PEOPLE OF ACTION
THE MIDDLE AGES
(450 to 1400 AD)
CONTENTS
(The dates given below indicate the
time frame
of the rule or active influence of these individuals)
 The
Germanic Migrations and Tribal Kingdoms
(Late 300s
to Mid 500s)
 The
Church Survives the Fall of the Roman
Empire in the West (450 to 600)
 The
Roman/Byzantine Empire Lives on in the
East (450 to 640)
 The
Arab-Muslim Empire Conquers the East –
and Threatens the West (630
to 800)
 The
Byzantine Empire Fights for Its Life in the
East (640 to 1050)
 Pre-Carolingian
Italy (600 to 800)
 Visigothic
Spain
 Saxon
England Emerges (500 to 1066)
 The
Carolingian Revival (800 to 936)
 The
Slavic, Hungarian and Nordic Migrations
(800 to 1050)
Imperial/Ecclesiastical
Revival in Germany and
Italy (936 to 1250)
The
French Monarchy (987 to 1400)
The
Rise of the English (Norman) Monarchy
(1066 to 1400)
Central
Europe and Italy (1250 to 1400)
Eastern
Europe (1150 to 1400)
The
Crusades and the Crusader Kingdoms (1095
to 1291)
Byzantium
Struggles for Its Independence (1050
to 1453)
Rise
of the Ottoman Turks (1300 to 1400)
The Middle Ages: A Full History
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THE
GERMANIC MIGRATIONS AND TRIBAL KINGDOMS
(Late
300s to Mid 500s) |
Alaric (394-410)
c. 370-410. Alaric was a Visigothic
chieftain principally interested in becoming recognized within the Roman
Empire as a military "protector" over the imperial household. He
was rebuffed in his effort to do this through a normal rise up the ranks
of the military – and thus Alaric took to conquering. Recognition,
not plunder, seemed consistently to remain his aim in life.
His main political adersary was Stillicho – who
however sometimes worked in league with Alaric when it seemed profitable
to do so. The dramatic highpoint in Alaric's maneuverings was his
entry at the head of his Visigothic army into Rome itself in 410.
Though his army was quite restrained in its treatment of Rome, this was
a major humiliation for this grand city.
In the end all of Alaric's maneuverings
merely pointed out the glaring weaknesses of the Roman Empire, especially
in the West. This set up conditions for the final collapse of the
Western Imperium.
Gaiseric (Genseric)
(428-477)
c. 390-477. In around 428 or 429,
Gaiseric led approximately 80,000 Vandals from Spain to Carthage in North
Africa where he ravaged Roman power there and established a Vandal kingdom
with Carthage as his capital. From here he crossed the Mediterranean
in 455 to attack and plunder Rome. He also attacked other Roman positions
around the Mediterranean (Egypt, Thrace and Asia Minor) – and brought Sicily,
Sardinia and Corsica under his direct rule.
 Attila
(433-453)
406?-453. Attila was born near
Budapest in Central Europe to the royal family of Huns. In 433 he
became king of the Huns and began the process of turning his tribesmen
into a powerful fighting instrument. With his new army he brought
the German tribes (Ostrogoths) around the Huns under their sway.
Then he turned his ambitions to the
Roman Empire itself. Claiming to defend the honor of Honoria, granddaughter
of the Eastern Emperor Theodosius II, he pressed her cause all the way
up to the gates of Constantinople.
The he turned westward in 451 with
his huge Hunnic-Germanic army against the Emperor of the West, Valentinian
III – again claiming to defend Honoria's honor. He ravaged Gaul and
was about to lay waste to Orleans along the Loire River when a huge coalition
of Romans, Visigoths, Franks and Alemani gathered to fend off Attila at
the Battle of Chalons. The devastation was vast on all sides of the
conflict. Theodoric, king of the Visigoths, was killed. But
Attila was also forced to retreat back behind the Rhine.
In 453 Attila invaded Italy and destroyed
city after city in the north of Italy – before Pope Leo I convinced him
to return to his own lands across the Alps. Before the waiting world
could see what he would do next, he died suddenly at the feast celebratiung
his marriage to Ildico.
Hengest and Horsa
(mid-400s)
In 449 the Saxon leaders Hengest and
Horsa – brought originally to Britain to help protect Britain from the Picts
and Scots who were invading Celtic Britain from the north – discovered how
defenseless Roman-Celtic Britain was. Thus they began bringing
their own German tribesmen over from the continent to take possession of
the Eastern lands. Thus Anglo-Saxon England was born.
Childeric (457-481)
437-481. Led the Salian Franks
into the Roman lands of northern Gaul assigned to him as a Roman
foederatus.
In 463 he joined forces with the Romans in fighting off first the Visigoths
and then the Saxons along the Loire river valley. The Saxon chief
agreed to cooperate with Clovis and the Romans, even joining with them
in fighting off the invading Alamanni.
Much of the rest of his life is known
to us through fantastic legend--and thus hard to verify.
Odoacer (476-493)
434-493. Born along the Danube
River among the Scyrri tribesmen who had just invaded the area a few years
earlier. He entered service in the Roman army in around his thirtieth
year and rose quickly within its ranks.
In 475 the Western Emperor Nepos
was driven from his throne and a Roman youth, Romulus, was placed on the
imperial throne in his place. The following year Odoacer led a group
of disgruntled mercenary troops to simply set the imperial fiction aside.
Odoacer was proclaimed king (not emperor) and, through the army, held a
tight grip over Italy until his death in 493.
Nepo appealed to the Eastern Emperor
Zeno to restore him to the imperial throne. But there was initially
no enthusiasm from Zeno in this matter – or from the Roman Senate
which asked Zeno to recognize Odoacer as a patrician entrusted with care
of the "diocese" of Italy. But eventually Odoacer's power grew to
the point that it embarassed Zeno, who then decided to deflect the growing
power of the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric, by directing him into action
against Odoacer. In 488 Theodoric invaded Italy and defeated Odoacer
in a short series of battles. Odoacer took refuge in Ravenna where
he remained impregnible – but also hungry. When disease broke out
among the besieging Goths, a peace (493) was declared between Odoacer and
Theodoric. But Theodoric personally murdered Odoacer at a suposedly
friendly banquet the following month.
The net historical effect of Odoacer
was to end for all times the fading tradition of Roman rule in Italy and
the West.
Theodoric (471-526)
454-526. He was born in Pannonia
(today's Western Hungary), son of Theudemir, one of the kings of the Ostrogoths
(East Goths). He was sent as a Gothic "guarantee" (hostage) of peace
to the Byzantine court in Constantinople where he lived for ten years.
