World History II Richardson Unit I

Vlad Tepes (Battle of Wallachia)

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King Afonso VII of Leon (Portugal)

Alfonso I (1109?-1185) was the first king of Portugal. An accomplished warrior, he won independence from Castile and enlarged his realm at the expense of the Moslems. Alfonso Henriques was born at Guimarães in the castle of his father, Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal. His ambitious mother, Teresa, daughter of Alfonso VI of León and Castile, ruled the county as regent after Henry died in 1112. When Alfonso rebelled against his mother in 1127 and took control of the county, he immediately faced an invasion by his cousin, the new king of León, Alfonso VII. The Leónese king refused to recognize the independence of Portugal until 1143, when Alfonso Henriques became a vassal of the pope; the two cousins then signed a treaty in Zamora under the auspices of the Church. Alfonso was now free to enlarge his domain by conquering lands from the Moslems. His first great victory had been against the Almoravids at Ourique on July 25, 1139. This battle established Alfonso's reputation as a warrior, and it was about this time that he abandoned the title of count for that of king. On March 15, 1147, he captured Santarém, setting the stage for the major campaign of his career. In May a company of English, German, and Flemish Crusaders en route to the Holy Land arrived in Portugal and entered into a lucrative agreement with Alfonso. They joined the royal forces in the 17-week siege of Lisbon, which ended with the Moslems' capitulation on October 25. Alfonso now addressed himself to the task of settling the Tagus Valley in order to assure its security against Moslem attack. Several of the Crusaders had accepted his offer of land grants, but the population was still not dense enough to resist Moslem incursions. The defense of this region was therefore entrusted to the Knights Templar, and the task of populating the empty lands between Lisbon and Leiria was assigned to the Cistercian monastic order. Between 1150 and 1169 Alfonso campaigned constantly in the south. He succeeded in containing the Moslems and in making some territorial conquests. To secure peace with the new king of León, Ferdinand II, Alfonso offered him his daughter Urraca, whom Ferdinand married in 1165. Two years later, however, the kings quarreled and Alfonso invaded Galicia, the southern part of which was in dispute. In 1169 Alfonso aided in the siege of Badajoz but was in turn besieged by Ferdinand's troops, who had come to help the surrounded Moslems. Seeking to escape, Alfonso was caught in the gate of the city and broke his leg. He was captured by Ferdinand, and as part of the ransom arrangements he was forced to abandon all claims upon Galicia. As a result of his accident, the King never fought again, and the burden of military leadership passed to his son Sancho. The year 1171 brought a heightening of the Almohad threat, but in 1172 Alfonso negotiated a 5-year truce with the caliph. As the decade drew to a close, Pope Alexander III officially recognized Alfonso's conquests and bestowed full royal dignity on him and on his successors. The last years of Alfonso's reign were marked by a continuation of the struggle with the Almohads. He died at Coimbra on Dec. 6, 1185, having reigned for 57 years. The significance of Alfonso's reign as the beginning of a Portuguese national state is clear. But how and why Portugal was able to emerge as an independent power at this time are complex questions. Explanations based on a hypothetical Lusitanian spirit must be rejected in favor of answers founded on the political and geographic realities of the epoch. Although northern Portugal is well protected from Spanish incursions by the rugged Douro Gorge, the most significant roots of Portuguese independence lie in the political weakness of 12th-century Castile, which was unable to prevent the independence of either León or Portugal. Alfonso must thus be seen as a consummate politician who took full advantage of the moment to declare his country's independence. Alfonso I (King Of Portugal) The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright The Columbia University Press Alfonso I, 1109?-1185, first king of Portugal, son of Henry of Burgundy. After his father's death (1112), his mother, Countess Teresa, ruled the county of Portugal with the help of her Spanish lover, Fernando Pérez. In 1128 young Alfonso, who had allied himself with discontented nobles, defeated her in battle and drove her into León with Pérez (Alfonso did not, despite the popular legend, put her in chains at Guimarães). Beginning as little more than a quasi-independent guerrilla chief, Alfonso spent his life in almost ceaseless fighting against the kings of León and Castile and against the Moors to increase his prestige and his territories. In 1139 he defeated the Moors in the battle of Ourique (fought not at Ourique, but at some undetermined place). In 1147 he took Santarém by surprise attack and, with the help of the English, Flemish, and German crusaders, captured Lisbon. He began to style himself king in 1139, and in 1143, by the Treaty of Zamora, he placed his lands under papal protection and secured Castilian recognition of his title, which was confirmed (1179) by Pope Alexander III. Alfonso's son Sancho I ascended an established throne. Alfonso I (Alfonso the Battler) (ălfŏn´sō, äl-), d. 1134, king of Aragón and Navarre (1104-34), brother and successor of Peter I. The husband of Urraca, queen of Castile, he fought unsuccessfully to extend his authority over her kingdom. He also fought energetically against the Moors, from whom he captured Zaragossa (1118), Calatayud (1120), and many other towns. His raid (1125) into Andalusia bolstered Christian morale, and he encouraged Christians in Muslim lands to settle in his domain. Alfonso was killed in battle against his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, and was succeeded by his brother Ramiro II in Aragón and by García IV in Navarre.

