Book Of The Centuries Middle Ages

entries

• 1 Charles Martel defeats the Saracens, halts their westward expansion (714–741)
• 2 Pepin grants lands to the pope; beginning of Papal States (741–768)
• 3 Charlemagne rules a vast empire; crowned Holy Roman Emperor (768–814)
• 4 Prince Henry the Navigator begins the Age of Exploration (1421–1460)
• 5 Harun-Al-Rashid, hero of the Arabian Nights stories (786–809)
• 6 Egbert the Saxon unifies England (802–837)
• 7 Rollo the Viking acquires Normandy in France (died 931)
• 8 Alfred the Great makes peace with the Danes (871–901)
• 9 Henry the Fowler defends Germany from the Magyars (919–936)
• 10 First Viking colonies established in Greenland by Eric the Red (982)
• 11 Canute the Great, Danish king of England (1014–1035)
• 12 El Cid drives the Moors from Valencia, Spain (1040–1099)
• 13 Edward the Confessor drives Macbeth out of Scotland; builds Westminster Abbey (1042–1066)
• 14 Bartholomew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope (1487–1500)
• 15 William the Conqueror rules severely in England (1066–1087)
• 16 Pope Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV battle for power (1073–1105)
• 17 Peter the Hermit preaches the First Crusade (1050–1115)
• 18 Frederick Barbarossa unites Germany (1152–1190)
• 19 Christopher Columbus discovers islands off the Americas’ coast, looking for Asia (1492–1504)
• 20 Henry II and His Sons rule in England (1189–1216)
• 21 Genghis Khan of Mongol invades China (1211–1215)
• 22 Louis IX of France undertakes the Eighth Crusade; cut short by his death (1226–1270)
• 23 St. Dominic founds the Dominican order of friars (1170–1221)
• 24 St. Francis founds the Franciscan order of friars (1182–1226)
• 25 The pope authorizes the Dominican order to carry out the Inquisition (1233)
• 26 Kublai Khan becomes Governor of China and eventually rules Mongol (1251)
• 27 The Aztecs arrive in the Valley of Mexico (1267)
• 28 Robert Bruce leads war for independence from England; crowned king of Scotland (1306–1329)
• 29 Marco Polo travels in the Far East; serves under Kublai Khan (1254–1324)
• 30 Invention of the sawmill (1328)
• 31 Edward the Black Prince of England fights to gain the throne of France (1330–1376)
• 32 Hundred Years’ War begins between France and England (1337)
• 33 William Tell and Arnold von Winkelried fight for Swiss independence (1300–1386)
• 34 Tamerlane, the Mongol, conquers much of Asia (1333–1405)
• 35 The Black Death plague kills onethird of Europe’s population (1348)
• 36 Mongol Yuan dynasty in China overthrown by national Ming dynasty (1368)
• 37 Henry V of England acquires peace treaty with France (1413–1422)
• 38 Joan of Arc leads France to victory; betrayed and beheaded by the English (1412–1431)
• 39 The Incas subdue the Indians of Chimu in northern Peru (1450)
• 40 Hundred Years’ War ends between France and England (1453)
• 41 Gutenberg prints the Bible using movable type (1400–1468)
• 42 Warwick the Kingmaker ignites the thirty-year civil War of the Roses in England (1428–1471)
• 43 Petrarch begins to revive interest in classical Greek and Roman ideas (1304–1374)
• 44 Giotto, first Renaissance artist (1267–1336)
• 45 Filippo Brunelleschi designs dome for cathedral in Florence, Italy (1377–1446)
• 46 Donatello, sculptor and friend of Brunelleschi (1386–1466)
• 47 Lorenzo Valla exposes “The Donation of Constantine” as a fraud (1407–1457)
• 48 Cosimo de’ Medici becomes ruler of Florence, Italy (1389–1464)
• 49 Lorenzo de’ Medici rules Florence after his father (1407–1457)
• 50 Spanish Inquisition begins (1481)
• 51 Jews in Spain given three months to accept Christianity or leave the country (1492)
• 52 Jews expelled from Portugal (1495)
• 53 Girolamo Savonarola, Dominican preacher and evangelist, opposes the Medici family (1452–1498
• 54 Sandro Botticelli, painter artist for the Medici family (1445–1510)
• 55 Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist (1452–1519)
• 56 Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian sculptor and painter (1475–1564)
• 57 Cesare Borgia tries to take over Italy (1475–1507)
• 58 Niccolo Machiavelli writes “The Prince” (1469–1527)
• 59 Giovanni de’ Medici becomes Leo X (1475–1521)
• 60 Erasmus tries to reform the Roman church from within (1466–1536)
• 61 John Wyclif translates the Latin Vulgate into English (1330–1384)
• 62 Vasco da Gama sails around Africa to India (1497–1502)
• 63 Jan Hus of Bohemia condemns Church abuses; burned at the stake (1374–1415)
• 64 Sale of indulgences by Roman church (1517)
• 65 Martin Luther of Germany posts his 95 Theses and ignites the Protestant Reformation (1483–1542)
• 66 Pedro Alvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal (1500–1501)
• 67 John Cabot sails to Newfoundland (1497–1498)
• 68 Amerigo Vespucci explores the Americas’ coastlines (1499–1501)
• 69 Ponce de Leon searches Florida, looking for the Fountain of Youth (1513)
• 70 Charles V, King of Spain, crowned Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
• 71 Albrecht Durer, German artist and engraver (1471–1528)
• 72 Ulrich Zwingli carries the Reformation to Switzerland (1484–1531)
• 73 Balboa crosses Panama to the Pacific Ocean (1513)
• 74 Thomas Muntzer urges German peasants to revolt (1490?–1525)
• 75 Conrad Grebel begins the Anabaptist movement in Switzerland (1498–1526)
• 76 Michael Sattler, Anabaptist martyr in Switzerland (1490?–1527)
• 77 Menno Simons publishes Anabaptist “Book of Fundamentals”; founds Mennonites (1496–1561)
• 78 Henry VIII breaks from Roman church to be declared head of Church of England (1491–1547)
• 79 Thomas More, Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor (1477–1535)
• 80 William Tyndale publishes first complete Bible in English (1495–1536)
• 81 Magellan sails around the world (1519–1522)
• 82 Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s principal secretary, dissolves monasteries in England (1485–1540)
• 83 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, encourages Henry VIII to approve English Bible (1489–1556)
• 84 The “great comet” (later Halley’s) arouses a wave of superstition (1531)
• 85 Spain annexes Cuba (1539)
• 86 John Calvin writes “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” defining Protestant beliefs (1509–1564)
• 87 John Knox carries the Reformation to Scotland (1514–1572)