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.

For more information on Alaric

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 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.

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.

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.

Benedict of Nursia (480-547)

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.

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.

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.

  Muhammad's major works or writings:

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 we 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.

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.

With his death in 796, Mercian dominance of England came to an end.

During his reign the Viking raids became severe and lasting (835 and after).

In 886 Alfred retook from the Danes the city of London.

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."

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.

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 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.

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.

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.]

822-875.  Son of Lothair.

King of Swabia (876-887)
King in Italy 879-887

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.

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.

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.

King of Germany and of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor, 1152-1190.

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.)

King of England, 1135-1154.

King of Germany and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 1273-1291.  Founder of the Hapsburg dynasty.

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.

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).

"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.

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).

A major force in the split between the Roman and Byzantine church in 1056.