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From 1000AD to 1400AD

1400: Use now of hand-held firearms in Europe.

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Circa 1395: Appearance of knitting.

1381: New Chinese ruler Zhu Yuanzhang sends General Fu Youse and an army of 300,000 to invade Yunnan and subdue the remaining Mongols. A Muslim boy of these Mongols with surname Ma survives and later becomes noted Chinese Admiral Zheng He. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1380AD: Death of St Catherine of Sienna.

1378-1417AD: Rome: Great Western Schism. Loyalty of Charles V to Pope Clement VII.

1378AD: France: Confiscation of the lands of Charles the Bad in Normandy.

1378AD-1381: Italy, Venice: War of Chioggia.

1377AD: English population estimated at 1,361,478 people. In 1377, Richard II is King of England. In 1377, the Papacy leaves Avignon and is re-established at Rome.

1377: Java kidnaps and kills Chinese envoys on their way to Sumatra to recognize Palembang on Sumatra as an independent state. Chinese retaliates in various ways including reduction of trade with both states on Sumatra. In 1397, Java attacks Palembang and appoints a new Javanese ruler who is promptly thrown out by the Sumatrans who install their own leader. Later, as local political power is weakened, Chinese pirates grow in influence. A colony of Chinese merchants grows in the area. Gresik on the n/w coast of Java is governed from Guangdong and has 1000 Chinese families. Chinese are also at Surabaja of n/e Sumatra. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1375AD: A world-history is begun by Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun. He can be regarded as "the father of sociology". He wrote Al-Muqaddimah.

1374AD: China: New Chinese ruler Zhu Yuanzhang sends messages to Yunnan that Mongol prince there, Basalwarmi, must accept Ming rule. Mongols kill the envoy. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1374AD: Death of the writer Petrarch (1304-1374).

In 1374AD at Aixe-la-Chapelle, France, groups of villagers suffering ergotamine poisoning from contaminated bread are found dancing wildly, foaming at the mouth, or "screaming about wild visions".

1373AD: Crusaders: Saint Catherine of Sienna encourages Pope Gregory to start yet another crusade.

1371AD: Islam: Ottoman Turks invade Balkans and take Bulgaria.

1370AD: Louis I of Anjou, King of Hungary, inherits the Polish Crown.

1369AD-1377AD: Recovery of Normandy and part of Aquitaine by French. (In 1371-1373, reconquest of Poitou, the Aunis and the Saintonge.

About 1369, Zhu Di is in cavalry and later is fighting on border areas of modern Tibet and Laos. In 1382 Zhu Di is ordered to remove the Mongols from their last stronghold at Kun Ming, south of The Cloud Mountains. Chinese butcher the adults and castrate thousands of young Mongol boys. One is Ma He, who goes into household of Zhu Di, and becomes Zheng He, who remains a Moslem. (Item from Gavin Menzies, 1421, The Year China Discovered the World. 2002 - hardcover edition)

1368-1644: Period the Ming Dynasty rules China. The Ming capital is Nanjing/Nanking to 1420 and then Beijing/Peking. The Ming rulers regularly received tribute from Korea, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Burma, Siam and Vietnam, and sometimes Japan, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon and South India, the East African coast, the Persian Gulf area and Samarkand. The dynasty produced 16 emperors.

1368AD: China: Ming Dynasty expels the Mongols, and repairs The Great Wall. Khublai Khan loses half his army to malaria in Yunnan re unsuccessful invasion of Burma and in 1368 Chinese succeed in toppling Mongols forces in Yunnan, tho some Mongols still stay in the area. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1368AD: Mongols driven out of China; Zhu Yuanzhang founds Ming dynasty.

1366AD: Irish Parliament forbids English-Irish marriages.

1365AD: Crusaders: Crusaders under Peter I of Cyprus sack Alexandria.

1364AD: Mongols in Korea are destroyed by Koreans under General Yi-Sung-Kei, who establishes his own dynasty in 1392.

1364: Appearance of first guns in Italy.

1364AD: Charles V is King of France. Royal control over finance and the army is tightened; monetary stabilization, creation of the gold franc. Defeat of Charles the Bad at Cocherel.

1363AD: More to come

1362AD: More to come

1361AD: More to come

1360AD: Treaty of Breigny ratified at Calais; Edward II abandons claims to French throne in return for sovereignty over Aquitaine.

1360: Zhu Yuanzhang this year or later joins rebels in Pearl River delta area and rises to eminence - later Ming dynasty of China. (Item from Gavin Menzies, 1421, The Year China Discovered the World. 2002 - hardcover edition)

1360: Later emperor of China, Zhu Di of early Ming Dynasty is born 1360 as son4 of Zhu Yuanzhang, son of a hired labourer, who rises from humble birth to be first Ming Emperor.

1357-1358AD: France: The Jacquerie, Revolt of Etienne Marcel (later assassinated) in Paris against the Dauphin. The capital is handed to the English ally Charles (The Bad) of Navarre.

1356AD: Victory of the Black Prince over the French at Poitiers. John II and his eldest son prisoners of the English. Killed at the Battle of Poitiers is the displaced Duke of Athens, now Constable of France, Walter de Brienne. His successor as Duke Athens is his nephew, Sohier d'Enghien, whose successor was his childless son Walter, who died in 1381. The family d'Enghien ended with a female who sold Argos and Nauplia to the Venetian Republic.

1356: Zhu Yuanzhang has an army which captures Nanjing and cuts off supplies of corn to Mongol's northern capital, at Beijing, or Ta-tu. Zhu Di is born in about 1348. Zhu Yuanzhang proclaims new dynasty, the Ming, and has dynastic title, Hong Wu. The last Mongol emperor of China is Toghon Temur. Zhu Di's father is a mystery, his mother was a Mongol princess who married Hong Wu, but Hong Wu is unaware she is already pregnant with Zhu Di. (Item from Gavin Menzies, 1421, The Year China Discovered the World. 2002 - hardcover edition)

1355AD: France: Dauphin Charles becomes Duke of Normandy.

1355AD: Italy, Venice: Doge Marino Falier beheaded.

1353AD: A Moroccan explorer and Moslem, Ibn Batuta, travels to China.

1352: Great flood strikes parts of China - Yellow River bursts it banks. China is anyway plagued by famine and disease, and is poor due to rule of Mongol overlords. (Item from Gavin Menzies, 1421, The Year China Discovered the World. 2002 - hardcover edition) But is Menzies a reliable writer? - Ed

1347-1350AD: Black Death (bubonic plague) kills 75 per cent of population of Europe.

1347++ - Black Death 'spread by humans not rats'

By Victoria Gill, Science correspondent, BBC News on 16-1-2018

Rats (Rattus rattus) were not to blame for the spread of plague during the Black Death, according to a study.

The rodents and their fleas were thought to have spread a series of outbreaks in 14th-19th Century Europe.

But a team from the universities of Oslo and Ferrara now says the first of the Black Deatha, can be "largely ascribed to human fleas and body lice". The study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, uses records of the plague's pattern and scale. The Black Death claimed an estimated 25 million lives, more than a third of Europe's population, between 1347 and 1351. Library. Now it is being thought that the black rat (Rattus rattus) been falsely blamed for spreading plague during the Black Death?

"We have good mortality data from outbreaks in nine cities in Europe," Prof Nils Stenseth, from the University of Oslo, told BBC News. "So we could construct models of the disease dynamics [there]." He and his colleagues then simulated disease outbreaks in each of these cities, creating three models where the disease was spread by: rats, or, airborne transmission, or fleas and lice that live on humans and their clothes

In seven out of the nine cities studied, the "human parasite model" was a much better match for the pattern of the outbreak. It mirrored how quickly it spread and how many people it affected.

"The conclusion was very clear," said Prof Stenseth. "The lice model fits best." "It would be unlikely to spread as fast as it did if it was transmitted by rats. "It would have to go through this extra loop of the rats, rather than being spread from person to person." 'Stay at home'

Prof Stenseth said the study was primarily of historical interest - using modern understanding of disease to unpick what had happened during one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. But, he pointed out, "understanding as much as possible about what goes on during an epidemic is always good if you are to reduce mortality [in the future]".

Plague is still endemic in some countries of Asia, Africa and the Americas, where it persists in "reservoirs" of infected rodents.

According to the World Health Organization, from 2010 to 2015 there were 3,248 cases reported worldwide, including 584 deaths. And, in 2001, a study that decoded the plague genome used a bacterium that had come from a vet in the US who had died in 1992 after a plague-infested cat sneezed on him as he had been trying to rescue it from underneath a house. "Our study suggests that to prevent future spread hygiene is most important," said Prof Stenseth.

"It also suggests that if you're ill, you shouldn't come into contact with too many people. So if you're sick, stay at home." (Ends)

1350AD: John II (The Good) is King of France. In Duchies of Greece, partly aided by effect of civil wars in Byzantine Empire, Stephen, King of Serbia, conquers all Epirus and takes most of Thessaly.

1350AD-1521AD: Mesoamerica: Impressive period of Aztec Culture.

1350AD: Java: Last Hindu Javanese kingdom of Majapahit begins to spread in South-East Asia.

1350: Siam: Siam's princes fight constantly with the Khmer people of Cambodia.

1349AD: France: Philip VI purchases Montpellier. Transfer of the Dauphine to the Crown. The French king's grandson Charles takes title of Dauphine.

1348: Appearance of ... water-powered bellows for blast-furnace in Liege.

1348AD: A year of the Black Plague in Europe.

1347-1350: The Black Death of Europe. Bubonic plague across Europe kills an estimated 20 million people, one-third of the population. Mortality rates range from 40 per cent in France to 20 per cent in Scotland. Beliefs arise that the Apocalypse has arrived, the End of the World. The disease travels west from China, moving through the ranks of traders and Crusaders, then on ships arriving to Genoa and Marseilles. This may have been due to a primitive form of biological warfare, as while they were besieged within the Black Sea port of Kaffa, Tartar soldiers are said to have catapaulted disease-ridden bodies of their own ranks over the city walls to infect their enemies. Later in Europe, doing penance to stave off the wrath of God, thousands of flagellants go on the roads, whipping themselves with leather straps tipped with iron spikes. Beliefs arise that Jews have poisoned wells, and pogroms are launched against them. In Turin, Italy, Agnolo di Tura writes that fear of contagion suppresses all feelings of love and care: "Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another... and no one could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship."

1347: Black Plague arrives, halves population of Europe in 100 years.

1347-1354AD: The Black Death moves through Europe, and in Germany and Switzerland, Jews are blamed for the pestilence and are massacred.

1347AD: Venice: A Venetian galley returns from Kaffa and brings possibly the first rats and plague into Italy.

1347AD: Queen Johanna of Naples founds a public brothel, or bordello, in Avignon with strict regulations on the lives of the prostitutes, who were compelled to wear a red knot on their shoulder. (R. Brasch, How Did Sex Begin?)

1347: English capture Calais, France.

1346AD: French defeated by English at Crecy.

1343AD: Italy, Venice: Doge is Andrea Dandolo. Ducal palace is extended. Third Genoese War. Loss of Dalmatia.

1341: India: Flooding of north-western port/harbour of Muziris, which has its role taken over by Calicut. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1340AD: English destroy French fleet at Sluys.

1335AD-1338AD: Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese general, rebels against emperor and becomes first of the Ashikaga shoguns.

1338AD: Ashikaga Takauji becomes Shogun. 1368 - Ashikaga Yoshimitsu succeeds to the shogunate. builds "Golden Pavilion" (Kinkaku-ji) - gold plated structure (later a temple) floating at the edge of mirror pond; symbol of Ashikaga opulence and extravagance cultivates the Noh theater and patronizes the theater's foremost playwright and theorist, Zeami Noh: a dramatic poem concerned with past or supernatural events, performed by a dancer, often masked, and a secondary character(s), often a traveller or Buddhist priest, who along with the chorus elicits and tells the dancer's traumatic tale.

1338AD: Ottoman Turks reach the Bosporus.

1337AD: Start of The Hundred Years War: Claim of Edward III to French Crown. Confiscation of Aquitaine by Philip VI.

1336-1573AD: Japan: (NAN-BOKU CHO Period/Muromachi or Ashikaga Periods) - two imperial capitals; Ashikaga Takauji - Kamakura general broke with Godaigo and set up another member of the imperial family as emperor in Kyoto. A new Shogunate, the Ashikaga - strong art patrons, but weak rulers, the development of the "high culture" of the samurai class under the direction of the Ashikaga Shoguns: its two poles being: opulence and understatement

1336AD: India: Hindu empire of Vijayanagar founded by Harihara I, and becomes centre of resistance to Islam.

1335AD: One of the earliest dates for reference to use of a clock, at Church of Saint Gothard in Milan. Another item: in 1090AD in China, a "Cosmic Engine" clock, over thirty feet high, is built by astronomer Su Sung at orders of emperor Ying Zong. An astronomical clock tower. (Source: James/Thorpe.)

1334AD: Benedict XII becomes Pope. 1334: Crusader navy defeats Turkish pirates in Gulf of Edremit.

1334-1402: Crusaders hold port of Smyrna.

1333AD: Japan: Emperor Godaigo attempts to take back the political power. Kenmu Restoration (1333-36) Godaigo disposed by forces of Ashikaga Takauji.

1332-1342AD: First papal palace built at Avignon.

1332AD: Moscow becomes the civil and church capital of Christian Russia with accession of Ivan "the Pouch". In 1332 in France, Condemnation of Robert III of Artois because of his claims to Artois.

1331AD: Duchies of Greece: Following the Battle of Cephissus in 1311 when the Catalan Company took over the Duchy of Athens, the displaced Duke of Athens Walter de Brienne, a general of Florence and expelled from their as a tyrant, lands near Arta to reclaim his Duchy of Athens, but is repulsed. He later becomes Constable of France and dies at Battle of Poitiers in 1356.

1330-1523: Hospitallers continue with Crusader action from Rhodes.

1330sAD: Bubonic plague and civil war combined kill half the population of northern China in decades ensuing.

1330AD: China has Black Death plague in 1330.

1329AD: Edward III does homage to Philip VI for Aquitaine.

1328AD: French bishops and nobility elect Philip VI (Valois) King of France, in preference to Edward III of England, grandson of Philip the Fair.

1327AD: More to come

1326AD: Duchies of Greece: After the death of acting-Duke of Athens, Roger Desalu, the Catalan Company in Greece sends a deputation to Sicily to ask Frederick II to invest his son Manfred as Duke of Athens. From now the Duchy of Athens and Neopatras are an appendage of the House of Aragon. The succession of the Duchy of Athens then passed to Frederick II's sons, Manfred (died c.1330), William (died 1338), John (Regent of Sicily, died 1848); then John's son Frederick, Marquis of Randazzo, who never once visited Athens. The Duchy of Athens then reverted to Frederick III of Sicily, whose daughter Maria inherited it in 1377. From Maria the title passed to Alphonso V, King of Aragon, and the kings of Spain retained the duchy after the union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile. While the Duchy of Athens was held by the Sicilian branch of the house of Aragon, the Catalans attacked the despots of Epirus, the Venetians in Euboea, and the French in Archaia. The Catalans were finally undone by disputes over the marriage of a young Countess of Salona, to which the Franks of Archaia and Nerio Acciajuoli, banker-ruler, governor of Corinth, objected. Nerio ended in taking Athens. This conflict began in 1386.

1326AD: Islam: Rise of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

1325AD: More to come

1324AD: More to come

1323-1328AD: Revolt of maritime Flanders.

1322AD: Charles IV (The Handsome) becomes King of France.

1321AD: Death of Italian poet Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy, a book with comprehensive lists of notable people Dante disapproved of.

1321AD: Tughluq dynasty founded in Delhi.

1320AD: More to come

1319AD: Dynastic Union of Norway and Sweden.

1318AD: Last Despot of Epirus of the Angelos family, Thomas, is murdered by his nephew, Thomas a Count of Cephalonia. This Thomas was then murdered by his brother John; John who was murdered by his own wife Anne, daughter of Andronicus Palaeologus, Protovestiarios of the Byzantine Empire.

1317AD: More to come

1315-1317AD: Severe famine in Northern Europe.

1316AD: Great Famine in Western Europe. Pope sends Dominican monks to East Africa in search of mythical Christian leader, Prester John. In 1316, John XXII from Southern France becomes Pope. Philip V (The Tall) becomes King of France. County of Burgundy becomes part of French kingdom.

1315AD: Mongols adopt Chinese ways and restore the Confucian civil service.

1314AD: Louis X is King of France.

1313AD: More to come

1312AD: Suppression of The Order of the Temple by Pope. In 1312 in France, treaty of Pontoise gives Lille, Douai and Bethune to the French Crown. In 1312 in Paris, Hugh V Duke of Burgundy, "King of Salonica", is one of a party of negotiators deciding on fate of lost empire of Romania and Greek principality of Archaia. Hugh V then cedes his title to his younger brother Louis who has just become Prince of Archaia due to marriage with Maud of Hainault, possessor of title of Archaia. On the death of Louis, the title went to his brother, Eudes IV, Duke Burgundy, who sold his claims in 1320 to titular emperor of Romania, Philip of Tarentum (who married Catherine of Valois).

1311-AD1320AD: Chinese mapmaker in the time of Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Siben, produces an atlas of the Indian Ocean and China Sea indicating that the Chinese know of most of the entire chain of Indonesian Islands from Sumatra to Malaku, but nothing of lands beyond to the east or south.
(Estensen, Discovery: The Quest for the Great South Land)

1311AD: Duchies of Athens: The disgruntled Catalan Company march down the plain of Boetia and take positions on the banks of the Cephissus River. Brienne the Duke of Athens prepares to fight them. The Catalans secretly used irrigation water to conceal a marsh, which the forces of Brienne had to cross to join battle. The Catalans found their armoured enemies could not advance nor retreat. Only two nobles with Brienne survived, Boniface of Verona and Roger Desalu of Roussillon. The Catalans took the camp and baggage of their enemies. Successor to Brienne as Duke of Athens is his son, Walter. The Catalans later destroy the palace at Thebes, built by Nicholas St. Omer, so the French could never use it as a stronghold. The Catalans shared out the fiefs of killed nobles and distributed their wives and heiresses in marriages to officers. The Catalans became aware of their own inadequacies with civil government, and appointed Roger Desalu (died 1326) to act as Duke of Athens till they had arranged their own affairs with their masters, the house of Aragon. The Catalans expanded their territory and frightened French barons not earlier involved so badly, the French asked for aid from the Pope.

1310AD: Duchies of Greece: The mercenary army the Catalan Company succeeds with a campaign for Walter de Brienne, Duke Athens (and an Angevine), against his enemies. Walter captured 30 castles. Walter attempts to be rid of the Catalans, as their costs reduce his treasury and they oppress his subjects. The Catalans decide to stay. The Catalans demand back pay and permission to march into the Morea. Brienne refuses and threatens to hang them.

1309AD: Pope Clement V begins residence at Avignon, France.

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1308AD: Duchies of Greece: Death of Duke of Athens, Prince Archaia, Guy II de la Roche. Guy earlier has developed a view (unreasonable?) that Philip of Savoy, the third husband of Guy's mother-in-law, Isabelle Villehardouin, holds territories from Guy illegally, so Guy employs mercenaries in the form of ex-members of the Grand Company of Catalans of Cyziko, as led by Fernand Ximines. Guy II has no children and is succeeded as Duke Athens by his cousin, Walter de Brienne. This Walter de Brienne is son of Isabella de la Roche, sister of the Dukes of Athens William and John. Isabella here had married Hugh de Brienne, Count Lecce in the Kingdom of Naples. Walter Brienne the succeeding Duke of Athens continues talks with Fernand Ximines and the Catalan Company, which winters in 1308 at Cassandra. Finlay comments in History of Greece/Trebizond, p. 171, "The expedition of the Catalans in the East is a wonderful instance of the success which sometimes attends a career of rapacity and crime, in opposition to all the ordinary maxims of human prudence". Internal dissension reigned amongst the Catalans, their leaders quarrelled, the chiefs assassinated one another, the troops murdered or banished their generals, yet they won victories. Their leader, Roger de Florez, was assassinated by Greeks. D'Entenza, one of their best chiefs, was murdered by his own troops as the Catalans marched from Gallipoli to Cassandra. Fernand Ximines had to flee. Responsible for some such disturbances was Rocafort, the oldest general in the Grand Company, was finally seized by his own officers, and given to a French admiral who took him to Naples where Rocafort died in prison, starved to death by the Angevines. Other Catalans loyal to Rocafort murdered fourteen army chiefs who had delivered Rocafort to the French. One outcome was that the Catalan Company (about 3500 cavalry and 3000 infantry ) held firmer to certain ideals of Republicanism, and wished to establish permanent territorial dominions in Greece.

1307AD: Destruction of Order of The Templars, suppression by King Philip IV of France. 1307-1314AD, Trial of The Templars. At this time, Grand Master of Templars is Jacques de Molay. Treasurer of the Temple is Hugh de Pairaud, Visitor of the Priory of France (and apparently receiver and warden of the French royal revenues). Noted Templar is Geoffrey do Gonneville, preceptor of Normandy.

1306AD: Expulsion of the Jews from France.

1305AD: Clement V from Gascony becomes Pope.

1303AD: Loss for Crusaders of Isle of Ruad. Evacuation of Gibelet in The Holy Land. In 1303 in France, revolt in Flanders. Proposed excommunication of Philip IV. French ambassadors attack Ope at Anagni. Death of Pope Boniface VIII.

1302AD: French Estates General support French king against papal claims.

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1301AD: Pope Boniface VIII calls on Charles of Valois to pacify Italy. In 1301, Arpad Dynasty in Hungary is replaced by Angevines of France.

1301: Hungary: With the death of Andrew III in 1301, the Arpad dynasty comes to an end. The throne is then taken over by foreign descendants of Hungarian princesses. Hungary continues to be ruled by foreigners for centuries to come.

C1300AD: Use of the herb mandrake in China to deaden pain for medical operations.

Circa 1300AD: Islam: Osman I founds Ottoman dynasty in Turkey.

Circa 1300AD: Appearance of...armored knights recognized as nobility; first cannons smash castles.

1300'sAD: Opium disappears for two hundred years from European historical record. Opium had become a taboo subject for those in circles of learning during the Holy Inquisition. In the eyes of the Inquisition, anything from the East was linked to the Devil.
From website based on book: Opium: A History, by Martin Booth Simon and Schuster, Ltd., 1996. e-mail info@opioids.com

1300AD: Italy: 1300AD: By now, Venice is one of the third or fourth largest of the cities of Europe. By about 1200AD, Venice has about 80,000 people and about 160,000 in the entire lagoon area about 120,000 in the city by 1300. In Europe west of Italy, only Paris approached about 100,000.

1300AD: Crusaders: Frankish landings as Rosetta and Tortosa.

1299AD: The Mongols enter Damascus.

1298AD: Marco Polo presents his book on his travels, a first European glance at China's government, economy and geography.

England's oldest shop?: Builders renovating an old pharmacy (built 1840) in Berkhamstead (eastern England) have found wattle-and-daub remains and ancient timbers dating from the late 13th Century after knocking down the pharmacy's internal walls. Tree-ring analysis of the timbers suggests they date from between 1277 and 1297. Layout including a well at the rear suggests the site was used as a shop on a "high street". (Reported 1 March 2003)

1295 Circa: 1979 Kabala came some say from an anonymous treatise in Palestine in 1295 called The Gates Of Justice, expounding on prophetic Kabalism. It utilised the Persian distinction between good and evil, so source of the tree with left and right sides is the Kabalistic dualism, plus a host of intermediate divine beings.

1294AD: Spain: Unsuccessful attempt by the Moors to recapture Tarifa. The Merinids finally withdraw from Spain. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.) In 1294, Confiscation of Plantagenet Aquitaine by Philip IV. In 1294, Boniface VIII becomes Pope.

1293: See Manuel Komroff, (Ed.), The Travels of Marco Polo. Wiley, 2002? (Praise for the world's first multicultural city, in China, Zaitun, circa 1293)

1292AD: Marco Polo returns home from his travels to China.

1292AD: Spain: The Castilians take Tarifa, after defeating the Moorish fleet at Tangiers. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1291AD: Crusaders: Fall of Acre and the Crusading states in Syria.

1291AD: Vivalda brothers attempt to find a sea route to India.

1291AD: Crusaders: 28 May, Fall of Acre. Other Crusader towns are evacuated.

Rethink on the first Renaissance painter: "The Father" of Renaissance painting, that is, modern painting, is generally taken to have been Giotto, of Florence, from about 1300AD. Now this view is being challenged in favour of the earlier-working painter, Pietro Cavallini. The pro-Giotto/pro-Florence view began with Florentine writer Giorgio Vasari from 1550, with his book The Lives of the Artists. Challenging the old views are Bruno Zanardi, the restorer of the endangered Assisi frescos between 1978-1982 (at the Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, near the Capitoline Hill, Rome), and art historian Tomasso Strinati.
New views on a 1290 date for the work of Cavallini began to circulate on the Internet in 2001. A Life of St Francis of Assisi in fresco-form is taken to be the first great fresco cycle of the Renaissance - painted by Cavallini and not Giotto as has been thought. Conclusion? "Italian art history will never be able to go back to its old ways of understanding."
From an article by Waldemar Januszczak in The Weekend Australian Magazine, 9-10 February, 2002.

1290AD: Promulgation of a Christian Crusade: In England, in 1290AD: Expulsion of the Jews from England. In Duchies of Greece, a Genoese fleets assails Arta. Nicephorus Angelos the despot of Epirus is aided by Florenz of Hainault Prince of Archaia and Richard Count Cephalonia. Nicephorus (died 1293) had one daughter married to John Count Cephalonia and another, Ithamar, who married as first wife of Philip of Tarentum.

1290AD: Establishment of a university at Lisbon, Portugal, which later by 1307 is moved to Coimbra.

1290AD: Duchies of Greece: Death of Duke of Athens William de la Roche, who is succeeded by his son Guy II de la Roche. In 1304, Guy II marries Matilda (Maud) of Hainault, the eleven-year-old daughter of Isabella Villehardouin, Princess of Archaia. Matilda has Kalamata as her dowry.

1289AD: 26 April, Crusaders: Fall of Tripoli.

1289AD: Doge of Venice is Pietro Gradenigo. Second Genoese War. War of Ferrara. Tiepolo-Querini Conspiracy in Venice.

1289AD: Ibn-al-Nafis, a doctor in Egypt writes a book on medicine which advances idea of circulation of the blood.

1290: Jews expelled from England.

1284: A Venetian law refers to use of reading glasses:

1284: a book written for Alfonso X of Castile gives first description in a European language of game of chess.

1288AD: Crusaders: Rebellion of Tripoli against the Princess Lucia.

1287AD: Crusaders: Loss of Latakia. In 1287, agreement on Naples and Sicily between Philip the Fair and Alfonso III of Aragon through arbitration of Edward I.

1287-1288AD: Rabban Sauma's embassy to Rome, Bordeaux and Paris, preparations for a joint campaign with the Mongols.

1286AD: Crusaders: Restoration of dynastic union between Cyprus and Jerusalem.

Circa: 1285: Appearance of... verge-and-foliot system permits making of mechanical clockworks.

1285AD: Spain: Death of Abu Yusuf. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1285AD: Crusaders: Conquest of Margat and retreat from Maraclea. In 1285, Philip IV The Fair becomes King of France.

1284AD: France: Acquisition by Prince Philip through marriage of administration of Champagne and Navarre.

1284AD: The Japanese defeat the Mongols, with aid from a tornado, ("divine wind") which destroys an invading fleet.

1283AD: Teutonic Knights complete conquest of Prussia.

1282-1283AD: Conquest of Wales by Edward I of England.

1282AD: The Sicilian Vespers massacre - contrived by Peter III of Aragon and the Byzantine emperor.

1282AD: The Sicilian Vespers: a carefully orchestrated and successful massacre on the island of Sicily of the French (Angevin) rulers with complicated international reverberations. The entire island rises against the occupiers.

1281AD: Khublai Khan tries a second time to invade Japan from Korea, now with 4500 ships and 150,000 men, one of the greatest military forces the world had yet seen. The effort is ruined by another storm - "divine wind" - but Khan here also sends ships to Annam (North Vietnam) and to Java so that these people bow to the suzerainty of The Dragon Throne. Marco Polo suggested that such emissaries went as far as Madagascar off Africa. The Mongols however lose their grip and their maritime power falls into the hands of two greedy merchants, Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan, who operate all over South-East Asia. They accept tribute gifts meant for the emperor and in 1302 are charged with treason. Zhu suicides and Zhang is executed. All this only intensifies Confucian distrust of merchants and trade activity. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1281AD: Mongol campaign in Syria, their defeat at Homs.

1281AD: Japan: Mongols driven away from Japan by kamikaze, "the divine wind".

1281AD: Islam, Spain: Alfonso allies himself with the Merinids to suppress a revolt in Castile.

1281AD: Frenchman Martin IV becomes Pope.
(Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)>

1280AD: Appearance of...spinning wheel imported from E; water-powered paper mill appears in Italy.

1279AD: Mongols under Khublai Khan conquer the whole of China. 1279AD is end of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Mongol Dynasty lasts to 1368AD.

1278AD: The Moslem Merinids drive the remaining Almohads from Spain.
(Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1277AD: First use of military mines, against the Mongol invaders by the Chinese. (Land mine booby trap?) In 1127, the Chinese halt the advance of the Tartars and establish a border that lasts for a century. (Source: James/Thorpe)

1277AD: English scientific researcher Roger Bacon (1214-1294), a friar, is imprisoned by the Church for refusing to stop experiments. Although, he has a secret agreement with Pope Clement IV, who is interested in Bacon's projects, one of which is an encyclopedia.

1277AD: January: Crusaders: Maria of Antioch cedes her rights to the throne to Charles of Anjou, and in June, seizure of power in Acre in name of Charles of Anjou. In 1277, Failure of the claim of Charles of Anjou to Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1276AD: China: Song capital of Hangzhou falls to the Mongols. The Song emperor is a young boy taken prisoner, but he has two brothers who keep fighting - to Fuzhou in Fujian province where one is proclaimed emperor but is later captured by Mongols. By 1279, the empire of Khublai Khan stretches about 4000 miles, from plains of Central Asia, from the Adriatic Sea, to the coast of South China. The influence of Confucians of China falls to very low ebb. Khublai Khan explores trade to Sumatra, Ceylon, and Southern India. Marco Polo is at the Khan's court about 1275. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1276AD: Crusaders: Hugh III Lusignan becomes King of Jerusalem, abandons Syria.

1275-1282AD: Crusaders: War between Guy of Gibelet, the Temple and Bohemond VII.

1275AD: Venice: Marco Polo was son of Niccolo Polo, who had a brother Maffeo; jewel merchants. They travelled and visited Bukhara, as ruled by the Mongols/Tatars (adherents of a shamanistic religion). They met the grandson of Genghis Khan (died 1227AD), Khublai Khan, and travelled on to Turkey, Iran, Hormuz, then moved on the Silk Route to Balkh of Northern Afghanistan, where Alexander the Great had married the daughter of Persian King Darius. To Kashmir, India, across the Roof of the World, across the Takla Makan Desert, and in 1275 entered the Mongol city of Shangtu. Marco returned home in 1292, via South China, past Vietnam, Sumatra, to Ceylon, Hormuz, and in 1295, back to Venice. Later Marco married and had three daughters.
See J. H. Parry, (Consultant), Reader's Digest Discovery: The World's Great Explorers: Their Triumphs and Tragedies. Sydney, Reader's Digest, 1978.

1275AD: Islam: Spain, Abu Yusuf, king of the Merinids, brings a large army to Spain. The Castilians and Aragonese are defeated, but Alfonso defeats the conqueror. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1274AD: Mongols: Khublai Khan tries to invade Japan with 900 junks, 40,000 men and 15,000 horses from Korea, to Japan's southern island - Japan raises about 120,000 men to fight - the Mongols retreat and are anyway hit with a storm. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1274AD: May-July, Second Council of Lyons, promulgation of Crusade, in liaison with the Mongols. In 1274, Council of Lyons.

1274-84AD: Khublai Khan fails to add Japan to his Mongol Empire when storms (Kamikaze - Divine Wind) wreck his invasion fleets.
Japan: 13th c. Renaissance of sculpture - the great Buddha at Kamakura, Noh

1274AD: The Ninth Crusade to Holy Land under Edward I of England.

1273AD: The Merinids arrive in Spain from Africa, to assist the Moors. Death of Muhammed. His son Muhammed II succeeds. He makes a treaty with Alfonso X of Castile. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.) In 1273, Rudolf of Habsburg becomes Emperor.

The Seventh Crusade to the Holy Land: 1270-12??AD.

More on the little-known Duchy of Athens: Isabella Villehardouin (died 1311 in Holland) was of "the Duchy of Athens", this Isabella also married Florent II (d.1279) of Hainault and one daughter of Florent II married Guy II (d.1308) de la Roche, Duke Athens. We find amongst the Dukes of Athens (DA), the following: the first Duke of Athens, Guy de la Roche, (d.1263), John (of) Livadio (?) died 1280 succeeded as DA by his brother William; Guy II de la Roche died 1308 was DA; Walter Brienne DA died 1311, Manfred Borell died young in 1317 was DA; Walter III Brienne died 1333 was DA; William II Borell DA and Prince Taranto died 1338 was DA; John II Borell died 1347-48, DA may perhaps be the same as John of Randazzo, DA, (d.1348); Walter II Brienne d. 1356 had failed to recover his duchy of Athens.

Sonhier d'Enghien (d.1367) DA, whose brother Louis as DA died in 1394. Frederick II Borell (d. 1377) DA and King of Sicily, Peter IV Borell, King of Aragon, DA, (d.1387), as Duchess of Athens, Maria Borell (d.1402), Queen Sicily, wife of Martin I (II) Borell of Sicily. Isabelle Brienne, who sold remnants of the Duchy to Venetian interests. Antonio I Acciajuoli, of the Florentine family of bankers, DA, died 1435, he was DA for about 35 years after the Navarese Company had ousted the Catalan Company from Southern Greece (Archaea), and therein lies another tale, for how did the Catalan Company, which must have had some connection with the Counts of Barcelona, come to be exploiting Southern Greece?

The Borell line (Counts of Barcelona), intermarried in a multicultural way. Internationally, Borell men married as follows:
Pedro II Borell married Maria of Carinthia, (a title of Italy probably Germanic in origin);
Peter III Borell married Constance Hohenstaufer;
Raymond-Alfonso II married Richeza of Poland;
James I married Violante Arpad of Hungary;
James II married Eschiva Lusignan.
Raymond Borell married Richeza of Poland;
And Borell women married:
Adelaida married Roger I of Tosny (a French title), and after 1066, the Tosnys happened to do well in England;
Isabella married Richard of Cornwall, a Frenchman in the process of becoming "English";
Constanza married Leo V of the Armenian royal family;
Constance married Frederick Hohenstaufer and also Emmerich Arpad, of Hungary;
Margaret married Rudolf of the Palatine;
Isabella married Stephen of Bavaria.

A member of the Borell family (considered by surname) was within the range of grandparent for the following notable marriages:

King Philip III (d.1285) of France married Isabella of Aragon (d.1271), daughter of James I Borell and Violante Arpad. Philip III's mother was Margaret Borell, married to Louis IX of France; this Margaret Borell was daughter of Raymond V Borell (d.1245), Count Provence, and Beatrice of Savoy (d.1266);
and when Eleanor of Provence (d.1291) married Henry III (d.1272) of England
This Eleanor of Provence had a sister Margaret married to Louis IX King of France and Crusader, also a sister Beatrice who married Charles I (Capet) (d.1282-85), King of Sicily and King of Jerusalem, and this Charles I married also to Isabelle Villehardouin, Princess Archaea (southern Greece including Athens), a descendant of the family of the historian of the Crusades, Geoffrey Villehardouin, and the Villehardouins, more or less in retreat from the stress of the Crusades, and unwilling to go back to France, had stayed in Southern Greece, or Archaea, taking advantage of the weaknesses of the Byzantines.

1272AD: Khublai Khan conquers the Song/Sung in China, but fails with invasions of Japan and Java.

1272AD: Crusaders: 22 May, Crusaders, Truce with the Mamluks. In 1272, Edward I is king of England.

1271AD: Marco Polo voyages to China.
(See Giles Milton, Nathaniel's Nutmeg. Penguin Books, 1999/2000.)

1271AD: Venetian explorer Marco Polo sets out for China.

1271AD: The great Crusader castle Krak de Chevaliers in Syria, built by Knights Hospitaller of St. John, is forced to surrender. Crusades can be seen as a stimulus to trade. Merchant classes grow in Pisa, Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence and Siena, as investors and tax collectors for the Pope. Medici banking family of Florence has branches at Milan, Naples, Pisa, Venice, Geneva, Lyons, Avignon, Bruges and London.

1271AD: Crusaders: Fall of major castles, Crac des Chevaliers, Chastel Blanc and Gibelcar, then Montfort. Edward I's Crusade in the Holy Land. In 1271, Gregory X becomes Pope. In 1271, County of Toulouse is annexed to French Crown by inheritance.
1270-12??AD: The Seventh Crusade - The Last Crusades.

1270AD: St Louis' Crusade: Tunis campaign and death of the king Louis IX at Tunis. Philip III becomes King of France.

1269AD: Crusaders: Aragonese Crusade.

1268AD: Polo brothers return to China with young Marco with them.

By 1268AD: The City Fathers of Venice had solved a knotty problem for the election of the Doge, leader of the republic of Venice. In 1229, the voting contest for Giacomo Tiepolo and Marino Dandolo was fiercely factional, and the two men gained equal votes from a nominating committee. The contest for the Dogeship had already become a matter of fierce rivalry between powerful families and factions. The Venetians found a way out, as follows: they elaborated a series of nominations of nominating committees by nominating committees, and by lot. By 1268, the procedure was as follows: From the Great Council there was chosen by lot 30;
the 30 were reduced by lot to 9;
the 9 named 40:
the 40 were reduced by lot to 12;
the 12 named 25;
the 25 were reduced by lot to 9;
the 9 named 45;
, the 45 were reduced by lot to 11;
the 11 named 41;
the 41 nominated the Doge for approval by the Assembly. The reselections blurred factional alignments and helped promote the "objectively best" candidate.
Taken from Frederic C. Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic. London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973., p. 111.