Upon his return to Pannonia, he began the conquest of neighboring kings
including Macedonia. This gained him recognizition as a feuderati,
titled
holder of Roman territory in the Balkans to which his Ostrogothic kinsmen
were entitled to settle.
This Roman privilege was intended
to pacify the barbaric tribesmen, even making them allies of the Roman
imperium. But Theodoric pereferred instead to use his power to consolidate
his people's hold over his neighbors. He also attacked Roman lands
at will – though not with any definitive success.
In 488 the emperor Zeno decided to
redirect Theodoric's energies against the German king Odoacer in Italy--whom
he eventually destroyed through treachery (see above).
Odoacer's defeat meant Ostrogothic
dominion over Italy. This proved to be a time of peace and stability
for Italy – the first in a long time. Bureaucratic corruption, brigandage
and other social diseases were brought under control. The Italian
economy began to revive and urban life underwent restoration. Indeed,
Italy became a food exporter under the stimulus of such peace.
But toward the end of his reign some
unwise political or diplomatic decisions began to undermine his legacy.
As an Arian Christian he had generally been tolerant, even supportive,
of the Catholic Christianity of the Italians. Yet when the Eastern
Emperor Justinian began to take action to suppress Arian Christianity in
Byzantine lands, Theodoric began to be cruelly reactive to the Catholic
Church in his own Italian lands. Unfortunately he is also remembered
for his execution in his last years of the philosopher Boethius.
Clovis (Chlodwig)
(481-511)
465-511. In 481 Clovis, son of
Childeric, received rule over his father's lands. In 486 he defeated
a Roman army under Syagrius at Soissons, thus establishing unquestioned
Frankish ascendancy over northern Gaul. The Catholic archbishopof
Reims, Remigius, was quick to recognize Clovis as a possible solution to
the anarchy that ruled over the Gallo-Roman world. Clovis,
in turn, (with encouragement of his Burgundian princess wife, Clotilda)
having just defeated the Alemanni, cooperated with the Roman church by
converting and being baptized into Catholic Christianity in 496.
He went on to conquer other lands
in Gaul: Burgundy in Southeastern France in 500 and Aquitaine in
Southwestern France in 507 (taking this huge region from the Arian Visigoths
under the weak Alaric II). Meanwhile he consolidated his hold over
the Arian Frankish chieftains in his homeland of Northern France by a simple
process of elimination by murder or whatever else was felt to be expedient.
The church looked on in approval of its "deliverer."
In 511 the Byzantine Emperor appointed
Clovis to preside over the Christian Council of Orleans--adding further
legitimacy to his rule. With this the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish
kings was established – to rule Frankish northern Europe until the dynasty
was put aside by the Carolingians in 751.
However at his death in that same
year his lands were divided among his sons into four smaller kingdoms:
Orleans (Chlodomer), Paris (Childebert), Soissons (Chlotar) and Metz (Theuderic).
Alaric II (484-507)
A Visigothic chieftan who brought his
people by the thousands (200,000?) from southern France into Spain in 497.
But he was Aryan Christian and kept his people at a distance as lords over
the Catholic Hispano-Romans. In 507 he was defeated by a coalition
of Clovis, King of the Franks, and Gundobad, King of the Burgundians.
He lost Aquitaine, which left his Visigothic holdings entirely within Spain.
Alboin (560-572)
Lombard chieftan. |
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THE
CHURCH SURVIVES THE COLLAPSE OFTHE
ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST
(450
to 600) |
Pope Leo I ("the
Great") (440-461)
c. 390-461. Pope, 440-461.
In the Roman West, under Leo I, the Roman bishops ("popes") became predominant.
The other bishops, especially the North African bishops, simply disappeared
from view as the German hordes collapsed their power bases. (In the East,
the patriarchs in Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria vied with each
other for the remaining authority.
 Benedict
of Nursia (480-547)
In 529 Benedict established his Benedictine
"Rule" within the monasteries under his supervision – which proved successful
and popular and widely copied among the abbeys. This served to give order,
power and wealth to the monastic movement. Indeed, over time, these monasteries
themselves grew very rich.
Pope Gregory I
("the Great") (590-604)
540-604. Pope, 590-604.
Boniface (Winfrid)
(ca. 680-754)
English missionary to Germany |
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THE
ROMAN / BYZANTINE EMPIRE
LIVES ON IN THE EAST
(450
to 650) |
Marcian (450-457)
Eastern Roman Emperor, 450-457.
Leo I (457-474)
Zeno (474-491)
Eastern Roman Emperor, 474-491.
Originally a semi-barbaric Isaurian
chieftain named "Tarasicodissa," he married the imperial princess, Ariadne,
daughter of Leo I. Through this marriage he eventually became elevated
to the position of Eastern Roman Emperor.
It was he that in 488 convinced the
Ostrogothic leader Theodoric not to invade Eastern Roman Empire – but to
invade Italy and "liberate" it from its German chieftan Odoacer, who had
deposed the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus and who had taken over
as direct ruler of Italy.
This effectively spared the Eastern
Roman Empire from the German overlordship that was collapsing Roman society
and culture in the West. But it looked as if it were confirming the
shift of imperial power to the Isaurian tribes--in parallel with the power
shift to the barbarians in the West.
Anastasius I (491-518)
Anastatius was a Roman civil servant
who was elevated to Emperorship in 491. Not only was imperial rule
returned to Roman hands – unlike the developments in the West where various
barbarian tribes had taken over Roman rule completely--but the Isaurians,
the primary barbaric challenge to Roman rule in the East, were defeated
by Anastasius in 498. Indeed, so complete was the Roman victory over
the Isaurians, that the Romans had many of the Isaurians resettled in Thrace
as a security measure.
However Anastasius was not able to
bring religious unity within his Eastern Roman domains. The split
between the Orthodox and Monophysite positions on the human/divine nature
of Jesus Christ deeply divided Eastern Christian society. Though
Anastasius had pledged to support the Orthodox position in his accession
to power, he eventually moved into the Monophysite religious camp.
Also, the Eastern Empire was constantly
threatened from the East by the Zoroastrian Persians – who wanted to regain
Armenia and other former Persian areas that had converted to Christianity
and had thus come under the Roman imperium.
Nonetheless, the governance of Anastasius
coincided with a period of economic growth – not only for the imperial government
but for Eastern Roman society as a whole. These were relatively peaceful
and prosperous times in the East – quite in contrast to the poverty and
chaos that had settled over the former Roman West.
