‘Dark Ages’

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‘Dark Ages’. A term employed in the 17th and 18th cents. to indicate the intellectual darkness which was believed to have descended on Europe with the ending of the Roman empire until new light was provided by the Renaissance. Since the achievements of the Middle Ages have come to be properly recognized the term has been in retreat, but it still has a stronghold in what should be more appropriately described as the early Middle Ages (c.400–c.1000). In the field of British history it is sometimes applied just to the 5th and 6th cents., which many historians would prefer to designate as sub- or post-Roman.

Barbara Yorke

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