The Crusades - Dr. Rollinson's Courses and Resources

History Pages - Part 13

The Crusades : AD 1,066 - 1,400

AD 1053

Great Schism - between the Western Latin Church, centered on Rome, and the Eastern Greek Church, centered on Byzantium (Constantinople)

AD 1066

Halley's Comet seen over Europe, particularly England, and taken as an omen of bad fortune

AD 1066

The Norman Conquest :

January 5 - Edward the Confessor died
January 6 - Harold Godwinsson crowned as Harold II
September 25 - Battle of Stamford Bridge, in the north of England - Harold and his army defeated invading Danes
September 28 - William, Duke of Normandy, landed at Pevensey, raided the surrounding regions, set up a favorable battle position, and waited for Harold
Harold and his army marched post haste to the south to attack William, and they arrived exhausted at Hastings
October 14 - Battle of Hastings - Harold was killed by an arrow in his eye
December 25 - William was crowned in London as William I of England, known to history as "William the Conqueror"

William the Conqueror became King of England and allowed Jews to settle in many English towns

AD 1070-1139

Moses Ibn Ezra, Spanish-Jewish poet and scholar, eventually left Spain and became a wandering philosopher

AD 1071

Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine army and occupied of Jerusalem

AD 1071-1078

After the defeat of the Byzantine army, Michael VII Ducas, son of Romanus IV, claimed the Empire. However, the Turks captured and then released his father Emperor Romanus IV. The Empire was plunged into civil war and the Turkish tribes were able to enter the region unopposed. During the next ten years the factions bid against each other for the services of the Turkmen chieftains, handing many towns over to Turkish garrisons and facilitating the Turkish occupation. The Turks overran Asia Minor; they were pastoralists rather than agriculturalists. Cultivation of crops ceased, roads and aqueducts fell into ruin, Asia Minor became a desert and the Empire lost its main recruiting ground and granary

AD 1080

Seljuk Turks captured the cities of Asia Minor

AD 1081-1118

Emperor Alexius I Comnenus. He saved the Empire by fighting on every front; keeping the Normans, under Robert Guiscard, from the Balkans; driving back northern invaders, and holding the Seljuks at bay. He used the Crusaders for his purposes, and gave commercial concessions to the Venetians to gain the help of their ships. He devalued the Empire's currency, and had to raise taxes until some of the population welcomed the Seljuks

AD 1085

Fall of Toledo, in Spain, to the Moslems

AD 1086-1145

Judah Halevi, Jewish poet

AD 1090-1153

Bernard of Clairvaux (in France), Christian monk and mystic

AD 1095-1291

10 Crusades, 1st called by Pope Urban II, to restore Asia Minor to Byzantium and conquer the Holy Land from the Turks

AD 1096

The First Crusade, called by Pope Urban at the Council of Clermont, resulted in the massacre of Jewish communities in Europe. Then the Crusaders gathered in Constantinople and swore an oath agreeing to return lands formerly belonging to the empire which they might conquer. They took back land from the Seljuk Turks, including Nicaea, then continued south to Palestine

AD 1098

Start of antagonism between Byzantines and Crusaders - Bohemund claimed Antioch for himself

AD 1099

Crusaders captured Jerusalem, massacred the Jews

AD 1099-1291

The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, set up by the Crusaders

AD 1105

Death of Rashi

AD 1115

Alphonso I recaptured Spain from the Moslems

AD 1126-1198

Averroës (Ibn Rushd), Muslim philosopher in Spain

AD 1135-1204

Maimonides (Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), Jewish scholar

AD 1138-1193

Saladin overthrew the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt

AD 1139

The Kuzari - a philosophy of Judaism, written by Judah Halevi

AD 1147

The Second Crusade;
Norman invaders under Roger II captured Thebes and Corinth and carried off silk-worms and weavers to Italy, breaking the Imperial monopoly

1144

Blood Libel in Norwich - Christians accuse Jews of killing Christian children

AD 1176

Defeat of Manuel I's army at Myriocephalum. Seljuk Turks re-established themselves in Asia Minor

AD 1181-1226

Francis of Assisi (in Italy), Christian mystic and friar

AD 1184-1204

Collapse of Byzantine Empire - revolts, riots, murders

AD 1187

Saladin captured Jerusalem from the Crusaders

AD 1187-1918

Second Muslim Period in Israel. Saladin's family (the Ayyubid Dynasty) and successors agreed to partition Jerusalem into Muslim and Christian quarters; also welcomed Jews back into the city

AD 1191

The Third Crusade;
Engish King Richard I (Coeur de Lion - the Lion Heart) took Cyprus from the Byzantines

AD 1194-1270

Nachmanides (Moses Ben Nachman), Jewish scholar

AD 1195

The Guide to the Perplexed written by Nachmanides

AD 1198

Richard the Lion Heart sold Cyprus to Frankish Crusaders who had been ousted from Jerusalem by the Arabs

AD 1203

Army of Fourth Crusade arrived in Constantinople and became embroiled in power struggles of rival "Emperors". Crusaders who got to Venice, but did not have the money for their passage to Egypt, agreed to help the Venetians take the Christian city of Zara from the Hungarians

AD 1204

Fourth Crusade - Sack of Constantinople by Venetians and Franks and installation of Count Baldwin of Flanders as the new Emperor. Another (Greek) "Emperor" set up a state centered on Nikaia, a third "Emperor" declared independence for Trebizond, and a fourth one took Thessaloniki from the Latins