Justin I (518-527)
During most of Justin's reign, real
power lay in the hands of his nephew and successor, Justinian I.
 Emperor
Justinian I (527-565)
483-565. Byzantine Emperor, 527-565.
Justinian was promoted to power by
his uncle, the Byzantine emperor, Justin (who reigned in the Byzantine
East from 518 to 527). After a very brief co-emperorship with his
uncle, Justinian became sole Roman emperor in 527 (there was no longer
a Western Roman emperor).
He and his very capable wife Theodora
restored a great deal of the declining Byzantine or Eastern Roman economic
and political life in the East. Indeed, Justinian even managed to
recover Roman dominion over North Africa, Spain and most of Italy.
He is also remembered for the overhaul
of the Roman legal code, which goes by his name, the Justinian Code.
However, his successes were really
achieved only during the first half of his reign. He suffered deep
crises for about 10 of his middle years – including a bubonic plague that
devastated the Empire and which killed perhaps a full half of the population
of Constantinople. The last 10 years of his rule over a horribly
depleated Empire involved a constant effort to fend off both the Persians
and a whole host of barbarian tribes that threatened the integrity of the
Empire both in Asia and in Byzantine Italy. Peace with the Persians
was purchased at the price of heavy tribute paid in gold. Efforts
to hold on to Byzantine rule in Italy was more than the Empire had resources
for.
Justinian's rule which started out
so gloriously--ended in the note that would characterize the Empire for
the centuries to come: a rule deeply burdened by an unrelenting challenge
to the very existence of the Byzantine culture and society itself.
Belisarius (530-563)
Justin II (565-578)
Tiberius II (578-582)
Maurice (582-602)
Phocas (602-610)
Heraclius (610-641)
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THE
ARAB-MUSLIM EMPIRE TAKES OVER IN THE EAST – AND
THREATENS THE WEST
(630
to 800) |
Muhammad of Mecca
(610-632)
570-632. Received his call as
a prophet in 610.
The hegira (622) or
flight
of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina – marking the beginning event or starting
date on the Muslim calender.
Muhammad's major works or writings:
Abu Bakr (632-634)
Father-in-law of Muhammad and the first
caliph
(successor) to rule Islam after Muhammad's death. Ordered the jihad
(holy struggle) against the "infidel" Christian or Byzantine Empire north
of Arabia.
Umar (634-644)
The second caliph – and
the main military genius who carried Islam forward from the Arabian peninsula.
634 Battle of Ajnadain--defeat
of the Byzantine army in Syria
635 most of the hinterland
of Syria and Palestine are taken by the Muslim armies.
636 Battle of Yarmuk--major
effort of the Byzantine army to retake Syria ends in disaster.
638 Jerusalem taken by the
Muslims
642 The 3-year Muslim campaign
to capture Egypt ends successfully
643 Battle of Nehawand successfully
ends an 8-year campaign to take the Persian Empire
He was assassinated
in 644.
Uthman (644-656)
The third caliph. Under his caliphate,
Egypt is retaken in 646
after an anti-Muslim uprising there briefly (one year) re-established Byzantine
rule. In 656, in the "Battle of the Masts,"
the Byzantine navy is defeated by a Arab-Muslim navy near Alexandria.
In 656 Uthman is assassinated by followers
of Ali.
Ali (656-661)
Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, and
the fourth caliph.
Mu'awiya (661-680)
The fifth caliph and the founder of
the Umayyad dynasty (which ruled all Islam from its capital in Damascus--until
750 when the Abbasid dynasty forceably took over the caliphate and forced
the Umayyads to retreat to Spain, where they continued to rule over a separate
Muslim kingdom for another 700 years.)
Tariq ibn Zaid
(early 700s)
At the head of a Berber-Arab army of
12,000, Tariq crossed from North Africa (Morocco) into Spain in 711 and
defeated the Christian Visigothic troops along the Guadalete River.
He built a fortress on the great
rock at the southern tip of Spain just across the narrow straits from North
Africa (Morocco) in order to protect his supply lines and communication
links with the heart of Islam. Today we know this rock/fortress as
"Gibraltar," from its Arabic name "Jabal al Tariq" ("Mountain of
Tariq").
al Mansur (754-775)
712?-775. In 754 al Mansur overthrew
the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus and established a new dynasty, the Abbasids,
as caliphs and rulers of Islam. In 764 he relocated his capital further
East, to Baghdad, heartland of the old Persian empire. The move eastward
was also an intellectual/spiritual move as well: the Byzantine influence
on Islam now bcame replaced by a Persian influence.
Abd ar Rahman
The remnant of the Umayyads took refuge
in Muslim Spain and in 756 Abd ar Rahman restablished the Umayyad caliphate
there at Cordoba. Henceforth, Muslim Spain followed an independent
course of development from the Muslim East.
Harun ar Rashid
(786-809)
Probably the most capable of the Abbasid
caliphs. He militarily brought back unity to the Muslim Empire by
suppressing the Barmecide family which had been meddling in caliphate politics;
by defeating the Byzantines, who had been retaking territory from the Muslims;
and by supressing a local independence movement in Muslim Tunisia.
His court provided the setting for many of the stories of the One Thousand
and One Nights saga.
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THE
BYZANTINE EMPIRE
FIGHTS
FOR ITS LIFE IN THE EAST
(640
to 1050 AD) |
Constantine III
(641)
Constans II (641-668)
Constantine IV
(668-685)
Justinian II (685-695
/ 705-711)
Emperor Leo III
(the "Isaurian") (717-741)
c. 680-741. Emperor of the Roman
Empire in the East, 717-741.
As Byzantine Emperor, he successfully
brought to an end the second Muslim seige of Constantinople (716-717).
Indeed, he went on to retake most of Asia Minor from the Muslims.
But in 726 he came up against a crisis
just as great within his own domain when he went on the offensive in 726
against religious icons. This provoked riots throughout Leo's Byzantine
dominions in the process – including in the Byzantine holdings in Italy.
Pope Gregory II strongly opposed
Leo on this matter – and in 730 the pope excommunicated the Emperor.
