Medieval History Topics:

  • Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor (800) –  The subject of a biography by historian Einhard and king of the Franks and Lombards, Charlemagne united Western Europe and founded the Holy Roman Empire. Born to Pepin the Short near the beginning of the Carolingian Dynasty, Charlemagne shared the Frankish throne with his brother Carloman until his death. He unified the Germanic people, sought to convert his subjects to Christianity, was responsible for the Massacre of Verden during his conquest of the Saxons, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, initiated the Carolingian Renaissance, and appointed his son Louis the Pious as his successor.
  • Alfred the Great unified England (871) – Alfred the Great is the subject of a famous biography by Asser and is known for his repulsions of the Viking invasions of England and his educational and legal reforms as the King of Wessex and the King of the Anglo-Saxons. Alfred was son to King Aethelwulf and brother to King Aethelred I,  defeated the Danes at the Battle of Edington, negotiated Viking leader Guthrum’s conversion to Christianity. He also introduced the Burghal System, reformed the British Navy, and ordered the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
  • Otto the Great defeats the Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld (955) – Known as the true initiator of the Holy Roman Empire, Otto I consolidated the German Reich and defeated the Magyars to secure Germany from Hungarian invasion at the Battle of Lechfeld. Otto’s father was King Henry the Fowler; his mother was Matilda. Otto conquered Bohemia and forced Prince Boleslav I to pay tribute, marched into Italy and married Burgundian princess Adelaide, and installed Leo VIII and John XIII as popes. He died in 973 after negotiating a marriage between his son Otto II and Byzantine princess Theophano.
  • William the Conqueror becomes king of England after the Battle of Hastings (1066) – The Norman army of William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinson’s Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in a conflict over the English throne:King Edward the Confessor had promised it to William, but granted it to Harold on his deathbed.  William landed at Pevensey; meanwhile, Harold’s army was still recovering from a recent battle at Stamford Ridge against Harald Hardrada’s Viking invasion. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts William’s decisive victory, Harold’s housecarl soldiers, and his death by an arrow through his eye. As king, one of William’s most notable achievements was the creation of the Domesday Book.
  • The First Crusade begins (1099) – A religion-driven military campaign initiated by Pope Urban II, the first Crusade resulted in the Christian recapture of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control. At the behest of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos to counter the expansion of the Seljuk Turks at the Council of Piacenza, the papacy declared the Council of Clermont and gave the “Deus vult” speech, launching the First Crusade. Key figures include Godfrey of Bouillon, who secured the capture of Jerusalem, and Raymond of Toulouse.
  • King Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa) becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1155) – King Frederick I Barbarossa, who lived from 1123 to 1190, was King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor. Though often at odds with the papacy, he signed the Treaty of Constance which confirmed him as Holy Roman Emperor, feuded with Pope Alexander III and fought the Lombard League, and fought in the Third Crusade alongside Richard the Lionheart and Philip II of France against Saladin.
  • Saladin faces Richard the Lionheart in the Third Crusade (1189) – The sultan of Egypt and Syria, Saladin defeated European Crusaders at theBattle of Hattin, captured Jerusalem in 1187, and vanquished Richard I, Philip II, and Frederick Barbarossa in the Third Crusade. Saladin gained military experience participating in his uncle Shirkuh’s campaign to conquer Egypt, and then succeeded his relative Nur Al-Din as governor of Syria; when Nur Al-Din died and his coalition fell apart, Saladin claimed Egypt and then recaptured Syria. As a fervent Sunni Muslim, though, Saladin had difficulty uniting the Islamic states. To secure his political position, he retaliated against the Assassins, a Shiite sect, for their attempts on his life and married his political rival’s mother Ismat. He then moved to defeat Guy of Lusignan at the Battle of Hattin, whom he captured and held for ransom; Guy’s follower Reynald of Chatillon was captured and executed. Saladin died in 1193 after repelling the Third Crusade.
  • John I of England signs the Magna Carta (1215) – Under the threat of baronial dissent and civil war upon his ascension to the throne, English King John I issued the Magna Carta (literally Great Charter), a charter of liberties which granted the nobility certain property rights and legal concessions. Taking form from a draft known as the Articles of the Barons, the 63 clauses of the Magna Carta were finally sealed at Runnymede on June 19, 1215 after much negotiation and even military conflict in the Baron’s War. The landmark English legal principles of Habeas Corpus and Petition of Right both derive from the Magna Carta, as does the inspiration for hallmarks of freedom like the United States’ Constitution and Bill of Rights.
  • The Ottoman Empire is founded by Osman I (1299) – A vast Islamic superpower ruled by a sultan and an advisory body of viziers led by a Grand Vizier, the Ottoman Empire ruled over territory across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa during its height of power in the mid 1500s. Its dissolution followed its loss in World War I. The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith during the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent (or the Lawgiver), commanded a force of janissary soldiers who were disbanded after the Auspicious Incident, recruited the corsair admiral Barbarossa (not to be confused with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa), and introduced the Devshirme system of conscripting children. The empire declined steadily after Suleiman’s death: it was called the “sick man of Europe”. It suffered a naval defeat at the Battle of Lepanto, which ended its Mediterranean influence, lost Greece to Alexander Ypsilantis’ Greek Revolution, committed the Hamidian Massacre, and enacted a series of failed reforms called the Tanzimat before finally collapsing and being replaced by the Republic of Turkey.
  • Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, pilgrimages to Mecca (1324) – The Mali Empire was a West African Muslim empire with a capital at Niani founded by Sundiata Keita; Mali replaced the Ghana Empire in the 13th century. The Mali Empire’s height of prosperity came under ruler Mansa Musa, who was so wealthy that his alms-giving on his hajj to Mecca inflated Cairo’s gold market; such was his fame that he was depicted in the Catalan Atlas, an early European piece of cartography. Mansa Musa transformed cities like Gao and Timbuktu into centers of culture, religion, and science, and established Sankore University and Jingereber or Djinguereber Mosque. The Songhai Empire eventually succeeded Mali.