Pope Urban II

Leader of the Roman Catholic Church who asked European Christians to take up arms against Muslims, starting the Crusades

Richard the Lion-Hearted

Richard I, the Lionheart September 8, 1157 Oxford, England April 6, 1199 Chaluz, Aquitaine, France King of England "Since the beginning of the world we have never heard of such a knight, so brave and so experienced in arms. In every deed at arms he is without rival, first to advance, last to retreat.... His deeds are not human." —A Muslim leader, quoted in Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. Richard I was king of England for a decade at the end of the twelfth century, but in that time this "absent" king spent only six months in the country he ruled. Although he was born in England, he was raised at his mother's court in the French province of Aquitaine, speaking French and practicing the noble art of poetry. But this third son of King Henry II of England (1133-1189) also practiced the manly arts of battle to such an extent that he was dubbed Coeur de Lion, or the "Lionheart," for his bravery and mercilessness. More famous in literature than in life, Richard I was one of those leaders who anger allies and enemy alike. Returning from the Holy Land, he was imprisoned by the Holy Roman Emperor, who headed the Christian kingdoms of Europe; the ransom paid for Richard's release nearly ruined England financially. He spent the final years of his life in France, where he battled his boyhood friend, the French king Phillip II (1165-1223). Richard's early death in 1199 ended what has been called one of the worst reigns (periods of rule) in English history in terms of the hardships suffered by his subjects. Born to Intrigue Richard was the third son born to Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204; see entry). The relationship between his strong-willed parents was a stormy one. Eleanor, who was previously married to Louis VII, the king of France, preferred her cultured court at Aquitaine, in the center of France, to England. Richard was raised in Aquitaine, the favorite of his mother, as she was for him. As was the custom of the day, during his youth he wrote verses in French and in the local Provençal dialect. He also learned the arts of war from William Marshall, his tutor for jousting (combat on horseback). As Richard reached adolescence, it was clear he would be a handsome man: he was tall and powerfully built, which was exactly how a knight (noble military leader) and future king should look. Richard's older brother Henry (following the death of the first son, William) was meant to inherit his father's kingdom, but Richard had powerful ambitions in this area. At age eleven Richard became duke of Aquitaine and left behind childish things, such as composing and reciting poetry. Soon he began plotting to gain more land and power, sometimes siding with his mother against his father or with his father against his brothers. He badly wanted to gain control of more than just the French possessions of the Plantagenet line of kings, which was also called the Angevin line after the French landholdings in Anjou. This English dynasty, or ruling family, began with Henry II in 1154 and would last until the beginning of the Stuart line of kings and queens in 1603. Besides being king of England, Henry II was also duke of the French holdings of Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and Touraine; through Eleanor he also held title to the duchy of Aquitaine. He was thus a powerful figure both in England and in France. If the Plantagenets fought among themselves, they were also engaged in an ongoing rivalry, if not outright war, with the Capets, another French dynasty (987-1328). At least on paper King Henry II and his holdings in France were under the control of the king of France. During Richard's lifetime the main representative of that line was Philip Augustus, son of Louis VII, the former husband of Richard's mother. Philip, who was eight years younger than Richard, spent much time at the court of Aquitaine in Poitiers, where Henry II attempted to win through treaties what he could not win by war. Many historians believe that Richard and Philip developed a homosexual, or same gender, love for each other in adolescence and early adulthood. To complicate matters, Philip's half-sister, Alais, had been engaged to Richard from an early age. However, Richard's father, Henry II, who always had an eye for pretty women, took the girl for his own mistress, or lover. While still a youth of fourteen, Philip was declared king of France in 1179 and took the name Philip II. Aquitaine, which was Richard's inheritance, was also a feuding (fighting) region. Its nobles were always rebelling against the rulers in Poitiers. By 1169 Henry II had managed to get these dukes and counts in line, but four years later family peace was threatened by a rebellion of sons against their father. Richard