Constantine V
(741-775)
Constantine VI
Empress Irene
(775-802)
Leo IV (775-780)
Nicephorus I (802-811)
Michael I Rhangabe
(811-813)
Leo V (813-820)
Michael II (820-829)
Theophilus (829-842)
Michael III (842-867)
Patriarch Ignatius
(847-858 / 867-877)
Patriarch Photius
(858-867 / 877-886)
Basil I ("the
Macedonian") (867-886)
Leo VI the Wise
(886-912)
Alexander (912-913)
Constantine VII
Porphyrogenitus (913-959)
Constantine Porphyrogenitus' major works or writings:
De thematibus
Theophanes continuatus
De administrando imperio
De ceremoniis aulae byzantinae
Romanus I Lecapenus
(920-944)
Romanus II (959-963)
Nicephorus Phocas
(963-969)
John I Tzimisces
(969-976)
Basil II (976-1025)
Constantine VIII
(1025-1028)
Empress Zoé (1028-1050)
Romanus III Argyrus
(ruled 1028-1034)
Michael IV (1034-1041)
Constantine IX
Monomachus (1042-1055)
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PRE-CAROLINGIAN
ITALY
(600-800 AD) |
Authari (584-590)
Lombard King, 584-590
Agilulf (590-616)
Lombard King, 590-616.
Liutprand (712-744)
Lombard King, 712-744.
Aistulf (mid 700s)
In 751 Aistulf led the Germanic Lombards
to victory against the Byzantine Army at their Italian capital in Ravenna.
But the Lombard attack on Rome in 756 was held off through the intervention
of the Frankish king Pepin the Short.
Stephen II (752-757)
Pope, 752-757.
Desiderius (757-774)
Lombard King, 757-774.
Adrian I (772-795)
Pope, 772-795.
Leo
III (795-816)
Pope, 795-816.
Nicholas
I (858 to 867)
Pope, 858 to 867. |
|
Pelayo (early
700s)
Pelayo was a Visigothic ruler who in
the early 700s established the Christian kingdom of Asturias in the mountainous
Northwest of the Iberian or Spanish peninsula.
Alfonso III (early
900s)
From his stronghold in Castile, Alfonso
at the beginning of the 900s commenced the reconquest of Spain from the
Muslim Moors.
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SAXON
ENGLAND EMERGES
(Early
500s to mid 1000s) |
King Arthur Pendragon
(early 500s)
With Arthur, we speak mostly of legend – not
fact. Was there actually a Roman-Briton who rallied British resistance
against the Saxons who migrated in large numbers into Britain after the
Roman legions left to defend the Roman homefront?
Most of what we know about Arthur
is a result of various medieval sagas, in particular in versions of the
story put forth in the Annales Cambriae
(mid 900s), in William of
Malmesbury's Gesta regum (1125) and in Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Historia
Regum Britanniae (1147). Geoffrey mentions that Arthur finally
fell, with Medraut (Mordred), at the battle of Camlan (537), placing Arthur
in the early 500s.
The Britons of French Brittany were
also important in keeping the Arthurian legend alive with their great poems – which
were later picked up again with enthusiasm during the time of European
Romanticism (early 1800s).
An earlier, and thus a bit more reliable
historical source on Arthur is found in the Welsh historian Nennius' Historia
Britonum (late 700s). Nennius described 12 battles of a
successful warrior or general (not king) named Arthur. Among these
battles there is mention of the battle of Mt. Badon (Mons Badonicus) – which
Gildas, an even earlier British historian (who makes no mention of Arthur)
claims as having taken place on the day of his birth (thus in 516 – and
in agreement with Geoffrey's dating of our hero). But Nennius' depiction
of Arthur includes little of the larger saga by which we know Arthur today.
Indeed some who have studied the material feel that the sagas of several
warriors (such as Gawain) of that era got mixed together to create the
Arthur of legend.
Probably there once was a Roman-Briton
warrior-hero named Arthur, who had some degree of success against the Saxons
in the early 500s – until betrayed by his wife and subsequently killed in
battle. But beyond that we can say very little about Arthur – except
that the legend was very important in the memory of the British (Celtic)
people.
Ethelbert (Aethelberht)
(late 500s)
King of Kent and Bretwalda (the
chief among all the kings) of Saxon England. He ruled Kent at the
time that Augustine came to England bring the Saxons to Catholic Christianity.
Edwin (d. 632)
Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria
from 616 to 632. He was the most powerful English ruler of his day and
the first Christian king of Northumbria.
Ethelbald (716-757)
King of the English tribal kingdom of
Mercia, 716-757. By 731 all of the Saxon provinces south of the Humber
River were under his rule.
Offa (757-796)
In 757 Offa became king of Mercia.
In 779 he succeded in making himself
Bretwalda of Saxon England.
During his reign he built a line
of fortifications to the West of England to protect against British (Welsh)
raiders. It was also during his reign that England received its first
Viking raids (789) along the eastern coast of England.
With his death in 796, Mercian dominance
of England came to an end.
Egbert (802-839)
In 802 Egbert became the king of the
English tribal kingdom of Wessex. In 828 he became Bretwalda
of Saxon England.
During his reign the Viking raids
became severe and lasting (835 and after).
Ethelwulf (839-858)
Egbert's son took the Wessex throne
upon his father's death. His reign was marked by constant struggle
with the Vikings – who after 850 began to settle permanently along the Eastern
coasts.
With his death in 858 the Wessex
kingdom came successively under his sons: Ethelbald (858-860), Ethelbert
(860-865), Ehelred (865-871), and Alfred (871-899). Here too the
primary issue for these English kings is the Viking raids and settlements
in England.
Alfred the Great
(871-899)
849-899. King of West Saxons,
871-899.
In 878 the Wessex king Alfred defeated
the Danish Vikings at Edington. A treaty was drawn up between the
two sides establishing a Viking territory – Christian in character
(conversion to the faith a stipulation of the treaty) – to the North (the
"Danelaw"). The English or Saxon land to the south was united as
"Wessex" under Alfred's continuing rule.
In 886 Alfred retook from the Danes
the city of London.
Edward the Elder
(899-924)
Edgar (959-975)
Ethelred II ("the
Unready") (978-1013 / 1014-1016)
Canute ('the Great")
(1016-1035)
Danish
Harold I Harefoot
(1035-1040)
Danish
Hardecanute (1040-1042)
Danish
Edward the Confessor
(1042-1066)
Saxon King, 1042-1066.
Harold II (1066)
Saxon king, 1066. |
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THE
CAROLINGIAN REVIVAL
(Early
700s to Late 800s) |
Charles Martel (714-741)
690-741. "Mayor of the Palace"
under the Merovingian kings--and thus effective ruler of the Franks, 714-741.
In 732 he defeated the Muslim Moors
in a battle just outside Poitiers. Five years later, in 737, he again
defeated them in battle in southern France, effectively ending the Muslim
threat to France--and to the rest of Western Europe.