1268AD: Crusaders: Capture of Jaffa (Tel Aviv) and Beaufort, attack on Tripoli, capture of Antioch by Saracens and fall of Baghras. Promulgation of the Eighth Crusade. Defeat in 1268 of last descendant of Frederick II by Charles of Anjou.

1267AD: Iceland accepts a Norwegian king.

1266AD: Greenland accepts a Norwegian king:
Note:
Mark Kurlanksy, The Basque History of the World. Jonathan Cape, 1999-2000. Basques speak "an ancient and forbidden" language, Euskera, which has no linguistic relative. They are the only surviving pre-Indo-European people in Europe. They have been cod fishermen sailing to Greenland, pioneers in the spice trade between Europe and the Americas, and sold hot-peppers to Europe. They became large-scale manufacturers of chocolate. They were named as a people by the Romans. They have no nation, (living in both France and Spain), and no borders.

1266AD: The Eighth Crusade against Tunisia.

1266AD: Crusaders: Capture of Saphet and Toron. In Spain, Capture of Murcia by James I. All Spain is now Christian, except Granada. In 1266, Marco Polo arrives in Peking/Beijing, China.

1266AD, Duchies of Greece: Baldwin II, driven from Constantinople, ceded the empty title of King of Salonica to Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy. Hugh IV gave the title to his brother Robert, then the title went to a nephew, Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy.

1265AD: Crusaders: Capture of Caesarea, Caiphas and Arsur. Crusade of Count Eudes of Nevers. In 1265, Clement IV a Frenchman becomes Pope.

1264AD: Moslem Spain: Peace with Castile, Granada is again a tributary. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

Circa 1264AD: Duchies of Greece: Death of Duke of Athens Guy I de la Roche, who is succeeded by his son John died 1275 (who does not marry). William a brother succeeds John in 1275.

1264AD: Crusaders: Hulegu offers alliance to Saint Louis (of France). In France, uprisings of the Barons.

1263AD: Crusaders: Attack on Acre by Baybars. From 1263-1266 in France, establishment of a single currency for the realm, creation of gros tournois.

1262AD: Spain: Capture of Cadiz.

1261AD: Recapture of Constantinople by Michael Palaeologus.

1261: Frenchman Urban IV becomes Pope.

1261AD: Islam: Muhammed in Spain attempts to cast off the yoke of Castile, and encourages Andalusia and Murcia to rebel. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1260AD-1988: Late C20th Carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin indicates its age is from about 1260AD only, approx.

1260AD: Japan: Nichiren (1212-82) establishes the Hokke-shu (Lotus Sect) of Buddhism.

1260AD: Khubilai, grandson of Genghis, becomes Great Khan of the Mongols.

1260AD: Battle of Ain Jalut - Mongols, under Hulagu, halted by Mamluks in Palestine.

Circa 1260AD: Marco Polo begins travel to Mongol Empire.

1260AD: Crusaders: Mongol campaign in Syria. Capture of Aleppo and Damascus, in September, Mongol defeat at Ayn Jalut. Accession of Sultan Baybars.

1259AD: Treaty of Paris between Louis IX and Henry III of England. In Duchies of Greece, Battle of Pelagonia, before which, John Dukas, natural son of despot Michael II, deserts his father. This John Dukas becomes first Prince of Vlachia; his unknown son was second Prince Vlachia; the second prince has a sister who .

From 1258AD: Korea is under Mongol influence. The Mongols go into India and establish the Mogul kingships; but are later invaded by Tamerlane, who sacked Delhi in 1398 and killed 100,000 people.

1258AD: Islam: The Mongols under Hulagu take Baghdad and kill Mustasim. End of the Islamic Abbasid Dynasty. Mongols also manage to attack both Java and Japan.

1256-1258AD: Crusaders: War of St. Sabas, Revolt of the barons of Tripoli against Bohemond VI. Feb, 1258, Capture of Baghdad by the Mongols.

1256AD: Islam: Hulagu, Khan of the Mongols, invades Persia and exterminates the Assassins. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1256AD: Hulagu, grandson of Genghis Khan, founds Mongol kingdom of Persia.

1255AD: France: Reforming ordinances of Louis IX.

1254AD: Crusaders: 24 April, St Louis leaves Acre and departs Holy Land. Truce with the Moslems. In Spain, Alfonso X of Castile conquers many Moorish cities in southern Spain. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.) In 1254, Alexander IV becomes Pope.

1253AD: Muhammed founds the Alhambra at Granada, Spain. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1253AD: Italy, Venice: Doge is Ranieri Zeno. First Genoese War. Fort of Marcamo is built on the Po River.

1252AD: Crusaders: Alliance between Louis IX and the Mamluks.

1252AD: Financial event, Florence and Genoa strike gold florins.

C13thAD: Mongols ravage Iran and kill two-thirds of the population.

1250AD: Approx. Global warming? The first one-third of the second millennium had much warmer than weather we have now. "Greenland" was actually green and Viking settlers managed to grow crops there, something which current temperatures do not support", according to Barry Hearn, co-ordinator of an Australian environmental group, EVAG. (The 1990s were Australia's hottest decade since records-keeping began.)

1250AD: Crusaders: 8 February, Crossing of Bahr-al-Saghir. Battle of Mansurah. 6 April, Capture of Louis IV and disaster of Fariskur. 2 May, Murder of the Sultan Turanshah and seizure of power by the Mamluks. 6 May, Surrender of Damietta.

1250AD: Spain: Alfonso founds Toledo school to translate Arabic to Latin.

1250: Baltic traders improve ship designs.

1249-1250AD: Swedish expedition to Finland.

1249AD: Crusaders: 5 June, Landing of the Crusaders (Seventh Crusade) of Damietta, and capture. In 1249, Alfonso of Poitiers becomes Count of Toulouse.

1248-1254AD: The Sixth Crusade.

1248-1254AD: Crusaders: First Crusade of St Louis/Sixth Crusade. In 1248: 25 August, departure from Aigues-Mortes. September-May, 1249, St Louis in Cyprus, Andrew of Longjumeau is sent to the Mongols.

1248AD: Spain: Surrender of Seville to Ferdinand. Other cities follow. Christians take Seville from the Moslems. The Moslems took Granada in 1492. Mathematics, astrology and medicine all benefited from Moslem influences. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1247AD: Council of Lyons.

1246AD: Heretic trials at Toulouse.

1245AD: Pope Innocent IV sends emissary Friar Joannes de Carpi to Mongol capitol of Karakorum in Outer Mongolia - north-west China. A few years later, Friar William Roebuck visited Mongolia as a representative of French king.
J. H. Parry, (Consultant), Reader's Digest Discovery: The World's Great Explorers: Their Triumphs and Tragedies. Sydney, Reader's Digest, 1978.

1245-1246AD: Mission of John of Plano Carpini/Carpine to the Mongols. Louis IX conducts great inquiry into the Kingdom.

1245AD: Islam: Death of Mustansir, his son Mustasim succeeds. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1245AD: Spain: Muhammed cedes the town of Jaen to Ferdinand III of Castile, and it becomes a tributary of Castile. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1245AD: June-July, Council of Lyons.

1244AD: Crusaders: 23 August, Loss of Jerusalem, in 17 October, Disaster of La Forbie. December, St Louis vows to make a Crusade.

Circa 1240AD: Possible first recorded European contact with China after Mongol Empire allows use of safer travel through Asia.

1244AD: Crusaders: Loss of Jerusalem by Christians. In France, capture of Cathar Castle of Montsegur.

1243AD: Crusaders: July, Tyre seized from supporters of Frederick II.

1243: Innocent IV becomes Pope.

1242AD: Hungary: Was Hungary annihilated by the Mongol invasion? Internal dynastic conflicts have erupted within the Mongol Empire, resulting in the withdrawal of the Mongol hordes from the country in the summer of 1242. Hungaria survived the apparently fatal devastation. Its population decimated, its towns reduced to ashes, and its villages razed to dust, the country survived. Béla IV began the reconstruction of the country, building castles and fortified towns to forestall the threat of another Mongol invasion.

Spring 1241AD: Hungary: The first sentries of dreaded Mongol forces appear at the north and north-eastern passes of the Carpathian Mountains. They are riding tiny, long-haired horses, and are wearing iron-plated armoury made of leather straps. After provoking and harassing the defending forces with feigned attacks, Batu Khan's forces concentrate their power and irrupt into Hungary through the Verecke pass, the route used by the Magyars at the time of the Conquest. The commander of the defending forces, the Palatine of Hungary, flees wounded from the scene of the battle. He just escapes death. The assailants first swoop down upon the northern part of the country, looting and massacring as the proceed forward. Later they come to grips with the main Magyar forces, led by Béla IV, in the valley of the river Sajó. During the night, the Tartars secretly cross the river and set fire to the Magyar camp. The greatest part of the besieged Magyar army, suffering an attack from the rear, is annihilated.

1241AD: Crusaders: 23 April, Treaty between Richard of Cornwall and the Sultan of Egypt.

1241AD: Mongol invasion of Hungary and Poland.

1237-1240AD: The Tatars - heirs of Genghis Khan - pillage the South of Russia, and extort tribute in Persia. Genghis Khan's hordes have killed two-thirds of the Persian population - the Khan's descendants however become Moslems.

1240AD: Crusaders: 11 October, Arrival in Holy Land of Richard of Cornwall.

1240AD: The alleged Crown of Thorns of Christ is purchased by Louis IX.

1239AD: Crusaders: August, Departure of Crusaders for Holy Land. 13 November, Defeat of Sixth Crusaders at Gaza. Frederick II is excommunicated.

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1238-1492AD: In 1238 founding of the Moslem Kingdom of Granada. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1238AD: Crusaders, Pope Gregory X's crusade to assist Constantinople.

1238AD: Spain, Reduction of Valencia by James I. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 41.)

1237AD: Marriage of Jeanne of Toulouse and Alfonso of Poitiers. With Duchies of Greece, death in 1237 of John of Brienne, whose "empire" is confined to a narrow circuit around the walls of Constantinople. About now, Saint Louis of France buys from Baldwin, the alleged Relics of Jesus including: a piece of the true cross, the linen cloth in which the body of Jesus had been shrouded, the bonds, the sponge and the cup of the crucifixion, a piece of the skull of John the Baptist. And the rod of Moses!

1236AD: Spain, Capture of Cordova by Ferdinand III of Castile.

1235AD: More to come

1234AD: Marriage of Louis IX and Margaret of Provence. In 1234, short-lived empire of Thessalonica ceases to exist. In 1236 it was reunited with the Greek Empire.

1234AD: Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes sweep from Central Asia and disturb the Chin Empire of China.

1233AD: The Inquisition is entrusted to The Friars.

1230AD: Union of Castile and Leon under Ferdinand II. In Duchies of Greece, John Asen, King of Bulgaria, sickens of the intrigues of his captive Theodore Angelos Comnenus Dukas, brother of Michael I, and has Theodore blinded. John Asen however falls in love with Theodore's daughter, marries her, then releases his father-in-law, who continues with intrigues.

1230-1233AD: War between Filangieri and the Guelph party. The Commune of Acre.

1229AD: Crusaders: 18 February, Treaty of Jaffa and restoration of Jerusalem to Frederick II from Al-Kamil. In 1229, Treaty of Paris between Louis IX and Raymond of Toulouse; Carcassone, Beziers, Nimes and Beaucaire become part of the French royal domain. Council of Toulouse, organisation of the Inquisition and foundation of the University of Toulouse.

1229AD: Christians regain Jerusalem, but lose it in 1244.

1228AD-1229AD: Crusade of Frederick II.

The Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land - 1228-1229.
1218-1221AD: Fifth Crusade.

1228AD: Crusaders: 7 September, Arrival of Frederick II at Acre. Frederick II is King of Jerusalem through marriage to Isabel (Yolande).

1228AD: Papal ban on teaching of Aristotle at University of Paris.

1227AD: Death of Mongol leader Genghis Khan.

1227AD: Crusaders: October, Landing of German and English troops at Acre. Rebuilding of Sidon and Caesarea. In 1227, Gregory IX is Pope.

1228-1229AD: The Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land.

1226AD: Death of St Francis of Assisi. Regency of Blanche of Castile, mother of Louis IX.

1225-1226AD: France, Louis VIII campaigns into the Languedoc.

1225AD: Mongols take Korea.

1225AD: Circa: China by now reputed to have the best large ships in the Indian Ocean and takes maritime trade from the Arabs of the region. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1225AD: University of Bologna institutes a Chair of Astrology.

1225AD: Duchies of Greece: Otho de la Roche Lord Athens resigns government of Athens and Thebes to his nephew Guy, son of Otho's brother, Pons le Ray.

1225AD: Crusaders: Marriage of Frederick II and Isabella of Jerusalem.

1225AD: Islam: Death of Nasir, succeeded by his son Dahir, who dies in 1226 to be succeeded by his Mustansir. The whole of Persia is now subject to the Mongols. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1224AD: Duchies of Greece: Frankish army is defeated by Emperor John III Vatatzes at Battle of Pemaneon. Soon Anrianople is captured by Theodore, despot of Epirus. There arises a gruesome story at this point. A daughter of the knight of Neuville, a veteran Crusader, lately dead, is betrothed to a Burgundian knight. The elected young Emperor Robert, brother of the recalcitrant Belgian, Philip of Namur, falls in love with the Neuville daughter. The girl's mother approves, so Robert invites both to live in his palace. The rejected Burgundian vowed revenge. He gathered friends, some of whom dressed in their armour, and walked unsuspected into the palace. He made his way to the women's apartments, and his friends took the girl's mother and drowned her in the Bosporus. The Burgundian mutilated the girl by cutting off her nose and lips, then departed.

1224AD: Christmas, did you know? The Armenians begin the season on 19 December. The Catholics on 25 December. The Greek Orthodox and Coptic Churches on 7 January. Perhaps the best guesstimate of Jesus' birth is 29 September, 5BC. (See websites below.) St Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first Nativity Scene in 1224, and with singing the first Christmas Carols.

The hyperlinks below may prove interesting:
(broken link?): http://claus.com/santashome/traditions.shtml
Customs - Christmas - Origins of Christmas (broken link): http://www.christmas.com/worldview.
Customs - Christmas
Santa network, a valuable social service here
http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm
Customs - Christmas
Dutch contribution to the belief in Santa Claus - (Broken link)
http://www.thehollandring.com/truestory.htm

1224AD: Armenia: Hayton I, Some of the kings are Latin princes, who are trying to make their subjects conform to the Roman Church. May break up the country into discordant factions? (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.) In 1224, areas around Albi and Carcassone are surrendered by Aumary of Montfort to Louis VIII. French conquest of Saintonge and Poitou is complete.

1223AD: Final destruction of Merv by Mongols. Genghis Kahn is in valley of the Chirchick and in the Qulan-Bashi steppe, meeting with his sons.

1223AD: France: Louis VIII becomes King of France.

1222AD: Japan: Dogen (1200-53) founds Soto School of Zen.

1222AD: Greece: Duchess of Greece, Despot Theodore of Thessalonica subdues the Kingdom of Salonica. William Marquis of Montferrat plans to retake the kingdom of Salonica on behalf of its king, his younger brother Demetrius. William here has financial help from the Papacy. This campaign to retake Salonica begins in 1225. Demetrius died in 1227 while planning another expedition to retake Salonica. The empty title of King of Salonica had been passed by Demetrius to Emperor Frederic II, who declined, so it went to Boniface III Marquis of Montferrat, then William dalle Carceri, Baron Negroponte, who had married a niece of Demetrius', inherited from Boniface III. However, at this point the title was also claimed by William V, Marquis of Montferrat, The Great (Longsword, who married Isabella, daughter of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III). Longsword gave the title to his daughter Irene as dowry when she married the Greek Emperor Andronicus II in 1284AD. So the title returned to the Byzantine Empire. Also, in 1266AD, Baldwin II, driven from Constantinople, ceded the title of King of Salonica to Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy. Hugh IV gave the title to his brother Robert, then the title went to a nephew, Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy.

1221AD: Mongols conquer Khoresmia, Khurasan and Afghanistan. Mongols destroy Ghazna.

1221AD: Crusaders, 30 August, Capitulation of the Crusader army at Baramun and evacuation of Damietta.

1220AD: Frederick II is Emperor.

1220AD: Mongols conquer Transoxiana. Mongols invade Persia.

1220: Building of Chartres Cathedral, France.

1219AD: Crusaders, 5 November, Capture of Damietta. Prince Louis makes expedition into the Languedoc in France.

1219AD: Genghis Kahn on the Irtysh. Plans to construct long walls in Samarkand district.

1219AD: Japan: The Hojo family, the descedants of Taira, takes power. Hojo shogunal "regents"

The Children's Crusade to the Holy Land - 1218-1221AD. (Another date is 1212?)

1218AD: MOngols conquer Eastern Turkestan.

1218AD: Crusaders, 28 May, Landing of John of Brienne in Egypt. May, Fifth Crusaders begin siege of Damietta. 24 August, Capture of the Tower of the Chain. In 1218, Death of Simon of Montfort before Toulouse.

1217AD: August, Departure of the Duke of Austria and the King of Hungary,. November-December, Siege of Mount Tabor. In 1217, Peter Capet of Courtenay is Emperor of Constantinople. In 1217, in Duchies of Greece, Peter Capet is defeated and captured by Theodore I Angelos Comnenos Dukas. Theodore, by 1224 has taken Adrianople and has lands from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; he plans to take Constantinople but is interrupted by war with John Asen, king of Bulgaria, who had Theodore blinded for his intrigues after capture in 1230.

1216AD: Prince Louis wages war in England. Fifth Crusade preached by Pope Honorious III. Henry III is King of England. In 1216, in the area of Greece, Emperor Henry of Flanders dies.

1215AD: The Catholic Church declares the fuller doctrine of marriage as a Christian sacrament. (It took the great families to make the idea stick, as an aid to keeping feudal property intact.)

1215AD: In England, writing of the Magna Carta.
In 1215AD: at Runnymede, King John forced to sign Magna Carta by nobles. Magna Carta is condemned by Pope Innocent III.

1215AD: November, Fourth Lateran Council.

1215AD: China: Ghengis Khan has over-run the Jin (Tartars) of North China and repairs to Beijing. Later the Mongols try to take over the Song Dynasty of South China - to the time of Ghengis' grandson, Kublai Khan the Mongols develop a significant navy. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1214: Duchies of Greece, Michael I, founder of the despotate of Epirus, is assassinated by one of his slaves.

1214AD: John of England invades France. French Victory at Bouvines. Establishment of a new port at Paris by Philip II.

1213AD: Another date for The Children's Crusade, Announcement of Fifth Crusade. In France in 1213AD, Battle of Muret. Vermandois, Valois and the Auvergne are absorbed into royal French domain.

1212AD: Japan: Kamo-no Chomei writes Hojo-ki (An Account of My Hut).

July 1212AD: Crusaders, King Alfonso VIII of Castile expands the Reconquista, King Sancho VII of Navarre wins the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.

1211AD: Frederick II is King of Germany.

1210-1211AD: Resumption of hostilities in the Holy Land.

1210AD: Excommunication of Otto IV by Innocent III.

1209-1226AD: Albigensian Crusades.