  • The Black Death (1347) – A deadly pandemic of the bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, the Black Death decimated the population of medieval Europe, killing 25-30 million. The plague was carried by fleas on rodents, had its origins in central Asia, was spread to Europe by Genoese traders from the city of Caffa on the Black Sea, which Mongol-Tartar warriors infected by flinging diseased corpses over the walls. Flagellants scourged themselves during it, while anti-Semitism increased. Such was the devastation caused by the Black Death on the population that the English King Edward III issued the Statute of Laborersin 1351 to regulate wages as a result of labor shortage.
  • English longbowmen win the Battle of Agincourt in the Hundred Years’ War (1415) – The Hundred Years’ War, the century-long dispute over the French throne, had its origins in English King Edward III’s 1337 claim to the French Crown. Edward invaded Normandy in 1345, razed the countryside with his tactic of chevauchee, and won battles at Sluys, Poitiers, and Crecy, where Edward the Black Prince led the English forces to defeat the blind King John of Bohemia. The English victory at Poitiers resulted in the Treaty of Bretigny that granted Edward territory rights in France in exchange for him withdrawing his claim to the French throne. Several years of conflict and peace followed, until Henry V’s ascension to the English throne in 1413 and his invasion of Normandy in 1415. Despite his army being weakened by its siege on Harfleur, Henry fought and won the Battle of Agincourt with his longbowmen against a far larger French army commanded by Charles d’Albret and Marshal Boucicaut. Henry was able to secure the Treaty of Troyes after this victory, which named him successor to the French crown; however, he died too soon and left an incompetent heir. This, combined with the turning tides caused by Joan of Arc’s victory over the English at the siege of Orleans, led to the revival of French military initiative and the expulsion of the English, who were declining into bankruptcy and internal dispute under Henry VI.
  • Joan of Arc is executed (1431) – Joan of Arc was a divinely inspired French peasant girl whose watershed military victory over the English siege of Orleans helped it to overcome the English invasion during the Hundred Years’ War. A native of the village of Domremy, Joan of Arc’s claims to hearing voices from the Christian saints Michael, Catherine of Alexandria, and Margaret of Antioch gained her the attention of the dauphin Charles (who would become Charles VII upon his coronation). After impressing military officer Robert de Baudricourt, she traveled to Vaucouleurs and Chinon, where she passed a series of ecclesiastical examinations administered by Jean, Duc d’Alecon. Charles, recognizing Joan’s potential, granted her a squire, Jean d’Aulon, after which she marched to Orleans, defeated the English, and then led a victory over the English at Patay which secured Charles’ coronation at Reims. She then pressed on towards Paris but failed to take it. Joan of Arc was captured by the Anglo-Burgundians while attempting to relieve a siege on Compiegne. At Bouvreuil, she was tried before the bishop Pierre Cauchon and the inquisitor Jean Lemaître, where she was found guilty of heresy; she was burned at the stake in 1431 at the age of 19.
  • Henry VII defeats Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field during the War of the Roses (1485) – A conflict between the English royal houses of Lancaster and York, its name derives from the Lancasters’ red rose badge and the Yorks’ white rose. It was caused by tension between both houses’ claims to the throne through Edward III, which were heightened by Richard, 3rd Duke of York’s attempts to remove the corrupt advisor Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset from the incompetent King Henry VI’s cabinet, which was met by opposition from Henry’s wife Margaret of Anjou. During a bout of Lancastrian Henry’s insanity, Richard was installed as Royal Protector. Armed conflict, a Yorkist victory, and a truce at the Battle of St. Albans’ followed when Henry recovered. More battles were then fought at Blore Heath, Ludford Bridge, and Northampton. Afterwards, supported by Richard Neville, the Duke of Warwick, Richard met the Lancastrians in battle at Wakefield where he was killed; Warwick was defeated shortly after at the Second Battle of St. Albans’. However, Edward, Duke of March, succeeded his father Richard, Duke of York, defeated the Lancastrians at Towton, and became King Edward IV. When Edward IV died, his young son was crowned as Edward V, and Edward IV’s power-hungry brother Richard III was named Royal Protector. Richard seized this opportunity to overthrow Edward V, imprisoning him and his brother, where they became known as the Princes of the Tower. Richard’s claim to the throne weakened as he lost favor with the people; meanwhile, the Lancastrian Henry Tudor had staked a claim to the crown, returned from exile, and landed at Milford Haven. Thus began the Battle of Bosworth Field between Richard and Henry, where Richard lost his ally John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, was flanked by Lord Stanley, and finally was killed in a bog. Henry became King Henry VII and established the Tudor dynasty.
  • Christopher Columbus reaches the island of Hispaniola (1492) – Christopher Columbus was a Genoa-born Italian explorer in the late 15th century whose quest for a shorter ocean route to the rich markets of Asia led to his discovery of the Americas and the beginning of the ‘modern’ world. In 1484, Portugal’s King John (Joao) II turned down his request for royal support for a western voyage; in 1492, he finally obtained patronage from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Columbus’ first voyage began in August of 1492 with the ships Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria and ended in December when the Santa Maria ran aground and he was forced to leave behind 39 men at La Navidad. A second journey produced a settlement called Santo Domingo; a third journey saw him replaced as governor of Hispaniola by Francisco de Bobadilla. His fourth and final voyage ended when he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for over a year, where he predicted an eclipse to frighten the locals for food. He died in Spain in 1506.