Pepin III (or
Pippin) the Short (741-768)
?-768. Prior to his death in 741,
Charles Martel divided the effective rule of France between his two sons,
Carloman (the East) and Pepin (the West). From Merovingian kingship
was either vacant or under the appointment of Carloman and Pepin during
the early years of their joint rule. Then in 747 Carloman suddenly
abdicated political responsibilities and became a monk, leaving sole rule
to Pepin.
In 751, after approval of the pope
and the Frankish nobles, Pepin set aside the Merovingian dynasty and had
himself declared king (even being crowned by Boniface),
thus establishing a new line of kings: the Carolingians.
In 756, Pepin intervened in Italy
to protect Rome and Pope Stephen II from the Lombards. With the end
of Byzantine rule in Italy (complements of the Lombards!) and the blocking
of Lombard expansion in Italy, the central portion of Italy was put under
direct papal political rule with the creation of the "Papal States."
In a war of eight year's length (760-768)
he extended his kingdom against the Arabs and local Christian dukes in
the South (Aquitaine). He also conducted military and diplomatic
missions into the lands to the East (Saxon Germany and Byzantium)--with
mixed results.
 Charles
the Great ("Charlemagne") (768-814)
742-814. King of the Franks,
768-814. Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 800-814.
Upon the death of their father Pepin
in 768, Charles ("Charlemagne" or "Charles the Great") and his brother
Carloman became joint kings of the Franks. Three years later Carloman
died and Charles became sole ruler of the Franks
From his position in Northern France/Northern
Germany (with his capital in Aachen, in Germany), Charlemagne fought his
way to dominance over the rest of France, Saxon Germany (772), Lombardic
Italy (773) and Bavarian Germany (778).
One of the fabled disasters during
his reign was the battle of Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees in Southern France
when in 778 a Frankish army was defeated by the combined forces of the
Muslim Moors and the Basques.
In 800, he presented himself before
Pope Leo III in Rome to receive the title of Charles I, Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire.
Louis (Ludwig)
the Pious (814-840)
778-840. Emperor, 813-840.
Louis inherited the empire of his father, Charlemagne, but lacked the power
or the will (he was more interested in religious matters) to maintain its
political standing.
Throughout his reign he was deeply
troubled by the in-fighting among his sons over the allotment of lands
to them. In 817 he divided his lands among three sons, Lothair, Pepin
and Louis. Two years later, after the death of his first wife he
married again--and birthed yet a fourth son Charles. Judith, the
mother of Charles, intrigued constantly for land for Charles. In
829 he gave Charles a share. Noone seem satisfied and war broke out--and
Louis was imprisoned by his son Lothair (though freed in 830).
In 833 he was again imprisoned by
his sons--who tried to force him to become a monk. The brothers fell
into disagreement again. Louis was again released (834).
In 838 Pepin died and Louis reapportioned
the lands again--to the dissatisfaction of his son Louis. In 840
the elder Louis died on his return from a campaign to put down the rebellion
of his son Louis.
Lothair (840-855)
Emperor and ruler of the central Carolingian
lands (Lotharingia), 840-855.
In 841 Louis and his half-brother
Charles defeated their elder brother Lothair in the Battle of Fontenoy.
Eventually, by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Lothair was permitted to keep
the title of Emperor, but held effective rule over only a central strip
of territory (designated as "Lotharingia") running from the Netherlands
in Northwestern Europe, south along the Western side of the Rhine in Western
Germany (Lorraine), Southern France (Provence and Burgundy), across the
Swiss Alps and down into Italy.
When he died in 855 his holdings
were divided among his two sons: Louis II, who received Italy and
the imperial title, and Lothair, who received his northern lands.
Louis (Ludwig)
the German (840-876)
804-876. The third son of Louis
the Pious. Ruler of the Eastern Carolingian lands (Germany), 843-876.
By the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Lous
received the ancient and vast German lands to the East of the Rhine.
He busied himself in putting down a Saxon rebellion and assaults from the
Slavic neighbors. He also had the Danish raiders (vikings) to deal
with. He even challenged his half-brother Charles at one point to
the lands of Aquitaine in Southern France--but the effort ultimately failed.
Louis and Charles then agreed in
868 to apportion between themselves the lands of their two nephews, Louis
II and Lothair II, because of their weakness and the fact that they neither
had male heirs. The following year Louis II became ill.
Charles saw this as an opportunity to seize the entire "middle kingdom."
But Louis the German responded with the threat of war--and the two decided
to honor their earlier agreement on division.
Charles the Bald
(840-877)
823-877. The fourth son of Louis
the Pious. Ruler of the Western Carolingian lands (France), 840-877--and
eventually the whole of the Carolingian Empire, 876-877.
By the Treaty of Verdun Charles received
the Frankish land to the West and was crowned King of France as Charles
I. In a sense, this marks the birth of the land called France.
Charles also conspired with his half-brother
Louis the German to divide between themselves their brother Lothair's legacy
(the lands held by his sons, Louis II and Lothair II). [Interestingly,
this became sort of a forerunner of the long-standing contention between
France and Germany over the land that stands between them.]
But when Louis died in 876
this left Charles in sole command of the vast Carolingian holdings.
He was thus elected Emperor and briefly brought unity and peace back to
the lands of Charlemagne. But after his death in 877 chaos once again
descended upon the empire.
Louis II (844-875)
822-875. Son of Lothair.
Emperor (850-875). King
of the Lombards (from 844), then all of Italy (855-875). Ruler of
Lotharingia (Lorraine) after his brother's death in 859. Also took
over most of Provence after the death of another brother, Charles, in 1863.
Charles III ("the
Fat")
839-888.
Youngest Son of Louis the German.
Inheriting one by one the lands of
his brothers and cousins, he briefly united the empire of Charlemagne,
885-887. His imcompetence and the rebellion of his nephew Arnulf
ended his rule in 887.
King of Swabia (876-887)
King in Italy 879-887
Conrad I (911-918)
Duke of Franconia and Saxony, 911-918.
Henry I ("the
Fowler") (919-936)
|
|
THE
SLAVIC, HUNGARIAN AND NORDIC INVASIONS
/ MIGRATIONS
(700
to 1000) |
Krum (early 800s)
Bulgar Khan or prince. When in
811 his Bulgarian warriors killed Nicephorus, the Byzantine Emperor, they
presented the Emperor's skull to Krum as a drinking cup.
Turgesius (Thorgestr)
(832-845)
A viking chieftan who in 832 led a large
Norwegian fleet to Ireland to consolidate what had until then (since their
start in the late 700s) been mostly occasional raids on Ireland.