1209AD: Duchies of Greece, Henry of Flanders at a small town, Ravenika, calls a high court of his vassals to determine the (French-defined) feudal relations to be transplanted in Greece. Lombards from Italy are trying to make inroads on situations. Thebes is restored to Otho de la Roche. Mark Sanudo is given Naxos as Duke of the Archipelago (of the Aegean). Geoffrey Villehardouin the Younger is made Seneschal of Romania. Raven dalle Carceri has Negroponte.
1209AD: Duchies of Greece, Villehardouin becomes "man of the Emperor" and is given office of Seneschal of Romania. Shortly Villehardouin has to negotiate with Venice, then try to outsmart the newly-arriving Robert of Champlitte, cousin of Champlittes already in the area. Meantime, Othon de la Roche encourages the Burgundian influences of France, at the Court of Athens. (Othon marries Isabelle, heiress of Guy de Ray.
1209AD: Duchies of Greece, Villehardouin, one of the invaders of Greece, (Baron of Kalamata and Arkadia, or Kyparissia), appoints his nephew Hugh as his deputy in Archaia and sails for the west, but dies in Apulia, Italy. Archaia and parts of southern Greece have been divided into 12 baronies, the barons forming a high court. One of the invaders' fortresses is Matagrifon ("Kill-Greek"), built by the baron of Akova, Walter de Rosieres. Some other barons are Hugues de Bruyeres and his son Geoffrey; Jean de Neuilly, hereditary marshal of Archaia, Hugues de Lille de Charpigny, Othon de Tournay, Audebert de la Tremouille, the Belgian Matthew de Valaincourt de Mons, William de Morlay, Guy de Nivelet, William Aleman of a Provencal family. The headquarters of the Teutonic knights were near Kalamata. Serfs in the various baronies were "assigned" to their new lords. It so happened that later, many estates passed into the hands of women, in a militarised context and society, which in time had disastrous consequences. (Miller, Latins in the Levant, p. 55).

1209AD: Revolt of the Uighur Idiqut against the Qara-Khitays from Samarkand.

1208AD: More to come

1207AD: Duchies of Greece, Boniface of Montferrat is killed in a fight with Bulgarians. The Kingdom of Salonica is later ruined, partly by the incompetence of Lombards.

1206-1227AD: Conquests of Genghis Kahn. In 1206, Genghis proclaims himself Khan of the Mongols. He conquers much 1218-1221.

1206AD: Duchies of Greece, A large Venetian fleet under command of son of Doge Dandalo sails to retake control of Corfu. Sixty resisters (pirates?) are executed. This puts fear into a "fellow-pirate", Matthew Orsini, who rules over Cephalonia and Zante, and by 1208 Orsini has adopted the view of Venice on affairs.

1206AD: Mongol empire founded by Genghis Khan.

1206AD: Duchies of Greece, Henry of Flanders is Emperor of Constantinople. Principality of Morea is founded in Greece. In March 1206, the ecclesiastical affairs of the Byzantine Empire are resettled. One fifteenth of lands taken will be given to the Latin Church.

1206AD: Former Turkestan slave Aibak founds new sultanate of Delhi in North India.

1206AD: Japan: Honen (1133-1212) exiled because of success in gaining converts to the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism.

1206AD: Iraqi scientist al-Jazari, completes a book on marvellous machines. (Such as, birds that drop stones onto cymbals). (Source: James/Thorpe).

1205AD: Duchies of Greece, A fleet which takes the first Latin patriarch to Constantinople takes possession of Corfu in name of Venetian republic. The people of Corfu resist.

1205AD: Crusaders, Duchies of Greece, Conquest of the Morea by William of Champlitte. (Sometimes known as "of Champagne") Earlier, Boniface of Montferrat had done homage to the Emperor re the Kingdom of Salonica, and is made commander-in-chief of the force which will march across Morea and take possession of baronies made possible by the partition. In 1205, one army under Count of Blois and Henry of Flanders, the Emperor's brother, attacked the Greeks in Asia, while the King of Salonica invaded Greece. In time, the title King of Salonica becomes a hollow title. Once the Franks had left, the Greeks of Adrianople rise in revolt, aided by Joannes, King of Bulgaria and Vallachia. Joannes cuts Emperor Baldwin's rescue army to pieces and kills Baldwin. The Bulgarians ravage Greece and the Greeks learn how the cruelty of the Franks can be exceeded. The Franks retreated to Rhedestos. Baldwin's brother, Henry of Flanders, becomes Emperor, crowned 20 August, 1206. In 1205, Otho de la Roche, a Burgundian noble, marches south with the army of Boniface of Montferrat and gains possession of Athens (Lord Athens and Thebes). Shortly, the Burgundian influence at Athens was challenged by a Greek notable, Leo Sgourous, who fought but was forced back to Corinth. Otho de la Roche retains control of Attica and Boetia.

1204AD: Crusaders, Capture of Thessalonica by Boniface Marquis of Montferrat (who is married to Margaret, daughter of King of Hungary). Occupation of Normandy, Anjou and Poitou by Philip II. Foundation of Christian Empire in the East. Baldwin IX, Count Flanders, is elected Emperor in Constantinople. King Peter of Aragon becomes a papal vassal. Beginning of the campaigns of Genghis Khan.

1204AD: Crusaders, 12 April, Capture and sack of Constantinople; in September, Truces with Amalric, reoccupation of Sidon and Jaffa. In 1204 in Venice, Partition of Byzantine Empire under Doge Enrico Dandolo. In effect, the Venetians and the Crusaders partition and the carve up the Byzantine Empire. Boniface of Montferrat "sells" Crete to Venice. Genoese are already resident on Crete, including Count of Malta, Enrico Pescatore. Miller (in "Latins in the Levant", p. 49), writes, "The usual tendency of the desperately logical Latin intellect, when brought face to face with a new set of political conditions, is to frame a paper constitution, absolutely perfect in theory, and absolutely unworkable in practice". But in the case of occupying Greece, the French involved simply transplanted feudalism.

1203AD: Duchies of Greece, Crusaders, Landing in Constantinople, and recapture. Restoration of Isaac II. On 23 June, 1203, the Venetian fleet (Doge Henry Dandalo) carrying an army of Crusaders sights Constantinople, and one ship breaks the chain of the harbour. Flemish knights battle with England and Danes of the Varangian Guard. Alexius III abandons Constantinople, his brother Isaac is released from prison and placed on the throne. The Treaty of Zara is re-ratified. Then appears Alexius IV. Constantinople (almost 300,000 population) is wrecked (by 20,000 Crusaders) and never quite recovers. Alexius IV is dethroned and murdered by Alexius V (Mourzouphlous). The reputation of Franks (French-speakers) is forever stained. Pope Innocent III objects at reports of the Crusaders' behaviour. Baldwin, Count of Flanders and Emperor Romania, counts three hundred thousand marks of silver and 10,0000 horses and mules. Baldwin of Flanders on 9 May is elected Emperor, against Boniface, the Marquis of Montferrat, who becomes King of Salonica with a title to Crete. Venice received three-eighths of the Empire. The rest of the territory was given to vassals. The most important Greek area was the principality of Archaia, which went first to William of Champlitte, then to Geoffrey Villehardouin.

Circa 1203AD: Hojo family rules Japan after Minamoto Yoritomo's death ...

1202AD-1204AD: Conquest of Normandy by Philip II from King John of France.

1201-1204AD: Fourth Crusade. Philip Hurepel is legitimized by Pope Innocent III. Champagne now under royal jurisdiction.

1204AD: Fourth Crusade: This Crusade pays Venice 85,000 silver marks in advance for ships and provisions, Venice demands also half of any conquests, this is the Crusade which later sacks Constantinople.

1202AD: Crusaders, October-November: Siege of Zara (Christian port on Dalmatian coast) and sacking by Venetians and Crusaders.

1201AD: Crusaders, Death of Bohemond III and beginning of disputed succession to Antioch. April, Treaty between Venice and the Crusaders (1201-1213).

1200-1300AD: The weather in North America followed the pattern in Europe, becoming warmer and wetter. Among the continent's native peoples, farming flourished in northwestern Iowa, a region in which rainfall is currently marginal for growing corn. A thriving culture existed in North America's Mississippi valley until the weather turned colder and drier between 1200 and 1300.
(From a website reviewing book on climate change by H. H. Lamb, Climate History and the Modern World)

1200AD: The Mongols learn of balloons from around 1200AD from the Chinese they have conquered. There are descriptions of the use of balloons in 1241 when the Poles fought the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica. The Mongol balloon seems to have been a signalling device, or a standard for rallying Mongol troops. (Source: James/Thorpe).

1200AD: The numerical concept of zero (0) reaches Europe from India via Arab traders.

1100AD-1200AD: Italian cites move to independence and the first companies arise to share risk and profit.

1200AD: Bronze Age: The Labyrinth as Entertainment: Appearance in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia, the labyrinth as entertainment, or, relaxation, or, an aid to contemplation. The labyrinth differs from its relative, the maze, as its winding paths lead back to the centre and out again. Labyrinths were popular in Roman times, and reached their peak in medieval times, when 11-circuit models were placed on church floors (as in Chartres Cathedral, c.1200). The first-appearing labyrinth seems to be the one in which the bull-headed Minotaur lived, on Crete. (Legend of Theseus and Ariadne). In Britain, editor of a British journal of mazes and labyrinths, Caerdoia, is Jeff Saward.
See also, Virginia Westbury, Labyrinths: Ancient Paths of Wisdom and Peace. Lansdowne Publishing, 2001. Check online at: http://www.labyrinthsociety.org

1200AD: Unification of Ayyubid empire by al-Adil.

Circa 1200AD, Beginning of Inca domination of Cuzco Valley, Peru. In France, foundation of University of Paris. France placed under interdict by Innocent III and Philip II acknowledges Ingeborg of Denmark his lawful wife. County of Evreux becomes part of French royal domain.

1200AD: The Mongols learn of balloons from around 1200AD from the Chinese they have conquered. There are descriptions of the use of balloons in 1241 when the Poles fought the Mongols at the Battle of Legnica. The Mongol balloon seems to have been a signalling device, or, a standard for rallying Mongol troops. (Source: James/Thorpe).

1199AD: Death of King Richard I (The Lionheart), after being wounded while besieging castle of Chalus in France, succeeded by his brother John. Transfer of Gien to Philip II. John (Lackland) is King of England.

1198AD: Crusaders, Promulgation of The Fourth Crusade as preached by Fulk of Neuilly. In 1198, Innocent III is Pope. In 1198, French routed before Gisors by Richard I. 1194-1224, Albert of Buxtehude expands the Baltic Crusades. August 1198, Innocent III calls the Fourth Crusade.

1197AD: Abortive Crusade of Henry VI. Recapture of Jaffa by Al-Adil and death of Henry of Champagne. October, Recapture of Beirut. Siege of Toron.

Circa 1196AD: Appearance of book History of the Kings of France by Andrew of Marchiennes.

1194AD: Conquest of Sicily by Henry VI. Recovery of lands in France by Richard I. Defeat of Philip II at Freteval. Synod of Compiegne. Work starts on new cathedral of Notre-Dame at Chartres.

1194-1199AD: Islam: Moslem conquest of Northern India and Bengal.

1194AD: Ambush of Baghras and Armenians lose their hold on Antioch.

1193AD: France: Philip II repudiates his wife Ingeborg of Denmark. Capture of Richard I in Austria. Seizure of Plantagenet lands in France by Philip II.

1193AD: 4 March, Death of Saladin, enemy of the European Crusaders. Saladin's heirs display rivalry.

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1192AD: Truce between Christian Richard I of England and Muslim Saladin ends Third Crusade.

1192AD: Philip II back in France seizes Artois.

1192AD: In Japan, Minamoto Yoritomo becomes shogun after long civil war ends with his victory.

1192AD: India: Sultanate of Delhi is founded by Afghan invaders.

1192AD: India: Moslem Muhammad of Ghur captures Delhi.

1192AD: Japan: KAMAKURA period - Japan's first Shogun (Military ruler, the generalissimo of the emperor's army) - Minamoto Yoritomo establishes first Shogunate government Bakufu=Shogunate (literary "tent government") Shugo (protector)- region and Jito (the new managerial position of steward); followed local customary laws - proto-feudalism.

1192AD: December-January, Crusader army at Betenople. Retreat to Ascalon. 28 April, Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat. Henry of Champagne becomes lord of the kingdom. June-July, Crusaders are again at Betenople; Richard's Crusaders march again to Jerusalem but are turned back again. July-August, Richard has victory at Jaffa. 2 September, Franco-Moslem truces.

1191AD: Henry VI is Emperor.

1191AD: Japan: Zen Buddhism is introduced from China. (Later 13th-16th c) it influences Chanoyu (tea ceremony), Noh theater, rock gardens, ink painting, and flower arrangement) the patronage of Zen Buddhism by the samurai elite to develop powers of concentration for the martial arts through meditation: sitting at Zen or zazen philosophy of "elf-reliance" (jiriki) Zen or "Chan" Buddhism in China founded by Bodhidarma, who meditated for nine years until his legs disappeared or atrophied: Daruma the sect of Buddhism that survives anti-Buddhist campaigns in China after the fall of the Tang Dynasty temples - distant from cities; economically self-sufficient although a branch of Mahayana or institutional Buddhism, it is a return to the original, non-institutional spirit of early Buddhism rejects teachings of sutras, teachers relies on koan, mental puzzles or paradoxes designed to destroy reliance on dialectic logic (e.g., "When you see the Buddha, kill the Buddha", "What is the sound of one hand clapping?", "Where is the white rabbit in the snowstorm?", "What was your form before your parents were born?") goal: to achieve "satori" or "enlightenment" - to discover the Buddha nature, or Nothingness, in oneself emphasis on naturalness and anti-intellectualization emptying the bucket of the mind - resonates with Shinto influence of the understated, rustic taste of China in the Sung Dynasty (960-1280).

1191AD: Discovery claimed of remains of King Arthur at Glastonbury.

King Arthur's Round Table was located where? A researcher in Scotland, Archie McKerracher, believes it was not in any castle in England's West Country, at Glastonbury or the Cornish castle of Tintagel, but in present-day Stirlingshire in Scotland. Precisely, behind No. 40 Adam Crescent, Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire. Where the knights' meeting place was "a round hut" or a beehive-shaped stone hut. (Reported 15 February 2000)

1191AD: 20 April, Philip arrives at Acre. 6 May, Landing of Richard on Cyprus. 8 June, Richard arrives at Acre which surrenders on 21 July. 7 September, Crusader victory of Arsur/Arsuf (Richard the Lionheart meets Saladin. Nov-Dec, Richard's Crusaders march to Jerusalem but fall back to the coast.

1190AD: Foundation of The Teutonic Knights. Winter 1190-1191, French and English stay in Sicily.

1190AD: 10 June, Death of Frederick II in Cilicia/Anatolia by drowning. July, arrival of Henry of Champagne at Acre. Philip Augustus and Richard I The Lionheart at Vezelay. Philip II departs Vezelay on Third Crusade. Work begins on Paris city walls.

1189-1192AD: Third Crusade.

1189AD: May, Departure of Emperor Frederick (1) Barbarossa. August-12 July 1191, See Siege of Acre. In 1189, Richard I The Lionheart is King of England. Henry VI is King of Germany.

1188AD: Crusaders, 2 January, Saladin lifts siege of Tyre. Arrival of Sicilian fleet. Failure of Saladin before Tripoli. Part-conquest of principality of Antioch.

1187AD-1188: Seizure of Berry by Philip II of France.

Circa 1187: Gerard translates Ptolemy's "Almagest".

1187AD: Saladin defeats Christians at Hattin and takes Jerusalem.

1187AD: Islam: Saladin defeats Crusaders 4 July at Battle of Hattin. Followed by conquest of Acre, Jaffa, Haifa, Caesarea, Toron and Sidon, then Beirut and Ascalon. 20 September-2 October, Siege and capitulation of Jerusalem to Saladin. August-December, Proclamation of The Third Crusade.

1186-1194AD: Crusaders, Guy of Lusignan is King of Jerusalem.

1186AD: Appearance of treatise on Courtly Love by Andreas Cappellanus.

1186AD-1187AD: Last Ghaznavid ruler deposed by Mohammed of Ghur, Muslim founder of an empire in North India.

1186AD: Crusaders, September, Accession of Guy of Lusignan and rebellion of Raymond III. Treacherous seizure of the Damascus caravan by Reynald of Chatillon, leading to revenges. 1185-1186, Baldwin V is King of Jerusalem.

1185AD: Appearance of... first brick chimney in England, smaller rooms, privacy, washing.

1180sAD: Decline of Chola kingdom.

1185AD: Japan: The Minamoto clan triumphs after a five year war and establishes the first military government in Kamakura (one hr SW of Tokyo by train). Power passes from the court aristocracy to the warrior class. The Tale of the Heike the second great classic of Japanese literature the historical sourcebook or "bible" for the samurai work of oral literature told by traveling musicians and priests tells two major stories rise and fall of the Heike: power corrupts, the proud will not last (life of the warrior + Buddhist doctrine of change) military victories of the Genji, esp. the great strategies of Yoshitsune, Yoritomo's half brother, at Ichi-no-tani, and the final naval victory at Dan-no- ura other themes origin of samurai code/style about military dress, martial arts (e.g., kendo, Way of the Sword); honor, seppuku (ritual suicide; also called harakiri 'belly slashing'); death poems, etc. the vanity of all existence: the bell that tolls at the beginning and end of the Tale; the death of Atsumori; the final visit with the imperial princess the "nobility of failure": the story of Yoshitsune - the "failed hero" is more heroic: a tradition of the "anti-hero" The "cherry blossom" as metaphor for the life of the warrior; it casts itself away at the very peak of its powers.

By 1185AD: Paris as city has paving for pedestrians. In France, acquisition of Arras and the Vermandois by Philip II. In 1185, last attempt of the Sicilian Normans (William II) to subdue the Byzantine Empire. Tancred De Hauteville raises a powerful fleet, the pretext for movement is the alleged cruelty of Byzantine Andronicus I, and attacks Dyrrachium. Thessalonica was then approached with great cruelty. The altars of Greek churches were defiled. In time, Andronicus I is dethroned, anyway; Tancred's Sicilian fleet approaches Constantinople. On 7 November, 1185, the Byzantines won; the Norman generals Count Aldoin and Richard Acerra are taken prisoner. Tancred regrouped and returned to Sicily, leaving behind hatred in Greece. Ecclesiastics squabbled bitterly.

1184AD: Crusaders, Rebellion of Guy of Lusignan. Surrender of Montargis to the French king.

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1183AD: Expeditions of Reynald of Chatillon in Arabia and Red Sea area. Saladin now master of Aleppo. Siege of Kerak. In Islam, Fall of Ghazni. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.) In 1183, Peace of Constance, liberties of the Lombard towns recognised by Frederick I.

1182AD: Slaughter of Crusaders at Constantinople.

1180AD: Hungary: Though Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenos (1143-1180) invaded ten times in twenty-two years in an attempt to impose Byzantine sovereignty, he never seriously threatened Hungarian independence.

1180AD: Defeat of Baldwin IV at Banyas and Jacob's Ford. Marriage of Sibylla of Jerusalem and Guy of Lusignan. In 1180, Philip II Augustus is King of France. Seizure of French Jews.

