Japanese crown prince and regent Shotoku Taishi, who imported Chinese culture into Japan as well as compiled the first written history of his country, dies.

622

The founder of Islam, Muhammad, who was forced to leave Mecca in 619, migrates to Yathrib (Medina) with his followers. His flight is known as the Hegira. This date is used as the traditional start of the Muslim calendar.

625

Muhammad begins dictating his beliefs, which will be gathered into the Koran.

627

Bishop Paulinus of Kent, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England, converts Edwin to Christianity.

628

Muhammad and his followers, by the treaty of Hudaybiya, are granted permission to make a pilgrimage from Yathrib to Mecca. Later, the Meccans lift a siege of Yathrib.

630*

Hindu king Narasimhavarman I Mahamalla, of the Pallava dynasty, begins his reign in southern India. He rules until 668.

632

Muhammad dies. His successor, Abu Bakr, puts down an anti-Islamic Arab revolt with the assistance of general Khalid ibn al-Walid and begins military campaigns against Syria.

637

A small Arab army defeats a Persian force of fifty thousand men in a three-day battle at al-Qadisiyah (Kadisiya) in Persia (modern Iraq). The Arabs occupy the Persian capital at Ctesiphon three months later.

638

Muslim Arabs under Umar I capture Jerusalem.

641

Heraclius dies. After a period of internal struggle, Constans II Pogonatus emerges as the Byzantine emperor.
Germanic Lombards capture the cities of Oderzo and Genoa in Italy.

642

Narasimhavarman attacks the Deccan ruler Pulakesin II and captures southern India.

643

Egypt is conquered by the Arabs.
King Rothari of the Lombards issues a Germanic civil and criminal code.

645

A palace revolt in Japan leads to a more closely knit state; an authoritarian, monarchial government is established by the Taikwa reforms the following year.

646

Arab general ’Amr ibn al-’As defeats an uprising in Alexandria.

647

The Arabs invade the Byzantine province of Africa, kill the usurper Gregory, and put down an African rebellion.

648

Byzantine emperor Constans II Pogonatus declares that Christian teachings will be limited to those defined in the first five ecumenical councils.

654

The Mediterranean island Rhodes is attacked by Arabs. Surviving portions of the Colossus of Rhodes, which was destroyed in an earlier earthquake, are dismantled and sold for scrap by the Arabs.

655

The Arabs take Kabul and Kandahar (in present-day Afghanistan).
A Byzantine fleet is destroyed by an Arab fleet in the Battle of Attaleia (Battle of the Masts) off the coast of Asia Minor.

657

Wulfhere becomes king of the Mercians in southern England; he helps spread Christianity on the island.

661

The Khariji, a fanatical sect, breaks away from ’Ali and members of the group assassinate him. Mu’awiyah becomes caliph and establishes the Umayyad dynasty, making Damascus his capital. The Muslim Shia sect is created.

663

Japanese troops are withdrawn from Korea after being defeated by the Chinese.

664

Catholics in England, from the rival Celtic and Roman traditions, meet at the monastery of St. Hilda for the Synod of Whitby to debate doctrinal differences, especially concerning the celebration of Easter. The dispute is settled in favor of the Roman tradition.

666

The newly elected Bishop of Canterbury, the Saxon Wighard, travels to Rome and announces the conversion of all of England to Catholicism. He will, however, never become bishop, having been blocked from reentry into England by an outbreak of plague.

668

Constans II is assassinated while he is in Sicily to protect Italy from Arab invasion and making plans to retake North Africa. His son, Constantine IV, becomes the Byzantine ruler.

669

Muslims conquer Morocco. They also sack Syracuse on Sicily.

671

English prelate Wilfrid, later bishop of York, who was instrumental in converting northern Englishmen to Roman Catholicism, is given a monastery at Ripon, where he builds a great abbey.
The reign of Japanese emperor Tenchi (Nakano-Oe) ends, sparking a dynastic struggle between his eldest son and his eldest brother.

676

A Catholic nunnery is established at Bath, England, which is an important health resort.

677

The siege of Constantinople is lifted after the Arab fleet is destroyed. This defeat leads to thirty years of peace between the Byzantine and Arab empires.

678

Pope Donus, who served from 676, dies. During his short reign he brought the Archbishopric of Ravenna back into the Roman church.

680

Mu’awiyah dies and a war of succession occurs. Yazid I seizes power and wipes out a small revolt led by Husayn ibn ’Ali, who is killed in the Battle of Karbala. The town becomes a holy site for the Shiite branch of the Muslim faith.

681

Bulgarians and Byzantines, who have been at war since 679, forge a peace treaty that gives the latter the province of Moesia.

682

The Thirteenth Council of Toledo issues many anti-Jewish restrictions.
Ah Cacau takes the throne of the Mayan city of Tikal (in modern northern Guatemala) and begins building great temples.

683

Yazid I—who reformed the political and administrative functions of his empire—dies. Marwan I succeeds to the Baghdad throne.

685

Constantine IV dies; the Byzantine throne is taken by his son, Justinian II.
Marwan I dies; he is succeeded by his son, ’Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who continues efforts to expand the influence of the Umayyad empire against the Byzantines and the North Africans.

686

Citizens of the Isle of Wight are converted to Christianity.

687

Pepin II (the Younger) of Heristal bests a rival for mayorship of the palace, in which the power of the kingdom resides, defeats the Neustrian nobles at the Battle of Tertry, and unites the Frankish empire.

688

King Cadwalla of Wessex, one of the last holdouts to Christianity in the British Isles, travels to Rome and is baptized by the Pope.

690

Benedict Biscop, responsible for spreading Benedictine monasticism in Britain and allegedly introducing glassmaking and stone-constructed churches to the island, dies.

691

The ornate Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built by ’Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan to protect the site where Muhammad allegedly ascended into heaven, is completed. Work on this Islamic structure, designed to compete with Christian and Jewish sacred buildings in the city, was begun in the late 680s.

692

An Episcopal meeting in Constantinople, the Council of Trullo (or Quinisext Ecumenical Council), confirms Eastern customs (such as the marriage of priests) against Western ways and declares that the patriarch of Constantinople is equal to the pope. Sergius I refuses to sign the decrees.

694

Marwan I appoints a governor in North Africa who continues Muslim attacks against the Berbers and Byzantines in the region.

695

An army officer, Leontius, stages a coup and deposes Emperor Justinian II, who is exiled to the Crimea. Leontius rules for only three years, being deposed by Tiberius III Apsimar in 698.

698

Arabs occupy Carthage and end Byzantine rule in North Africa.

700*

The North American Indians begin to use bows and arrows in place of spears as the favorite weapons for hunting. Invention of the hoe improves the efficiency of agriculture.
The Srivijayas, who originate in Sumatra, take control of maritime trade routes in Indonesia.

701*

Anglo-Saxon scholar Aldhelm, later bishop of Sherborne, translates the Psalms from Latin into Old English.

702

The Bala Bhramma temple, principal site in the Hindu Nava Brahamma temple complex in southern India, is constructed.

703

Anglo-Saxon scholar and monk the Venerable Bede is ordained at Jarrow. He is the author of ecclesiastical histories—as well as works on grammar, physical science, and biblical commentary.

705

Justinian II returns to the Byzantine throne and captures Constantinople with a Bulgarian army. He beheads Tiberius III Apsimar and kills Leontius.

708

Sisinnius is elected Pope, but he dies after serving for only twenty days. His place is taken by Constantine, who travels to Constantinople in 711 at the invitation of Justinian II to confer about the differences between the Eastern and Western rites.

710

The Buddhist center of Nara is made the capital of Japan, an honor it holds until 784.
Roderick becomes king of the Visigoths in Spain.

711

Led by Mohammed ibn al-Kassim, the Arabs invade India.
Musa ibn Nusayr sends general Tariq ibn Ziyad to invade Iberia with a Berber army of seven thousand soldiers; Tariq defeats the Visigoths under Roderick at the Battle of Rio Barbate.
Justinian II is captured by his rebellious general Philippicus (Philip Bardanes) and is put to death. Philippicus rules Constantinople for two years and then is defeated by an Arab army.

712

Liutprand becomes king of the Lombards in Italy.
O no Yasumaro compiles the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters), a collection of Japanese creation stories and legends sacred to the Shinto sect, and presents it to the Imperial Court. This work is considered the start of Japanese literature.

713

A treaty between Muslim invaders and Visigoth defenders of Orihuela, Spain, is signed. Terms were favorable to the defeated citizenry, as Christians and Jews were permitted to keep their property, practice their religion, pay fairer taxes, and retain local leadership.

714

Pepin II dies; by force of arms, his illegitimate son, Charles Martel, wins the Frankish throne.

715

Byzantine government official Theodosius III becomes emperor after the fall of Anastasius II.
Gregory II is elected Pope. He concentrates on converting Germanic tribes to Christianity.
Shomu becomes the forty-fifth emperor of Japan. He promotes Buddhism and temple construction.

716

Aethelbald becomes king of Mercia. He begins to make it the strongest of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Muslims invade Portugal.
The newly crowned king of the Neustrians, Chilperic II, is defeated by forces of Charles Martel at the Battle of Ambleve. He is recalled from exile to retain the kingship of the Franks in 719.

717

The Khamis Mosque, the oldest Islamic structure in Bahrain, is built.

718

Because of Byzantine superiority at sea, Emperor Leo III (the Isaurian), who deposed Theodosius III in 717, successfully raises the Arab siege of Constantinople.

719

English Benedictine missionary Boniface (Wynfrid) is sent by Pope Gregory II to work with the Germanic people. He organizes many churches and becomes archbishop. In 725 he chops down the Donar Oak, spiritual symbol of Germanic spirituality, in his attack on heathen belief in the region. He is killed by a mob in 754.

720

The second oldest collection of Japanese myths is gathered in the Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan).

724

Lalitaditya becomes ruler of Kashmir and begins to conquer portions of northern India. His kingdom will stretch from Tibet to Iran and from southern India to Central Asia.

725

Following the Sycthian Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus in reckoning dates from the birth of Christ, the Venerable Bede publishes De Temporum ratione (On the Reckoning of Time); this system is rapidly accepted in Western Europe.

726

Leo III condemns and bans the use of icons and begins destroying these religious works of art. He also revises the law code, known as the Ecloga, and devises new rules for the military and maritime trade.

730

Pope Gregory II excommunicates Leo III.
The Khazars, an Eastern European people with Turkish roots, defeat an Arab army at the three-day Battle of Ardabil and then conquer Azerbaijan, Armenia, and northern Iraq. Their military presence helps block the spread of Islam into the Caucasus Mountain region. Khazar rulers, and many of their people, convert to Judaism, possibly in an effort to avoid being subjugated or dominated by their Muslim and Christian neighbors.

731

Pope Gregory II dies. The Pope elected to replace him also adopts the name Gregory (III) and takes up the fight against Iconoclasm.

732

An army led by Charles Martel defeats the Arabs at the Battle of Tours (Poitiers) in central Gaul, effectively blocking the expansion of Islam into southern Europe.

734

The Hindu Siva temple complex Eklingji, located near Udaipur, India, is carved from sandstone and marble.

736

The Mayan Temple of the Masks is constructed in Tikal (modern Guatemala).

738

Mayan warriors from Quirigua defeat the defenders of Copan, capture its ruler and behead him, gaining for the victors control of trade to the Caribbean.

739

Charles Martel and Luitprand unite their forces and attack Rome.

740

At the battle of Akroinon, Byzantine forces, with the help of the Khazars and the Georgians, defeat the Arabs, who had invaded Asia Minor.

741

The Japanese government of Shomu pronounces that Buddhist temples will be constructed throughout the nation.
Charles Martel dies; his lands are divided between his sons Pepin III (the Short) and Carloman.
Leo III dies and is replaced on the Byzantine throne by his son Constantine V, who has served as coruler since 720. Constantine defeats a challenge from his brother-in-law Artabasdus.

743

Shomu begins construction of the Todai Temple in Nara, which is completed in 752.

744

Umayyad caliph al-Walid II, who cultivated the arts, dies. The Abbasid movement emerges and contests the leadership of the Umayyads.

745

Bubonic plague sweeps Constantinople and spreads to Europe.

746

Daibutsu Hall, the largest wooden structure in the world, is built in the Todai Temple complex in Nara, Japan.

749

The reign of Shomu comes to an end. Japanese society was dominated by a widespread imitation of Chinese culture during his administration. His daughter Koken takes the throne.
Indian monk Padmasambhava introduces Buddhism to Tibet and establishes a monastery.

750

The Mayan city Teotihuacan in Mexico is destroyed and the seat of power shifts to southern Mexico.
Marwan II, last of the Umayyad rulers, is defeated by the Abbasids at the Battle of Great Zab. Abu al-’Abbas as-Saffah becomes caliph (establishing the Abbasid dynasty), murders Umayyad leaders, and moves the capital to Baghdad.

751

Arabs defeat the Chinese on the Talas River after occupying Tashkent, Samarqand, and Bukhara; they begin to spread Islamic influence through central Asia.
Pepin the Short deposes Childeric III and becomes king of the Franks, starting the Carolingian dynasty.

753

Two Chinese prisoners disclose the technique of making paper to the Arabs, and there-after the first paper mill in the Arab world is founded in Baghdad.

754

Constantine V calls the Synod of Constantinople to sustain his fight against the use of icons.

756

Pepin the Short defeats the Lombards; the Papal States are declared an independent territory under the authority of the Pope. Pepin the Short gives the Pope control of Ravenna.

759

Pepin the Short drives Muslims out of southern France.
Mountain tribes in Lebanon revolt against Abbasid rule.
A collection of more than 4,500 Japanese poems from the Nara period is compiled in the Manyoshu (The Anthology of Ten Thousand Leaves).

760

Construction begins on Borobudur, a great Buddhist temple fashioned from lava rock, on the island of Java in Indonesia. More than 1900 bas-reliefs and statues were featured in the complex.

761

Abd ar Rahman ibn Rustum founds the Rustumid dynasty at Tahirt in Algeria.
The Abbasids in Mesopotamia adopt the Indian system of numerals.

763

The Abbasids improve irrigation, repair the Nahrwan canal on the Tigris River near Baghdad, and construct a dam.

764

Japanese Buddhist priest Dokyo instigates a coup against Emperor Junnin and installs Koken as Empress Shotoku. Dokyo remains, however, the power behind the throne.

766

The Mayan Temple of the Inscriptions is constructed in Tikal (modern Guatemala).

768

Charlemagne, son of Pepin the Short, becomes king of the Neustrians upon the death of his father, he becomes king of all the Franks in 771 when his brother, Carloman, dies.
The Celtic Church in Wales officially reunites with the Roman Church.

770

Empress Shotoku dies; she is replaced on the Japanese throne by Emperor Konin. Her death also marks the end of influence of the priest Dokyo, who is banished from the royal city.

771

Charlemagne makes Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), probably the town of his birth and where he has resided since 668, capital of his empire. By this date most of what will be modern France, Belgium, and Germany is controlled by the Franks. Charlemagne also marries Hildegarde, a fellow native of Aachen.

774

After occupying the Lombard Kingdom, Charlemagne declares himself king. He also occupies much of Italy. The first Prankish king to visit Rome, he agrees to give Ravenna to the Pope, a donation originally made by Pepin the Short, his father and predecessor.

775

On the death of Constantine V, his eldest son, Leo IV (the Khazar), succeeds as Byzantine emperor. Although also an iconoclast, he carries out a more appeasing religious policy.

776*

Arab alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, considered by some the father of chemistry, works in the city of Al-Kufa, south of Baghdad.

778

The rear guard of Charlemagne’s army is caught and massacred by Basques at the pass at Roncesvalles, Spain, in the Pyrenees Mountains. The Basques, fighting with lighter arms—and therefore more mobile than their opponents—probably sought to plunder the baggage train. The attack is memorialized as La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland, circa 1100s), in honor of one of the knights who died.

780

Alp Qutlug, Kagan (emperor) of the Uighurs in Central Asia, opens his empire to Sino-Persian influence by adopting Manichaeism as the state religion.

781

Pepin, son of Charlemagne, becomes king of Italy, while his brother, Louis I (the Pious), is made king of Aquitaine. Charlemagne brings Alcuin, headmaster of the cathedral school in York, England, to Aachen, which sparks a revival of learning.

782

Charlemagne, who is trying to establish the Christian Church in Saxony, massacres 4,500 Saxon hostages by beheading them, possibly in revenge for an earlier defeat suffered at their hands. He faces several insurrections, deports many Saxons, and fails to subdue the region until 804.