joined his older brother Henry, already proclaimed the next king, and younger brother Geoffrey, duke of Brittany, in open rebellion against Henry II. Their mother, Eleanor, angry at her husband for his continual cheating with other women, encouraged her sons. Henry II invaded Aquitaine and quickly put this rebellion down, but Richard was the last to give in. The sons were forced to pledge loyalty to their father; Richard lost the title of duke of Aquitaine and had to take orders directly from his father. A Soldier-King in the Making Such orders, however, were to Richard's liking. During the next five years he was constantly battling with the nobles of Aquitaine and nearby Gascony, who refused to bow to the power of King Henry II. It was during these years that Richard gained the reputation of a fierce and relentless fighter, attacking and seizing castles throughout the Plantagenet lands in France. His resourcefulness and bravery were demonstrated time and again. For example, he gained fame throughout Europe in 1179 for taking the fortress of Taillebourg, on the Charente River, which was believed to be impregnable, or too strong to conquer. Richard staged a scorched-earth campaign, burning crops and poisoning wells, which won him this prize. Family problems broke out again when King Henry II demanded that Richard pay homage, or pledge his loyalty, to his older brother Henry, who was destined to be the future king of England. Richard stubbornly refused to do so, so in 1183 this brother invaded Aquitaine. He was joined in this campaign by Geoffrey, his other brother. Now even Henry II grew alarmed. This war between brothers threatened the Plantagenet line, for it quickly spun out of control, with Richard taking the offensive and slaughtering some of the invaders. The king rode to Aquitaine to try to stop the fighting. However, a truce was put in place only when Henry the Younger, Richard's brother, died of an illness in June 1183. Suddenly, nothing stood in Richard's way to becoming king himself—or so it seemed. Now that Richard was the new heir, Henry II demanded that he give Aquitaine to his youngest brother, John, who had no duchies. John's nickname "Lackland" points to his landless condition. Richard would not hear of it, for Aquitaine was his homeland. A new round of hostilities broke out between father and son, in part spurred on by King Philip II, Richard's old friend and rival. With the accidental death of Geoffrey in 1186 in a jousting tournament, Richard and John became the only possible heirs to the crown. Philip II, always eager to play one Plantagenet against another, formed an alliance with Richard against Henry II, with both setting out to take the throne away from the father by force. This they accomplished by surrounding the king in his birthplace of Le Mans and burning down the town. Henry II had to flee on horseback from his own son. Deserted by most of his followers, on July 6, 1189, the aged and ill king died, with Richard at his deathbed. Then, on September 3, 1189, Richard traveled to England—one of his few brief visits to that country—to be crowned king of England. Taking the title Richard I, he set out on the new mission of saving the Christian kingdom in the Holy Land. The Third Crusade Word had already reached Europe of the Muslim victories under the leadership of Saladin (see entry), specifically his taking of the holy city of Jerusalem in 1187 from Christian Crusaders, who had held it for almost a century. The Crusaders began their struggles against the Muslims, believers in the faith of Islam, at the end of the eleventh century, in an effort to win back the Holy Land for Christianity. This Crusade, or holy war, would last until the end of the thirteenth century. By Richard's time there had already been two Crusades. With the First Crusade (1095-99) the Christian armies had established kingdoms in the Middle East. With the Second Crusade (1147-49) their strength was challenged by new Muslim leaders, among them Nur al-Din (1118-74). Now the pope, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, called for a new Crusade to free the holy city of Jerusalem from Saladin, the latest Muslim warrior, and his armies. Even before becoming king, Richard had "taken the cross," or promised to join this new Crusade. Thus, his first act after becoming king of England was to raise enough money to outfit a Crusader army. He sold all his possessions in England, from church lands to sheriffs' positions; legend has it that Richard said he would even sell London if he could find a buyer. By the summer The Crusade Begins at Home When Richard I was crowned king of England in 1189, the event seemed to inspire an outbreak of anti-Jewish feeling throughout England. Houses were burned down in the Jewish quarter of London. During one incident in 1190, five hundred Jews in the English city of York killed themselves rather than have an angry mob massacre them. