The Warriors of Tribal Europe.

The Tribal warrior class that rose up just before the fall of the Western Roman Empire, have long been regarded as heathen barbarians. This is primarily due to the people who recorded the history at the time, instilling their own bias into their chronicles. The Warriors of Europe were a varied assortment of tribes and culturally diverse peoples. It was the actions of the European Warrior that set Europe's history onto its current destiny.
The shape of Europe was created by the actions of the Tribal Warrior's and their War Leaders. The Warrior's of the tribe fought bravely to protect and gradually expand their own slice of Dark Age Europe.

Ancient Rome fell for a huge number of reasons, but its lack of ability to defend its borders did little to save itself. The Warriors of Europe learnt much from Roman tactics and as Rome faded they took its material wealth and Rome's lands. Many of the European Warrior cultures learnt from the Roman Legions in their service as auxiliaries for the Empire.

Source: Wikimedia Commons
Anglo-Saxon mounted Warriors.

The embryonic European Kingdoms and States we see today only exist because the War leaders and Warrior's learnt certain rules to consolidate their rule very early on. They learnt that territory equals wealth, and that to conquer an enemy land is a far easier option than holding onto it long-term without proper planning. They knew that their Warrior class did not have much interest in planting and harvesting, the Warrior culture lived to take what they wanted from a defeated people and many instances they wished to create a great name for themselves and their family.

This eventually leads to a Warrior elite forming, who took their share of the spoils in maintaining their overlord's wealth and needs. The descendants of the successful Warrior's number among them the richer members and aristocracy of the old Medieval European order. The current royalty of the United Kingdom has an ancestry which can date back to the time of the Warrior culture.

Most of the European Tribal Warrior's worshipped a deity who encouraged prowess on the battlefield. From the Viking and Saxons who held Tyr, Thor and Odin in high regard to the Huns and their mighty Astar, God of War. The post-Roman Europe was overrun by Warrior's who believed victory and death were the desires of the heavens. It was only with the spread of Christianity, that the mindset of European Warrior's changed. Christianity was seen as a religion that encouraged and glorified the struggle of the subjugated over the strong. Christianity was not the religion of the Warrior but one of hope for the defeated, enslaved or victimised.

The Weapons of a Frankish warrior c.600 AD.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Even the teachings of Christianity could not stop the blood-lust from its converted European Warrior's, the sheer number of the many Crusades laid testament to this. Christianity was a religion that required less War and sacrifice, and it became the religion of the man who wanted to toil in his own small corner of the land. The Heathen Warrior's who settled in the fertile land of the British Isles soon lost their appetite for bloodshed and became more worried about the next harvest. And as a consequence of this gradually swapped the iconic Thor's Hammer for the peaceful comfort of Christ's Holy Cross.