subjection of Britain by the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans; the
extraordinary career and fortunes of Mahomet; the conquest of Spain and a
great part of Africa by the Moors; and the Crusades, which, for a common
cause, united the swords and spears of friend and foe.

It was the age of monasteries and convents, of religious persecutions and
of heroic struggles of the Christian Church. It was the age of feudalism,
chivalry, and war; but, towards the close, a time of comparative
civilisation and progress, of darkness giving way to the light which
followed; the night of the Middle Ages preceding the dawn of the
Renaissance.

With the growing importance of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern
Empire, families of well-to-do citizens flocked thither from other parts,
bringing with them all their most valuable possessions; and the houses of
the great became rich in ornamental furniture, the style of which was a
mixture of Eastern and Roman: that is, a corruption of the Early Classic
Greek developing into the style known as Byzantine. The influence of
Christianity upon the position of women materially affected the customs
and habits of the people. Ladies were allowed to be seen in chariots and
open carriages, the designs of which, therefore, improved and became more
varied; the old custom of reclining at meals ceased, and guests sat on
benches; and though we have, with certain exceptions, such as the chair of
St. Peter at Rome, and that of Maximian in the Cathedral at Ravenna, no
specimens of furniture of this time, we have in the old Byzantine ivory
bas-reliefs such representations of circular throne chairs and of
ecclesiastical furniture as suffice to show the class of woodwork then in
vogue.

The chair of St. Peter is one of the most interesting relics of the Middle