Famous Men of the Middle Ages | Page 4

B. Poland, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools
Newark N.J.

Preface

The study of history, like the study of a landscape, should begin with
the most conspicuous features. Not until these have been fixed in
memory will the lesser features fall into their appropriate places and
assume their right proportions.
The famous men of ancient and modern times are the mountain peaks
of history. It is logical then that the study of history should begin with
the biographies of these men.
Not only is it logical; it is also pedagogical. Experience has proven that
in order to attract and hold the child's attention each conspicuous
feature of history presented to him should have an individual for its
center. The child identifies himself with the personage presented. It is
not Romulus or Hercules or Cæsar or Alexander that the child has in
mind when he reads, but himself, acting under similar conditions.
Prominent educators, appreciating these truths, have long recognized
the value of biography as a preparation for the study of history and
have given it an important place in their scheme of studies.
The former practice in many elementary schools of beginning the
detailed study of American history without any previous knowledge of

general history limited the pupil's range of vision, restricted his
sympathies, and left him without material for comparisons. Moreover,
it denied to him a knowledge of his inheritance from the Greek
philosopher, the Roman lawgiver, the Teutonic lover of freedom.
Hence the recommendation so strongly urged in the report of the
Committee of Ten--and emphasized, also, in the report of the
Committee of Fifteen--that the study of Greek, Roman and modern
European history in the form of biography should precede the study of
detailed American history in our elementary schools. The Committee of
Ten recommends an eight years' course in history, beginning with the
fifth year in school and continuing to the end of the high school course.
The first two years of this course are given wholly to the study of
biography and mythology. The Committee of fifteen recommends that
history be taught in all the grades of the elementary school and
emphasizes the value of biography and of general history.
The series of historical stories to which this volume belongs was
prepared in conformity with the foregoing recommendations and with
the best practice of leading schools. It has been the aim of the authors
to make an interesting story of each man's life and to tell these stories
in a style so simple that pupils in the lower grades will read them with
pleasure, and so dignified that they may be used with profit as
text-books for reading.
Teachers who find it impracticable to give to the study of mythology
and biography a place of its own in an already overcrowded curriculum
usually prefer to correlate history with reading and for this purpose the
volumes of this series will be found most desirable.
The value of the illustrations can scarcely be over-estimated. They will
be found to surpass in number and excellence anything heretofore
offered in a school-book. For the most part they are reproductions of
world-famous pictures, and for that reason the artists' names are
generally affixed.

Contents

Chapter Page
Introduction The Gods of the Teutons . . . . . . . . . 7 The
Nibelungs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
I Alaric the Visigoth (394-410 A.D.) . . . 27 II Attila the Hun (433-453
A.D.) . . . . . . 36 III Genseric the Vandal (427-477 A.D.). . . . 46 IV
Theodoric the Ostrogoth (475-526 A.D.) . 55 V Clovis (481-511
A.D.) . . . . . . . . . . 61 VI Justinian (527-565 A.D.) . . . . . . . . 71 VII
Mohammed (570-632 A.D.) . . . . . . . . . 80 VIII Charles Martle and
Pepin (714-768 A.D.) . 93 IX Charlemagne (768-809 A.D.). . . . . . . .
101 X Harun-al-Raschid (786-809 A.D.) . . . . . 112 XI Egbert the
Saxon (802-837 A.D.) . . . . . 119 XII Rollo the Viking (Died 931
A.D.). . . . . 126 XIII Alfred the Great (871-901 A.D.) . . . . . 135 XIV
Henry the Fowler (919-936 A.D.) . . . . . 143 XV Canute the Great
(1014-1035) . . . . . . 149 XVI The Cid (1040-1099) . . . . . . . . . . . 155
XVII Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). . . . . 163 XVIII William the
Conqueror (1066-1087) . . . . 167 XIX Peter the Hermit
(1050-1115). . . . . . . 173 XX Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190). . . . .
180 XXI