784

Japanese emperor Kammu moves the capital from Nara to Nagaoka to lessen the influence of the Buddhist priests.

786

Harun ar-Rashid becomes fifth caliph of the Abbasid dynasty after the short rule of his brother Musa al-Hadi (785-786). He extends the power of the Islamic caliphate from Asia to Africa, with Baghdad the centerpiece of Arabic culture.

787

Pope Adrian I calls and presides over the Second Nicean Council, the seventh ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, which was initially planned to be held in Constantinople. Empress Irene, however, replaces rebellious officers, and the meeting is held in Nicea. Among the decisions made at the council is approval of the use of icons.

788

Tassilo III is deposed by Charlemagne; Bavaria is added to the kingdom of the Franks.

789

Miinster, Germany, is founded.

790*

Jayavarman II returns from Javan exile to Cambodia, initially serving as a puppet ruler; he asserts independence (802), unites the people, establishes Hindu Brahminism as the state religion, and founds the Khmer Empire.

792

Empress Irene is called back from a two-year retirement to become coruler with her son, Constantine VI.

793

Viking invaders attack Lindisfarne (Holy Island), which is located off the coast of Northumberland, England. A monastery, founded there in 635, is destroyed and the monks are carried off.

794

The imperial court is moved to Kyoto, which is the traditional start of the Heian period of Japanese history.

795

Charlemagne establishes a frontier province south of Pyrenees (Spain) between the Prankish and Arab empires.
Viking raids, particularly aimed at monasteries, are carried out against Ireland and England.

796

Charlemagne defeats the Avars after five years of conflict.

799

Rijeka (Fiume), Croatia, is destroyed by Charlemagne’s forces.
A rebellion in Rome against Leo III is put down by Charlemagne.

800*

Irish monks on the island of lona copy and illuminate the Four Gospels in a manuscript known as the Book of Kells (or Book of Columba). It is a masterpiece of medieval Celtic art.

800

Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne the first Emperor in the West since the downfall of the Roman Empire in 476.
Iceland and the Faeroe Islands are allegedly discovered by Irish monks.

801

Charlemagne recaptures Barcelona from the Moors, who have held the city since 713.

802

Jayavarman II establishes Angkor as his capital. The city features beautiful temples and palaces, as well as advanced irrigation.
The khan and warrior Krum takes the Bulgar throne by defeating the Avars; he then wages war against the Byzantine Empire.

804-806*

Japanese Buddhist monk Kukai founds the Shingon sect.

806

Ashot IV becomes the first king of the Bagratid dynasty of Armenia and remains in power until 826.
Venetia and Dalmatia, two former Roman provinces, submit to the authority of Charlemagne.

Harun ar-Rashid renews Arab incursions into Byzantine territory and forces new terms of peace with the empire.

807

Krum’s Bulgar army advances on Constantinople.
The Kiyomizu Temple is founded in Kyoto, Japan.

808*

Charlemagne founds a fortress on the Elbe River to serve against the Slavs; the citadel becomes the town of Hamburg.

809

Emperor Saga takes the Japanese throne upon abdication of Heizei.

810*

The Temple of the Jaguar Priest is constructed by the Mayans in Tikal.
King Harold I (Harald) begins his reign in Denmark.

811

Nicephorus I dies in battle while attacking the capital of Bulgar leader Krum. Allegedly, the khan drinks from a cup fashioned from the slain emperor’s skull. Nicephorus Fs successor, Stauracius, is unable to serve because of a debilitating injury and is replaced on the throne by his son-in-law, Michael Rangabe, who becomes Michael I.

812

Michael I sends an embassy to Charlemagne and formally recognizes him as emperor of the West. In return, Charlemagne concedes Venice and Dalmatia to the Byzantine Empire.

813

Leo V (the Armenian), a Byzantine general, overthrows Michael I and takes the crown. He continues to fight against the Bulgars; Krum dies the following year; Leo leads the Byzantines until he is assassinated in 820.
Al-Amin is captured at Baghdad and killed by his rebellious brother al-Ma’mum (Mamum the Great), who rules as caliph until 833.

814

Charlemagne dies; his son, Louis I (the Pious), becomes emperor of the West. Louis has served as coruler since 813.

817

In accordance with Prankish custom, Louis I divides the kingdom among his three sons (Lothair I [Italy], Pepin I [Aquitaine and Burgundy], and Louis II the German [Bavaria]), and bitter rivalry and warfare break out among the brothers thereafter.
Paschal I becomes Pope and secures control over the papal territories.

Leo V defeats the Bulgarians at Mesembria and concludes a peace that lasts for thirty years.
Moorish ruler al-Hakam I defeats and expels rebels in Cordoba.

819

Saman-khoda founds the Samanid dynasty in Persia. The Samanids remain controlled, however, by the caliph in Baghdad.

820*

Arab mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi advances the concepts of algebra, algorithms, and decimal notation; he greatly influences scientific and mathematical knowledge in the Middle East and Europe.

823

Japanese emperor Saga abdicates the throne to follow cultural pursuits and is replaced by Junna.
Vikings plunder Bangor in Ulster in northern Ireland.
Kanak Pal becomes the first ruler of the Himalayan state of Garhwal.

824

Crete is invaded by Saracens and is used as a base for pirates. They found in 825 the city of Khandak (later Candia, and now Heraklion) on the northern coast. Conquest of the island is completed in 826.

825

The dominance of the Mercians comes to an end after West Saxon (Wessex) king Egbert defeats the forces of Beornwulf at the Battle of Ellendune.

826

Benedictine missionary Ansgar enters Denmark, Norway, and Sweden to evangelize for the Church. He is made archbishop for Scandinavian (as well as Slavic) missions and is later canonized for his efforts.

827

Sicily is invaded by Arabs from North Africa, who are invited in by a local governor. The conquest is slow, as many strongholds do not fall until the turn of the century.

829

Emperor Michael II dies; he is succeeded on the Byzantine throne by his son, Theophilus, who initiates a renaissance of learning and art.

830

Louis I’s three sons attempt to overthrow him as Holy Roman Emperor, but they fail. Another coup attempt in 833 also fails.
Viking raiders sail up the Thames River in England.

831

French Benedictine theologian Paschasius Radbertus of the abbey at Corbie introduces the concept of transubstantiation in De corpore et sanguine Christi.
Pannonia is conquered by the Bulgars.
Omortag, leader of the Bulgarians, dies and is succeeded by his son, Malamir.

832

Approximately one thousand Viking warriors raid deep into Ireland.

834*

Kenneth I MacAlpin becomes king of Dalriada and begins a campaign to unite the Scots under one rule. He is traditionally credited with establishing the kingdom of Scotland.
Al-Mu’tasim succeeds al-Ma’mum as caliph, initiating the decline of the Abbasid dynasty.

837

The Muslim Empire ruled by al-Mu’tasim is invaded by Byzantine forces.
A revolt by Christians in Spain is put down by the Moors.

838

The Saxons, led by Egbert, defeat a combined Danish-Cornish army at the Battle of Hingston Down.

840*

The Norsemen found Limerick and Dublin as trading bases on the Irish coast.

840

Invaded by Kirghiz Turks coming from the west, the Central Asian empire of the Uighur Turks collapses.

841

The armies of Louis the German and Charles the Bald defeat their brother Lothair I at the Battle of Fontenoy.
Scandinavians settle in Normandy.

842

Byzantine emperor Theophilus dies; his wife, Theodora, serves as regent for their son, Michael III. She is forced to retire in 858.

843

Charles the Bald, Louis the German, and Lothair I meet and sign the Treaty of Verdun; they agree to divide Carolingian lands among themselves. Charles the Bald obtains the western part of the empire, Louis the German gains the eastern, and Lothair I, the oldest brother, retains the title of emperor and obtains the middle kingdom.

844

Pope Gregory IV dies. He tried, and failed, to mediate among warring Prankish rulers. A popular uprising tries to install John as the next Pope, but the nobility succeeds in electing Sergius II.

845

Viking raiders sack Paris.

846

Rome is attacked by the Saracens, who desecrate many holy Christian shrines, including the Basilica of St. Peter, from which they strip gold and silver.

847

Pope Leo IV builds the Leonine Wall to protect the Vatican.

849

Muslim raiders are defeated at the Battle of Ostia by a fleet and army from united Italian seaport cities led by the Duke of Naples.

850

Irish-born theologian John Scotus Erigena writes De divisione naturae.
Vijalaya founds the Cola (Chola) dynasty of southern India.

851

Danish sea forces are defeated by the Saxons off the coast of Kent; after sacking London, a Danish army is beaten by Aethelwulf at the Battle of Ockley.

852

Construction, started in 842, is completed on the largest Muslim mosque in the world, the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq, which features a fifty-foot spiral tower.
Boris I becomes ruler of Bulgaria and converts (in 865) to Orthodox Christianity. He makes his subjects adopt Christianity as well.

855

Lothair I dies; his lands are divided among his three sons: Louis II obtains Italy, Charles gets Provence, and Lothair II gains Lotharingia. Louis II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

856

Michael III serves as Byzantine emperor after ending the regency of his mother, who enters a convent. He is heavily influenced by Bardas, who raises eyebrows by living with the widow of his son.

857

The patriarch of Constantinople, Ignatius, excommunicates Bardas for living in an allegedly incestuous arrangement.

858

Michael III removes Ignatius from the patriarchy and puts Photius in his place, a move opposed by Pope Nicholas I, who excommunicates Photius, sparking the Photian Schism.

860

Rus Vikings, living in the Kiev region (modern Ukraine), travel down the Dnieper River into the Black Sea and attack Constantinople, but they fail to capture the city.

862

Byzantine Orthodox missionaries Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius are sent by Michael III to convert the Slavs of Moravia and Bohemia. The former develops a written language, Cyrillic, adapted for the Slavs from Greek.
Varangians, of Scandinavian origins and led by Rurik, arrive in Novgorod, an area dominated by the princes of Kiev.

865*

Persian physician Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakanya ar-Razi (Rhazes) writes a treatise detailing the differences between smallpox and measles.

865

Louis the German divides his kingdom: Carloman gets Bavaria and Carinthia; Charles III (the Fat) obtains Swabia; and Louis the Younger is given Franconia, Thuringia, and Saxony.

866

Danish invaders capture Northumbria and begin building settlements.

867

Basil I murders Michael and sits as emperor until 886. A strong leader who reforms the laws, finances, and military, Basil starts a dynasty that lasts until 1056. He also deposes Photius and restores Ignatius as patriarch of Constantinople.

868

The first known book printed on paper, the Buddhist text Diamond Sutra, is produced in Japan.

869

Lothair II dies and his lands are divided between his uncles Louis the German and Charles the Bald.

869-870

The Fourth Council of Constantinople, called by Basil I and Byzantine patriarch Ignatius in hopes of mending fences among the contesting parties to the patriarchy, is held to determine the status of clerics assigned under Photius. Adrian II sends delegates; Photius is condemned; and Ignatius is confirmed.

871

The son of Aethelwulf and brother of the deceased King Aethelred, Alfred (the Great) becomes king of Wessex. Nine battles are fought this year between Saxons and Danes.

872

King Harold I consolidates control of Norway, defeating his rivals at the Battle of Hafrsfjord.

874

Viking legend claims that Ingolfur Arnarson sails to Iceland and founds a settlement that becomes Reykjavik.

875

After the death of Holy Roman Emperor Louis II, Charles the Bald rushes to Italy and is crowned Emperor by Pope John VIII.

876

Louis III (the Younger) defeats his uncle, Charles the Bald, who was trying to control territory held by Louis the German, at the Battle of Andernach.

877

Charles the Bald dies. His son, Louis II (the Stammerer), becomes king of France but not Holy Roman Emperor.

878

King Alfred defeats a Danish army commanded by Guthrum at Edington in Wiltshire and forces the Danes to accept the Peace of Wedmore. Guthrum is baptized and removes his settlements to East Anglia.

879

The Khmers of Cambodia begin building temples at Angkor.
Pope John VIII recognizes Photius as the patriarch of Constantinople.

880

Louis the Stammerer dies; his sons, Carloman and Louis III, divide the kingdom of the West Franks.
King Amoghavarsha of northern India, a patron of Jainism and regional literature, dies.

881

Charles becomes the first eastern Prankish ruler to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. His empire is divided into several small, entirely independent, kingdoms.

882

Kiev is captured by Rus king Oleg, who succeeded Rurik; Oleg makes the town his capital.

883

The Zinj—East African slave laborers—who began a revolt near Basra, Iraq, in 869, are put down by al-Muwaffaq, regent for caliph al-Mu’tamid.

885

Count Eudes defends Paris against a Norse siege; he defeats the invaders in 886, despite receiving no help from Charles the Fat.

886

Alfred the Great captures London and rules England south of the Danish-controlled areas.
Byzantine emperor Basil I dies and is succeeded by his son, Leo IV (the Wise), who has been co-emperor since 870.

887

Charles the Fat is deposed and the Carolingian empire falls apart; Germany and France are founded; southern France, Burgundy, and Italy become competing kingdoms. Carloman’s illegitimate son Arnulf becomes king of Germany.
Uda Tenno, who is dominated by the civil dictator Fujiwara Mototsune, becomes emperor of Japan.

888

Eudes, defender of Paris, becomes king of the west Franks, but he is opposed by Charles III (the Simple).

889

The Magyars are pushed out of the Danube River region by invading Turkic peoples.
Boris I abdicates the Bulgarian throne in favor of his son Vladimir, although Boris is forced to return in 893 to put his third son, Simeon (the Great), in power.
King Anand Dev founds the Nepalese city of Bhadgaon (Bhaktapur, the “city of devotees”) in the Himalayas.

890*

Thyra, wife of Danish king Gorm the Old, has an immense rampart (Dannevirke) erected across the peninsula to protect the Danes against German attacks.

891

German king Arnulf defeats the Vikings at the Battle of the Dyle (in modern Belgium). He also attacks the Moravians and invades Italy.
Arnulf is unable to come to Rome to accept the coronation as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire; Guy of Spoleto forces Pope Stephen V to crown him instead. Guy’s young son, Lambert, becomes coruler in 892. Stephen dies and is replaced as Pope by the reluctant Formosus, who follows his predecessor’s policies.

894

Simeon (the Great) leads the Bulgarians against Constantinople, initiating a series of wars that last until 924, although he never captures the Byzantine capital.

896

Arnulf captures Rome, whereupon he becomes Holy Roman Emperor. Formosus, who crowns the conqueror, dies and is replaced by Boniface VI, who lives only fifteen days after becoming Pope and is possibly an assassination victim. Stephen VI then is elected Pope.
Magyar chief Arpad leads his people out of the Black Sea region into Hungary and captures territory from local tribes.

897

Pope Stephen VI, who may be deranged, exhumes Pope Formosus’s corpse at the behest of Lambert (who regained the crown) and makes it undergo trial for capital crimes at the “Cadaver Synod.” After Formosus is convicted, three fingers are severed and the body is tossed into the Tiber River; the cadaver is later buried. An uprising deposes Stephen, and he is strangled while imprisoned. Romanus is made Pope, but he is deposed after four months; his replacement, Theodore II, is also perhaps murdered, his reign lasting only about a month.

899

Arnulf dies, after having suffered paralysis during the wars in Italy, and is succeeded on the German throne by his six-year-old son, Louis IV (the Child), with the archbishop of Mainz serving as regent.
Japanese emperor Uda Tenno appoints scholar Sugawara Michizane as minister to counter the influence on the imperial house by the Fujiwaras.

900*

Magyar raiders conduct incursions, which continue into the 950s, in central Europe.
Bantu-speaking people establish city-states in eastern Africa.
Mayan civilization is in disarray as the lowland cities of Central America are abandoned, while in the highlands the Mayans continue to flourish.
Toltecs migrate into Mexico and drive remnants of native inhabitants from Teotihuacan.

901

Muslim raiders capture the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean Sea, located off the coast of Spain.

902

Muslim invaders complete their conquest of Sicily.

903

The Saffarid dynasty in Iran ends and is replaced by the Samanids.
Returned from exile for having supported Stephen VI, Sergius III orders the deaths of the antipope Christopher and Pope Leo V in 903, and takes the pontificate (904).

904

By treaty, the Byzantines acknowledge Bulgarian territorial acquisitions in northern Greece.

905

The Muslim Tulunid dynasty of Egypt, founded in 868 by Ahmad ibn Tulun, is defeated by the armies of Caliph al-Maktafi.

907

Kievan prince Oleg defeats Constantinople and obtains an indemnity; he follows up this victory by negotiating a trade agreement in 911.

909

Ubayd Allah founds the Muslim Fatimid dynasty of North Africa.

910

The largest Benedictine abbey is founded at Cluny, France. The monastery starts a reform movement that will sweep Europe by establishing a sanctuary that promotes a prayerful Benedictine life.

911

The final Eastern Carolingian king, Louis the Child, dies; Germany is divided into rival principalities. Conrad I is elected king but is forced to renounce the throne in 919.
Charles the Simple gives Rollo, who converted to Christianity, land that becomes known as Normandy. Rollo is baptized Robert and becomes Charles’s vassal.
Edward the Elder takes London and Oxford after the death of Mercian king Aethelred II. Queen Aethelflaed continues as ruler in Wessex and fortifies Mercia against Viking attacks. She rules until her death in 918.

913

The scholarly Constantine VII (Porphyrogenitus) becomes Byzantine emperor and reigns until 959.
Umayyid emir ’Abd ar-Rahman III an-Nasir captures Seville and controls the Iberian Peninsula.

915

A united Italian army, supported by a Greek navy and led by Pope John X, destroys a Saracen force encamped near the Gagliano River in southern Italy.

919

Henry I (the Fowler) is elected King of Germany and forms an alliance with Charles the Simple.
Southwest Anasazi Indians begin construction of Pueblo Bonito (in modern Chaco Canyon, New Mexico); the structure will eventually have 650 rooms and is not completed until 1085.

920

Admiral of the fleets, Romanus I Lecapenus, becomes the power behind the Byzantine throne while serving as co-emperor with Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

923

Charles the Simple is defeated by Hebert, Count of Vermandois, and dies while in his custody.

925

Bulgarian leader Simeon the Great becomes tsar of the Romans and Bulgarians.

926

Aethelstan annexes Northumbria.
Manchuria and northern Korea are annexed by the Mongol Khitan empire.

927

The Reveller, a Slavic tribe living along the Havel River, are defeated by Henry the Fowler.

928

Marozia (Little Mary), an influential Italian noblewoman, succeeds in having Pope John X imprisoned. He dies in prison.
Vikings reputedly massacre one thousand Irish taking refuge in Dunmore Cave.

929

Stephen VII becomes Pope and serves until his death in 931. He may have been the first Pope to be clean-shaven in office and to promote the practice in Italy.

930

A constitutional law code and parliament, the Althing, are established in Iceland. Representatives meet in a natural amphitheater yearly to elect leaders and settle disputes.

931

Marozia gets her son, possibly conceived from a union with Pope Sergius III, installed as Pope John XI; he wields little power, as he is dominated during his pontificate either by his mother or his brother, Alberic II, the ruler of Rome.

933

The Second Kingdom of Burgundy (Kingdom of Aries) is formed by Rudolf II from the united provinces of Cisjurane and Transjurane Burgundy, which had been separated after the fall of the Carolingian empire.
Henry the Fowler leads German forces, newly trained in mounted warfare, in defeating Magyar invaders at Riade.

935

The Silla dynasty, which has ruled Korea since 618, comes to an end and is replaced by the Koryo dynasty, which rules until 1392.

936

Otto I (the Great) is placed on the German and Holy Roman thrones after the death of his father, Henry.
Harold II (Bluetooth), son of Gorm the Old, becomes king of Denmark upon the death of his father.

937

Aethelstan gains greater control of Anglo-Saxon England after defeating a combined Pict-Viking army at the Battle of Brunanburh in Scotland.

938

Vietnamese leader Ngo Quyen defeats the Chinese at the Battle of Bach Dang River and proclaims an independent Vietnam.

941

A Greek fleet defending Constantinople destroys an invading Russian force led by Igor, Duke of Kiev.

942

After a peace was arranged between Hugh of Provence and the Vatican, Pope Stephen VIII dies and is followed in the patriarchy by Marinus II, who is dominated by Alberic II.

944

Co-emperor Romanus I Lecapenus is deposed by his sons, but Constantine V remains in power; the fratricides are banished from the Byzantine Empire.
Rebellious Slavs (Drevelans) capture and kill Prince Igor. His wife, Olga, serves as regent for their son and exacts revenge upon the murderers by killing their emissaries and burning their city.
Edmund expels the Norsemen, led by Olaf Sihtricson, from Northumbria.

945

The Buyids seize Baghdad and establish a Shiite state that rules central Iraq until 1055. Abbasid caliphs remain as puppet rulers.

946

Edmund is murdered while attending a banquet at Pucklechurch. His brother, Eadred, succeeds to the English crown.

949

The Colas of southern India, ruled by Paranthaka I, are defeated by invading Rashtrakutas from the north at the battle of Takkolam, North Arcot, which slows the expansion of the Colas empire.

950*

The Toltecs build a capital city, Tula, in Central America on a site near modern-day Mexico City.

The central Indian kingdom of Chandela reaches new heights of influence and prosperity.
Polynesians begin settling in New Zealand.

953

Duke Liudof of Swabia leads a revolt against his father, Otto the Great; coconspirators Conrad the Red of Lotharingia and Archbishop Frederick of Mainz desert him in 955 and the revolt is ended.

955

A Magyar army, raiding into Bavaria, is defeated by Otto the Great at the Battle of Lechfeld and pushed back into Hungary. Rather than ransoming captured Magyar leaders, Otto the Great has them killed; the Magyars stop raiding Germany and settle in Hungary.

957

Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi, who traveled as far south as Mozambique and wrote several important books, including Akhbar az-Zaman (The History of Time), dies in Cairo.

959

Constantine Porphyrogenitus, patron of art and literature, dies and is replaced on the Byzantine throne by his son, Romanus II.

960

Romanus II names his young sons, Basil II (two) and Constantine VIII (one), co-emperors. Their guardians—their mother Theodora, Nicephoras II Phocas, and John I Tzimisces— actually run the empire until 976. Romanus II dies in 963.

961

Nicephoras Phocas recaptures Crete, as well as much of Sicily, from Muslim occupiers. He challenges the young emperors, marries their mother, and effectively rules Byzantium until he is assassinated in 969 in a plot orchestrated by his wife and John I Tzimisces, who had been a trusted lieutenant.

962

After an appeal by Pope John XII for aid, Otto the Great invades Italy again and is later crowned emperor in St. Peter’s Basilica (Vatican).
Svyatoslav I, the duke of Kiev, comes of age and takes control of his kingdom; he creates a strong kingdom in the Volga region by defeating the Khazars and spreads his influence into the Balkans.

964

Pope John XII, who conspired against Otto the Great the previous year and was deposed by Leo VIII, regains his position but then dies. The newly elected Pope, Benedict V, is quickly overthrown in favor of Leo VIII, who serves for only one year.

965

Nicephoras II Phocas recaptures Cyprus from the Muslims.

966*

The Fatimids gain control of Jerusalem.

969

John I Tzimisces takes effective control of the Byzantine Empire as guardian of the minor emperors. The Byzantines end three hundred years of Arab rule in Antioch (Syria).
Egypt is conquered by the Fatimids. They make their capital, Cairo, the center of Islamic culture.

971

John I Tzimisces besieges Duke Svyatoslav I at Dristra and forces a peace treaty between the Byzantines and Kievans, which also forces the duke to give up territory in the Balkans. During his return trip to Kiev, Svyatoslav is killed by Pecheneg raiders.

972

Construction of the Al-Azhar mosque and accompanying school for Shiites in Cairo (begun in 970) is completed; it will become the oldest university for religious and secular studies in the world.

973

Otto the Great dies and his son, Otto II, becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

974

While Otto II is busy dealing with a revolt in Bavaria, the short pontificate of Benedict VI ends with his death by strangulation, ordered by Boniface VII at the behest of rebellious factions in Rome. Boniface is quickly removed from power when Otto returns. The new Pope takes the name Benedict VII.

975

Fatimid caliph al-Mu’izz, who captured Syria and Mesopotamia, dies. His son, al-Aziz, takes power and rules for fifteen years.
English king Edgar dies. He had conquered Northumbria but allowed the Vikings local rule. His son, Edward (the Martyr), takes the throne.

977

Sebiiktigin founds the Ghaznavid dynasty. These Turkish rulers defeat the Samanids and control Afghanistan and northern India until 1186.

979

Vietnamese emperor Dinh Bo Linh—who established a bureaucracy, set up judicial courts, organized an army, unified the people, and secured independence—dies.

980

Vladimir I, who was forced to flee in 972, returns and becomes Grand Prince of Kiev.
Macedonian leader Samuel is crowned tsar of Bulgaria and engages in almost constant warfare with the Byzantine Empire.
Le Dai Hahn becomes emperor of Vietnam; he extends the road network and deals with rebellious factions.

981

Danish king Olaf Sihtricson of Dublin and Northumbria dies. His forces were defeated the previous year at Tara.

982

Norwegian sailor Erik the Red, banished from Iceland after killing two men with which he was feuding, discovers Greenland and explores the coast. A colony is planted there in 986.

983

Three-year-old Otto III becomes Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his father, Otto II; Theophano serves as her son’s regent. Pope Benedict VII dies and is replaced by John XIV, who was put forward by Otto II, but the new pontiff dies the following year.
A fifty-seven-foot statue of Gomateswara, sacred saint of the Jains, is carved at Sravanabelgola, India.

984

The exiled Boniface VII returns from Constantinople to Rome to claim the pontificate, only to be murdered and skinned by a mob the next year.

985

Rajaraja I is made king of southern India. He extends his Cola kingdom to include the Maldive Islands, Sri Lanka, and parts of the Malay Peninsula.

986

The coast of Labrador, Newfoundland, is allegedly sighted by Viking sailors who have been driven off course.

987

Louis V, the final king of the Western Carolingians, dies and is succeeded by Hugh Capet.

988

Vladimir I converts to Christianity when he marries Anne, the sister of the Eastern emperor Basil II, thus opening Russia to Byzantine influence. Basil II establishes the Varangian Guard, a well-paid loyal private honor guard, from a contingent of six thou-sand soldiers detailed to his use by Vladimir.

989

The Council of Charroux, a synod sanctioned by Hugh Capet, issues the “Peace of God,” a call for limiting warfare to certain times of the year; protecting churches, clergymen, and noncombatants; and ending robbery of the poor.

990

Mande (Ghanian) warriors from West Africa defeat the Saharan Berbers. The Ghanians control trade across the Sahara to Muslim regions in North Africa.

991

Anglo-Saxons are defeated by a Viking army at the Blackwater River in the Battle of Maldon (Northey Island). Aethelred the Unready is forced to pay tribute to the Danes.

992

Boleslaw I (the Brave) succeeds his father Mieszko (founder of the Piast dynasty) as prince of Poland.

994

Danish invaders led by Sweyn I Forkbeard enter England.

996

Otto III crowns Boleslaw the Brave as king of Poland. Otto also names the first German Pope, Gregory V; although contested, he remains Pope until 999.

997

Stephen I becomes king of Hungary, establishing the Arpad dynasty. He is credited with establishing the state of Hungary; he promotes evangelical efforts and suppresses paganism.

1000*

Iroquois peoples in northeastern North America establish village communities and cultivate maize and beans. Navajo and Apache tribes migrate south into the Pueblo areas and compete for territory with the more-stable native communities.
The Ghaznavids defeat the Samanids and control northern Iran. They make frequent military incursions into India as well.
Norwegian explorer Leif Eriksson, the son of Erik the Red, allegedly sails west from Ice-land and discovers Nova Scotia and Vinland.
An advanced metalworking society, Benin, emerges in West Africa.
Islamic scientist Ibn Sina (Avicenna) begins his travels through Persia, where he writes the important medical treatise al-Qanumfi at-tibb (The Canon of Medicine).

1002

Danish raiding parties begin a twelve-year cycle of attacks on England in response to the massacres of Danish settlers on the island.

1003

Pope Sylvester II, who helped introduce Arabic science and mathematics to the West and served as tutor to Otto II, dies. He had been elected to the pontificate after the death of Gregory V in 999; the man chosen to replace him, John XVII, reigns for only six months. Crescentius II succeeds in placing John XVIII, who rules until his abdication in 1009.
Norse settlements along the North American coast (Baffin Island and Labrador), established as early as 1000, are abandoned.

1004

Construction begins on the Brihadeswara temple, built by the Colas, in Tamil Nadu in southern India. The structure is made of granite, including its eighty-ton cupola.

1005

The Samanid empire crumbles under the combined assault of the Ghaznavids and Qarakhanids.

1007

Javanese king Dharmavamsa, who has ruled since 991, dies. During his reign he codified a law code, translated the Bhagavat Gita into Javanese, and spread Hindu philosophy.

1009

The Byzantine Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built over the alleged site where Jesus was crucified, is destroyed by the Fatimids. News of the act galvanizes interest in the site in western Christendom.

1010

Thang Long (Hanoi) becomes the capital city of Vietnam.

1012

Sergius IV, best known for combating famine in Rome during his reign, dies. Benedict VIII ascends to the papal throne.

1013

Aethelred the Unready flees from England to France to escape the campaigns of Danish king Sweyn I, who now controls the country.
Hisham II, who had temporarily been removed as leader of Cordoba by Muhammad II, dies.

1014

Rajaraja I dies and is replaced on the Cola throne by his son, Rajendra, who continues his father’s policy of expansion.
Bulgarian tsar Samuel’s forces are defeated by the Byzantines at the Battle of Belasica (Cleidon Pass) in southeast Macedonia. Thousands of defeated soldiers are blinded and sent to their king, who dies at Prilep soon after seeing the results of the battle.
Irish king Brian Boru is killed fighting Viking rebels from Dublin and their Scandinavian allies at the Battle of Clontarf. Despite the loss of their leader, the Irish triumph.

1016

The Dome of the Rock collapses in an earthquake. The structure is rebuilt in 1022.
An army led by Edmund II Ironside is defeated at Assandun by Canute (the Great), who becomes king of England and Denmark and rules until 1035.

1018

Lombard nobleman Melus, with the help of Norman mercenaries, invades Italy but is defeated by Byzantine forces (the Varangian Guard) at Cannae.

1019

England and Scandinavia are unified under the rule of Canute the Great.
Mahmud establishes the great mosque at Ghazni, capital of a Muslim kingdom comprising the territory between the Tigris and Ganges. His armies now occupy most of northern India.
Yaroslav (the Wise) becomes Grand Prince of Kiev. He undertakes building programs, promotes Christianity, codifies laws, and develops relations with Western Europe during his thirty-five year reign.

1021

Fatimid caliph al-Hakim dies. The empire experiences decline under the rule of his replacement, al-Zahir.

1024

German king and Holy Roman Emperor Henry II dies; Conrad II takes the German throne but waits several years before he is crowned Emperor.

1026

Danish king Canute the Great defeats an attempt by the Swedes and Norwegians to conquer his country.

1027

Conrad II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor in the presence of Canute the Great and Rudolf III of Burgundy.

1028

Japanese noble Fujiwara Michinaga dies. He had been the power behind the emperor.
Romanus III Argyrus becomes emperor of the Byzantines and rules until 1034.
Canute the Great names his son, Hardecanute, as king of Denmark.

1030

Mahmud dies; his son, Ma’sud, blinds his brother, Mohammed, and takes the throne. His empire expands from Persia to the valley of the Ganges.
Norwegian king Olaf II Haraldsson, who actively spread Christianity in his country, is killed while making an attempt to recapture Norway from Canute.

1031

The last Ummayid ruler of Cordoba, Hisham III, dies. A series of petty kings will rule Cordoba.

1034

Romanus III Argyrus is murdered by his wife, Zoe, who conspired with her lover Michael V. They rule until a rebellion deposes Michael and places her as co-empress with her sister Theodora.
Casimir I (the Restorer) becomes king of Poland. He is deposed three years later by Polish nobles but regains the crown in 1040 with the help of Conrad II and Henry III of Germany.

1039

Henry III becomes king of Germany. He is crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1046.
Arab scientist, astronomer, and mathematician Abu ’All al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who specialized in optics, dies.

1040

Hardecanute, who was blocked from taking the English throne by his half brother Harold I (Harefoot), arrives in England and forces the English to crown him.
Macbeth seizes the Scottish kingdom by killing in battle his cousin Duncan I.
Seljuk Turks defeat the Ghazanavids, led by Ma’sud, at the Battle of Dandanqan.

1042

Constantine IX, Zoe’s third husband, joins the co-empresses as Byzantine rulers.
Hardecanute dies and his brother, Edward (the Confessor), becomes the last Anglo-Saxon ruler of England.

1043

The Rus raid Constantinople for the final time.
Norwegian and Danish king Magnus I Olafsson (the Good) defeats a Wend army in the Battle of Lyrskog, killing more than fifteen thousand of the enemy and ending their raids into Denmark.

1044

Anawrahta, ruler of Upper Burma, defeats the states of Lower Burma and becomes king of Burma, establishing his capital at Pagan on the Irrawaddy River. He establishes a strong military, fortifies towns, builds pagodas and dams, and rules until 1077.

1046

Rival candidates for the papacy—Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI—struggle to gain primacy in Rome. A synod is called at Sutri to resolve the problem; the bishops depose all three candidates and elect Clement II.

1047

Pope Clement II convenes a synod in Rome that outlaws simony. He dies while on a return trip from Germany and the bishops elect Damasus II, but he reigns for just twenty-three days.
Norman general Robert Guiscard invades Italy, conquering Apulia and Calabria. He fights against the Byzantines, driving them from Italy by 1071.
Sweyn II becomes king of Denmark. After several years of conflict with Norway, a peace is established between the two countries.

1048

Leo IX is elected Pope and undertakes to reform and revitalize the Church.

1053

The Normans, who control most of southern Italy and raid against the Byzantines, raise the ire of Pope Leo IX, who gathers an Italian and Greek army against them. They, how-ever, defeat the Italians and capture the Pope at the Battle of Civitella (Civitate).

1054

Pope Leo IX excommunicates the Byzantine patriarch Michael I Cerularius, who has closed Latin churches and insisted that he is equal to the Roman patriarch, causing a schism between the two churches. Leo falls ill and is removed from Benevento, where he was being held by the Normans, to Rome, where he dies. A German rector is elected Pope as Victor II.

1055

Seljuk Turks capture northern Syria, central Iraq, and Palestine.

1056

Henry III dies; his six-year-old son, Henry IV, is made king of Germany, with his mother, Agnes, serving as regent. He takes sole rulership in 1066 but is not crowned Holy Roman Emperor until 1084.

1057

Byzantine military leaders revolt against Michael VI Stratioticus and force him to abdicate in favor of Isaac I Comnenus, who rules until forced to retire because of illness in 1061.

1058

Boleslaw II (the Bold) becomes king of Poland.

1059

Isaac I Comnenus defeats a Pecheneg-Hungarian raid into Byzantine territory. He becomes ill, abdicates, and is replaced on the throne by a former imperial minister, Constantine X Ducas.

1060

Seljuk Turk leader Togril Beg captures Baghdad and controls the Abbasid caliphate.
Norman raiders, led by Roger I, begin attacks on Sicily; they capture Messina the following year.

1062

The Moroccan city of Marrakech is founded by Yusuf ibn Tashfm, who became king of the Almoravids in 1061 and conquered Algeria.

1065

Earl Tostig of Northumbria is exiled by Edward the Confessor, who dies the following year. Westminster Abbey, founded by Edward, is consecrated.

1066

William of Normandy and an army of five thousand men cross the English Channel and defeat King Harold Godwinsson at Hastings. William I (the Conqueror) becomes king of England and thereafter introduces the Norman system of feudalism into England.
The Normans attempt to capture Rome but are dissuaded by defensive tactics and payment of tribute.

1069

Danish king Sweyn II sends troops to Northumbria to help Anglo-Saxon rebels against William the Conqueror.

1070

The Second Earl of Pembroke, Richard Strongbow, takes a force to Ireland to aid his father-in-law, Dermot MacMurrough; he captures Dublin and opens the door to Norman conquest.

1071

Turkish troops under Alp Arslan defeat Byzantine mercenary troops at the Battle of Manzikert (Malazgirt) and capture Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes, who dies shortly after being exiled. The combined effect of the Schism of 1054 and conquest by the Turks have reduced the power of the Byzantines and shifted Christian religious locus back to Rome.

1072

Palermo falls to the Normans.
In order to block any claim to the English throne, William the Conqueror marches a large army into Scotland and forces Malcolm III MacDuncan to renounce any such intentions.

1073

The reformer Pope Alexander II, who battled against simony and for clerical celibacy, dies in Rome. The tough reformer Gregory VII is consecrated Pope.

1075

The Acoma (People of the White Rock) move to the top of a mesa in the Southwest (modern New Mexico) and establish the oldest continuously occupied settlement in what will become the United States.

1076*

Almoravids attack the African kingdom of Ghana, which experiences a decline in power.

1077

Pope Gregory VII receives Henry IV of Germany in penance at Canossa and grants him absolution (Henry had been excommunicated the previous year for supporting lay investitures).

1078

Byzantine emperor Michael VII Ducas, who became sole ruler in 1071, enters a monastery in the face of serious civil unrest. Anatolian general Nicephorus III Botaneiates takes control of the crown, but he faces continued rebellion and attacks from the Turks. He abdicates in 1081 and also becomes a monk.

1079

Persian poet and scholar Omar Khayyam joins seven academics in reforming the Islamic calendar. Khayyam, who dies is 1131, is best known for his quatrains in the Robzfiyat.
On their third attempt, Norse (Viking) invaders capture the Isle of Man from Celtic defenders at the Battle of Sky Hill.

1080

German king Henry IV defeats a rebellion led by Duke Rudolf of Swabia, who is killed. The victory opens the door for Henry to invade Italy and end his dispute with Pope Gregory VII over the lay investiture of bishops.

1081

The able military leader Alexius I Comnenus takes the Byzantine throne and defends the empire from foreign invasions. He rules until his death in 1118.

1082

To quell civil unrest caused by the teaching of Byzantine Neoplatonist philosopher John Italus, the scholar is condemned as a heretic and forced by Alexius I Comnenus to live in a monastery outside of Constantinople.
Macedonia is captured from the Byzantines by the Norman prince of Antioch, Bohemond I, the son of Robert Guiscard.

1084

Henry IV attacks Rome, deposes Pope Gregory VII, and puts Clement III on the papal throne. Clement reciprocates by crowning Henry the Holy Roman Emperor. Gregory returns with Norman allies but retreats after his supporters plunder the city.

1085*

Thule Eskimo culture spreads across the North American Arctic area as far as Greenland and Siberia. Thule Eskimos achieve supremacy by developing essential skills and technologies to a more complicated level than that attained by existing Arctic peoples. They use dog sleds to cross the continent and large canoes to hunt whales.

1085

Alfonso VI (the Valiant) of Leon defeats the Muslims and occupies Toledo, the old capital of Visigothic Spain and the greatest city that the Christians have captured in the reoccupation. Alfonso takes the title Emperor of Toledo. Loss of the city is a disaster for the Muslims.

1086

Alfonso VI is defeated by Yusuf ibn Tashfm of the Almoravids, a Berber dynasty that rules North Africa and much of Spain, with the help of the Arab princes of Spain. After the Battle of Sagrajas, carts loaded with Christian heads are sent to the major cities of Spain and North Africa to demonstrate that the enemy is suppressed.
William the Conqueror orders a census of property in the shires of England, particularly to improve tax collection. Information gathered by his commissioners is collected in the Domesday Book.

1087

Fatally injured when his horse stumbles during military action against the French, William the Conqueror dies. He is replaced on the English throne by his second surviving son, William Rufus, who becomes William II at his coronation at Westminster Abbey.
The much-reluctant-to-serve and fragile Victor III is enthroned as Pope but soon dies.

1091

Alexius I Comnenus pushes the Pechenegs northward out of Crimea and beyond the Danube River.
The Normans complete their conquest of Sicily.

1093

Malcolm III MacDuncan, his wife Margaret, and one of his sons are killed in an ambush while attacking Northumbria. His brother, Donaldbane, briefly reigns but is overthrown by Duncan II, who is in turn killed by forces loyal to Donaldbane.

1095

Alexius I Comnenus writes a letter to Pope Urban II requesting assistance in his fight against Islamic invaders. Urban, at the Council of Clermont, responds by calling for a campaign to free the holy places from the control of Muslims and starts the First Crusade in November in France. Urban accuses the Muslims of committing unspeakable atroci-ties.

1096

The first university in the West is founded at Salerno, a city and seaport of Italy.
German Crusaders, preparing to join the trek to the Middle East, massacre Jews in Worms and other German cities.

1098

French Benedictine abbot Robert of Molesmes founds Citeaux Abbey, which will become the Cistercian Order; its members seek a stricter, more-austere observance of monastic orders.

1099

Crusaders of the First Crusade capture Jerusalem and massacre the Muslims. A Muslim relief column traveling toward Jerusalem is destroyed by Crusaders at the Battle of Ascalon (Ashdod).
Pope Urban II dies; Paschal II is elected Pope and continues his predecessor’s calls for crusades against the Muslims.

1100

An arrow fatally strikes William II in the eye while he is hunting. His brother, Henry I, takes the English throne.
Bohemond I, a Crusader leader, is captured by the Muslims but is released three years later.
Baldwin I of Boulogne is made king of Jerusalem; he captures Acre (1104).

1102

Boleslaw III (the Wrymouth) becomes ruler of Poland.

1104

The Christian state of Edessa (modern Urfa) in Turkey, established by the Crusaders in 1098, is attacked by Turks, who defeat a Christian army at Harran; the Turks are unable to capture Edessa.

1106

Henry I defeats his sibling, the Duke of Normandy, Robert II (Courteheuse), at Tinchebrai and captures his kingdom. The younger brother imprisons his elder rival, who had tried to unseat him by invading England earlier, at Cardiff for twenty-eight years.

1108

Philip I dies and his son, Louis VI (the Fat), becomes king of France.

1109

Scholastic Benedictine monk and philosopher Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury and author of Cur Deus Homo (1063) on atonement, dies.

1110*

Chichimec Aztecs migrate southward, possibly in response to drought conditions, into Mexico.
Seljuk Turks invade Anatolia.

1111

Islamic Iraqi theologian, teacher, jurist, and mystic al-Ghazali, who promoted Sufism, dies.
Henry V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1112

The Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Knights of St. John, and commonly called the Knights Hospitalers) is formed in Jerusalem. Originally organized to provide medical care to pilgrims to the holy city, it is reconstituted as a military order (although hospital work continued). Retreating in the face of constant Muslim pressure, the order moves to several locations in the Mediterranean, settling in Malta in 1530.

1113

Vladimir II (Monomakh), a scholar and warrior, becomes prince of Kiev. Theodosian Russian monk Nestor, who is credited (possibly with several monks) with writing the chronicle Povesti vremennykh let, dies.

1115

Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, who has ruled her northern Italian kingdom for sixty-nine years, dies. She supported Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Crisis and opposed Henry IV.

1118*

Pope Paschal II, a mild and weak patriarch who had been driven from Rome by rioting in 1116 but returned, dies. Elected to replace him is Gelasius II, who is driven by Henry V from Rome to Cluny, where he dies in 1119.
Alfonso I captures the Moorish stronghold of Saragossa in northeast Spain and makes it the capital of Aragon.

1119

Henry V installs the antipope Gregory VIII, but he is excommunicated by Calixtus II, who is elected by the cardinals to replace Gelasius.
French king Louis VI is defeated at the Battle of Bremule by an English army under King Henry I, who is defending his newly won province of Normandy.
Burgundian knight and crusader Hugues de Payens founds in Jerusalem the military order known as the Knights Templars, whose duty it is to protect religious travelers. The order becomes wealthy and powerful.

1120

Henry I’s only legitimate son, William, dies while crossing the English Channel on a return trip from warfare in France. Also lost in the wreck are many nobles and other family members.
Norwegian king Sigurd I (Jerusalemfarer), the first Scandinavian king to participate in the Crusades (1107-1111), begins a crusade at home to eliminate pagan Viking religion.

1122

Pope Calixtus II issues the Concordat of Worms, which states that the Holy Roman Emperor can invest bishops with secular, but not sacred, authority; Henry V accepts the decree.

1123

Calixtus II calls the Lateran Council in Rome, attended by most bishops in the West. The Concordat of Worms is ratified; priests are forbidden to marry or keep concubines; and pilgrims to the Holy Land are given protection. The Orthodox Church rejects the provisions.

1124

The Cumans, a nomadic Turkish people from southern Russian lands, begin entering the Bulgarian region. They will clash with the Byzantines, Slavs, and later, the Mongols.

1125

Henry V dies without an heir. The main candidates for successor are Frederick of Hohenstaufen, the duke of Swabia, and Lothar of Supplinburg, the duke of Saxony. Lothair is finally chosen (1133).

1128

Construction on the Neminath temple, sacred to the Jain Hindus, is begun on Mt. Girnar in western India. The building is completed in 1159.

1130

Pope Honorius II withdraws to a monastery and dies. Two challengers, Innocent II and Anacletus II, are elected by rival factions to replace Honorius. Both men serve periods in Rome until Anacletus dies in 1139 and Innocent takes the throne unchallenged.
Roger II, who supports Anacletus in the papal contest, becomes the second Norman king of Sicily.

1132

Baldwin I of Jerusalem builds a fortress at Kerak, in modern Jordan, to serve as capital of that province.

1135

English king Henry I dies, and his nephew Stephen of Blois seizes the crown. Supporters of the chosen successor, Matilda, rebel, sparking a civil war that lasts until 1141.

1137

French king Louis the Fat dies and is succeeded by his son, Louis VII (the Young), who is only about seventeen years old.
Raymond of Antioch is defeated by Byzantine forces in Cilicia; Armenian resistance, however, continues against the Byzantines.

1138

The Scots, led by King David I, are defeated by the Anglo-Normans of York at the Battle of the Standard.

1139*

English bishop and chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth completes Historia regum Eritanniae, a work that introduces the Arthurian legend into English literature.
Pope Innocent II convenes a Lateran Council in Rome to oust appointments made by Anacletus II and to excommunicate Roger II of Sicily for having supported him.

1141

Forces loyal to Matilda capture Stephen at the Battle of Lincoln, but she does not gain the support of Londoners, and Stephen is released and made king.

1142

French philosopher and abbot Peter Abelard, whose writings were condemned at the Council of Sens (1140), dies at Cluny monastery.

1143

The independence of the Kingdom of Portugal is established with the Treaty of Zamora; Alfonso I is the first king.
Pope Innocent II dies, and the Romans declare their independence from papal control. His replacements, Celestine II and Lucius II, each serve for less than a year, the latter being killed fighting against the Roman rebels.

1144

On Christmas Eve, troops led by Seljuq leader Zangi break the walls protecting Edessa, kill thousands of inhabitants, especially soldiers from the West, and send thousands more into slavery. The French cleric Bernard of Clairvaux is inspired by the catastrophe to promote a new Crusade.

1145

Eugenius III is elected Pope but is expelled from Rome. After helping to prepare plans for the Second Crusade, he returns to Rome in 1148.

1146

Boleslaw IV (the Curly) becomes king of Poland.

1147

Spanish king Louis VII and German king Conrad II initiate the Second Crusade, which turns into a disaster because of Turkish victories and the inability of the crusaders to capture Damascus.

1150*

Cotton looms begin to appear in West Africa, and windmills are constructed in Europe.

1152

Before he dies, Conrad III designates Frederick III of Swabia as his successor to the German kingship. Frederick is crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1155 as Frederick I (Barbarossa).

1153

Eugenius III establishes the terms for Frederick I taking control of the Holy Roman Empire in the Treaty of Constance, largely trading support from the German king against internal and external threats for the crown. He then dies and is replaced on the papal throne by Englishman Adrian IV, who as Nicholas Breakspear had helped promote Christianity in Scandinavia.

1155

Frederick I captures the Roman rebel Arnold of Brescia and is rewarded by Pope Adrian IV (as had been promised by Eugenius III) with the Holy Roman crown.

1156

Former Japanese emperor Sutoku attempts to unseat his brother Shirakawa II, sparking the Hogen civil war. Sutoku loses and is exiled.

1158

The Bohemian king Vladislav I, who aided Frederick I in Lombardy, establishes his capital in Prague. Frederick declares at the Diet of Roncaglia that he has authority over the communities of Lombardy.

1159

Pope Adrian IV is driven from Rome by Frederick I. Alexander III is elected to replace him but is forced to step aside by the candidate of Frederick, Victor IV, who controls the papacy for five years.

1160

King Erik IX Jedvardsson, who conquered the Finns and forced them to accept Christianity and who is considered the patron saint of Sweden, dies.
Tiara Kiyomori wins control of Japan, ending the Fujiwara period.

1162

Indian leaders Ghiyas-ud-Dm and Mu’izz-ud-Dm conquer Ghur. From this base they command an empire that eventually includes Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, eastern Iran, and northern India.
Adviser to Henry II and English cleric Thomas a Becket is made the archbishop of Canterbury. He protects the rights of the church, even opposing secular trials for clerics.
Frederick I captures Milan.

1163

The cornerstone for the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame (Our Lady) is laid on an island in Paris. Construction on the structure will continue until around 1250.

1165

Arab geographer al-Idrisi, who under the patronage of Roger II helped spread Muslim knowledge of the world into Europe, dies.

1167

Cities in northern Italy found the Lombard League in opposition to Frederick I, after he occupies Rome and forces Pope Alexander III to leave the city.

1168

After Henry II bans English students from attending the University of Paris, an institution is officially established at Oxford, where teaching had been undertaken as early as 1096.

1169

Danish king Valdemar I captures Riigen and ends the power of the Wends in his kingdom.

1170*

Toltec civilization in central Mexico, pressured by Chichimec invasions, crumbles and its citizens leave the great cities.

1170

Thomas a Becket is murdered by defenders of Henry II in his fight against the power of the church. Only three years after his death, Becket is canonized a saint.

1171

Saladin puts an end to the Fatimid caliphate in Cairo and reestablishes Sunnism, the great branch of Islam that follows orthodox tradition and accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors of Mohammed. Saladin becomes the effective sovereign of Egypt and Syria, founding the Ayyubid dynasty.

1172

Saladin conquers Tripoli.

1174

Scottish king William the Lion is captured at the Battle of Alnwick by English king Henry II but is released when he recognizes Henry’s authority.

1176

Troops from the Lombard League, in support of Pope Alexander III, defeat the forces of Frederick I at the Battle of Legnano.
The first stone-made London Bridge is built across the Thames River.

1177

Saladin attacks Jerusalem but is surprised and defeated by King Baldwin IV (the Leper King) at Montgisard. Two years later Saladin gains revenge by defeating the Christians at Marj Ayun (Valley of the Springs).
The Chams, a Hindu-Muslim people of central Vietnam, attack and sack the Khmer capital of Ankgor, though their control of the Cambodian region is short. They control much of southern Vietnam until the 1400s.

1178

Byzantine troops under Manuel I Comnenus are defeated by the Turks in Anatolia. The Byzantines are forced to concede Turkish dominion over Anatolia.

1179

The Third Lateran Council, held in Rome, ends the papal schism, establishes the two-thirds vote of cardinals to elect a pope, and sets age limits for advancement.

1180

French king Louis the Young dies. His son, Philip II, succeeds him and begins a campaign to drive Jews out of France.
An-Nasir becomes caliph of Baghdad; he rules until 1225.

1182

Canute VI becomes king of Denmark following the death of his father, Valdemar I; he rules for twenty years.

1183

The Treaty of Constance ends the conflict between Emperor Frederick I and the Lom-bard League.

1185

The child emperor of Japan, Antoku, who is but seven years old, is killed at the naval battle of Dannoura; Minamoto Yoritomo establishes a military government that dominates the imperial family in Japan.

1186

Ivan Asen I revolts against Byzantine control and establishes the second Bulgarian empire.

1187

Saladin defeats a Christian army in Palestine at the Battle of Hattin and captures the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
Pope Urban III dies; his replacement, Gregory VIII, serves for only two months, although during that time he calls for a renewed crusade to the Holy Land.

1188*

A text on English common law is allegedly written by jurist and royal adviser Ranulf de Glanville.

1189

Henry IFs sons rebel against their father for the second time, but he dies before being able to face and defeat the upstarts. One son, Richard I (Lion-hearted), takes the throne. He unites his forces with crusaders from Germany, under Frederick I, and France, following Philip II, and initiates the Third Crusade.

1190

Frederick I dies while leading crusaders across the Saleph River in Anatolia. His successor to the German throne is his son, Henry VI.
A new crusader knight organization, the Teutonic Order, is founded during the siege of Acre (which falls in 1191) to aid sick Germans in the Holy Land.

1191

Richard I captures Cyprus. Two orders of knights in succession control the island.

1192

Mu’izz-ud-Dm defeats the Rajput kings and establishes Muslim control over most of northern India.
Japanese emperor Shirakawa II dies, and Minamoto Yoritomo grabs the throne, establishing a shogunate.
The Third Crusade ends with only minor victories for the crusaders. Saladin cedes a portion of the coastline and allows pilgrimages to the holy sites in Jerusalem. Richard I is captured by King Leopold V of Austria during his return trip from the Holy Land.
Cypriots revolt against the Knights Templar, and the island comes under the dominion of the King of Jerusalem.

1193

Saladin dies, leaving Egypt more prosperous and militarily strong; he also reformed education and government.

1194

The English raise a large ransom to free Richard I from his captivity. He returns home, quells a rebellion led by his brother John, and then turns his attention to France.

1195

Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus is deposed and blinded by his brother, Alexius III Angelus. Isaac regains the throne but is again deposed, in 1203, by Alexius V (Alexius Ducas Murtzuphus).

1197

Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI dies, sparking a contest among rival nobles to gain the crown. His son, four-year-old Frederick, is made king of Sicily and is not crowned as Holy Roman Emperor until 1220.

1199

Richard I is fatally wounded while campaigning in France. He dies from an infection of the arrow wound. His brother, John Lackland, takes the throne.

1200*

The Great Zimbabwe kingdom, made up of Bantu-speaking peoples, forms in southern Africa.
Mandinka people begin developing the Muslim state of Mali, successor to Ghana.

1201

Pope Innocent III recognizes Otto IV as Emperor and is crowned in 1208. Otto IV and Philip of Swabia go to war with each other over who is the true Emperor.

1202

Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci introduces the Arabic numeral system to Europe when he publishes Liber abaci.

A fleet carrying soldiers for the Fourth Crusade leaves Venice; they capture Zara on the Dalmatian coast.

1203*

West African leader Sumanguru captures Ghana.

1204

The Fourth Crusade ends with the capture and pillage of Constantinople by the Crusaders. Byzantine emperor Alexius Ducas Murtzuphus is killed by the invaders. The new emperor, Alexius I (Grand Comnenus), who founds the Trebizond dynasty, controls only the northern coast of Anatolia at this time.
Theodore I Lascaris, a Byzantine general, forms an eastern empire based at Nicea.
Philip II annexes formerly English-held French provinces, including Normandy.

1205

Venetians capture Corfu, the Ionian Islands, and portions of Greece.

1206

Temujin is declared Genghis Khan (Universal Ruler) of the Mongols.
Muslims capture the Indian province of Delhi. Mu’izz-ud-Din Muhammad is murdered and General Qutb-ud-Dm Aybak, a former slave, becomes ruler.

1208

After a papal legate is assassinated by the Albigenses of southern France, a group that espoused heretical views of Christianity, Pope Innocent declares a crusade against them.

1209

Italian friar Francis of Assisi founds an organization of friars known as the Franciscans. A similar organization, the Clares, is established for women three years later.

1210

Qutb-ud-Dm Aybak dies and is replaced as ruler of the Slave Dynasty of India by Iltutmish, who captures additional Indian lands, including the Punjab, and puts his capital at Delhi.

1212

Portuguese king Afonso II (the Fat), along with armies from several Christian Spanish kingdoms, such as Aragon (led by Peter II), defeats a Muslim army led by An-Nasir at the Battle of Navas de Tolosa in southern Spain. This victory turns the tide against the Moors in Spain.
An army of adolescents is raised in France and Germany to go on a crusade to the Holy Land. Known as the Children’s Crusade, most of the youthful warriors are blocked from fighting the Muslims, though a handful arrive in England, where they are sold into slavery.

1213

French crusaders led by Simon de Montfort defeat a combined Aragonese and Albigen-sian army at the Battle of Muret. Peter II of Aragon is killed in action.

1214

A French army headed by Philip II defeats a combined English and German army, led by King John and Otto IV respectively, at the Battle of Bouvines in Flanders.

1215

King John is forced by English barons to sign the Magna Carta, which reforms the relationship between the Crown and the nobility, standardizes measures, limits the seizure of private property or persons, establishes the rule of consent for taxation, and requires a trial by one’s peers.
Pope Innocent III calls the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome, which ratifies a body of canon law and acknowledges territorial gains of Simon de Montfort in France. The Pope also calls for another Crusade to capture Jerusalem.

1216

King John of England dies, and his nine-year-old son, Henry III, is made king, with William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, serving as regent.
The Dominican Order is founded.
Scottish king Alexander II invades England.

1217

French troops, who arrived in England in 1216 at the behest of dissatisfied English barons, are defeated at the Battle of Lincoln near London. The French are cut off from leaving the island when their fleet is defeated in a naval engagement known as the Battle of Sandwich; they sue for peace, giving up any claims on English territory.

1218

The Fifth Crusade begins. French and German armies, along with Frisian sailors, travel to Acre and then on to Egypt. They capture the town of Damietta but are unable to hold their advantage and are forced to withdraw in 1221. During the Crusade, Al-Malik alKamil becomes sultan of Egypt.
Genghis Khan occupies Kashgar and the Tarim basin in Central Asia and makes Korea his vassal state.

1220

Mongol invaders begin incursions into Eurasia and the Middle East.

1223

The Pandyas regain control of their northern Indian kingdom.
Mongol invaders crush a much larger force of Russian soldiers at the Battle of Kalka River, opening the way for further incursions into the region.

1224*

The Mayan city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan is abandoned.

1226

French king Louis VIII finally gains submission from the Albigenses; he dies later in the year and is succeeded by his son, Louis IX.

1227

After his return from China, Japanese monk Dogen establishes Zen Buddhism in Japan.
Innocent Ill’s nephew is elected Pope and takes the name Gregory IX.
Genghis Kahn dies; his son Ogodei becomes khan.

1228

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who claims the kingship of Jerusalem through his marriage, leads Crusaders to the Holy Land. Delayed by opposition from the Lombard League, he captures Jerusalem (1229) and establishes a peace treaty with the Egyptians but becomes ill and is forced to return home.

1230

The Mongols capture Central Asia and Iran.

1231

Frederick II establishes a law code (Liber Augustalls) for Sicily.
The towering Muslim monument Qutb Mmar is constructed by Iltutmish in his capital city, Delhi.

1233*

Pope Gregory IX establishes the Inquisition, a tribunal in the Roman Catholic Church to suppress heresy.

1235*

Frederick II establishes an imperial court to handle property cases in Germany, while he is at the Diet of Mainz.
Mandingo warriors led by Sundiata defeat the Susu kingdom of Sumanguru at the Battle of Kirina, capture the old kingdom of Ghana, and expand the kingdom of Mali.

1236

Iltutmish, who spent the last years of his life fending off Mongol incursions into India, dies. He is succeeded by his daughter, Raziya, who reigns for three years until she is killed by Hindus.

1238

The Moors establish an independent kingdom of Granada in Spain.

1240

Mongol general Batu Khan, under the authority of Ogodei, sacks Kiev. His armies have conquered most of Russia, Hungary, and Poland, and threaten Western Europe.

1241

Batu Khan leads troops in the defeat of Silesian duke Henry at Liegnitz. Ogodei, how-ever, dies, and Batu is made supreme khan of the Western Kipchaks.

1242

The Mongols withdraw from Hungary and return to the lower Volga.
German Crusaders are defeated by a Russian army led by Alexander Nevsky at the Battle of Lake Peipus (Battle of the Ice) in Estonia.

1243

Innocent IV is elected Pope but spends most of his papacy in Lyons.

1244

Egyptian Ayyubid ruler Salih Ayyub allies with the Khwarezmians and recaptures Jerusalem from the Crusaders.

1245

At the First Council of Lyons, Innocent IV tries to have Frederick II deposed; the demand comes to nothing, but it renews conflict between the imperial house and the papacy.

1248

French king Louis IX answers the call of Innocent IV for a Seventh Crusade. His troops arrive in Cyprus.

1249

Salih Ayyub is killed while fighting the Crusader invasion against Jerusalem. The Crusaders, however, fail to retake the city and withdraw.

1250

After the Crusaders are turned back from Cairo and removed from Damietta, Ayyubid rule of Egypt is put to an end by the Mamluks.
Frederick II dies while on campaign in Italy; his son, Conrad IV, assumes the throne the following year.

1253

Louis IX sends Franciscan Willem van Ruysbroeck to the Great Khan of Mongolia in an effort to establish an anti-Muslim alliance.
English theologian, scholar, and bishop Robert Grosseteste, supporter of the Franciscans and advocate of the policy that the Church stay out of the political realm, dies.
Mongol invaders hasten the downfall of the Khmer regime in Siam.

1254

Byzantine emperor John III Ducas dies, and his son, Theodore II Lascarius, takes the crown. Theodore successfully defeats Bulgarian incursions and maintains good relations with the Turks.

1258

Led by Simon de Montfort, rebellious English nobles obtain various concessions known as the Provisions of Oxford from Henry III. It provides the establishment of a permanent council to advise the king and a parliament that meets three times a year.
Mongols capture Baghdad and end Seljuk rule in Iraq.

1259

After serving a short regency for John IV, Michael VIII Palaeologus becomes Byzantine co-emperor and attacks Latin control of Constantinople, forcing the Latins out in 1261.
Mamluks block and destroy a Mongol army invading Palestine at the Battle of Ain Jalut near Nazareth.

1262

Norwegian king Haakon IV Haakonsson gathers Iceland and Greenland under his control. He dies the following year.

1263

A civil conflict, known as the Second Baron’s War, breaks out in England. Simon de Montfort again leads the opposition against Henry III, who failed to live up to previous bargains with the British nobles.

1264

At the Battle of Lewes, Henry III and his son are captured by Simon de Montfort, who then forms the House of Commons.

1266

After defeating his rival, Manfred, at the Battle of Benevento, Charles I (Charles of Anjou) is crowned king of Naples and Sicily by Pope Clement IV, who took the papal throne in 1265.
Turkish general Balban becomes Sultan of Delhi. During his reign he must defend his empire against Mongol incursions and domestic rebellions.

1268

The Duke of Swabia, Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen ruler, who had been given Sicily in 1258 by Manfred, returns to the island to attempt to retake it from Charles I, but he is captured at Tagliacozzo and executed.
English scientist Roger Bacon, with patronage from the papacy, writes Opus majus, an encyclopedia on science, mathematics, and philosophy. He is also credited with producing lenses, the camera, and gunpowder.

1270

French king Louis IX dies of plague while on the Seventh Crusade, which is supported by Edward I, against Tunisia. Edward continues the Crusade and provides support to the defenders at Acre.

1273

Rudolf I of Habsburg is elected (recognized by the Pope in 1274) as the Holy Roman Emperor, beginning the Habsburg dynasty.
Persian Sufi poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi, whose disciples become known as the Whirling Dervishes because their meditation is based on dance, dies.

1274

Edward returns from Acre and takes the English throne.
Pope Gregory X—who hopes to end the break with the Eastern Church, obtain peace in Italy, and continue the Crusades—assembles the Second Council of Lyons. A short-lived union is achieved, though no Crusade is undertaken.

1280*

Anasazi Indians disappear from their cities.

1282

Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and his brother David, who were subjugated by Edward I (1277), lead a rebellion against the English. Edward puts down the revolt and kills Llywelyn. David is executed a year later.

1289

Tripoli falls to forces led by Mamluk sultan Qala’un of Egypt; he also has blocked further Mongol incursions into the Middle East.

1290

Jalal-ud-Din Firuz Khalji becomes the sultan of Delhi after the end of the Slave Dynasty; he establishes the Khalji dynasty and rules until his murder in 1296.

1291

Acre, defended by the Knights Templar, falls to the Muslims.
The Swiss Confederation is formed from three states: Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden.

1292

Despite claims to the Scottish throne by Robert Bruce and John Hastings, Edward I awards the crown to John de Baliol.

1294

Boniface VIII becomes Pope; in 1296 he issues a bull declaring that priests will not pay taxes on church properties without his consent.

1295

Mongol leader Mahmud Ghazan captures northern Iran and establishes himself as IIkhan. He makes Islam the dominant religion in Iran.

1296

’Ala-ud-Dm, sultan of Delhi, extends his power over much of India.
Edward I forces John de Baliol to relinquish the Scottish crown after defeating his forces at the Battle of Dunbar. Edward removes the “Stone of Destiny” from Scotland to Westminster Abbey.

1297

Scottish noble William Wallace and his army defeat an English force at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

1298

The Scots are defeated by the English at the Battle of Falkirk.

1299

Mahmud Ghazan invades Syria, although he abandons the area in 1303.

1300

Osman I founds the Ottoman Empire and rules for approximately thirty-six years.

1302

Flemish common soldiers defeat an army of French knights, sent by Philip the Fair to force Flemish towns to submit to his authority, at the Battle of Courtrai (Battle of the Golden Spurs).
Philip the Fair calls representatives from the nobility, the towns, and the clergy in the first Estates General to gain support for his political struggle with the Pope.

1303

William Wallace is captured and executed by the English.

1304

Mahmud Ghazan dies; Mongol control of Persia soon crumbles because of internal strife among the ruling family.

1305

Clement V, with support from Philip the Fair, is elected Pope.

1306

Robert I (the Bruce) kills the nephew of John de Baliol and is crowned king of Scotland.

1307

Edward I, after defeating Robert the Bruce at Loudon Hill, dies enroute to Scotland; his son, Edward II, takes the throne.

Mansa Musa, a patron of the arts and Islam, becomes ruler of Mali.

1308

The influential Franciscan theologian John Duns Scotus, who founded a scholastic system and who argued that faith was an act of will, dies.

1309

Pope Clement V moves the papal residency to Avignon, where it will remain until 1377.

1311

Pope Clement V, heavily influenced by Philip the Fair, calls the Council of Vienne to take up the issue of the Knights Templar.

1312

The Knights Templar, who own considerable property in France and have been accused of heresy, are repressed by order of Pope Clement V, who dies in 1314.

1314

Scottish independence is won at the Battle of Bannockburn; an army of Scots led by Robert the Bruce defeats the English forces led by Edward II.
A widespread famine, which lasts three years, spreads through Europe.

1315

An army led by Austrian king Leopold I is defeated by Swiss Confederation forces at the Battle of Morgarten.

1316

John XXII becomes Pope and resides in Avignon.

1320

Ghiyas-ud-Dm Tughluq becomes the sultan of Delhi, founding the Tughluq dynasty.

1321

Italian poet Dante Alighieri finishes Commedia, or Divina commedi (The Divine Comedy).

1322

French king Philip V (the Tall), who persecuted Jews and attempted monetary and weight reforms, dies.

1324

Mali leader Mansa Musa makes a grand pilgrimage to Mecca.
Cannons are allegedly used in France. Firearms also appear among Muslim fighters in Spain.

1325*

The grand capital Tenochtitlan is constructed by the Mexica (Aztecs) in central Mexico (present-day Mexico City).

1326

Orhan, the son of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, takes Bursa from the Byzantines and makes it his capital.
Isabella, the wife of Edward II, returns to England with a French army led by Roger de Mortimer and defeats the English.

1327

Edward II is captured and forced to relinquish the English crown to his son Edward III, with his mother Isabella serving as regent; Edward II is later murdered.

1328

Edward III recognizes Scottish independence and the rights of the King of Scotland by signing the Treaty of Northampton.
Ivan I (Moneybag) becomes Grand Prince of Moscow and begins expanding the power of the Muscovite kingdom.

1330

Alfonso XI of Castile, who became king in 1312 as a one-year-old, forms the secular Order of the Band.

1331

Stephen Urosh IV overthrows Urosh III and continues to maintain his father’s control over Bulgaria. He later conquers Macedonia and Epirus. In 1346 he assumes the title “Emperor of the Serbs.”

1332

Lucerne joins the Swiss Confederation.

1333

A Scottish army is cut down while attacking fortified English positions on Halidon Hill.
Casimir III (the Great) becomes ruler of Poland.
The Kamakura shogunate is overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo, which sparks a civil war in Japan.

1336

Emperor Go-Daigo moves his court to Yoshino, south of Kyoto, Japan, and then is driven from the throne by shogun Ashikaga Takauji, who puts Kogon in as emperor.

1337

The Hundred Years’ War begins as French king Philip VI and English king Edward III compete for control of Normandy.

1339

Construction starts on a grand ducal palace, called the Kremlin, in Moscow.

1340

Edward III claims the French throne.
An English fleet destroys a rival French fleet and gains control of the English Channel at the Battle of Sluys.
Alfonso XI of Castile and Alfonso IV of Portugal defeat the Moroccan Marinids at the Battle of Rio Salado.

1341

Byzantine emperor Andronicus III Palaeologus, who took the throne as co-emperor sixteen years earlier, dies. His son, John V Palaeologus, takes the crown and rules for fifty years, although ten years of his reign are dominated by other men.

1342

Pope Benedict XII, who imposed stricter rules—including ending the wandering tradition—for religious orders, dies; elected to replace him is Clement VI.

1346

The English under Edward III invade Normandy and destroy a French army, leaving more than 1,500 French knights dead, at the Battle of Crecy.
Scottish king David II is captured by the English at Neville’s Cross and imprisoned until 1357.

1347

Bubonic plague (Black Death) spreads into Sicily and within a year reaches North Africa and mainland Europe. Between twenty million and thirty-five million people will perish in Europe.
The fortified city of Calais in France is besieged for eleven months and the people inside starved by the English into submission.

1350

Bubonic plague reaches the Scandinavian countries.
Hayam Wuruk becomes king of Majapahit and extends Javan rule throughout Indonesia.
Utong general Ramathibodi I becomes the Thai king and establishes his capital near Bangkok; he defeats the Cambodians, but Khmer culture spreads throughout the region.

1351

Zurich joins the Swiss Confederation.

1352

Pope Clement VI, a princely Pope who enjoyed entertainments but also is credited with protecting Jews who were accused of causing plague, dies; Innocent VI is elected to the throne.

Zug and Glarus, along with Bern the following year, join the Swiss Confederation.

1353

The Genoans triumph in a three-year naval war with Venice.
Ivan II (the Red) becomes Grand Duke of Moscow.
The Laotians are united under the leadership of Fa Ngum.

1354

The Ottomans invade Thrace.

1355

Stephen Urosh IV dies while marching to invade Constantinople. During his administration he established a powerful empire in Serbia.
Venetian naval commander Marino Falier is executed for conspiracy a year after his forces are defeated by the Genoese.
Charles IV is crowned the Holy Roman Emperor.

1356

Edward, the Black Prince, captures French king John II at the Battle of Poitiers and imprisons him in England until 1360. After the French people fail to raise a required ransom, John is returned to England, where he dies in 1364.

1358

Etienne Marcel leads an uprising in Paris, but he is assassinated. Another revolt, led by Guillame Cale in Compiegne, breaks out, and peasant soldiers march to aid Marcel, but the army is defeated at Clermont-en-Beauvais.

1359

The Ottomans capture Angora (later known as Ankara).

1360

Edward III attempts to capture the French crown but is forced to relinquish this demand in the Treaty of Calais, although Aquitaine is awarded to the English.
Murad I becomes sultan of the Ottoman Turks, who capture Adrianople. He establishes an elite force of soldiers comprised of Christian youths and prisoners of war who are called the Janissaries.
Mari Jata II becomes leader of Mali.

1361

King Valdemar IV Atterdag of Denmark initiates a war against the Hanseatic League (Hansa) and defeats its fleet the following year.

1364

Polish king Casimir III founds the University of Cracow.

1365

French mercenaries are sent by Charles V to aid Henry of Trastamara (later Henry II) in Spain.

1366

The Statute of Kilkenny, forbidding intermarriage between English settlers and Irish inhabitants, is established in Ulster.

1367

The Brahmans massacre approximately four hundred thousand Hindus after the Battle of Vijayanagar in India.

1368

A coalition army of Hansa, Swedes, and Germans defeats the forces of Valdemar IV Atterdag of Denmark.
The Arab author Ibn Battuttah, who traveled to areas from Africa to China, dies.
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu takes power in Japan.

1369

Henry of Trastamara captures and executes Peter the Cruel, king of Leon and Castile, and then invades Portugal.
Thai king Ramathibodi I dies; his son, Prince Ramesuan, rules for one year and then abdicates in favor of Boromaraja.

1370

The Hanseatic League is granted trade concessions in the Baltic by the Treaty of Straslund.
Timur (Tamerlane) becomes king of Samarghand.

1371

The Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Murad I defeat the Bulgarian forces, and most of Macedonia except Salonika falls to the hands of the Turks.

1372

The French navy beats an English force at La Rochelle, regaining control of the English Channel.
Henry of Trastamara captures Lisbon and forces King Ferdinand I to end his alliance with the English prince, John of Gaunt.

1373

Laotian king Sam Sene Thai begins a forty-four-year reign.

1375*

English poet Geoffrey Chaucer begins writing The Canterbury Tales.

1375

The Songhai, led by Suleiman-Mar, win independence from the Mali Kingdom.

1376

John of Gaunt is impeached by the “Good” Parliament but regains power after the death of Edward III the following year.

1377

Pope Gregory XI returns the papacy to Rome from Avignon.

1378

Florence is wracked by civil war. Initially, a rebellion of lower-class citizens led by the Ciompi (wool carders) triumphs, placing Michele de Lando in power, but a counter-revolution by the major guilds defeats the upstarts.

1380

Charles VI (the Well-Beloved) takes the French throne upon the death of his father, Charles V.
A Russian army under Grand Duke Donskoy of Moscow defeats a Tartar army at the Battle of Kulikova.

1381

A Genoese fleet is trapped at Chiogga by the Venetians and forced to accept the Peace of Turin, conceding trade concessions to the victors.
An English peasant army, its members angry over serfdom and oppressive taxation, is defeated by Richard II; its leader, Wat Tyler, is executed. The uprising does force the government to abolish poll taxes.

1385

John of Aviz becomes King John I of Portugal after defeating the forces of John I of Castile at Aljubarrota and establishes the independence of his kingdom.

1386

Murad I occupies Salonika; the Byzantine Empire is now completely under the control of the Ottoman Empire, except for a small area around Constantinople. The Turks, how-ever, are defeated by the Serbs, led by Lazar Hrebeljanovic, at the Battle of Plocnik.
Polish queen Jadwiga marries Lithuanian grand duke Jagiello and unites their kingdoms.
Portugal and England form an official alliance with the Treaty of Windsor and the marriage of the daughter of John of Gaunt to John I.

1387

Sigismund becomes king of Hungary and later rules over Rome, Bohemia, and Lombardy.

1388

The Scots defeat an English army at the Battle of Otterburn in Northumbria.

1389

Murad I leads his Turkish troops to victory over the Serbian forces of Prince Hrebeljanovic at the Battle of Kosovo. Both leaders, however, are killed. Bayazid I becomes ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
Albert of Mecklenburg is imprisoned after the defeat of his army by Danish and Swedish troops.

1391

The archdeacon of Ecija, Ferrant Martinez, foments unrest against the Jewish population of Seville, and approximately four thousand Jews are massacred.

1392

The Koryo dynasty is ended with Korean general Yi Songgye taking the throne; he establishes his capital at Hanyang (Seoul).

1393

Cambodia is captured by the Thais.

1394

Richard II invades Ireland with an army of more than eight thousand men.
Timur captures Baghdad and Mesopotamia.

1396

A peace is established between England and France that lasts for twenty-eight years.
Turkish sultan Bayezid I’s army destroys a crusading European army led by John the Fearless near the Danube River at the Battle of Nicopolis.

1397

Erik of Pomerania becomes the first Danish king of the Union of Kalamar, which unites the kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
The English Parliament is forced by Richard II to award him an annual stipend for life and to seat members favorable to his rule.

1398

Turkish troops under Timur invade India, capturing Delhi and killing thousands of Hindus.

1399

Richard II is deposed and imprisoned by Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, who is proclaimed king of England as Henry IV.
Faraj becomes the ruler of Egypt, though he is later captured by Turkish invaders.

1400

Holy Roman Emperor Wencelas is deposed.
Timur captures Damascus and Aleppo in Syria.

1400*

The Iroquois nations (Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga) form in north-eastern North America.

1402

Archibald Douglas leads a Scottish invasion of England and sacks Durham; Henry Percy, utilizing effective English archers, catches the Scots off guard and defeats them at the Battle of Homildon Hill.
Ethiopian ambassadors visit Europe.

1403

A Scottish army is defeated by the English at the Battle of Shrewsbury.
Malacca (Melaka), a major spice-growing region on the Malay Peninsula, is founded by Paramesvara.

1404

Albert V takes the German throne upon the death of his father, Albert IV.

1406

James I becomes king of Scotland but is captured by the English while in flight to France.
A copy of Ptolemy’s Geography is brought to Italy from Constantinople and translated into Latin by James Angelus. Its availability gives a significant boost to geographical knowledge in Europe.

1407

A civil war breaks out in France between supporters of the Armagnacs and the Burgundians.

1408

An army of Teutonic knights is defeated by a combined army of Polish, Tartar, Lithuanian, Russian, and Bohemian troops at the Battle of Tannenburg.

1411

Aragon and Portugal reach a peace agreement after thirty years of fighting and truces. Peace at home allows John of Portugal to begin a policy of overseas expansion.
The Polish king is unable to gain greater advantage in his war against the Teutonic knights and signs the Peace of Thorn.

1412

Erik of Pomerania becomes king of Denmark upon the death of Margaret I.
The Egyptians attempt to recapture Syria from the Turks, but their leader Faraj is killed.

1413

Henry IV dies and is succeeded on the English throne by his son, Henry V, who had proven himself by leading the war against the Welsh (1402-1408). He arrests Sir John Oldcastle for heresy and then puts down a rebellion against his rule.
Another revolt breaks out in Paris, led by Simon Caboche, and the rebels win some concessions, although they are later defeated and the reforms withdrawn.

1414

The Sayyid dynasty of Delhi is established with the start of Khizr Khan’s reign.

1415

English troops under Henry V invade and recapture Normandy by defeating the forces of Charles VI at the Battle of Agincourt.
Czech leader Jan Hus, advocate of church reform and opponent of indulgences, is seized (possibly by Sigismund) while on alleged safe-conduct to the Council of Constance and burned at the stake for heresy.
Prince Henry the Navigator becomes the governor of Ceuta in Morocco. He will become more famous as the sponsor of maritime voyages of exploration and for helping to improve navigaton and shipbuilding.

1418

Vietnamese living along the Red River basin, led by Le Loi, begin a revolt against the Chinese.

1419

The Hussites present King Sigismund with demands known as the Four Articles of Prague, which include provisions for freedom of religion and reduction of church finances; Sigismund attempts to put down the revolt and fails.
Sejong becomes king of Korea.

1420

The Treaty of Troyes recognizes English king Henry V as the heir to the French throne.
Hussite military innovator and leader of the Taborites, Jan Zizka, who transformed the use of mobile artillery, defeats forces sent by Sigismund to quell his rebellion. He dies in 1424.

1421

Henry V dies and his one-year-old son, Henry VI, takes the English throne, under the regency of the Duke of Gloucester.
Gypsies arrive in the city of Bruges. Established in Eastern Europe by the end of the last century, they start to move westward.

1422

Charles VI dies, and despite the Treaty of Troyes, his son Charles VII takes the French throne.

1424

James I is crowned in Scotland following his release by the English the previous year in recognition of his service to Henry V in the French campaigns.
A civil war breaks out in Siam, each faction led by a son of the deceased ruler. Boromaraja II emerges as king.

1427

Emperor Yeshaq of Ethiopia sends envoys to Aragon in Spain to establish an alliance against Islam.
An income tax (catasto) is instituted in Florence.

1428

Itzcoatl begins his rule over the Aztecs of Central America.

1429

The Order of the Golden Fleece, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Andrew to defend Roman Catholicism and chivalry, is founded by Philip II (the Good), Duke of Burgundy.
Charles VII is crowned king of France after defeating the English at Orleans and the Battle of Patay.

1431

Joan of Arc, who helped raise the siege of Orleans but was captured and given to the English, is burned at the stake for allegedly having practiced witchcraft, after a trial by French clerics.

1434

A Swedish revolt against the rule of Erik of Pomerania breaks out. It is led by Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson and the Council of Aristocrats.
Florentine banker Cosimo de’ Medici returns home from a temporary exile and begins to dominate politics and arts in Florence.
Phnom Penh is established as the capital of Cambodia, because Angkor is vulnerable to attacks by the Thais.

1435

The Treaty of Arras between Charles VII and Philip of Burgundy establishes Charles as supreme king of France.

1436

The Portuguese, having sailed past the Sahara coast, begin to explore the Rio de Ouro(the Gold River) in West Africa.
Swedish rebels capture Stockholm, but their leader Engelbrektsson dies.

1437

Prince Henry the Navigator fails to capture Tangiers.

1438

In order to restrict papal rights in France, Charles VII issues the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.

1439

Hungarian king Albert II, who gained the crown the previous year, is killed in battle against the Turks.
The French develop a standing army by instituting such reforms as standard pay, discipline, and troop organization.

1440

A conspiracy of French nobles attempts to overthrow the king, but they are defeated.
Venetian and Florentine troops defeat the Milanese.
Montezuma I becomes ruler of the Aztecs and begins conquering tribes outside the valley of Mexico. A triple alliance established in 1428 by Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan contributes to the final defeat of Tepanec power.

1441

Slaves and gold are directly imported from West Africa into Portugal.

1442

A Hungarian army led by Janos Hunyadi defeats a Turkish army in Transylvania, breaking Ottoman control in the Balkans.
North African Berbers are enslaved by the Portuguese.

1444

The Ottomans defeat the Hungarians at Varna (Bulgaria) on the shores of the Black Sea, which opens their way to Constantinople. Mehmed II (the Conqueror) takes the crown from his father, although he is displaced two years later.
Portuguese explorers arrive in Cape Verde.

1446

Alfonso V issues a law code for Portugal, called the Ordenacoes Affonsinas.
Murad II returns from retirement to quell a revolt of the Janissaries.

1447

The Ngamo people of the Daniski Hill are displaced by an influx of Bolewa people from the Lake Chad region.

1448*

Leaving Strasbourg, where he has lived for several years, Johannes Gutenberg, who has invented movable printing characters, goes back to his native town of Mainz.
Hussite leader George of Podebrady captures Prague from the Habsburgs.

1449

A civil war breaks out in Portugal, the opposing sides seeking control of royal politics. An army led by Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, is defeated by the forces of the Duke of Bragança at the Battle of Alfarrobeira.
The Timurid Empire of Central Asia begins to collapse after the death of Tartar leader Ulugh Beg.

1450*

A smoothbore matchlock gun, the arquebus, is invented in Germany.

1450

A rebel army of property owners in Kent, angry about high taxation and led by John Cade, defeats a royal army sent by Henry VI at the Battle of Sevenoaks. Cade is later captured and killed at London Bridge.
An English army is defeated and approximately five thousand soldiers killed by the French at the Battle of Formigny, opening the way for the recovery of Normandy.

1451

Mehmed II takes control of the Ottoman Empire upon the death of his father.
The Lodi dynasty of Afghanistan is established with the start of the kingship of Bahlul Lodi.

1452

Frederick III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

1453

France defeats England at the Battle of Castillon, ending the Hundred Years’ War.
Constantinople falls to Ottoman troops, led by Mehmed II, and the city is renamed Istanbul. He installs Islam as the official religion, although he shows toleration toward Jews and Orthodox Christians, and encourages European scholars to settle in the city.
Uzun Hasan becomes ruler of the Turkmen Ak Koyunlu dynasty.

1454

Prussians and Poles unite in opposition to the Teutonic Order.
Venice and Milan forge the Peace of Lodi and establish a mutual defense in opposition to the Turks, who threaten established trade routes.

1455

The English defeat in the Hundred Years’ War raises discontent in England, helping lead to a civil war between two powerful factions—the houses of Lancaster and York—in what becomes known as the War of the Roses, so named because rival sides wore red or white roses to signify their allegiance. Richard, Duke of York, triumphs over opposing forces at St. Albans.

1460

Le Thanh Tong becomes ruler of Vietnam.

1461

Charles VII dies and is succeeded on the French throne by his son, Louis XI. Influenced by Pietro Barbo, who will become Pope Paul II in three years, the new king abolishes the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.
Henry VI is deposed from the English throne after a royal army is defeated by the Yorkists at the second Battle of St. Albans. Lancastrian troops are later routed at the Battle of Towton and the Duke of York is proclaimed king as Edward IV.
Mehmed II occupies Trebizond, the last territory of the Byzantine Empire to be conquered by the Turks.

1462

Vasily II dies and his son, Ivan III Vasilyevich (the Great), becomes Grand Prince of Moscow; Ivan rules until 1505.

1464*

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who seeks independence of Burgundy, leads the League of Public Weal against Louis XI, defeating royal forces at the Battle of Montl’hery the following year.
Sonni ’Ali (the Great) becomes ruler of the Songhai kingdom.

1466

The Second Peace of Thorn between the Poles and Teutonic Order gives Poland a port on the Baltic Sea.

1467

Japan is torn by the Onin War, lasting ten years, concerning who will replace Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa when he retires, which will not be until 1473.

1468

Charles the Bold and Louis XI establish a truce.
Sonni ’Ali conquers Timbuktu.

1469

The brothers de’ Medici, Lorenzo and Giuliano, establish their control over Florence.
The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile are drawn together and eventually united by the marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella I.

1470

A Lancastrian revolt, led by the earl of Warwick and the duke of Clarence in support of Henry VI, is defeated by the forces of Edward IV at the Battle of Stamford.

1471

Mehmed II takes the last surviving Turkish emirate, Karamania. As a result, all territories from the Taurus Mountains to the Adriatic are now under Ottoman rule.
Ulaszlo I, the son of Polish king Casimir IV, becomes king of Bohemia.
Champa is captured by the Vietnamese, who will begin attacking the border areas of Cambodia.

1474

Isabella I succeeds her father, John II, as queen of Castile.

1475

Edward IV invades France but takes a subsidy offered by Louis XI, money that gives Edward greater financial latitude in his struggles with Parliament; the two kings sign the Treaty of Picquigny.

1476

Charles the Bold’s Burgundian troops are defeated and seriously reduced in number at the Battles of Grandson (2 March) and Morat (22 June).
Portuguese troops sent to capture Castile are defeated by Spanish troops at the Battle of Toro. Alfonso V renounces any claims to Castile in the Treaty of Alcáçovas, signed three years later.

1477

Swiss Confederation troops defeat the Burgundians near Nancy, France, and Charles the Bold is killed.

1478

Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus wins Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia through the Treaty of Olomouc, signed by the Bohemian king Ulaszlo I.
Giuliano de’ Medici is assassinated by conspirators inspired by the Pazzi family and Pope Sixtus IV. Lorenzo gathers support in Florence, kills many of the conspirators, and initiates a war with the Vatican.

1480

The Ottomans capture and destroy the southern Italian town of Otranto.

1481

The Diet of Stans strengthens the Swiss Confederation by bringing in the cantons of Solothurn and Fribourg.
Bayezid II becomes the Ottoman ruler after the death of his father, Mehmed II. He defeats a challenge to his rule by his brother, Cem.

1482

The Kongo people are discovered by Portuguese explorers; trade and Christian evangelization commence.

1483

Edward IV dies, and his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, takes the throne after the illegitimate son of Edward is blocked from becoming king. Richard III eliminates other rivals to the throne and defeats a rebellion led by the Duke of Birmingham.

1485

The Earl of Richmond defeats royal forces at the Battle of Bosworth Field and kills Richard III; the earl becomes king as Henry VII (Henry Tudor).
Saluva Narasimha becomes ruler of India.

1487

Henry VII establishes the Star Chamber, a secretive and oppressive court established to try English nobles. An army of a pretender to the throne, Lambert Simnel, is defeated at Stoke-on-Trent.

1488

Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa.
Anti-English Scots murder King James III and replace him with James IV.
Boroomaraja III becomes ruler of the Thais.

1491

Ottomans and Mamluks reach a peace agreement after six years of fighting.
Cilicia in Anatolia is now under Egyptian control.

1492

Christopher Columbus arrives at San Salvador (in the Bahamas). He later lands on Cuba, believing that it is Japan.
Granada, the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain, falls to Castilian and Aragonese troops under Ferdinand and Isabella.
Spanish Jews who refuse to be converted to Catholicism are forced into exile.

1493

The Habsburg archduke Maximilian becomes Holy Roman Emperor as Maximilian I.
Mohammed I Askia becomes ruler of the Songhai Empire after the defeat at the Battle of Anfao of the son of Sonni ’All, who had died the previous year.

1494

English rule is firmly established in Ireland, weakening the power of the Irish Parliament, by Poyning’s Law (Statute of Drogheda).
Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, by which they agree not to encroach on territories controlled in the parts of the world demarcated by a line west of the Cape Verde Islands. Spain gets the west and Portugal the east; other European nations ignore the agreement.

1495

The Holy League—comprised of the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Venice, and Milan—aligns against Charles VIII.
James IV of Scotland supports Perkin Warbek, who claims to be the Duke of York, in an invasion of England. Warbek fails and is executed in 1499.
Limited constitutional reforms, such as a supreme court and Roman law, are introduced to Germany through the Diet of Worms.
Gonja, a new state on the Ghana-Ivory Coast, is ruled by Sumayla Ndewura Dyakpa.

1497

Jews are expelled from Portugal.
Leaders of a tax revolt in Cornwall, England, are defeated at the Battle of Blackheath; they are captured and executed.

1498

Louis XII becomes king of France upon the death of Charles VIII.

1499

French troops capture Milan. An attempt by Ludovico, who became Duke of Milan in 1481, to liberate the city the following year fails, and he is imprisoned by Louis XII. In 1508 he dies in France.
A Venetian fleet is destroyed by the Ottomans at Sapienza after a renewal of warfare between the kingdoms.
The Treaty of Basel establishes the independence of the Swiss Confederation after the Swiss defeat an army sent by Maximilian I at the Battle of Dornach.

1500

The French and Spanish partition Naples, though France gains sole control the following year.

1501

Basel joins the Swiss Confederation.
Shah Esma’il of Iran begins his reign and starts converting the Sunnis to the Shi’ah faith.

1502

A peasant revolt occurs in Germany; seeking confiscation of church property and an end to the nobility, the rebels are betrayed and defeated.
Montezuma II becomes leader of the Aztecs upon the death of his uncle, Ahuitzotl.

1503

Lithuania and Russia establish peace; Russia gains territory along the Baltic Sea.
Pope Alexander VI dies, and the nephew of Sixtus IV is elected as Julius II.

1504

English guilds and trade companies are placed under the supervision of the Crown.
The Funj Sultanate is established in central Sudan by Amara Dunkas.

1505

Ivan the Great dies, leaving his strengthened kingdom to his son, Vasily III.
Benin king Ozolua, who established contacts with the Portuguese, dies.

1506

The Habsburgs are established in Spain by the one-year reign of Philip I (the Handsome).
Portuguese citizens massacre converses (converted Jews) in Lisbon; survivors are allowed to emigrate.
Kongo ruler Afonso I converts to Roman Catholicism.

1508

The Pope grants the Spanish crown rights to establish and build churches, especially in the Americas.
The Holy League of Cambrai—formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII, Maximilian I, and Ferdinand II—send forces against Venice.
Michelangelo begins painting his ceiling frescoes for the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

1509

Henry VIII succeeds to the English throne upon the death of his father, Henry VII.
A Portuguese fleet captained by Francisco de Almeida destroys an Arab fleet off the coast of Diu (India).

1510

Pope Julius II leaves the Holy League of Cambrai and allies with Venice in an attempt to force the French out of Italy.

1511

The first African slaves arrive in the New World after Nicolas de Ovando, the Spanish governor of Hispaniola, was authorized in 1503 to transport them to the island after enslavement of the natives proves troublesome.

1512

Despite their victory over the Holy League at the Battle of Ravenna, French forces are forced out of Milan.
Bayezid II abdicates the Ottoman throne to Selim I (the Grim).

1513

The Holy League is disbanded after the defeat of French forces by a combined English-German army at the Battle of Spurs.

Scottish king James IV is killed at the Battle of Flodden Field by the Earl of Surrey, whose troops are defending against a combined French-Scottish invasion of England.
A French and Venetian army is destroyed by a Swiss army at the Battle of Novarra.

1515

The Spanish found the city of Havana, though the site is changed in 1519 by Diego Velazquez.
Swiss mercenary troops defending Milan are defeated by the French and Venetians; the Swiss establish peace with the French the following year with the Treaty of Fribourg.

1516

Charles I becomes king of Spain after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand II.
Frances I obtains the right to nominate church officials in France by the Concordat of Bologna, negotiated by Pope Leo X, who was elected in 1513.
The Ottomans annex Syria.
Ang Chan becomes king of Cambodia.

1517

The Protestant Reformation begins when German monk Martin Luther publishes his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences granting the forgiveness of sins. He maintains that salvation comes by faith and not by works.
Egypt falls to the Ottomans.

1518

Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione writes // cortegiano (The Courtier).

1519

Charles of Spain is elected Holy Roman Emperor and takes the name Charles V, although both Francis of France and Henry VIII of England are candidates.
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes enters Tenochtitlan.
Italian artist, scientist, and architect Leonardo da Vinci dies. His works include The Last Supper (circa 1495) and Mono. Lis (circa 1502).

1520

During a conference at the Field of Cloth of Gold, Francis I tries to get Henry VIII to support a French attempt to control the Holy Roman Empire.
Spanish cities rebel against Charles V, but the uprising is put down.
A rebellion against Christian II, Danish king of Scandinavia, leads to the Bloodbath of Stockholm, in which hundreds of nobles are murdered; Gustavus Vasa leads a Swedish invasion of Denmark.
The last two emperors of the Aztecs, Montezuma II and Cuauhtemoc, are executed by Cortes.

Siileyman I (the Magnificent) begins his rule in the Ottoman Empire.

1521

The Spanish and English unite against France. Francis I declares war against the Holy Roman Empire.
Portuguese explorer Fernao de Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan) reaches the Polynesian Islands; he visits Guam and the Philippines, where he dies the following year.

1522

The Knights Hospitalers are defeated by the Turks on Rhodes; some survivors escape and resettle in Malta.
Spain recaptures Milan and expels the French.
Juan de Elcano captains the last surviving ship from the Magellan expedition to its home port, completing the first circumnavigation of the earth.

1523

Vasa topples King Christian II and takes the throne as Gustavus I.
Charles V gains most of Lombardy after defeating the French at the Battle of La Bicocca.

1525

Francis I is defeated and taken prisoner by Charles V at the Battle of Pavia. He is later forced to sign the Treaty of Madrid and cede his claim to Italy.
Huascar and Atahualpa become co-emperors of the Incan Empire.

1526

England, Venice, France, Florence, and the Vatican form the League of Cognac to oppose Charles V.
In response to the creation of the Catholic Dessau League, Philip, the landgrave of Hesse, and Johann of Saxony establish the League of Torgau. Most Protestant kingdoms of the German empire participate in it later.
Turkish troops led by Suleyman I defeat the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohacs and kill Louis II.

1527

Pope Clement VII is taken prisoner by Charles V, whose troops sack Rome.
A civil war breaks out in the Incan Empire; Atahualpa wins the conflict in 1530.
Mac Dang Dung becomes ruler of Vietnam.

1528

Genoese admiral Andrea Doria sets up an oligarchy in Genoa.
A typhus epidemic thwarts French plans to capture Naples.

Influential German painter and engraver Albrecht Durer, famous for woodcuts and engravings of religious themes, dies.

1529

Papal authority in England is renounced by Henry VIII and the “Reformation Parliament.”
The Viceroyalty of New Spain is established, with Mexico City (formerly Tenochtitlan)its capital city.

1531

The Schmalkaldic League—a defensive alliance including Hesse, Saxony, Brunswick, Anhalt, Magdeburg, Strasbourg, Ulm, and Bremen—is formed to counter Charles V.
Swiss Protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli is killed defending Zurich from Catholic opponents.

1532

Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli’s Ilprincipe (The Prince) is published.

1534

The Act of Supremacy, separating the English Church from papal control, is established.
French explorer Jacques Cartier, who discovered the St. Lawrence River, claims the area that will become Canada for France.

1535

Tunisian pirates are defeated by the forces of Charles V.
Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of New Spain, brings the first printing press to the Americas.

1536

Turks raid the Italian coast. Turin falls to the French.
Several rebellions in England are caused by the enclosure movement and heavy taxation begun by Henry VIII; they are put down.
Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus, who helped promote learning in Europe, dies.
French theologian John Calvin publishes Christianae religionis Institutio (Institutes of the Christian Religion).

1540

Moghul emperor Humayun is forced to leave India by Afghans under the leadership of Sher Shah, who becomes emperor of Delhi.
The Privy Council in England is established.

1541

The Spanish begin to occupy Peru.
The Somalis are forced out of Ethiopia by a Portuguese army.

1542

An English army defeats the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss.
Antonio da Mota is the first European to reach Japan. In 1543 Portuguese sailors arrive at the island of Tanegashima; their three matchlock guns are purchased by the Japanese, who have not seen firearms since the unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Japan in the thirteenth century.
Portuguese explorer Joao Cabrilho, sailing for Spain, discovers California.
Spanish colonists in the Americas protest the New Laws of the Indies, issued by Charles V. Among other reforms, the laws seek to control abuses of the native populations.
The French establish a colony in New France (Canada).