AD 1205

Baldwin killed fighting the Bulgarians; Henry became second Latin Emperor of Constantinople

AD 1206

St. Dominic had a vision of the Virgin Mary and she gave him the Rosary

AD 1210-1645

Venetians took Crete and other Greek islands, established colonies and took control of all the Eastern trade

AD 1211

First re-settlement of Jewish communities in Palestine, by 300 rabbis from Europe

AD 1215

Founding of the Dominican order

AD 1223

Founding of the Franciscan order

AD 1225-1274

Thomas Aquinas, Christian theologian and philosopher

AD 1227

Death of Ghenghis Khan (Mongol leader)

AD 1229-1244

Second Crusader Period. Muslims and Jews barred from Jerusalem. This period of 15 years is usually not reckoned as one of the major periods in the history of Israel, although it was a period of great building projects, such as the enlargement of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

AD 1230

Spanish Inquisition started

AD 1254

Jews expelled from France by King Louis IX; many of the Jews moved to Germany (the Rhineland) or further East (Poland and Russia)

AD 1254-1517

Islamic Mamluk ruled in Egypt

AD 1258

Islamic Abbasid Dynasty fell to the Mongols

AD1260 - 1280

Moses de Leon circulates the Zohar

AD 1261

Reconquest of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaiologos. He had been helped by the Genoese, and had to reward them with commercial concessions which reduced the Empire's revenue. He could not afford the system of tax-free gifts of land to pay frontier forces, so he abolished such holdings in Asia - this weakened his defenses. He re-founded the University of Constantinople

AD 1274

At the Council of Lyons, Emperor Michael's envoys pledged ecclesiastical union with the West and acknowledged Papal supremacy. They were opposed by the Patriarch. The beginning of many attempts of union between Eastern and Western Christendom, which has not been achieved even yet

AD 1290

Jews expelled from England by King Edward I; many of the Jews were robbed and drowned by the captains of the ships transporting them out of England

AD 1291

Crusaders driven out of Syria

AD 1291-1516

Mamluk rule in Palestine

AD 1302-1388

Catalan Grand Company of Spanish mercenaries hired by Emperor Andronikos II to fight the Seljuk Turks. They turned against Constantinople and blockaded it for two years, then ravaged Macedonia and the Greek mainland

AD 1308

Turks able to invade Europe due to the Catalan Grand Company of Spanish mercenaries

AD 1321

Dante Alighieri wrote "The Divine Comedy"

AD 1328-1384

John Wycliffe, English reformer and Bible translator; preached against abuses, expressed unorthodox views of the sacraments (Penance and Eucharist), the use of relics, and against celibacy of the clergy

AD 1329

Nicaea captured by Ottoman Turks

AD 1336-1405

Timerlane (Tamburlane) the Mongol invaded Mesopotamia and destroyed most of the cities

AD 1337

Ottoman Turks captured Nicomedia

AD 1338

Ottoman Turks invaded and occupied Anatolia

AD 1345

Serbian Czar Stephan Dushan invaded Macedonia and Thrace

AD 1347

The Black Death (The Plague) struck Constantinople. About half the population of the city and one-third of the Empire died

AD 1348-1349

The Black Death spread to Europe; persecution of European Jews increased

ca. AD 1350

English began to emerge as the national language of England
Start of the Renaissance in Italy
Rise of the Muslim Ottoman Dynasty in Turkey

AD 1371

Battle of Maritsa - the Ottoman Turks took Bulgaria

AD 1380

The New Testament translated into English by John Wycliffe. Wycliffe also preached against abuses of the Church and against celibacy of the clergy. His teaching were condemned by Church authorities

AD 1382

Completion of the whole Bible in English (including the Deuterocanonical Books) by John Wycliffe and Nicholas of Hereford

AD 1389

Battle of Kosovo - the Ottoman Turks took Serbia

AD 1391

Massacres and forced conversions of Jews in Spain

AD 1397

Ottoman Turks captured Thessaloniki and Athens, and besieged Constantinople. Then they went to the Peloponese (Greek mainland) and forced 30,000 Greeks into exile in Asia. Turkoman and Tartar colonies settled in Lakonia, Messinia, Achaia, and the Argolis

ca.AD 1400

The Zohar, Jewish Kabalistic book

AD 1400

Tamurlane (Tamburlane, Timerlane, Timur the Lame) sacked Damascus

AD 1402

Mongols and Tartars from central Asia, led by Tamurlane, wiped out Ottoman army near Ankara

AD 1408

Council of Oxford forbade translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular unless and until they were fully approved by Church authority, sparked by Wycliffite Bible, Sir Thomas More said: "It neither forbiddeth the translations to be read that were already well done of old before Wycliffe's days, nor damneth his because it was new but because it was naught; nor prohibiteth new to be made but provideth that they shall not be read if they be made amiss till they be by good examination amended."

AD 1412-1431

St. Joan of Arc, French national heroine

AD 1413

Tamurlane's Empire broke up and the Turks recovered control

AD 1415

Council of Florence condemned all of Wycliffe's works, but the actual Bibles continued to be used after having the heretical prologue removed, and were used by religious houses and the nobility and were tacitly accepted by Roman Catholics

AD 1439