1175-1180AD: Is the book on Kabbala, Bahir, about 1175-1180AD (that is, almost a century after the beginning of the first crusade). See Harold Bloom, p. 209, Omens of Millennium, one of the earliest dates for Kabbala (as written down)

1180AD: Islam, Death of Mustadi, succeeded by his son, Nasir. He recognizes the usurpation of Saladin. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1179AD: Third Lateran Council. Attempts to end Christian schisms. Raid on Tyre by Saladin.

1178AD: Papal mission to the Albigensian heretics.

1177AD: Crusaders, Crusade of Philip of Flanders, Siege of Harenc. 25-26 November, Victory of Baldwin IV at Montgisard. In 1177, Pope and Emperor meet in Venice: Peace of Venice. November, 1177, Crusader army defeats Saladin at Mont Gisard.

1176AD: Defeat of Manuel Comnenus at Myriokephalon. In 1176, Victory of the Lombard League over Frederick I.

Circa 1175AD: Benedict of St Maure writes History of the Dukes of Normandy.

1174AD: Crusaders, Saladin takes Damascus.

1174-1182AD: Building of Monreale in Sicily.

1174AD: Saladin now master of Damascus. Death of Amalric.

1174-1185AD: Baldwin IV is King of Jerusalem. May 1174: Death of Nur ad-Din.

1174AD: Holding of first organised English horse races.

1173AD-1193AD: Saladin overcomes Palestine and Syria, taking Damascus.

1170-1172AD: Campaign of Nur-al-Din and Saladin in Oultrejourdain.

1171AD: Islam: Sultan of Egypt, Saladin, destroys the Fatimite Dynasty there. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1170AD: Murder in England of Thomas Becket. In France, conversion of merchant of Lyons, Pierre Valdes, and founder of the Waldensian sect.

1170AD, Crusaders: By 1170 appears from France the family Villehardouin, destined to be influential in the occupation of Southern Greece, as with the Duchy of Athens, the Morea, Archaea.

1170AD: Islam: Death of Mustanjid, succeeded by his son Mustadi. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1169AD: Islam: Shirkuh becomes vizier in Egypt and accepts leadership of Nur ad-Din.

1169AD: Heretical assembly in the Lauragais area of Southern France.

By 1169AD: Aztecs settle in Mexico.

1169AD: Vladimir becomes capital of Russia.

1169AD: Crusaders: October-December, Franco-Byzantine attempt on Damietta.

1168AD: The first Norman invaders arrive to Ireland, in response to a call from King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, who promises to share his spoils. The Normans anyway staked their own claims to Ireland.

1168AD: Aztecs move into the valley of Mexico and destroy the Toltec capital of Tula.

1168AD: Crusaders, Attempted conquest of Egypt by Balbain. Capture of Bilbeis, burning of Fustat and evacuation of Egypt.

1167AD, Formation of the Lombard League.

1167AD: Crusaders and Fatimite Egypt, Third Egyptian Campaign. Defeat of Babain and siege of Alexandria.

1166AD: Seizure of Brittany by Henry II of England.

1165AD: Nur ad-Din again sends Shirkuh to Egypt with a great army, accompanied by Saladin. Battle at Al-Babain, victory for invaders. Alexandria falls into their hands. Crusaders oppose them. Adid requests aid from Nur ad-Din. Shirkuh is sent again and he and Saladin again enter Cairo. Shirkuh is appointed vizier by Adid, and when he dies, Saladin is appointed vizier. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 43ff.)

1165AD: By 1165 in Jerusalem, amongst goldsmiths, money changers and minters are many Frenchmen, Lorrainers, Normans, Auvergnats, Italians, Spaniards, Burgundians. The city has a large Frankish population. (Item from Jean Richard)

1165AD: Canonization of Charlemagne by anti-pope Paschal III.

1164AD: Crusaders, Second expedition into Egypt.

1163AD: Crusaders, First campaign in Egypt. Nur-al-Din defeated at the Biqa. 11 August, Victory of Nur-al-Din at Harenc. 1163-1174, Aumary is King of Jerusalem.

1163AD: Council of Tours (Context of papal schism. Beginning of building of Notre Dame Cathedral.

1163AD: Nur ad-Din sends army under Shirkuh to reinstate Shawir. Dirgham defeated, and Shawir reinstated. He soon throws off allegiance to Nur ad-Din, and allies himself with Crusaders. Shirkuh withdraws. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 43-45.)

Circa 1163AD: Birth of Genghis Khan, creator of Mongol empire.

1162AD-1227AD: The Great Wall of Genghis Khan?: The dirt-made wall may (?) have been called Val Chengis Khana, 500km of "a crenellated black line" starting in Eastern Mongolia and curving into China, going into Russia at Zabaikalsk (heart of Genghis Khan's empire, ), then moving into the treeless Russian hills to the east. Old Chinese records say it consisted of a huge earthen berm topped with wooden parapets. Genghis Khan, or Temujin, (1162-1227), enthroned in 1206, the Mongol conqueror, united China and altered the course of Russian history. Khan's empire stretched from the Yellow Sea to the Volga, from Central China to Lake Baikal. Interesting to inspect would be the 13th Century Mongol city, Hirinskaya. But it may be more accurate to suggest that the remains of Khan's wall, now "a lump of earth" about half a metre high, 30m long, as wide as a one-lane street, was first built by local tribes 300 years before Khan's time (?) See Atlas of the World published by Federal Service of Geology and Cartology of Russia. (Newspaper report, 22 September 2001)

1162AD: Islam, Adil, son of Adid (Fatimite Egypt), dispossesses Shawir of his government in Upper Egypt and Shawir marches against Adil, kills him and makes himself vizier in his place. Is put to flight by Al-Dirgham and takes refuge with Nur ad-Din.

1162AD: Alfonso II is King of Aragon. The Count of Barcelona leaves the allegiance of the King of France. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 43ff.)

1160AD: Crusaders, Capture of Reynald of Chatillon. In the 1160s, series of Crusader invasions into Egypt.

1161AD: China: 16 November: China and Civil Wars. The Song Dynasty of the South confront the Jin (Tartars) of the North, who have lately over-run the Liao of North China - a Song fleet meets a Jin armada off the Shandong Peninsula. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1156AD-1160AD: Japan: A struggle for court control pits the Taira family against the Minamoto family. The Taira holds way from 1160-1180. (married their daughters to the emperors)

1160AD: Death in Fatimite Egypt of al-Faiz, who is succeeded by Adid, grandson of Hafidh, and last of the Fatimite caliphs. Rival viziers continue to argue. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 43ff.)

1159AD: Manuel Comnenus enters Antioch. In 1159, Alexander III becomes Pope. Schism: Frederick Barbarossa secures election of an anti-pope. In 1159, Byzantine Emperor Manuel concludes a peace treaty with William I of Sicily, re Thebes and its silk industry (many Jewish merchants).

1157AD: Crusaders, War against Nur-al-Din and demonstration against Shaizar. Third expedition of Thierry of Flanders.

1156AD: Creation of the Duchy of Austria. In 1156, Frederick Barbarossa becomes Emperor. In 1157 is a rift between Emperor and Pope.

1156AD: Japan: Taira Kiyomori, of the military and provincial aristocracy, gains control of civil government in the capital.

1155AD: Prussia is still pagan in religion, as is Lithuania.

1154AD: Crusaders, Occupation of Damascus by Nur-al-Din. Reunification by Moslems (Nur ad-Din) of Damascus and Aleppo. (Item from Jean Richard) In 1154, Henry II Plantagenet is King of England.

19 December 1154: Henry II crowned as king of England.

1153AD: The Maldives Islands near India and Ceylon - how the islanders adopted the faith of Islam. Maldives is comprised of 1,190 small islands forming a chain of 26 atolls, running north to south for 820km and no more than 130km wide. The indigenous people are known as Dhivehin (islanders), though their original number has been added to by Arab travellers and African slaves. The legend exists that a travelling Arab Saint, Abu al-Barakat, converted the islanders to Islam in 1153 after ridding the area of a pagan spirit which arose each month to murder a virgin girl. From 1153 to 1968 the Maldives was a Sultanate.

1153AD: Crusaders, Reynald of Chatillon now prince of Antioch. 19 August, Capture of Ascalon.

1152AD: Marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry Plantagenet (Anjou) of England. Frederick Barbarossa becomes King of Germany.

1150AD: Approx, as John Merson writes, About 1150, a Chinese government official heard of productivity of fast-growing rice varieties in Champa, a southern tributary state now in Vietnam, and brought this variety north. State promoted its use by building and maintaining large canal works, to provide ways to cultivate this wet-productive rice. This was a C12th "green revolution".

C11th-C12thAD: Thailand; First migrants arrive to Thailand (Menam Basin), from South China, and a state arises called Sukhotha, which is supplanted by 1438 by another Thai state with a capital at Ayutha, later attacked by Burmese.

1150AD: By 1996: Researcher John Grigsby discovers re Angkor, Cambodia, that the main monuments of Angkor follow the coils of the northern constellation of Draco, re a pattern evident in AD1150: does this have anything "astronomical" to do with the layout of the Pyramids of Giza? Angkor As built by the Khmer king, Jayavarman VII. Does computer simulation provide anything useful re date 10,500BC, a spring equinox, re any networked series of monuments around the world all resulting from similar preoccupations with astronomy? Some Khmer building dates are 1186AD for Ta Prohm, 1191AD for Prah Khan, Bayon in 1219AD. (Dates from Hancock and Faiia, p. 126).

1150AD-1524AD: Presumed date for Mayan city of Utatlan, late capital of the Quiche Maya of the Post-classic Guatemalan Highlands. (Date from Hancock and Faiia).

1150AD: Crusaders, May, Capture of Jocelyn II Courtenay. Grant of County of Edessa to the Byzantines.

1149AD: Dhafir, son of Hafhid, (Fatimite Egypt), succeeds to Caliphate, After short reign, on account of his licentiousness, is assassinated in 1154AD by his vizier, is succeeded by Al-Faiz, only five-years-old, and reign is filled with factions of rival viziers. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1149AD: 29 July, Defeat and death of Raymond of Poitiers at Fons Murez. 15 July, 1149, Dedication of the Crusader Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

1148AD: Crusaders, March, Louis VII at Antioch. 23-28 July, Siege of Damascus. Louis VII and Conrad III fail to capture Damascus. With them is Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1147-1149AD: Christian armies of Second Crusade defeated by Turks in Asia Minor and abandon siege of Damascus.

1147AD-1149AD: The Peasants Crusade.

1147AD-1148AD: Second Crusade.
Or, The Second Crusade 1189-1192CE. (Why are dates discrepant?) In 1147, Louis VII embarks on Crusade. Germans crusade against the Slavs.

1147AD: 24 October, Capture of Lisbon by the Crusaders/Alfonso I of Portugal. November-December, Defeat of German armies in Anatolia.

1147AD: Invasion of Spain by the Alomohades.

1146AD: Second invasion by Europeans of Byzantine Empire. Roger, King of Sicily, collects a powerful fleet at Brindisi, either to attack Manuel 1 or to transport Crusaders to Palestine. Roger dominates Corfu. The Norman fleet then plundered the island of Euboae, then the coasts of Arcanania and Etolia. Will they take Thebes (silk industry)? From the Scala of Salona, the Normans marched to Delphi, then to Thebes, where they plundered barbarously. Then the Normans tried Corinth, where citizens were taken for ransom or as slaves. The Greeks in question had already been weakened by oppressions from the Byzantines, which opened the way for the later oppressions of the Franks and Venetians on southern Greece.

1146AD: 31 March, St Bernard at Vezelay; 25 December, St Bernard at Speyer.

1145AD: 14 December, Proclamation of The Second Crusade as preached in 1146 by St. Bernard. In 1145, Eugenius III a Cistercian becomes Pope.

1144AD: Crusaders, 26 December, Fall of Edessa.

1142-1144AD: The Crac des Chevaliers is granted to the Hospitallers by the Count of Tripoli.

1142AD: Crusaders, Byzantine John Comnenus at Antioch.

1142AD: War between Louis VII and Theobald of Champagne. Appearance of heretics in Rhine Valley.

1141-1144AD: Conquest of Normandy by Geoffrey Plantagenet (Anjou).

1140AD: Opening of St Gothard Pass in the Alps as a commercial route. In 1161AD, First recorded use of explosives in battle near Najing, China.

1139AD: Second Lateran Council.

1139AD: First pilgrimage to Holy Land of Thierry of Flanders.

1137AD: Spain, Union of Aragon and Catalonia under Ramon Berenguer IV. In 1137, Marriage of Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. King of France is recognised as feudal superior by Count of Forez. Conrad III is Emperor

1137AD: Crusaders, Attack on Antioch by John Comnenus. Siege of Shaizar. Defeat and death of Pons of Tripoli. Fulk is besieged in Montferrand.

1136AD: Crusaders, Raymond of Poitiers is Prince of Antioch. In 1136, War waged on Thomas of Marle by Louis VI. Barons of England revolt.

1136AD: Islam, Rashid defends Baghdad against the Turks, but is murdered by the Assassins. His uncle Muktafi succeeds. This reign is marked by great disorders in Persia, as governors all make themselves independent. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1135AD: Islam, Murder of Mustarshid by the Assassins. His son Rashid succeeds. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1135AD: Chinese use paddle boats for military purposes.

1135AD: Stephen of Blois becomes King of England. He gave lands to the Templars at Cowley near Oxford. The Templars also have new lands in Spain, Portugal, Languedoc. Will the new Pope, self-styled, Anacletus II, be positive to the Templars? Since Hugh de Payens dies on 24 May 1136, and the new Master is Robert de Craon, Robert the Burgundian, who has a brother-in-law, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm, and has kings of France among his ancestors. Robert soon goes to the Holy Land.

1133AD: Europe: Lothar III becomes Emperor.

1132AD: Emperor of China orders establishment of China's first permanent navy which later patrols from the East China Sea from Fujian province to Korea and Japan. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1132AD: Crusaders, Revolt of Hugh Le Puiset. Jaffa is "confiscated" from Hugh Le Puiset.

1131AD: Crusaders, 21 August, Death of Baldwin II. Fulk of Anjou becomes King of Jerusalem. Coronation of Louis VII.

1130AD: First recorded use of breast-strap harness for horses allowing them to haul ploughs and heavy loads.

1130AD: Raimund re-introduces Greek philosopher Aristotle via Avicenna.

1130AD: Crusaders, Roger II crowned King of Sicily at Palermo. A major clan of Moslem raiders, to about 1130, live in a fortified cave, the Cave of Tyron, in the mountainous hinterland of Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. They recognise both the Franks and the Turks. (Item from Jean Richard) In 1130, Innocent II becomes Pope.

1129AD: Crusaders, Marriage of Fulk of Anjou and expedition against Damascus.

1129AD: Emir put to death by partisans of Afdai, whose son Abu Ali Akhmed usurps government making Hafidh, grandson of Mustansir, nominal caliph. (Fatimite Egypt). (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1128AD: Crusaders, Zengi occupies Aleppo. In Islam, Death of Mustarshid, succeeded by his son Mustarshid. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1128AD: Crusaders, Council of Troyes grants Rule to The Templars.

1127AD: Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders.

1127AD: From Manchuria, the Jurchen people move south conquering into Northern China, establishing the Chin Dynasty. 1127AD-1279 is period in China of Southern Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty is forced to move south to China's port city of Hangzhou, just south of Yangtze River, with half their income-producing land gone. Emperor in desperation turns to overseas trade - see re Emperor Gao Zong 1127-1162AD. Also see re travels of Marco Polo to Hangzhou. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

1126AD: Count Hugh of Champagne joins the Knights Templar. Later is organised a Templars meeting with the Pope, . By now, the Templars have received gifts from various nobles including Count Fulk of Anjou, from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Syrian Church, the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. Also noting the Templars is a friend of St Bernard of Clairvaux, Count Thibaut of Champagne, whose uncle, Hugh, above, is by now a Templar. The important/senior men of the Templars became the Seneschal, the Marshal, the Commander of the City of Jerusalem, also of Tripoli and Antioch, and the provincial masters of England, Portugal, Aragon, Hungary and France. Late in 1127, Thibaut of Champagne gave the Templars a farm which still exists, at Barbonne-Fayel, 55km north-west of Troyes, France, still called La Commanderie. Hugh de Payens donated his own lands in Payens. Lands were also given by councillors at Puisieux and Laon, north-east and north-west of Paris. Count Fulk of Anjou had become "an associate member in 1120AD. Hugh de Payens seems then to have gone to England, and been given the London site, London Temple, Chancery Lane, for the Templars. Also, Geoffrey de St-Omer had given the Templars his own property, including a house in Ypres, plus revenue from property taxations in areas ruled by Count William of Flanders. Geoffrey's father game the same from his lands in St-Omer. Four more properties in France were donated by 1128AD. By 1129AD, the Templars had a good footing in France, England, Scotland, and in Portugal where Queen Teresa gave them the castle/benefits of Soure, on the River Mondego. By 1129, the Master of Templars in France was Payen de Montdidier. In 1130 is a conference in Toulouse, southern France, on further donations to the Templars, who also acquired lands from William earl Warrene and in Oxfordshire, also in England, in Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, and more in France, in Dole, Baudiment, Carlat, Soissons, Laon, Nice, Foix, Richerches and La Rochelle. In Germany, Castle Supplinburg. In Catalonia, castles of Granena and Barbera. Templars were named as inheritors of a third of Aragon/Navarre. (From Stephen Howarth on the Templars)

1126AD: China: Barbarian invaders (the Jurched), drive the Sung court to refuge in the south at Hangchow. By 1275 they had the richest and most populous city in the world with a population of one million. Later the Jurched are supplanted by Genghis Khan who occupied all China by 1279. Kublai Khan (1216-1294) rules Mongols in the time of Marco Polo and moves the capital to Peking. China trades with Arabia by land and sea. In 1368, local Chinese beat the Mongols and introduce the Ming Dynasty. Note: The Sung from Hangchow in the south of China developed overseas commerce as a means to prosperity, and organised a coastguard and convoy system to protect merchantmen from pirates. China in the early Ming period built a navy and sailed to the East Indies, Southern India, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and coast of East Africa as far south as Kenya, using fleets of junks (some four-decked) up to 400 feet long.
See Reader's Digest, History of Man: The Last Two Million Years. Sydney, The Reader's Digest Association, 1973-1974.

1125AD: China: Northern China is abandoned to nomad invaders by the Sung Dynasty.

1124AD: Famine in Flanders. War between Emperor Henry V and Louis VI of France.

1124AD: Crusaders, 7 July, Capture of Tyre from Crusaders.

1123AD: First Lateran Council, for Christendom.

1123AD: Death in Persia of poet Omar Khayyam, who has originated modern navigational tables.

1123-1124AD: Crusaders, Venetian Crusade. On 18 April 1123, Baldwin II falls into hands of the Moslem Balak.

1123AD: Crusaders, Capture of Baldwin II. In May 1123 an army and a fleet from Egypt lays siege to Jaffa. The Constable of Jaffa is Eustace Grenier, who gives battle. In May 1123, a fleet from Venice commanded by the Doge himself, arrives to Syria. Venice aims at the capture of Tyre. The Venetians set a trap for Egyptians, successfully. The Egyptian Fatimids had lost their last base in Phoenicia. (Item from Jean Richard)

1122AD: Concordat of Worms. In 1122, Joscelin of Courtenay is captured in September by an Ortoqid emir, Balak. (Item from Jean Richard) Balak seizes power in Aleppo but is killed in 1124. In summer 1122, Venice sends a fleet which diverted to Corfu, where it laid siege. It arrived in 1123 to aid the siege of Tyre, "the Venetian Crusade".

