later Ottomans (which were also Turkic).

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England and France were the powerhouses of the middle ages.

And Denmark too.

[Endus]

England and France were the powerhouses of the middle ages.

This really, really isn't true. Spain and Germany and Italy were at least as strong as either, in Western Europe. Some pulled ahead at any given era, but there weren't superpowers, the way we think of them today.

[Mercadi]

This really, really isn't true. Spain and Germany and Italy were at least as strong as either, in Western Europe. Some pulled ahead at any given era, but there weren't superpowers, the way we think of them today.

Careful when you say "Germany". In the middle ages there was not a separate entity called like that.
Edit: And no, Holy Roman Empire was not "Germany" or even "German". Bohemians (slavic people) ruled it too.

[Nivena]

Religion, without a doubt, had the most influence over people in the Middle Ages. There was no such thing as a 'superpower' in Europe at that time. Barbarossas "Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation" (Holy Roman Empire) might come close since he united a big part of central europe under one ruler with acceptance of the church (the pope in Rome).



The universal language (used by the litterate people & the church) was latin.