Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/185

 CHAPTER XII THE CRUSADES, AND THE EAST At the close of the eleventh century the nations of Europe were beginning to take shape in the west. England and Scotland were established as separate kingdoms. France 1. Survey, was a separate kingdom, so was Germany. The middle kingdom of Burgundy had been absorbed partly into France and mainly into Germany. Italy was a collection of principalities which never got themselves moulded The Western into a single nation until the nineteenth century. Nations, 1090. Their head was supposed to be the emperor, as King of the Romans. Southern Italy under Norman chiefs had completely separated itself from the eastern empire, and was shortly to be united under one prince with Sicily. In the western or Spanish peninsula the decisive supremacy of the Moors had come to an end. The Christian states from the north-west and north were already beginning to recover ground rapidly. On the north of Europe, Norway, Sweden and Denmark formed three separate states ; but of these Denmark alone influenced European politics, though Norway played a part in the history of Scotland. The German Empire had pushed eastwards across the Elbe, and its frontier now lay a little to the west of the Oder, although the Slavonic duchy of Bohemia is not very definitely included in its borders. Beyond the border crossing from north The Eastern to south comes first the duchy of Pomerania Nations. attached to Denmark ; then the Slavonic Poland ; then Hungary, the dominion of the Magyars, extending to the Danube and its tributary the Save. The eastern empire had shrunk to very small limits. After the time of Basil II., its vigour had 173