1122AD: Hungary: In 1122, nobles rise up and force the Golden Bull - Hungary's equivalent of Magna Carta - upon King Andrew II, for his abuses of royal power. After Andrew died in 1235, his son Bela did what he could to restore royal authority but his efforts were brought to nothing by the Mongol invasion of 1241. The Mongols almost completely destroyed the Hungarian army, and ravage the countryside from east to west. Bela barely escaped, and Hungary was only saved from destruction when the Mongol Khan, Batu, returned home with his armies, possibly to contest the succession on the death of the Great Khan, Ogotai. The population was halved in twelve months, through massacre, plague and starvation. Bela repaired the damage, built a chain of border fortresses, and called in colonists to repopulate the country.

1121AD: Murder of the vizier of Cairo, al-Afdal. (Item from Jean Richard)

1120AD: A Council at Nablus forbids Crusader settlers to engage in the concubinage (domestic slavery) of captured women. (Item from Jean Richard)

Circa 1120AD: Chinese play with painted playing cards.

1120AD: Foundation of The Premonstratensians. In 1120, 700 Christian pilgrims are attacked by Moslems, and 360 are killed, 60 are captured. In 1119, a group of knights had grouped to provide escorts for pilgrims. A new religious order arises, still debated, The Temple of Solomon. Hugh of Payens backs this new order and helps to have it recognised officially. (Item from Jean Richard)

1119AD: Defeat by Louis VI at Bremule of Henry I of England. Council of Rheims. Charles the Good is Count of Flanders.

1118-1119AD: Crusaders, Foundation of the Order of the Templars, partly a creation of Hugh of Payens, who at the time is from Champagne in France, aged 48, who had been in the East for 22 years. Co-founders of the Templars are: Geoffrey St-Omer, a Flemish knight, Payen de Montdidier, Archambaud de St.-Agnan, Andre de Montbard (later a Templar Grand Master, and uncle of St Bernard of Clairvaux who was assisted by Hugh of Champagne to whom answered, also, Hugh de Payens), Geoffrey Bisol/Bisot, plus one Rossal/Roland and one Gondemare. (Templars, or, The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Jesus Christ.) Hugh of Champagne joined the Templars in 1126.

1119AD: Crusaders, 14 August, Victory of Baldwin at Tell Danith.

1118AD: Crusaders, March-April, Baldwin I's capture of Farama and death. 28 June, Defeat and death of Roger De Hauteville of Antioch at Field of Blood. Regency of Baldwin II. Moslems massacred all prisoners. In 1118, Capture of Saragossa by French and Spanish crusaders. Foundation of The Order of the Temple. Baldwin II is King of Jerusalem.

1118AD-1130AD: Italy, Venice, With Domenico Michiel as Doge, Venice has naval victories at Ascalon and in the Aegean Sea.

1117AD: Scotland, The earldom of Orkney is split between two squabbling cousins, joint-earls, Magnus and Hakon. In 1117 the try to meet in peace, but Hakon does not play by the rules, and executes Magnus. Magnus however has a loyal nephew, Rognvald Kali, who built a church to his uncle's memory - St Magnus, or, Earl Magnus the Holy. Magnus had been killed by a great blow to the head.

1116AD: Formation of Second Bulgarian Kingdom of Bulgarians and Vallachians south of the Danube with rebellion against Emperor Isaac II/ Byzantium. Some of these people regard themselves as descendants of Romans.

1115AD: Crusaders of the atabeg Bursuqi at Tell Danith. Egyptian Moslems attack Jaffa. (Item from Jean Richard) In 1115AD: Louis VI attacks Thomas of Marle.

1114AD: Champagne Fairs begin in France, providing regular trading centers.

1114AD: Crusaders, The last Moslem enclave on the Palestinian coast, Margat, is captured by Crusaders. (Item from Jean Richard) Ridwan dies in 1114.

1113AD: Hospitallers are recognised as an independent order. In 1113, Egyptians move near the walls of Jerusalem.

1113AD-1150AD: Reign of Suryavarman II of Cambodia, who starts building temple complex of Angkor Wat.

1113-1115AD: Crusaders, Occupation of Kaysun, Raban and Armenian lordships by Baldwin of Edessa.

6 March, 1112AD: Crusaders, Bohemond I De Hauteville dies in Apulia, Italy, ill in the years preceding, leaving an heir, Bohemond II. Was he preparing a large fleet when he died, or was he broken by defeat? (Item from Jean Richard)

1111-1112AD: Campaigns of Louis VI against Henry I, Theobald of Champagne and also the Lord of Le Puiset.

1111AD: Henry V is Emperor. Sack of Paris by Count of Meulan.

1111AD: The governor of Ascalon who in revolt wishes for protection of the Franks, and Baldwin gives him a garrison of 300 men, who are killed by the inhabitants. (Item from Jean Richard)

1110-1113AD: Crusaders, Expedition of the Moslem, atabeg Mawdud. Once, against Jerusalem. (Item from Jean Richard) Later, Mawdud is assassinated in the mosque of Damascus.

April-May 1110AD: Crusaders, Moslems under Mawdud march on Edessa and besiege it. Later, Ridwan of Aleppo broke his truce with Antioch and ravaged its territory. Tancred attacked the lands of Aleppo. (Item from Jean Richard) In 1110, a Norwegian fleet of Crusaders arrives. The Egyptians are unwilling to do battle with the Norwegians over Tripoli. Soon the Crusaders take Tyre, which has been blockaded since 1105, when the lord of Tiberias, Hugh of St Omer, had built the Castle of Toron.

1109AD: Crusaders, 12 July, Capture of Tripoli. In 1109 are decisions on which Crusaders barons shall rule which areas. In 1109, appointment of a Bishop of Nazareth (home of the Holy Family). In 1109, Bertrand of St Gilles (Toulouse), captures Tripoli, which has held out due to assistance by sea. Genoese fleet helps Crusader capture of Beirut. War between Louis VI of France and Henry I of England.

1108AD: Louis VI (The Fat) is King of Franks.

1108AD: Crusaders, September, Treaty of Devol. Liberation of Baldwin De Bourg. War against Tancred De Hauteville. The Armenians of Edessa try to revolt against the Prince of Antioch.

1107AD: Crusaders, Bohemond De Hauteville, Duke of Antioch, recently married to daughter of the King of France, lands at Avlona; invasion of Byzantine Empire. Bohemond's army has soldiers from Normandy, France and Germany. In 1107, Egyptian Moslems raid Hebron. There have been earlier skirmishes between Egyptians and Crusaders.

1106AD: 26 May, A Council is held at Poitiers, France, where Bruno of Segni recommends a Crusading "vow of the Sepulchre". (Item from Jean Richard)

1105-1106AD: The Almoravid conqueror, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, mounts an expedition to re-take Jerusalem, but his 70 ships and thousands of men are lost in a storm. (Item from Jean Richard)

1105AD: Christians capture Toledo and its library.

About 1105AD: The Abbot of Savigny, France, is given papal authority to establish windmills in Normandy, and so French technology travelled to England. In 1105, Tancred De Hauteville moves against the Turks of Aleppo. He smashes Ridwan's army on the plain of Tizin on 20 April, 1105. At this time, the Shi Moslems are trying to capture Moslem power in Syria. Tancred also confronts the Byzantines. (Item from Jean Richard)

1104AD: Crusaders, Defeat of Harran, Capture of Baldwin De Bourg (Bourcq) During 1104-1108, Roger (De Hauteville) of Salerno governs Edessa for Tancred De Hauteville. In 1104, by March, a new Genoese fleets cruises the Palestinian coast, helps Raymond of St Gilles (Toulouse) to take Gibelet. Then Baldwin I attacks Acre. (Item from Jean Richard) In 1104, negotiating with the Genoese, Baldwin promises them a third of Cairo, if they helped him conquer the city. The Genoese in 1104 aid the capture of Caesarea, "the Genoese Crusade".

1104AD: Crusaders, Baldwin takes Tripoli. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1103AD: Crusaders, Capture of Acre. Liberation of Bohemond. Siege of Tripoli begins. In 1103, Bohemond is freed from captivity by a large ransom. (Item from Jean Richard)

1103AD: Treaty of Dover between Henry I of England and the Count of Flanders.

1102AD: Crusaders, Capture of Tortosa by Count Raymond of St Gilles (Count Toulouse), May, Defeat of Baldwin Iat Ramla and victory of Jaffa. With Count Raymond (now Count Tripoli) are William of Poitiers, Counts Blois, Burgundy, and Conrad the Constable. (Item from Jean Richard)

1102AD: War of Prince Louis and the Count of Roucy.

1102AD: China establishes a public medical service.

1101AD: Vicomte of Bourges acquired by Philip I.

1101AD: Crusaders, April-May, Genoese Crusade. Capture of Arsur and Caesarea, 7 September, Victory at Ramla, August-September, Disaster of Crusade of 1101. In 1101, as the Genoese arrive at Caiphas in March, Baldwin of Jerusalem marches on Arsur, which opens its gates to avoid the date of Caesarea, in vain, as Baldwin sacks the town completely and kills most inhabitants. (Item from Jean Richard)

1101AD: Islam, Death of Mustali, succeeded by his son Emir, aged five years. Country is governed by Afdal until Emir reaches majority, when he puts Afdal to death. Baldwin takes Ptolemias. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

February, 1101AD: Count William II of Nevers sets out with a Crusader army of 15,000 men for Brindisi, Thessalonica, to Antioch. The Turks employ defensive scorched-earth policies. (Item from Jean Richard)

6 December, 1100 AD: Crusaders, A Venetian war fleet returns from crusading activity, having been out for 18 months to ports such as Jajja (modern Tel Aviv), Haifa, Pisa, Rhodes. At Jaffa they learned of the Crusader, Godfrey de Bouillon.

1100AD: Climate problems: (From a website) Thence followed the Medieval optimum (1100 to 1300 A.D.), in which European temperatures reached some of the warmest levels for the last 4000 years.

Circa: 1100AD: Horizontal loom imported to Europe from Arabs; Salerno first university.

1100AD: Crusaders, July, Death on 18 July 1100 of prestigious Godfrey of Bouillon/Boulogne, August, Capture of Bohemond. Tancred De Hauteville is regent of Antioch. In 1100, Henry I becomes King of England.

1100AD: By now appears the existence of the three separate Scandinavian kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

1099AD: Crusaders, 15 July, Capture of Jerusalem, 12 August, Victory at Ascalon. Follows, fortification of Jerusalem and improvement of the walls of the port, Jaffa. Jews are expelled from Jerusalem. (Item from Jean Richard) 12 August, 1099, Crusaders beat back the Fatimids at Ascalon.

1099AD: Crusaders capture Jerusalem, in Palestine.

1099AD: Crusaders, In The First Crusade, Crusaders defeat the Egyptians at Ascalon on the Palestine Coast. The Egyptian Fatimite army is under command of Afdal. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.) The Crusaders succeed in taking the whole of Asia Minor. In 1099, the Archbishop of Milan is asked to preach the Crusade in Lombardy, Italy. Genoese galleys arrive off Jaffa to help with building of siege engines. Pascal II becomes Pope. By 13 January, Raymond of Toulouse leads the first contingent away from Antioch and toward Jerusalem. 14 February, Raymond begins desultory siege of Arqahm, near Tripoli. Late March, Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert of Flanders join siege of Arqah. Mid-May, Raymond gives up on Arqah and takes all present to Jerusalem. 6 June, 1099, Citizens of Bethlehem invite Tancred De Hauteville to protect them.

1098AD: Jerusalem is taken by Afdal from the Turks, but the city months later yields to the Crusaders. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1098AD: Cistercian order synthesizes self-sufficient efficiency.

1098AD: Crusaders, 3 June, end of Siege of Antioch. It is possible that by 1098, Venetians have reconsidered their positions regarding fleets to the East. 3 June, 1098, Firuz opens Antioch to Bohemond De Hauteville and First Crusaders. 5-9 June, Kerbogha arrived before Antioch and besieges the besiegers. 14 June, Peter Bartholomew finds the supposed Lance of the Crucifixion. 28 June, Crusaders beat back Kerbogha's siege of Crusader-held Antioch.

1098AD: Crusaders, February, Baldwin at Edessa, 28 June, Victory over Kerbogha at Battle of Antioch, August, Recapture of Jerusalem by the Egyptians. Citizens of Edessa give Baldwin control of their city.

1098AD: May, A Crusader army is below Antioch and later capture it.

1098AD: Crusaders, 21 October, Crusaders arrived before Antioch, long bitter siege ensues.

1097AD: Crusaders, End of April, First Crusade begins march in Anatolia to Nicaea. 19 June, Capture of Nicaea, July, Battle of Dorylaeum, December - 3 June 1098, Siege of Antioch. In 1097, War of Prince Louis with William Rufus of England.
1097AD: Crusaders, Knights of First Crusade defeat Turks at Dorylaeum (Modern Turkey).

Spring 1097AD: Crusaders, First Crusade contingents assembling in Constantinople.

From 1095-1097AD: Notable Crusaders were to be Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin (who was later Baldwin I of Jerusalem. Bohemond, Raymond IV of Toulouse, Hugh of Vermandois, brother of Philip I of France, Tancred De Hauteville and his sons (and daughters).
One of the first crusaders to go to the Holy Land, mentioned in material such as any encyclopedia entry, is Godfrey of Bouillon (1060-1100), Duke of Lorraine, with a wife, if he had one, who seems untraceable, which is where a problem starts. (Godfrey was cousin of Baldwin of Le Bourg (died 1131) who would become the first king of Jerusalem.)

The de Bouillon line (Counts Boulogne) arose from Dagobert II. An early-identifiable ancestor of the de Bouillon line is Bera IV (de Bouillon, died 975AD), "The Architect".

A subsidiary line of de Bouillon married into the family of William the Conqueror, De Conteville, but importantly, one or several members of this subsidiary line married into the influential, later royal family of Jiminez/Pamplona in Spain; as is not generally mentioned.

Godfrey of the First Crusade was son of Eustace III Bouillon, Count Boulogne, and his wife, Saint Ida (1040-1113) of Provence. This Eustace III was son of Eustace II Bouillon, (died 1091?), husband of Mary Stuart, daughter of Malcolm III Stuart/Canmore, King of Scotland, and St Margaret of Wessex, who was daughter of a German Hohenstaufer.

Eustace III and St Ida also had sons, crusader Eustace IV Bouillon. (Who became Lord of Sidon in Palestine).

Eustace II Bouillon Count Boulogne, (died 1081), came from Boulogne, coastal France, or, Aux Grenons, His father was Eustace I Bouillon Count Boulogne and Matilda/Maud Hainault. Eustace III Bouillon, Count Boulogne, of the first Crusade, was known to be active by 1066, (Eustace III may have had an illegitimate brother Geoffrey.

Notably in 1066, Eustace III was with William the Conqueror and charged dramatically with a gold cross/consecrated gonfanon, at the Battle of Hastings. That flag may have been, or may have inspired, the banners and crosses of the Crusaders? In Barlow's tables on Edward Confessor Eustace III marries Mary, daughter of Malcolm III King of Scots, sister of Matilda/Edith, the wife of Henry I king of England, the son of William the Conqueror. (But some other available tables have that man as Eustace II?)

The Crusades...A First Crusader, Raymond Capet (died c. 1097) came into Portugal and became Lord Galicia. He was son of William Capet, Lord Burgundy, husband of Adelaide De Conteville. This Raymond married Urraca (from the Pamplona line), who later married Alfonso The Battler (died 1134), who was also of the Pamplona line. The son of this Raymond and Urraca was the famous Alfonso VII of Portugal (1105-1157), Alfonso Henriques, who had three wives: Berengaria/Berenguela Borell of Barcelona, daughter of a Count of Barcelona; Matilda of Savoy; and Ryska of Poland, daughter of Vladislav II of Poland and Agnes Hohenstaufer.
(The ruling families of Europe as they faced their so-called Moslem threat were so to speak, multi-cultural as far as the Christian world of their day went?)

C11th, Pope Gregory VII does away with clerical marriage in the Roman Church.

1096AD: Christian rulers from Europe go on First Crusade to retake Palestine from Seljuks.

1096AD: Islam, The Fatimite Caliph, Mustali, takes Jerusalem. (Item from Historians' History of the World, London, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

October 1096AD: Crusaders, Peasants' Crusade annihilated in Anatolia by Turks.

September 1096AD: Crusaders, More Crusaders join the movement, including Robert II of Flanders; Robert Duke of Normandy and his-brother-in law Stephen Count of Blois. Loyalists to Henry IV who joined the Crusade included Godfrey of Bouillon Duke of Lower Lorraine, and his brothers Eustace, Count of Boulogne, and Baldwin. A De Hauteville recruit from Italy was Roger Guiscard's son, Bohemond, Prince of Taranto. But the Crusader movement had become so powerful that no group of nobles or clerics could control it, and so arose the crowds responding to preachers such as Peter the Hermit. During 1096 is departure of first crusaders and anti-Jewish riots. August, departure of the barons, October, first Crusader defeats. In 1096 the Crusaders move through Rome. In 3 May 1096 is an attack by Crusaders on the Jews of Speyer. Similar at Mainz on 25-29 May, on a larger scale. There are some forced conversions of Jews, toward Prague, after earlier anti-Jewish violence at Cologne, Metz, Trier and the lower Rhine Valley. The Pope orders Godfrey of Bouillon not to harm Jews. Godfrey is accompanied by his brothers Eustace and Baldwin, and Counts Hainault, Toul, many lords of Brabant, Lorraine and Luxemburg. Around August, 1096, King Coloman of Hungary wreaks violence on violently-travelling Crusaders. (Item from Jean Richard)

Spring 1096AD: Peasants' Crusade sets out from Europe. Emperor Alexius ships them over the Bosporus in August.

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1096AD: 15 August: Crusaders are readying to depart. This departure date takes account of harvest times, in order to assist food supplies. They leave in spring and are at the Hungarian border by May. Transport by sea is not considered, though it will be in later Crusades. The Byzantines "hastily" transport Crusaders to Asia by sea. (Item from Jean Richard)

1095AD: Crusaders, By now, a noted French fighter of Moslem forces in Spain is Raymond of St Gilles, Count of Toulouse, Marquis of Provence, who early becomes an enthusiastic recruit to the spirit of Crusading in the Holy Land. By July 1096 another recruit was Hugh of Vermandois, brother of King Philip of France. Genoa would be asked for maritime support for any Crusade. The Genoese fleet set sail in July 1097.

1095AD-1099AD: The First Crusade.