Over the next ten years he extended Viking rule to half of Ireland.
But he was killed in 845. Much of the concentrated power of the viking
raids in Ireland began soon to subside after his death.
Mojmir (mid 800s)
Mojmir put together an alliance of Slavic
tribes in the area north of the Balkans (Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Hungary
and Transylvania).
Rurik (mid-800s)
d. 879. First leader of the Rus,
the
Swedish Vikings who invaded or settled themselves among the Slavs of Eastern
Europe.
According to legend, he and his Vikings
were invited in 862 to come to Novgorod to end a local dispute there.
Subsequently Novgorod became a Rus base for forays (military and commercial)
into Byzantine territory to the south.
Rurik was the supposed ancestor of
all subsequent Russian rulers.
Arpad (late 800s)
Leader in the late 800s of a tribe of
Magyars (Hungarians) who migrated from the steppes of Southern Russia,
crossed the Carpathian mountains and in 889 settled in on the plain that
their Hungarian descendants still claim as their own (Central Hungary).
Rollo (early 900s)
In 911 the French king granted Rollo,
chieftain of a group of Vikings or Northmen (Normans), the northwest coast
of France (Normandy) to turn into a Viking settlement--provided that the
Normans then used their position to hold off future viking raids along
that coast. The following year Rollo was baptized as a Christian
with the name of Robert.
Vladimir I ("the
Saint") (980-1015)
956-1015. Ruler of Russia, 980-1015.
In 988 Vladimir converted to Orthodox Christianity and married a Byzantine
princess, bringing his people within the political sphere of the Eastern
or Byzantine Empire.
Yaroslav (the
Wise) (d. 1054)
d. 1054 One of Vladimir's sons
who defeated a brother who had assassinated their other brothers!
Under his rule Russian Kiev achieved
a very high level of wealth and culture--and influence within the Byzantine
world. During his rule a Russian law code was established, Russian
literature began to flourish, and numerous Christian churches were built.
He married his sons and daughters to nobility all around the Christian
world--and provided refuge to European princes when they faced troubles
at home. |
|
ECCLESIASTICAL / IMPERIAL
REVIVAL IN THE WEST
(1050
- 1250) |
Otto I (936-973)
912-973.
King of Germany (936-961) and Holy
Roman Emperor (962-973).
He defeated the Magyars (Hungarians)
at the Battle of the Lechfeld (near Augsburg, Germany) in 955, definitively
ending the Hungarian menace to Germany. In that same year he moved
against the Slavs, bringing them under German control over the next five
years.
In 962 he turned his German kingship
over to his son, Otto II and the following year took the newly revived
imperial title, now designated as "Holy Roman Emperor"--an imperial title
that would last almost a thousand years.
Otto II (973-983)
Holy Roman Emperor, 973-1002.
Otto III (983-1002)
Holy Roman Emperor, 983-1002.
Henry II (1002-1024)
Holy Roman Emperor, 1002-1024.
Conrad II (1024-1039)
Salian King, Holy Roman Emperor, 1024-1039.
Henry III (1039-1056)
Holy Roman Emperor, 1039-1056.
Pope Leo IX (1049-1054)
1002-1054.
Pope: 1049-1054. Reform of
the papacy. Rupture of relations with Eastern Orthodoxy (though not
his desire; occurred at time of his death)
Pope Gregory VII
("Hildebrand") (1073-1085)
c. 1020-1085. Pope: 1073-1085.
In 1076 Gregory excommunicated and brought under papal discipline the Holy
Roman Emperor. Encounter with Emperor Henry IV at Canossa (1077)
Dictatus Papae
Emperor Henry
IV (1056-1106)
1050-1106. King of the Germans
and Holy Roman Emperor, 1056-1106.
Robert Guiscard
(1053-1085)
Pope Urban II
(1088-1099)
1042-1099. Pope, 1088-1099.
In 1095 he galvanized the faith of German/Norman Europe as he preached
the first (and only authentic) crusade against the Muslims.
Henry V (1106-1025)
Holy Roman Emperor, 1106-1025.
Concordat of
Worms (1122)
compromise in the investiture controversy:
recognizing papal jurisdiction over ecclesiastical appointments (or investiture)
and imperial jurisdiction over temporal appointments.
Conrad III Hohenstaufen
(1138-1152)
Holy Roman Emperor, 1138-1152.
Frederick I Hohenstaufen
("Barbarossa") (1152-1190)
1123?-1190.
King of Germany and of Italy and
Holy Roman Emperor, 1152-1190.
Henry ("the Lion")
(1142-80)
Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, 1142-1180.
Henry
VI (1190-1197)
Holy Roman Emperor, 1190-1197.
Enrico
Dandolo, Doge of Venice (1192-1205)
 Pope
Innocent III (1198-1216)
1160-1216. Pope, 1198-1216.
He was given guardianship over 2-year
old Frederick, son of Henry VI and grandson of Emperor Frederick Barbarosa.
In return for Innocent's guardianship, the Pope was recognized supreme
in power above even the Emperor. When Frederick finally came of age,
Innocent made good his promise and had the Emperor Otto deposed in order
to make way for Frederick to this position.
So powerful was Innocent that he
even gained recognition from a number of other European princes as the
supreme power in the Christian West.
It was also Innocent who placed papal
authority firmly behind the crusade preached in 1209 against the Albigensian
heresy in Southern France--by which not only was this heresy destroyed
but southern French culture and power was so crippled that it permitted
the Frankish barons and kings of northern France to extend their grip over
the French south.
Innocent's power-brokering was even
twisted by the clever diplomacy of the Venetians to turn itself into a
device by which the Fourth Crusade, called by Innocent against the infidel
Muslims, sadly included an assault on Venice's chief commercial rival,
Constantinople, the center of Byzantine Christian power in the East.
In 1215 Innocent called the Fourth
Lateran Council, which established the doctrine of "trans-substantiation"
(the communion bread and wine are turned into the actual body and blood
of Christ by a mysterious means of divine grace) and also the Inquisition
as a "helpful" device to correct such errors as might prevent people's
entry into eternal glory.
It was Innocent who was confronted
with the dilemma of what to do about Francis of Assisi--who was obviously
a "saint" but whose lay preaching threatened the exclusive dominion over
"truth" possessed by the hierarchical clergy operating under papal supervision.
Innocent was somewhat inclined to handle Francis' movement in much the
same way he was attacking the Albigensians and Waldensians. But he
died before anything as tragic as this might occur. (And his papal
successor, Gregory IX, in continuing forward the work of the Fourth Lateran
Council, finally resolved the matter by recognizing Francis' movement,
with the stipulation that it came under regulation and ecclesiastical supervision.)
