7.1: Chronology
This chronology cover over 500 years of history. You do not need to memorize it. Rather, the list is provided for references purposes.
962 CE Otto I crowned Holy Roman Emperor
987 CE Hugh Capet elected king of France
c. 1000 – 1100 CE Emergence of Western European feudalism
1031 CE Fall of the Cordoba Caliphate
1049 CE Pope Leo IX begins papal efforts at Church reform
1054 CE Schism between the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople
1066 CE Norman Conquest of England
1071 CE Battle of Manzikert annihilates Byzantine field army
1077 CE Henry IV repents to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa
1085 CE Fall of Muslim Toledo to the Christian kingdom of Leon-Castile
1088 – 1231 CE Foundation of Universities of Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge
1091 CE Norman conquest of Muslim Sicily complete
1095 CE Council of Clermont, calling of the First Crusade
1099 CE Fall of Jerusalem to Christian Crusaders, the establishment of Crusader States
1100 – 1135 CE King Henry I rules England
1118 – 1143 CE Emperor John II rules the Byzantine Empire
1122 CE Concordat of Worms
1125 – 1152 CE Raymond is archbishop of Toledo, begins sponsoring the translation of Muslim and Greek philosophy from Arabic into Latin
1143 – 1180 CE Emperor Manuel Komnenos rules the Byzantine Empire
1154 – 1189 CE King Henry II rules England
1176 CE Frederick Barbarossa defeated by Lombard League at the Battle of Legnano; Manuel Komnenos defeated by Saljuq Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon
1187 CE Kingdom of Jerusalem defeated by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin; fall of Jerusalem; Pope Gregory VIII issues Audita tremendi, calling the Third Crusade
1189 – 1192 CE The Third Crusade, a rump (remnant of a larger government) the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem is re-established, but Jerusalem remains in Muslim hands
1203 – 1226 CE France’s Capetian kings extend the control of lands directly ruled by the crown
1204 CE Crusaders sack Constantinople, break-up of the Byzantine Empire
1212 CE Almohad Caliphate defeated by Spanish Christian kingdoms at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
1215 CE Magna Carta
1215 – 1250 CE Frederick II is Holy Roman Emperor
1224 – 1274 CE Life of St. Thomas Aquinas
1229 CE A treaty between Frederick II and Egyptian sultan al-Kamil returns Jerusalem to Christian rule
1240 CE Mongol Conquest of Kievan Rus
1241 CE Mongol invasion of Hungary
1244 CE Jerusalem falls to Ayyubid Egypt
1248 – 1254 CE The Seventh Crusade; France’s King Louis IX defeated by Egypt; Egyptian Mamluk coup d’état
1250 – 1273 CE There is no Holy Roman Emperor
1261 CE Restoration of the Byzantine Empire
1291 CE Last Crusader territory in the Levant falls to Mamluk Egypt
c. 1300 CE Genoese sailors begin exploring the Atlantic Ocean
early 1300s CE Genoese sailors are visiting the Canary Islands
1309 CE Beginning of Avignon papacy
1314 – 1326 CE Civil war in the Holy Roman Empire
1315 – 1322 CE The Great Famine
1324 CE Mansa Musa’s hajj
1331 CE Nearly all Byzantine territory in Asia Minor has fallen to the Ottoman Turks
1337 CE The Hundred Years’ War begins
c. 1350 CE Beginning of Italian Renaissance and Humanism
1347 – 1351 CE The Black Death, nearly a third of Europe’s population dies
1356 CE The Holy Roman Empire becomes an elected monarchy
1358 CE French peasant revolt
1378 CE Beginning of Great Schism
1385 CE Lithuania united with Poland, Lithuanian monarch converts to Christianity
1396 CE Ottoman Turks conquer Bulgaria
1397 CE Union of Kalmar unites Sweden, Denmark, and Norway under a single crown
c. 1400 – 1500 CE Renaissance Humanism spreads throughout Europe
1404 CE Castilian effort to conquer the Canaries begins
1415 – 1417 CE Council of Constance resolves the Great Schism
1440 CE Lorenzo Valla shows the Donation of Constantine to be a forgery
mid 1400s CE Iberians are settling the Azores, a plantation economy worked by African slaves begins to flourish in the Canaries and Azores
1453 CE Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, final fall of the Byzantine Empire; End of Hundred Years’ War and English attempts to conquer France
1454 CE Treaty of Lodi brings nearly a half-century of peace to Italy
1455 – 1485 CE Wars of the Roses in England
1459 CE Final Ottoman conquest of Serbia
1479 CE Marriage of Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon creates a united Spanish monarchy
1492 CE King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella complete the Reconquista with the conquest of Granada; Christopher Columbus, sailing for the Spanish crown, makes landfall in the Western Hemisphere
1494 CE France invades Italy