1095AD: Crusaders, March, Council of Piacena, then in November, Council of Clermont. Beginning of The First Crusade to Palestine as preached by Pope Urban II.
The the First Crusade (1095-1099) that set off Godfrey of Bouillon in a blaze of holy hope was called by Pope Urban II at the council at Clermont-Ferrand in France in 1095. The view was that in Jerusalem, Moslem factions had (deliberately?) despoil The Holy Sepulchre, straining relations. The Moslems are also accused of interfering with Christian pilgrims' progress. Pope Urban II may have been influenced by a call for help from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, against the Turks. The Pope promises that a Crusade, a holy war, could expiate sins and that the homes of baronial crusaders will be protected by truces. The latter promise is important to notice. France in the time of William the Conqueror - England was not much better - was the setting for feuds, vendettas, squabbles, murders and assassinations, power grabs, rivalries, betrayals and double-crossing. Sons or nephews rose up against their powerful fathers or uncles. Women connived or cowered. Bastard sons were particularly hard to deal with, most notably in the case of William the Conqueror, who survived several attempts to get rid of him in his earlier years, which a historian says "annealed" his character - and taught him the powers of violence.

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1094AD: Council of Rheims summoned by Philip I. Excommunication of Philip I by Hugh of Die at Council of Autun. Capture of Valencia by El Cid.

1094AD: Islam, Death of Muktadi, his son Mustazhir succeeds. (Item from Historians' History of the World, London, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1094AD: Death of Mustansir, succeeded by his son Mustali Abul-Kasim. Government is in the hands of Afdal, son of Gemali. In his reign occurs The First Crusade. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1092AD: Islam, Death of Malik Sha, successor of Alp Arslan. Decline of Turkish Seljuk power. (Item from Historians' History of the World. London, 1907., pp. 32ff.) In 1092, Marriage of Philip I and Bertrada of Montfort (Anjou).

By 1091AD: The Crusader Roger De Hauteville (1031-1101, eighth son of a notable Crusader father, Tancred, who has no notable forebears in French history) is trying to evict Arabs from Southern Italy, where they had been since the Ninth Century. In 1091AD is completion of Norman conquest of Sicily.

Circa 1090AD: Mechanical clock, driven by water, built in Kaifeng (China's capital city).

1090AD: Islam, Hassan b. Sabba, of Nishapur, organizes a band of Karmathians called The Assassins. (Item from Historians' History of the World, London, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1090 Approx: The Assassins: (From hashishin, a taker of hashish). At the end of the 11th Century, Hasan-i Sabbah founded the Ismali sect. (He followed the Ismali doctrine of the Fatimid Caliphate in Cairo). The Ismali revival in Persia opposed the Seljuk (Turkish) regime. When the Fatimid caliph Mostansir died in 1094, Hasan and Persian Ismalis refused to recognize the new Caliph of Cairo and gave allegiance to his deposed older brother Nizar. (There are complicated dynastic implications here). The Assassins were said to take hashish to induce ecstatic visions (of paradise?) before they murdered their victims.
Hasan and his followers made changes in Ismali doctrines including the murder of the sect's enemies as a religious duty. Hasan from 1090 became the first "Old Man of the Mountain", and seized the castle of Alamut in a close valley near Kazvin. A network of sect strongholds arose all over Persia and Iraq, with network members in cities of the enemy. Seljuk attempts to get the master of the Assassins failed. Early in the Twelfth Century, the Persian Assassins extended activities to Syria, and later the Assassins attacked Crusaders and Turks alike. The greatest Master of the Assassins was Rashid ud-Din Sinan (died 1192), who twice attempted to kill Saladin.
The Assassins of Alamut were finally destroyed by the Mongols and the deadliest of their own enemies, the Mameluke Sultan Bibars (Baibars). By 1256, the Alamut stronghold was destroyed. In modern times, the vestiges of the Assassins sect answers to the Aga Khan. Crusader Conrad of Montferrat was one victim of Assassins. Dante later adopted the term "assassin" to mean any professional, secret murderer.

1090AD: Last (Moslem) Sicilian town surrenders to the Normans (De Hautevilles). (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.)

1090AD: In Byzantine territory, Count Robert I of Flanders fights with the Vangarian (Viking) Guard of the Emperor.

1090AD: In 1090AD, China, a "Cosmic Engine" clock, over thirty feet high, is built by astronomer Su Sung at orders of emperor Ying Zong. An astronomical clock tower. (Source: James/Thorpe.)

1089AD: French Crusade against the Moors in Spain preached by Pope Urban II.

1088AD: Urban II becomes Pope.

1087AD: Publication in England of Domesday Book. Register of national/private assets. In 1087, Death of William De Conteville, the Conqueror.

1086AD: Japan: Shirakawa Tenno begins institution of "Cloistered Emperor" Literature: Waka poetry, diaries, fictional tales of courtly life and loves Sei Shoonagon, arbiter of good taste in Makura-no sooshi "The Pillow Book" Monogatari 'tales' poem tales: Ise Monogatari (Tale of Ise) prose tales: Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and the Shining Princess) Tale of Genji - World of the "Shining Prince", Hikaru Genji courtly ideals and aesthetics miyabi, courtly refinement "rule of taste" mono-no aware, the "ahness", "sadness" of things/life/love; nothing is permanent, all is change - Shinto expression of beauty and awe (aware) plus Buddhist feeling that life is suffering, changing, unstable and impermanent (mujo) arts of poetic exchange, calligraphy, painting, incense, dress, gardening importance of court women as writers, perpetrators of native Yamato language and its literary tradition.
Cadet branches of the imperial family Taira and Minamoto (Heike & Genji).

1086AD: Vikings: Assassination of St Cnut of Denmark in Roskilde cathedral. Before his death he had assembled a great fleet at Limfjord for a foray against England.

1086AD: Mahdiya is captured and burned by the Pisans and the Genoese. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1086AD: In England, production of the Domesday Book, a registration of assets for the new regime of William De Conteville, the Conqueror. In Spain, invasion by the Almoravides at Sagrajas (Zalaca).

1085AD: England, Death of Lady Godiva, who legendarily rode naked through the streets of Coventry to protest excessive taxes. In Denmark, a large invasion of England is planned, but not carried out.

1085AD: Castilians in Spain recapture Toledo from Moslem forces. Later however is a strengthening and revival of Moslem military resolve in Spain. Anti-Moslem adventures in Spain became a kind of sport for Christian knights-in-training, who were already land-hungry and would only be otherwise fighting amongst themselves for scarce resources in a baron-ridden-and-riddled France. The attitudinal bases of what became the Crusades are already laid down, especially amongst the Normans, who only a few generations earlier had been pagan, free-booting Vikings.

1085AD: After further military successes beyond Italy, Robert De Hauteville dies at Cephalonia and his sons quarrel over inheritances, which distracts them from making further incursions on Byzantine territories. So Byzantine attention turned to "the Turkish problem" (and to Malik Shah).

1085AD: Islam, Spain, Capture of Toledo by Alfonso VI of Castile. In 1085, The Count of Mauguio becomes a papal vassal.

1084AD: Foundation of Chartreuse.

1084AD: Antioch falls to the Seljuk Turks.

1082AD: Italy, Venice, Golden Bull of the Byzantine Emperor grants commercial privileges in return for naval aid against the Normans (De Hautevilles).

1081-1085AD: Bohemond De Hauteville invades the Balkan Provinces of the Byzantine Emperor. The De Hautevilles act at times as mercenaries for the Byzantines.

1081AD: Robert De Hauteville and his son Bohemond are in Albania attacking Durazzo, from where an old Roman road runs straight through the Balkans to Constantinople. Venice attacks these Normans in the first formal successful Venetian naval battle, a battle personally led by the Doge. Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius, wrote a report. Later, Bohemond De Hauteville is as willing to take land from Byzantines as from Moslems. (Finlay, History of Greece, p. 64) records that Robert Guiscard sailed in June 1081 from Brindisi with 30,000 men and 150 ships. Corfu surrendered to him. He landed in Epirus without resistance.

1081AD: Venice at Durazzo confronts the military of the De Hautevilles, the Normans of Southern Italy for the first time, an entirely new enemy in the region, with ambitions of influencing Greece, just as the Seljuk Turks are on the move. In 1081, The Count of Provence does homage to the Pope and becomes a papal vassal.

1081AD: Alexius Comnenus/Comnena seizes Constantinople, which his troops loot. He then turns his attention to the Normans in Italy and also the Pechenegs.

1080AD: Armenia, Roupen (Rhupen), a relative of Kagig II, the last Bagatrid Dynasty king of Armenia, founds the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, which becomes allied with Crusaders. A later king of this line is Hayton I. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.)

962-1080AD: Armenia, The Bagatrids of Armenia found a dynasty in Armenia that rules in Kars. (From 962AD, the Bagatrids found a dynasty in Georgia, Russia, which continued until Georgia is absorbed by Russia in 1801.) (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.)

1079AD: On Byzantine orders, the last Armenian prince of the old Bagratid Dynasty (supposedly descended from Biblical figures David and Bathsheba), is killed, after he had murdered the Archbishop of Caesarea. The Byzantines had dispossessed the Armenians. Shortly, one of this prince's relatives, Roupen, rebelled and set himself up in the hills of north-west Cilicia, establishing the Roupenians. Somewhat west, another rival Armenian stronghold was established by Oshin, son of Hethoum (The Hethoumians). When Crusaders settled in the Holy Land, it was almost inevitable they would begin to intermarry with Roupenians or Hethoumians, so embedding themselves in well-established rivalries.

1079AD: The Albanian or Skipetar people appear in Byzantine/Greek history via a rebellion. Rebel Nicephorus Visilakes assumes title of Emperor.

1078AD: Spain, Spanish expedition of Hugh, Duke of Burgundy.

1077AD: Recapture of Jerusalem by Atsiz. Submission to Pope of Henry IV at Canossa. Philip I inherits the Vexin area of France.

1076AD: Islam, Fatimite Egypt is invaded by Turkomans, Kurds and Arabs, under Aksis; routed in second battle by Gemali. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 37, p. 43.) The Seljuk Turns conquer Syria from the Fatimiates and take Jerusalem. Deposition of Gregory VII at Synod of Worms; retaliatory excommunication of Henry IV.

1075AD: Islam, Death of Kaim. His grandson Muktadi succeeds. (Item from Historians' History of the World, London, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1074AD: Pope Gregory VII assembled an army but disagreed with Robert Guiscard De Hauteville and then broke out disagreement about lay investitures.

1074AD: Islam, Suleiman, the Seljuk, conquers Asia Minor and founds kingdom of Rum or Iconium. (Item from Historians' History of the World, London, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1073AD: In Leon-Castile, Spain, a new anti-Moslem expedition is organised by Ebles of Roucy. Pope Gregory VII suggests other princes join him, adding that it is permissible if knights keep lands taken from Moslems. In 1073, Gregory VII becomes Pope.

1072AD: More to come

1071AD: Seljuks defeat Byzantine army at Battle of Manzikert; they capture Jerusalem in 1076.

1071AD: Islam, A Turkish adventurer, Atsiz ibn Abaq, captures Jerusalem after little struggle and soon occupies much of Palestine.

1071AD: Islam, Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem in 1071 under Atsiz, who also takes Ramla; they are "ruder in manners" in the management of holy places than their predecessors. In 1071, a new sultan, Alp Arslan, routs the emperor at Manikert, and in the trouble later, a little-known Norman solder of fortune, Roussel of Bailleul, carved out a principality for himself. (Item from Jean Richard)

1071AD: Crusaders, Parts of the Byzantine Empire now need to be protected by the De Hauteville-led Normans of Southern Italy. Robert De Hauteville captures Bari and Amalfi in 1071, then Salerno in 1076. He plans to conquer Greece and perhaps even the Byzantine Imperial Crown. It may be no accident he plans this as the Seljuk Turks are overrunning or disturbing the maritime provinces of the Byzantine Empire. To meet this crisis, Emperor Alexius I Comnena appeals to Venice for support.

1071AD: Crusaders, Byzantine defeat of Manzikert, capture of Jerusalem by Atsiz.

1071AD: Islam, Moslems take Baghdad by 1055-1071. In 1071, Usurpation of Flanders by Robert of Frisia.

1069AD: Islam, Great famine in Fatimite Egypt, followed by pestilence. The Turk Nasir ad-Daulah conquers caliph, who is only nominal ruler thereafter till death of Nasir in 1072. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.)

1069AD: Revolt at Le Mans.

1068AD: Japan: Gosanjoo Tennoo attempts to control the power of the Fujiwara family.

1068AD: France: Acquisition of the Gatinais by Philip I.

1067AD: Homage of Count of Anjou to the Pope.

1067: England: Year that Normans begin to build the Tower of London.

1066AD: William the Conqueror successfully invades England. Battle of Hastings. The noted Viking Harald Hardrada (Harald Godwinsoon) is killed at Stamford Bridge in September 1066. The date of conquest is given as 6pm, Saturday 14 October 1066 - the Viking Age is "effectively over". In 1066, Viking reinforcements from the Orkneys are used to enlarge the invasion fleet to England of Harold Hardrada.

1066: Horse stirrup enables William to conquer the Saxons at Battle of Hastings.

1066AD: Release of a Website that replicates the 1066 Domesday Book compiled by William the Conqueror of England. From The Millennium Mapping Company. (Reported 1 January 2000)

1066AD: Conquest of England by William of Normandy. His fleet was 700 invasion craft, an army of 10,000 men. Gathered at the mouth of the River Dives, harrassed by contrary winds. William landed at Pevensey Beach, 16km west of Hastings.

1066AD: April, England, Halley's Comet crosses the sky and is viewed ominously as a harmful portent.

1066AD, 5 January, Death of Edward the Confessor, King of England. There has earlier been apparent amity (not well understood) since 1064 between William the Norman (later the Conqueror) and the powerful Earl Harold Godwinsson, whose brother Tostig is Earl of Northumbria, where a rebellion against Tostig breaks out. On hearing of Edward's death, Harald Hardrada in Norway "secretly" prepares an invasion fleet of 200 ships. Tostig offers to help him. In April, England is alarmed by the passing of Halley's comet. In May, Tostig appears off the Isle of Wight with an invasion fleet. By September, the English defenders on land and sea thought the threat had lapsed. An English fleet is damaged by a storm. Then Harald Hardrada arrived from Norway with Tostig and reinforcements from the Scotland, a fleet of 300 ships and 9000 men. Harald aims for the Humber River and York, takes it, but is killed at Stamford Bridge on 20 September. William the Conqueror set sail to invade on 22 September, with 700 ships of various size and 10,00 men, from the River Dives. On 28 September he landed at Pevensey Beach, 16km from Hastings. England's King Harold reached London by 5 October. The Battle of Hastings was won at 6pm by William on Saturday 14 October. Ironically, as Magnus Magnusson has it, Harold Godwinsson, the grandson of a Viking, had staved off the threat of the Viking Harald Hardrada, only to lose to ex-Vikings from Normandy.

C1065AD: After the departure of Fernando I (died 1065), Alfonso VI (died 1109) married to Constance Capet, daughter of Robert Duke of Burgundy, and nearby in time was William Capet, his children notable as Crusaders; Count Burgundy, who married Adelaide de Conteville, sister of William the Conqueror.

1065AD: Muslim Seljuk Turks invade Asia Minor.

1065AD: Earldom in Scotland of Thorfinn the Mighty died 1065. (Thorfinn also the earlier family name of the De Contevilles of Normandy).

1064-1065AD: A large band of 7000 Germans makes a noted pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Pilgrims were becoming increasingly interested in The Holy Relics of Christ's Passion.

1064AD: Up to 7000 Christian pilgrims go to Jerusalem, including four German bishops. (The total figure may be exaggerated.) About 1064, some pilgrims included a count of Barcelona, a Count Luxemburg, Count Flanders, Berenger-Raymond of Barcelona and William IV of Toulouse. (Item from Jean Richard)

1064AD: Capture of Barbastro by the Duke of Aquitaine. Ferdinand I of Castile advances to Coimbra.

1063AD: Pope Alexander II gives a blessing to Knights of Aquitaine to fight in Aragon (Spain) against the Moors. Later, of the leaders of Crusade I, Bohemond had fought in Sicily, and Raymond IV of Toulouse had fought in Spain, so in a sense, Raymond of St. Gilles was involved in "crusades before the Crusades".

1063AD: The King of Aragon, Ramiro I, is murdered by a Moslem as his forces are gathering for a great anti-Moslem offensive. "His death stirred the imagination of Europe." (Runciman, The First Crusade, p. 90) Pope Alexander II began to rally military assistance for Ramiro's plans. French knights began to move south across the Pyrenees for such purposes, which were still alive by 1073.

1063AD: Italy, Beginning of building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

1063AD: Islam, Death of Seljuk Turk Toghril, leaving power to his nephew Alp Arslan. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1063AD: Seizure of Maine by William of Normandy.

1062AD: More to come

1061AD: Commencement of struggle between blacks and Turks in Egypt. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1060AD: Normans fight the Arabs 1060 to 1090 in Italy. In 1063 the Normans had some success against Arabs under a papal banner. In 1060 is beginning of Norman conquest of Moslems in Sicily. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1060AD: Count Conrad of Luxemburg goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, "an aristocrat with a troubled conscience". (Item from Jean Richard)

1060AD: Philip I is King of Franks.

1059AD: More to come

1058AD: Islam, Fatimite caliph publicly recognised as caliph in Baghdad by Buyids. About this time, occurs persecution of Christians in Alexandria. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.)

1057AD: There appear in Southern Italy, the petty-baron, Norman-Viking family the De Hautevilles, led by Tancred. The family decides to oust Moslems from the peninsula, in a kind of crusade before the Crusades that comes to the attention of the Papacy in Rome.

1056AD: Henry IV is King of Germany.

1055AD: Islam, Oppressed by the emir, the caliph calls for aid from the Seljuk Turk, Toghril Beg (Toghrul), who enters Baghdad, overthrows the Buyids, and takes their place. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.) In 1055, Toghril becomes Sultan. The Seljuks are Sunni Moslems.

1054AD: Peace Council at Narbonne. Split between Rome and Constantinople. ("The Emperors of Constantinople were the first sovereigns [including, the Popes] who regarded slavery as a disgrace to mankind and a misfortune to the state in which it existed... Justinian I, in the Sixth Century, proclaimed it to be the glory of the Emperor to accelerate the emancipation of slaves...".)
(Finlay, History of the Greeks, pp. 55-56)

1054AD: Since 1047, the later William the Conqueror of England has had seven years of strife, fending off rebellious barons, fending off external attacks, before he can establish his own authority.

1054AD: Schism between the Western and Eastern Christian churches. In 1054, 300 Christian pilgrims are expelled from Jerusalem by Saracens. (Item from Jean Richard)

1053AD: Italy, Defeat of Papal forces by the Normans at Civitatem, Italy.

1052AD: Ireland, Vikings are made to flee from Dublin. They later return.

1051AD: More to come

1050AD: The Islamic World has the use of geared calendars. (Source: James/Thorpe).

1049AD: Council of Rheims. Hugh I is Abbot of Cluny (he dies 1109AD).

1048AD: Election of Pope Leo IX.

1046AD: Imperial Coronation of Henry III and Agnes, daughter of William V of Aquitaine. Norman conquests in Italy are recognised as valid by Henry III.

1045AD: More to come

1044AD: Appearance of... Chinese recipe for gunpowder. Period known as "The Little Ice Age" begins.

1044AD: Anawrata takes power in Burma; he builds a large empire, strengthens his army, and founds a dynasty of able rulers.

1044AD: Recipe for gunpowder published.

1040AD: Chinese army has 1.3 million men.

1044AD: Touraine becomes held by Count of Anjou.

1043AD: More to come

1042AD: More to come

1041AD: More to come

1040AD: Macbeth kills King Duncan and takes Scottish throne.