1543

Polish astronomer Mikolaj Kopernik (Nicolas Copernicus) publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs).

1544

In order to restore Catholic unity in Europe, Francis I and Charles V sign the Treaty of Crepy. Francis assures his support to the Emperor against the Protestants if they refuse to recognize decisions of the forthcoming Council of Trent.
The English invade Scotland.

1545

Silver is discovered at Potosi, Bolivia; the Spanish begin using native laborers as miners.

1546

Charles V declares war on the Schmalkaldic League.
Spanish conquistadors suppress a Mayan uprising in Mexico.
French printer Etienne Dolet, accused of producing the works of humanist reformers such as Erasmus, is hanged in Paris and burned at the stake for blasphemy, sedition, and heresy.

1547

Ivan IV (the Terrible) is made the Grand Duke of Moscow.
The Schmalkaldic League is defeated by Charles V at the Battle of Miihlberg.

1548

Queen Tao Sri Sudachan takes the Thai throne after killing her husband the previous year; she and her lover are murdered by Khun Pirentoratep, who serves as regent for King Chakrapat. The Burmese invade Thailand.

1549

Robert Kett leads a rebellion against the enclosure movement in England. After defeating an English army sent against them, the rebels are defeated and Kett is executed.
Spanish Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrives in Japan to convert the locals. He works in Japan for two years, then returns to India, where he dies.

1550

Iceland prelate Jon Arason is beheaded for opposing the introduction of Lutheranism into his country.

1551

Burmese ruler Tabinshweti is assassinated, and his brother-in-law, Bayinnaung, places himself on the throne.

1552

Ivan the Terrible begins the occupation of Kazan and Astrakhan, which are held by the Tartars.

1554

Edward VI dies and Mary Tudor takes the throne. The Parliament repeals all religious laws passed under Henry VIII and Edward VI; Roman Catholicism is reestablished in England and the power of the Pope is recognized.

1555

An anti-Calvinist uprising in Geneva is cruelly suppressed.
The Peace of Augsburg recognizes the practice of Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire.
Tobacco is first shipped to Spain from the Americas.

1556

Akbar, who has succeeded as Mughal emperor of India upon the death of Humayun, defeats the Afghans at Panipat.

1557

Bukhara is captured by Shaybanid ruler ’Abd Allah, who then attacks Persia.

1558

Mary I dies and Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, takes the English throne.
The Nguyen dynasty is established in southern Vietnam.

1559

Henri II is mortally wounded in a tournament; he is replaced on the French throne by his son Francis II, who dies the following year, whereupon Charles IX succeeds, with Catherine de’ Medici serving as regent.
The French and Spanish end their contest for control of Italy; the Habsburgs control Italy for the next century and a half.

1560

Akbar conquers the Raiput and Lower Bengal kingdoms in India.

1561*

The Luba Empire is established in southern Zaire.

1561

Madrid is made the capital of Spain.
Mary, Queen of Scots, returns to Scotland.

1562

French Huguenots (Protestants) are massacred at Vassy, sparking the Wars of Religion in France. A Huguenot army is defeated at the Battle of Dreux.
John Hawkins begins the English slave trade across the Atlantic; he leaves Sierra Leone in West Africa with a shipment of three hundred slaves, sailing to Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) in the Caribbean.

1563

Protestantism is strengthened in England with the extension by Parliament of the Act of Supremacy.
The Peace of Amboise temporarily quells fighting in the French Religious Wars and allows Protestants to worship freely.
Ivan IV occupies Polotsk in Eastern Livonia, taking it from Poland. A war between Russia and Poland erupts immediately and continues until 1582.
Burma invades Siam.

1564

An outbreak of plague in Europe spreads to England and kills more than twenty thou-sand inhabitants of London.
Hawkins introduces the sweet potato from North America into Europe; the following year he returns to London from North America with a shipload of tobacco.
Francesco de’ Medici becomes the ruler of Florence.

1565

Protestants are massacred in France following a meeting between the duke of Alba and Catherine de’ Medici, wife of Charles IX.
The Knights Hospitaler successfully defend Malta against a Muslim invasion.
The Spanish found Saint Augustine in Florida.

1566

Margaret of Parma, at the request of the “Beggars,” relaxes religious restrictions on Protestants in the Netherlands.
Selim II becomes sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

1567

Rebels in the Netherlands revolt against Spanish rule.
Mary, Queen of Scots, abdicates; her thirteen-month-old son takes the Scottish crown as James VI.
French settlers are expelled by the Portuguese from the Brazilian area that later becomes Rio de Janeiro.

1568

Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned after the English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Langside. Catholics are persecuted in England.
Nobleman Omura Sumitada, baptized by the Jesuits in 1562, allows foreign traders to set up posts at a small fishing village called Fukue (near Nagasaki) in Japan.

1569

The Earl of Sussex puts down a Catholic rebellion in Northumberland and Westmore-land, known as the Revolt of the Northern Earls.
The Union of Lublin unites Poland and Lithuania.
Cosimo de’ Medici becomes the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

1570*

Chiefs Hiawatha and Dekanawidah help establish the Iroquois League.

1570

Huguenots achieve freedom of worship in France after the Peace of St. Germain is signed.
Converted Muslims (moriscos) in Spain revolt, are defeated, and are then expelled from Spain (1609).
A conspiracy, known as the Ridolfi plot, calling for Spanish troops from the Netherlands to invade England, is uncovered.

1571

Ottoman expansion into the eastern Mediterranean is blocked when their fleet is defeated by Venetian and Spanish ships at the Battle of Lepanto in the Gulf of Patras.

1572

The Dutch War of Independence, sparked by William of Orange, begins. The Sea Beggars harass the Spanish and capture Brielle. William is forced to retreat to the northern provinces, where he continues to lead the resistance.
The last of the Incan chiefs, Tupac Amaru, is executed by the Spanish.

1573

The Ottomans capture Cyprus, forcing the Venetians to sign the Peace of Constantinople.

1574

Murad III becomes sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
The Spanish lose control of Tunis to the Ottomans but gain a colony in Angola.

1575

Plague breaks out in Sicily and spreads to Italy, killing many inhabitants in Milan and Florence.
The first European imitation of Chinese porcelain is produced at Florence.

1576

Spanish troops riot and kill about six thousand Antwerp citizens in a rampage known as the Spanish Fury.
William of Orange is placed over the northern provinces after the Pacification of Ghent.
Maximilian II dies; he is succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his brother, Rudolf II.

1577

Huguenots in France rebel; peace and their freedom to worship is restored with the Peace of Bergerac.
English admiral Sir Francis Drake begins a sea voyage that ends in the circumnavigation of the earth; the trip ends in 1580, making him the first Englishman to accomplish this feat.

1578

A Portuguese army, led by Sebastian, invades North Africa and is defeated by the Moors at the Battle of the Three Kings. Sebastian is killed and is replaced on the Portuguese throne by his uncle, Henry I.

1579

The Union of Utrecht is signed, establishing the Dutch Republic.

1581

The Act of Abjuration against Philip II of Spain is passed by the Estates General of the Netherlands.
Russians begin to conquer Siberia; they completely occupy it by 1598.
Burmese king Bhueng Noreng dies; he is succeeded by his son, Nanda Bhueng.

1582

After twenty-five years of warfare, Russia reaches peace with Poland and gives up its claims to the Baltic state of Livonia.
Scottish king James VI is forced by William Ruthven, Earl of Cowrie, to denounce the Catholic Duke of Lennox.
A commission formed by Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar.

1583

Francis Throckmorton is captured and executed for his participation in a conspiracy to help France invade England and overthrow Queen Elizabeth I.

1584

William of Orange is assassinated by Balthazar Gerard. Maurice succeeds as leader of the Union of Utrecht.

1585

The English agree to aid the Dutch against Philip I in the Treaty of Nonsuch.
The War of Three Henris begins in France in response to a rebellion of Protestants, who have been ordered to convert to Catholicism or be exiled.

1586

Mary Stuart is tried for treason after the uncovering of a plot, allegedly led by Antony Babbington, to overthrow Elizabeth I. Mary is beheaded early the following year.
Spanish painter El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), who produced many important pieces with religious themes, starts work on Burial of the Conde de Orgaz, which he finishes in 1588.

1587

Protestant Henri of Navarre’s troops defeat those of rival Catholic Henri III in France at the Battle of Coutras.
The Burmese and Cambodians invade Siam.

1588

Henri III escapes a rebellion known as the Day of the Barricades, in Paris.
The Spanish Armada is destroyed, partly by bad weather and partly by an English fleet.

1589

Henri III is assassinated, and Henri of Navarre takes the French throne as Henry IV, initiating the rule of the Bourbon dynasty. The Catholic League is defeated at the Battle of Arques and then again, in the following year, at the Battle of Ivry.

1590

Toyotomi Hideyoshi unifies Japan under his rule. His powerful vassal Tokugawa leyasu transfers his administrative and military base to Edo (Tokyo), a strategic city for control of the great plain of eastern Japan.

1591

The Songhai Empire collapses as Moroccan troops, most of whom are mercenaries, capture Gao and Timbuktu.

1592

Japan invades Korea and captures the castle at Pusan after the Korean government refuses to accept Japanese trade terms.

1593

The Thais defeat the Burmese and attack Cambodia.

1594

Irish soldiers defeat an English army at the Battle of the Ford of Biscuits near Enniskillen.

1595

Spanish troops in France are defeated at the Battle of Fontaine-Fracaise.
Akbar’s troops occupy Kandahar. All of India north of the Narmada River, as well as Kabul and Ghazni, is now under his control.
Ottoman sultan Murad III dies; he is succeeded by Mehmed III.

1596

The War of the Catholic League ends with the Articles of Folembray.

1597

English playwright William Shakespeare writes Henry VI, an historical drama in three sections, each consisting of five acts.

1598

Irish rebels, led by Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat a British army at Yellow Ford in Ulster.
The Persians defeat the Uzbeks in a battle near Herat.

1599

The Swedes overthrow Polish king Sigismund III Vasa; Charles IX establishes Lutheranism as the state religion in Sweden.

1600

Tokugawa leyasu defeats his rivals at the Battle of Sekigahara, becoming the most powerful warlord in Japan.
The English East India Company is founded.
Dutch stadtholder Maurice of Nassau leads an army in defeat of the Spanish at the Battle of Nieuport.

1601

Irish and Spanish forces are defeated by the English at the Battle of Kinsale.
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe dies. His Tabulae Rudolphinae is completed by his assistant, German astronomer Johannes Kepler, and published in 1627.

1602

Spanish traders arrive at Japan.
The Dutch East India Company is founded.

1603

Scottish king James VI becomes king of England as King James I.
French mathematician Fracois Viete dies; he was the first person to use alphabetical symbols in algebra.
The first beaver pelts arrive at the port of La Rochelle in France from Canada.

1604

Protestants in Hungary, led by Istvan Bocskay and aided by the Turks, revolt against the Habsburgs.
Dmitri, an imposter posing as the son of Tsar Ivan IV, leads an army of Lithuanians and Poles into Russia.

1605

The Dutch seize Ambon (Amboyna), Malaysia, from the Portuguese.
European diseases are devastating the American Indian population. Smallpox, measles, dysentery, typhoid, and tuberculosis are transmitted by trade and warfare; alcohol is also becoming a disaster for Indian communities.
English Catholic Guy Fawkes, along with fellow conspirators, attempts to blow up the House of Parliament. He is executed the following year.
Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes completes the first part of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha; the second portion will be completed by 1615.

1606

The Dutch ship Duyfken lands at the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia.

1607*

The Powhatan Indians form a confederacy of approximately thirty tribes in Virginia.

1607

Under the leadership of Captain John Smith, Jamestown is founded in Virginia as an English colony in North America.

1608

Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec.
A defensive alliance of German Protestant cities, called the Evangelical League, is formed; a corresponding entity, the Catholic League, is formed the following year.

1609

Kepler publishes his laws of planetary motion.
The Dutch East India Company first transports tea from China to Europe.

1610

English navigator Henry Hudson, sailing aboard Discovery, reaches Hudson Bay.

1611

Jesuits, authorized by Philip III of Spain to control the Indian missions, establish their first mission at San Ignacio Guazu in Paraguay.
The first English settlers arrive at Masulipatam (Machilipatnam), Madras, on the east coast of India.
Englishman Thomas Harriott, German Johannes Fabricius, German Jesuit Christoph Scheiner, and Italian Galileo Galilei all discover sunspots.
Denmark declares war on Sweden; the Kalamar War ends in 1613 with the Peace of Knared.
The King James Version of the Bible is published.

1612

Rudolf II dies; his brother, Matthias, who had taken the kingship of Hungary in 1608, becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
The Dutch first use Manhattan Island as a center for the fur trade.
Tobacco cultivation is introduced by John Rolfe into Virginia.

1613

Michael Romanov becomes tsar of Russia.

1614

Christians are ordered out of Japan.
Scottish mathematician John Napier invents logarithms; he later works with the use of the decimal point and constructs an early calculating machine.

1616

Tokugawa leyasu dies; his son, Tokugawa Hidetada, becomes shogun and continues his father’s campaign against Christian influences in Japan, including ordering the executions of missionaries the following year.
The western coast of Australia is explored by the Dutch.

1618

An uprising in Prague sparks the Thirty Years’ War, a series of conflicts fought primarily on German soil between Protestant and Catholic factions.
A smallpox epidemic sweeps through New England and spreads down the coast as far as Virginia. Indian tribes are the hardest hit, losing up to 90 percent of their population.
Explorer and adventurer Sir Walter Ralegh, who helped establish the English colony in Virginia, is executed on a charge of treason.

1619

A Dutch frigate arrives in Jamestown, leaving behind twenty Africans as indentured servants, one of the first cargoes of its kind to go to British North America.
The House of Burgesses (parliament) meets for the first time in Virginia.

1620

A Catholic army defeats a Bohemian (Protestant) army at the Battle of White Mountain.
The Mayflower, carrying more than one hundred Protestant dissenters called the Pilgrims, leaves England and sails to Massachusetts.

1621

Spanish king Philip III dies; his son, Philip IV, takes the throne.

1623

Pope Gregory XV, who introduced secret voting for election, dies; Urban VIII is elected to replace him.

1624

The first English settlers arrive in the West Indies after Sir Thomas Warner occupies the island of St. Christopher (St. Kitts).
Dutch settlers arrive in New Amsterdam (later renamed New York by the British).

1625

Virginia is made a royal colony; James I dies, and his brother, Charles I, becomes king of England.

1626

Catholic forces in Germany defeat a Protestant army at the Battle of Dessau during the Thirty Years’ War.

1628

The English Parliament passes the Petition of Right, which restricts the right of the king to impose taxes, declare martial law, and imprison citizens.

1631

Swedish king Gustav II Adolph leads his troops to victory over Flemish forces, led by Johann Tserclaes (Tilly), at the Battle of Breitenfeld; the Flemish also lose an engagement at the Lech River the following year.

1632

Galileo publishes Dia/ogo sopra i due massimi sistemi delmondo (Dialogue of the Two Chief Systems of the World), although he was ordered by the Pope to denounce the Copernican system. He dies in 1642.
Shah Jahan begins construction, finished in 1649, of the Taj Majal.

1634

The first English settlers arrive in Maryland and establish their capital at St. Mary’s, on property given to George Calvert in 1632.

1635

Emperor Ferdinand II and Elector John George of Saxony sign the Peace of Prague, which is accepted by Brandenburg and most Lutheran states.

1636

Dissident clergyman Roger Williams founds Providence (Rhode Island).

1637

The foundation for modern philosophical inquiry is developed by French philosopher Rene Descartes in Discours de la methode (Discourse on the Method).
New England settlers attack neighboring Native Americans in a short conflict known as the Pequot War.

1638

Christians are persecuted in Japan, which is closed to foreigners except the Dutch and Chinese, who are allowed only to maintain trading posts under guard in a walled com-pound on the island of Deshima.

1640

Portugal regains its independence from Spain.

1642

The English Civil War commences between the royalist forces of Charles I and the Roundheads, those who support Parliament.
The Dutch obtain a monopoly of foreign trade in Japan on final exclusion of the Portuguese, but the Japanese government imposes severe limitations on their activities.
Dutch captain Abel Tasman discovers New Zealand and Tasmania; the following year he finds the Fiji Islands.