Also upon Innocent's death the Emperor
Frederick II turned against the papal legacy of his once-benefactor Innocent
in an effort to raise the power of the Emperor above that of the Pope.
Emperor Frederick
II (1215-1250)
Frederick II Hohenstaufen.
1194-1250. King of Sicily, 1198-1212. King of Germany
and Holy Roman Emperor, 1215-1250. |
Hugh
Capet 987-996
Robert
II ("the Pious") 996-1031
Henry
I (1031-60)
Philip
I (1060-1108)
Louis
VI ("the Fat") (1108-37)
Louis
VII ("the Young") (1137-80)
Philip
II (Augustus) (1180-1223)
Louis
VIII (1223-26)
Louis
IX (Saint Louis) (1226-70)
Philip
III ("the Bold") (1270-85)
Philip
IV ("the Fair") (1285-1314)
Louis
X ("the Quarrelsome") (1314-16)
John
I ("the Posthumous") (1316)
Philip
V ("the Tall") (1317-22)
Charles
IV ("the Fair") (1322-28)
John II ("the
Good") ( -1364)
Charles V ("the
Wise") (1364-1380)
Charles VI ("the
Mad"/"the Well-Beloved") (1380-1422)
|
|
THE
RISE OF THE ENGLISH (NORMAN) MONARCHY |
William I ("the
Conqueror") (1066-1087)
King of England, 1066-1087.
William II Rufus
(1087-1100)
King of England, 1087-1100.
Henry I (1100-1135)
King of England, 1100-1135.
Matilda (or Maud)
Stephen of Blois
(1135-1154)
(c. 1097-1154)
King of England, 1135-1154.
Henry II (1154-1189)
King of England, 1154-1189.
Eleanor of Aquitaine
(1137-1204)
Queen of France, 1137-1152; Queen of
England, 1152-1204.
Richard I ("the
Lionhearted") (1189-1199)
King of England, 1189-1199.
John (1199-1216)
King of England, 1199-1216.
Henry III (1216-1272)
King of England, 1216-1272.
Edward I (1272-1307)
King of England, 1272-1307.
Edward II (1307-1327)
King of England, 1307-1327.
Edward III (1327-1377)
King of England, 1327-1377.
Richard II (1377-1399)
King of England, 1377-1399. |
|
CENTRAL
EUROPE AND ITALY
(1150
to 1400) |
Rudolph I of Habsburg
(1273-1291)
1218-1291.
King of Germany and Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire, 1273-1291. Founder of the Hapsburg dynasty.
Albert I of Habsburg
(1298-1308)
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1298-1308.
Henry VII of Luxembourg
(1308-1313)
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1308-1313.
Pope John XXII
(1316-1334)
2nd pope in Avignon, 1316-1334.
Clement VI (1342-1352)
1291-1352. Pierre Roger.
Pope at Avignon, 1342-1352.
Clement's papal court at Avignon
France became widely noted for it sumptuous doings, its lavish lifestyle,
its grasping manner after the wealth of the rest of Christendom (which
was not so well off). His court was also widely know for its gross
immoralities. Clement himself led a very scandalous private life--which
was hardly a private matter and which only worsened the loss of respect
for the papacy during the declining days of the High Middle Ages.
It was during Clement's pontificate
that the Black Death struck Europe--which some viewed as being God's judgment
on Christendom, in part anyway, for the behavior of the princes of the
church at Avignon.
Charles IV of
Luxembourg (1346-1378)
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1346-1378.
Pope Gregory XI
(-1378)
Gregory abandoned Avignon and returned
to Rome to reestablish to pontificate in its traditional Roman setting--in
answer to the many prayers of Ste. Catherine of Siena.
Pope Urban VI
Urban, an Italian elected by strong
pro-Italian interests, undertook to reform the Roman Curia--and in particular
the College of Cardinals. But France, smarting from the loss of the
papal overlordship that it enjoyed when the pontificate was at Avignon,
maneuvered 13 of the Cardinals to abandon Urban and to elect a new Pope
(a cousin of the king of France). Thus there were two popes, each
an instrument of differing political interests--in particular the conflicting
interests of France and Italy. This was the beginning of the Great
Schism lasting from 1378 to 1431.
Wenceslas (1378-1400)
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1378-1400. |
|
EASTERN
EUROPE
(1150
to 1400) |
Bela III (1173-1196)
King of Hungary, 1173-1196.
Jenghiz Khan (1162-1227)
Batu Khan
Stefan Dusan (1331-1345)
King of Serbia: 1331-46; Emperor of
the Serbs and Greeks: 1346-55
Ladislas Jagello
(Duke of Lithuania/King of Poland) 1386
|
THE
CRUSADES AND THE CRUSADER KINGDOMS |
Peter the Hermit
(1095-1100)
c. 1050-1115.
A French monk, who once visited the
Holy Land, and who after Urban II called for the crusade in 1095 roamed
France and Western Germany preaching the call to crusade. He and
Walter the Penniless gathered a following along the way and then led them
through Hungary and Bulgaria (with considerable difficulties along the
way) on to Constantinople, arriving in May of 1096. With his followers
anxious to move on to the task at hand, retaking the Holy Land from the
"infidel Muslims," Peter decided not to await the arrival of the main crusader
force. In early August of 1096 he and his motley army crossed into
Asia toward Nicomedia (modern Izmir) to begin his assault on the Seljuk
Turks.
However, Turkish resistance did not
wither away at the sight of the crusaders--but in fact proved very fierce
and unyielding. Peter thus decided to return personally to Constantinople
to appeal to the Byzantine Emperor Alexis for aid. But in Peter's
absence most of his disorganized following was destroyed by the Turks (October
1096).
He remained at Constantinople until
the main crusader force arrived there the following year (May 1097).
He and the remnants of his followers accompanied these new troops across
Asia Minor, advancing against the Turks with much difficulty--until they
reached the city of Antioch (October 1097). Antioch proved extremely
resistant to the crusader's assault--and only through the deceit of politics
was the city finally taken the following June (1098) by the crusader leader,
Bohemond,
and his army.
Peter and other crusaders in the
meantime had abandoned the assault on Antioch and instead had begun to
move on to Jerusalem, arriving there the following June (1099). As
the crusaders readied themselves for their assault on the Muslim defences
of Jerusalem, Peter, on the Mount of Olives (July 8), preached a
fiery sermon to inspire them in their quest. Indeed, so excited were
they by the prospects of doing "God's work" that this relatively small
force of crusaders took the city within the week (July 15, 1199).