1040AD: The sons of Tancred De Hauteville, a petty Norman baron from Normandy, France, seize the town of Melfi in the Apulian Hills, Italy, to found a principality. The Byzantine authorities paid little attention to this, but the western Emperor, Henry III, supports the De Hautevilles as he is eager to gain influence in the area. By 1052AD, the De Hautevilles have won the Lombard areas, forcing the Byzantines to the Apulian coast and the tip of Calabria, influencing the western Italian cities and striking northward to Rome. A nervous Pope organised an attack on the Normans, and was beaten. The De Hautevilles, had arrived, with the eldest Robert Guiscard, ("The Crafty, The Weasel") recognised in 1059 as Duke of Apulia and Calabria. Robert's younger brother Roger then begins to oust the Arabs from Sicily. In general, the De Hautevilles, supremos of the Normans in Southern Italy, seem to have had a surprisingly good grasp of using maritime power. Italian ships begin to do better as trade transports, and there also arises ecclesiastical rivalry between Rome and Constantinople. Meantime, Turkish peoples are becoming restive, and expansive.

1039AD: An aristocrat with a troubled conscience, who has killed an archbishop, Count Thierry III of Holland, goes on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (Item from Jean Richard)

1038AD: Hungary: The great task of implementing the change to Christianity is carried out by (Saint) Stephen I (997-1038) who defeats the forces of the rebellious tribal aristocracy, and crowned with a crown received from the Pope, and replacing the ancient tribal structure with the newly founded Hungarian State. The counties became the organizational units of the state and are ruled by governors (comes) appointed by the king.

1038AD: Islam, Mohammedans regain Edessa. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1038AD: Turkish invasion: The Ghuzz are a nomadic tribe from the steppe of the Aral Sea, and recent converts to Islam. Recently, a condittiere led by the Turk, Mahmud of Ghazna, help destroy the Samanid Empire. The Ghuzz' dominant tribe are the Seljuks, who in 1038 settle in Khorassan and Khorezm. Seljuks later raid as far as Armenia. (Item from Jean Richard)

1039AD: Henry III becomes King of Germany.

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At a time when Kiev in Russia now is subject to Viking influences, Anna of Kiev (1036-1076AD) marries Henry I Capet (1031-1108), King of France.

1035AD: Fulk Count of Anjou, (Fulk Nerra), makes a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem. (Item from Jean Richard) Fulk makes another pilgrimage in 1039. In 1035, due to death of his father, William the Bastard, later William the Conqueror of England, inherits the Duchy of Normandy. In time he later had to fend off attacks on his life due to his claims to inheritance

1035AD: Appears in France the family Lusignan, destined to provide notable Crusaders in the Holy Land and also to do well in Norman England and with descendants in England. Also about 1035AD, (See Runciman on The First Crusade), Duke Richard III of Normandy leads a large pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

1035AD: Vikings, Death of King Knut (Canute) of England, Emperor of England and Denmark, Norway. He is buried at Winchester. His empire begins to fall apart. By 1042, England is ruled by Edward the Confessor.

1034AD: More to come

1033AD: More to come

1032AD: More to come

From 1031AD: Islam, in Moorish Spain, the Caliphate is so disorganised that independent states or emirates arise. The fall of the Omayyad dynasty breaks the last link of unity, and emirates arise at Saragossa, Toledo, Valencia, Badajoz, Cordova, Seville and Granada. Christian states seized opportunities to reconquer Spain, aided by the Spanish hero, El Cid. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1031AD: Islam, Death of Kadir, and his son Kaim succeeds.

1031AD: Henry I becomes King of Franks. Council of Limoges.

1030AD: Vikings, Death of Olaf Haraldsson, who becomes a saint after his death in battle at Stiklestad. St. Olaf's half-brother is the wealthy Harald Hardrada, who has benefited from his service as captain of the Viking Varangian Guard at Constantinople.

1030AD: Islam, Mohammedan victory of Byzantines at Azaz. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

By 1030AD: Movable wooden characters used for printing in China.

1029AD: More to come

1028AD: Vikings, King Cnut of Denmark drives King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway from his throne, and then is King of England, Denmark and Norway when he dies in 1035AD.

1027AD: Conrad II becomes Emperor.

1026-1027AD: About 700 Christian pilgrims visit Jerusalem. One of them is Richard, Abbot of St Vannes of Verdun. (Item from Jean Richard)

1025AD: Islam, Spain, Muhammed is driven from Cordova. Yahya b. Ali is in power, but slain at Seville. Hisham III, brother of Mortada, is raised to the throne. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.) The caliphate is so disorganised that Hisham abdicates the empty title in 1031AD.

1024AD: Conrad II becomes King of Germany.

1023AD: Aleppo is taken by Salih ben Mardas, and Ramla is taken by Hassan of the tribe of Tai. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 46.) In Spain, Mortada falls in battle, and Abd ar-Rahman V, brother of Muhammed Ali-Mahdi, succeeds, shortly to be murdered. Muhammed Ben Abd ar-Rahman succeeds.

1023AD: Meeting between Robert the Pious and Henry II.

1022AD: Christian heretical uprising at Orleans, France.

1020AD: Islam: Firdusi, the Persian Homer flourishes. Power of the Seljuk Turks increases. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907., pp. 32ff.)

1020AD: Brian Boru in Ireland defeats the Vikings at Clontarf in Ireland, there follows a Celtic revival.

1019AD: Islam: Moslem conquest of Punjab in India.

1019AD: Vikings: Denmark, King Harald dies and Cnut returns from England to Denmark to claim the throne of his brother.

1018AD: Pope Benedict VII makes decrees against clerical marriage and concubinage.

1014-1020AD: The King of Navarre, Sancho III The Great, begins to plan a counter-attack against Moslem power in Spain. A league of Christian princes is coordinated. Nobles of Leon and Castile are interested, as is Sancho-William, Duke of Gascony. In 1018, when Moslems threatened Countess Erselinde of Barcelona, Roger of Tosni, from Normandy, went to her assistance. The anti-Moslem tendency here melded with Cluniac influences. Raymond-Berengar I of Barcelona begins to try to push the Moors southward.

1017AD: Islam, Spain, Revolt of Khairan, who sets up Abd ar-Rahman (IV) Mortada, great-grandson of Abd ar-Rahman as anti-caliph, Murder of Ali, who is succeeded by his brother Kasim. Fierce civil war results. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1017: The Maharajah of Palembang on Sumatra writes to China's Song emperor describing himself as "the king of the ocean lands". That is, the Straits of Malacca and nearby areas.

1016AD-1090AD: In Southern Italy, loose groups of Normans from France operate in bands, sometimes as banditti, with a mind to oust Moslems settlers from the peninsula. Finally there are Norman raids on Byzantine territory from Italy. In Spain, overthrow of Suleiman by the Slavonic element headed by Khairan and Ali of Hammud. Ali is made Caliph.

1016AD: Vikings, Norman pilgrims from France, returning from Jerusalem, aid the Prince of Salerno in Italy and the Duke of Apulia against the Saracens. (As one view, see above, also that the movements of the Vikings were "the last great folk movement of Europe".)

1016AD: Italy, The Pisans of Italy begin to try to conquer the Moors of Sardinia at behest of Pope Benedict VIII.

1015AD: Vikings, Cnut sails again for England with 200 ships and a large army, to be unsuccessfully resisted by son of Aethelred, Edmund Ironside who died on 30 November 1016, leaving Cnut king of England. The West Saxons are forced into submission.

1014AD: Hungary: In 1014, Stephen is aided by Byzantine Emperor Basil II in his war against Bulgaria, and later repels German and Pecheneg invasions. Latin becomes the court language, and Hungarian almost vanishes from official records. Stephen died in 1038, and was canonised in 1073.

1014AD: Henry II is Emperor.

1014AD: Vikings, Vikings from the Orkneys are fighting at Clontarf in Ireland. In Norway, King Olaf is Christianizing Norway, with great violence. Those resisting might be killed on the spot, maimed or mutilated, or blinded. Or driven from homes with land confiscated, families taken hostage. In Ireland on 23 April, 1014 is Battle of Clontarf, in which men's motives are swirling and difficult to discern; Vikings are involved. Brian Boru, his son and grandson are killed.

1013AD: Vikings, Danish King Svein Forkbeard and his son Knut (Canute) sail with a large invasion fleet for England. Svein cannot take London, but he does take Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria. Svein Forkbeard is effectively king of England, as Aethelred and family flee to Normandy, but Svein dies on 3 February 1014. Cnut returns to Denmark.

1013AD: Islam, First Islamic treatise on surgery, by Al-Zahwari. In Islamic Spain, Suleiman takes Cordova and Hisham disappears, fate still unknown.

1012AD: More to come

1011AD: Vikings, The Vikings with aid from Swedish mercenaries take Canterbury and ransomed the archbishop Aelfheah. Despite a large payment, the Vikings had him killed during a drunken orgy. Some 45 Danish ships under Thorkel the Tall thought this was too much and go to the English side.

1011AD: Japan: TALE OF GENJI by Lady Murasaki, the world's first novel, description of a court life (in brilliant detail and psychological subtlety), a novel but also a story to be read aloud from hand scrolls and to be illustrated Sensitivity - aesthetic feelings Yamato-e - Chinese influence (bold use of color) 11c - Buddhist paradise on earth, Phoenix Hall of the Byoodooin Temple.

1010AD: Vikings: Another would-be king of Norway, Olaf Haraldsson, Olaf the Stout, later St. Olaf, attacks London and pulls down London Bridge. Hence the nursery rhyme, "London Bridge is falling down".

1010AD: Islam: Hakim destroys Christian Churches in Syria. Founds sect of Druses. He ends murdered by his sister, in regard of her son's interests, and she becomes regent for Hakim's son, Dhahir. Dahir makes treaty with Byzantine emperor Romanus Argyrus, permitting him to rebuild church in Jerusalem. From Dahir's reign dates decline of Fatimite power in Syria. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, p. 43.) In Islamic Spain in 1010, Defeat of Muhammed, the Slavs and Berbers desert him. Hisham recovers the throne. Murder of Muhammed.

1009AD: Appearance of... oldest complete Hebrew scripture - Leningrad ms.

1009AD: Islam: Spain, Muhammed, cousin of Hisham, revolts. Sanchol is put to death. Muhammed Al-Mahdi imprisons Hisham and assumes caliphate. Revolt of the Berbers, who occupy Cordova. Hisham abdicates in favour of Suleiman, a relative. Muhammed escapes to Toledo, but recovers Cordova with the help of the Catalonians. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1009AD: Jerusalem: Holy Sepulchre destroyed by Al Hakim. Christians capture Cordova in Spain from the Moors.

1009AD: Greenland: Viking colonists try to colonize inland of Newfoundland, with Thorfinn Karlsefni, (party includes daughter of Eric the Red, Freydis), but are beaten off by Indians.
J. H. Parry, (Consultant), Reader's Digest Discovery: The World's Great Explorers: Their Triumphs and Tragedies. Sydney, Reader's Digest, 1978.

1008AD: Islam: Spain, Death of Abul-Malik. His brother Abd ar-Rahman (Sanchol) succeeds to chief ministry, and he conducts a campaign in Leon. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

1007AD: Vikings, The Danes again raise the price of danegeld in England. Fierce raids in 1006-1007.

1004AD: Vikings, Svein is probably behind the Vikings who burn Norwich and Thetford in England.

1003AD-1013: Danes under King Sweyn I (Forkbeard), and his son Canute-Knut , conquer England.

1003AD: Antibes is sacked from pirates from Africa, who attack Pisa in Italy in 1005 and 1016, and attacked Narbonne, north of Barcelona, in 1020.

1002-1005AD: Conquest of Burgundy by Robert (The Pious) of France.

1002AD: Henry II is King of Germany.

1002AD: Spain: Fracture of Caliphate of Cordoba into "a score of petty kingdoms".

1002AD: Islam: Spain, Death of Al-Mansur. His brother Abdul-Malik succeeds to his office of hajib. (Item from Historians' History of the World, 1907, Vol. 8, pp. 38ff.)

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1002AD: Vikings: Goaded beyond endurance by Danes/Vikings and by paying danegeld, English King Aethelred who has married Emma De Conteville , sister of Duke of Normandy, orders a massacre of Danes in November, on St Brice's Day, a Saturday, when Danes customarily bathed. Some women had their breasts cut off, others were buried alive in the ground. Children were dashed to pieces against posts and stones. King Svein Forkbeard suspects that his own sister had been victim of massacre and plans more attacks.

1002AD: From France, Count Fulk Nerra, Fulk Anjou "The Terrible", known for his crimes on violence as he expanded his territory, makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to expiate his sins. He later made two more pilgrimages.

Vikings and a Massacre: Ireland and Dublin, Discovery in Kilkenny, Southern Ireland, of Viking artefacts circa 1000AD, of coins and jewellery, particularly, button made of fine-woven silver wire. Artefacts found at site of a massacre and to be displayed in Dublin. (As reported in Australia on 15 January 2000)

1000AD: Vikings raid England for tribute. Ravaging areas. Families might sell themselves into slavery, or be sold into slavery. Some English views were that such raids were the outcome of predictions in the Book of Revelation, or the result of the wrath of God. The end of the world might be nigh. See SBS documentary screened from 28 October, 2000. Some views were that the world would end anyway 1000 years after either the birth or death of Jesus.

1000AD: Kiev is now the Viking capital of Russia.

Circa 10000AD: Cambodia: Angkor Thom becomes the paramount Khmer capital in Cambodia, Burma is united circa 1050AD with the Kingdom of Pagan, and Buddhism supersedes Hinduism.

1000AD?: Surprisingly, the religious rattlesnake handlers of the Appalachian Mountains in the US have not been alone. In Southern Italy is held an annual snake festival in the village of Cocullo, in the mountainous Abruzzi region. The villagers display live snakes up to two-metres long, and drape them over a statue of their patron saint, Saint Dominic. Then the snake-draped statue is carried through the town. This festival is held each first Thursday in May. Saint Dominic is said to have rid the area of venomous snakes 1000 years ago. The snakes are actually a local harmless and protected variety, cervona. Till last century the snakes were later killed/beaten to death; now they are released back to the countryside. The festival started as a pagan ritual but was adopted by the Church and given to the St. Dominic day. (Reported in Australia 3 March 2001).

From 1000AD: Turkey transforms Islamic Society and carries Islam into India and Europe.

1000+AD: Maori Occupation of New Zealand. Maoris occupy NZ ~1000+ years ago from somewhere in Polynesia (although they originated somewhere further west (India?, Indonesia?). Canoes also carried rats, dogs, kumera and other food plants - used as evidence to support idea that canoes were on a colonising mission (and not just lost). Did they bring pigs with them? Either pigs weren't loaded, or didn't survive the journey. Examination of skeletons, teeth and occupation sites suggests diet of early Maoris was good; plenty of seal, kumera and moa. Most occupation in North Island (South Island too cold, but used as a source of greenstone). Hunting killed off moa and northern seals.

Venice, 1000AD: Venice shares the slave trade with the rather piratical Dalmations, and the Narentans.

From 1000AD: The Rise of Venice, maritime republic, built on water, commerce, and freedom. From about 550AD, the Venetians are "a separate people", mainly boatmen and bargemen, working on lagoons, rivers and canals of the mainland of northern Italy. From about 10000AD they became sea-going, trading and fighting in various parts of the Mediterranean, and sailing from the English Channel to the rivers of South Russia. With assistance to the Crusading Movement, Venice benefited enormously, more so once Constantinople was regained. While other notable Italian city-states fell victim to royal jealousy, and/or family jealousies, Venice remained a free republic, self-governing, led by The Doge.

By 1000AD: It is now thought that Pacific Islands were fully colonised/settled. A world-wide population guesstimate of 1000AD is 36 million people in Europe, 66 million in China and 79 million on the Indian subcontinent.

C1000AD: Japan: Liza Dalby, Tale of Murasaki. Random House Australia, 2000. (A women's life in provincial Japan and at the Imperial Court 1000 years ago)

1000AD: The Middle Ages: Which Middle Ages do you mean? Those of the period C5th (Fall of the Roman Empire) to 999AD, also called The Dark Ages, a period of indigence, hunger and insecurity (as seen by Umberto Eco) or those from 1000AD to the Fifteenth Century?

1000AD: Leif Ericsson's Norse/Viking fleet reaches North America.

C1000AD: China develops device to throw projectiles, huo-pa'o.

1000AD: For reference on cities: Lewis Mumford in The City in History. 1961.
Mumford died in 1990 and believed that modern cities (worth living in) had been created by the civilising of technology in the name of society.
Mumford defined a city as, "a structure specially equipped to store and transmit the goods of civilisation, sufficiently condensed to afford the maximum amount of facilities in a minimum of space, but also capable of structural enlargement to enable it to find a place for the changing needs and the more complex forms of a growing society and its cumulative social heritage".
1000AD: Few cities have populations nearing one million, but see three cities in south-eastern coast of China, Hangzhou, Chenzhou and Quangzhou near three major rivers, Yangtze, Yellow and Pearl rivers.

New urban communities began from 1000AD: in Northern Europe, this coincided with Christianization and building in stone, not wood. See career of De Contevilles / William the Conqueror, etc. It was unusual for a mediaeval town to extend more than a kilometre from its centre.

Died circa 1000AD: Explorer Thorvald Ericsson. Vikings had sailed west and settled Newfoundland, including Thorvald Ericsson, brother of Lief.

C1000AD: Toothbrushes with bristles are used in China.

Between 968AD-1000AD: Vikings in Spain and Portugal find Moors fierce enemies, as the Moors use "Greek fire" (naptha) against them, via catapults from small ships. Half-naked Viking oarsmen have little means of fending off Greek fire, and go home beaten.

In Portugal, Ramiro III Leon (ruling 968-985), King Castile, was accepted by the Barons as King in the time of the power of the Counts of Castile. About the time he succeeded to his throne, the Vikings led by Gundered in 968 appeared in Galicia. (He succeeded at age 5 after his father Sancho Abarca retained his throne with the aid of Moslems.) (Livermore, p. 37). Sancho's wife, Ramiro's mother was Urraca, of the influential line of the Pamplonas of Spain. Urraca (Pamplona) here is a grand-daughter of Queen Toda of Navarre. Then came Alfonso V "The Noble", died 1027, who tried to expand central Portugal. Further influence of Pamplonas. Lines crossed, and Alfonso V married daughter, Sancia/Sancha, heiress of Leon, who married to Ferdinand (died 1065), Fernando I, of the Pamplona line.

1000AD: Approx, Before this time, there is almost "no history" for Mesoamerica (Mexico). (Date from Hancock/Faiia).

By 1000AD: The Byzantine Emperors, (Comnena/Comnenus) are coping badly with Arabs and Turks. From Venice, Doge Pietro I Orseolo travels on his triumphal Dalmation cruise.

910AD: Founding of Monastery of Cluny (France).

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Now return to the Lost Worlds Index
For more, see a useful timeline website at: http://mirrorh.com/timeline.html/

Stop press for late entries

1262++: Hormuz area of the Persian Gulf is ruled by the Ilkhans of Persia.

1284: Ceylon: A fleet of Khublai Khan visits Ceylon. The islanders fear the Mongols have come to steal the venerated sacred tooth of Buddha. (Levathes, When China Ruled The Seas)

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