Peter stayed on in Jerusalem to continue
his preaching--until the following year (1100) when he returned to France
and founded an Augustinian abbey. This abbey he directed until his
death in 1115.
Adhémar (Bishop
of Le Puy)
Bohemond (1096-1111)
? - 1111.
"Bohemond" was a nickname given to
one of the sons of Robert Guiscard, the Norman-French soldier-of-fortune
who rose to become a powerful ruler in Southern Italy. Indeed, Bohemond
resembled the mythical giant he was named after, being himself a young
man of exceptional height and strength. Fighting alongside his father,
he learned well the arts of war.
The principal adversary of Robert
and his son Bohemond was the Byzantine Emperor, Alexis, whose authority
in Southern Italy they challenged at every turn. At first (1081-1083)
it appeared that Robert and Bohemond might be successful in driving Byzantine
authority not only from Southern Italy but also from much of Greece.
But Alexis succeeded in defeating Bohemond at Larissa in Thessaly in 1183.
Then Bohemond's father Robert died in 1085. Further, his father's
patrimony was passed on to a younger half-brother, Roger Borsa. For
Bohemond the future looked dismal.
Roger did give his half-brother a
small land allotment of Otranto (southern Italy). Here Bohemond awaited
a chance to increase his fortunes.
That opportunity finally presented
itself when Urban II preached a crusade against the Muslims in 1095.
With a small group of Norman adventurers he made his way to Constantinople
in 1097 to join a gathering crusader army. An uneasy truce was made
with his former enemy Alexis, the Byzantine Emperor, Bohemond taking the
oath which promised that all lands taken from the Muslims would ruled by
Bohemond under the ultimate authority of Alexis.
In the crusaders' march across Asia
Minor Bohemond proved himself to be an outstanding soldier. By the
time they reached Antioch (October 1097) Bohemond had assumed a leading
role in the crusader's effort. It was largely through Bohemond's
political maneuverings (including enticing a Muslim traitor to treachery)
that the fiercely resistant Antioch was finally delivered to the crusaders
(June 1098).
When the crusaders moved on to Jerusalem
the following January (1099), Bohemond remained behind in Antioch to protect
the crusader position in the city. He settled in to rule the city--uneasy
in his service as vassal to Alexis--but more focused during the next years
on his struggles against the surrounding Muslim world.
For a while he was successful in
his effort to expand his rule, taking Aleppo by force. But he fell
into an ambush when moving against the emir of Sebastea, was captured,
and held as prisoner for several months. When he was released (1103)
he returned to Antioch to rule the city and surrounding territory, one
of the great strongholds of the crusader domains in the East.
But in 1105 he began a move to secure
his independence from Alexis, returning to Italy to recruit a new army
and gain authorization from the pope for his "crusade" against Byzantine
authority. Early the following year (1106) he travelled onward to
France to draw additional recruits for his "crusade." During this
journey, now a fabled hero, he married Constance, daughter of French King
Philip I.
By September 1107 he was ready to
move against Alexis. But the fortunes of war were not so favorable
for Bohemond. Durazzo proved highly resistant to Bohemond and his
Norman knights. And in Albania he met with disaster.
But Alexis was himself wearied of
his confict with Bohemond, and offered Bohemond rulership over Antioch
and parts of Greece--in exchange for vows of fealty to the Emperor.
Bohemond accepted.
An uneasy peace settled in between
Bohemond and Alexis--though there is reason to believe that Bohemond was
in the process of organizing a military move against Alexis when he died
(March 1111).
He was succeeded by two sons, one
of whom became the prince of Antioch.
Godfrey ("Defender
of the Holy Sepulchre")
Baldwin I (King
of Edessa/ King of Jerusalem) (1096-1118)
Raymond of Saint-Gilles
(Count of Tripoli) (1096-
Baldwin III of
Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Saladin ( -1193)
Children's Crusade
(1212)
Cardinal Pelagius
John of Brienne
Baybars ( -1277)
|
BYZANTIUM
GOES ITS OWN WAY |
Patriarch Michael
Cerularius (1043-1059)
c. 1000-1059.
A major force in the split between
the Roman and Byzantine church in 1056.
Emperor Isaac I Comnenus stripped
Cerularius of his powers in 1058 and forced him into exile. He died
the next year.
Isaac I Comnenus
(1057-1059)
Constantine X
Ducas (1059 to 1067)
Romanus IV Diogenes
(1068-1072)
Michael VII Ducas
(1071-1078)
Nicephorus III
Botaneiates (1078-1081)
Alexius I Comnenus
(1081-1118)
John II Comnenus
(1118-1143)
Manuel I Comnenus
(1143-1180)
Andronicus I Comnenus
(1183-1185)
Isaac II Angelus
(1185-1195 / 1203-1204)
Alexius III (1195-1203)
Alexius IV (1203-1204)
Baldwin I (1204-1205)
Henry of Flanders
(1206-1216)
Baldwin II ( -1258)
Theodore I Lascaris,
Emperor of Nicaea (1208-1221)
John III Ducas
Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicea (1222-1254)
Theodore Ducas,
Emperor of Epirus (1224-1230)
Theodore II Lascaris,
Emperor of Nicea (1254-58)
Michael VIII Paleologus
(1259-1282)
Andronicus II
(1282-1328)
Andronicus III
(1328-1341)
John IV Cantacuzenus
(1328-1354)
Prime Minister: 1328-1341; Regent: 1341-1347;
Emperor: 1347-1354.
John V Paleologus
(1354-1391)
Manuel II Paleologus
(1391-1425)
John VIII Paleologus
(1425-1448)
Constantine XI
Paleologus (1449-1453)
|
RISE
OF THE OTTOMAN TURKS
(1300
to 1400) |
Osman I Ghazi
( -1324)
1258-1324.
Founder of the Ottoman dynasty which
overthrew Byzantine rule in the Near East and Southeastern Europe.
He was born to Ertugrul, ruler of
a Turkmen principality in what is today north-central Turkey. Osman
extended the borders of this principality in a continuing expansion against
a declining Byzantine hold in Asia Minor. By the time of his death,
Osman had reduced Byzantine rule to only a small position in Asia Minor
immediately opposite Constantinople.
Orhan (1324-1360)
Murad I (1360-1389)
Bayezid I (1389-1402)
Tamarlane
(Timur Lenk) (1370-1405)
|
THE MIDDLE AGES:
A FULL HISTORY |
 Miles
H. Hodges
| | | | |
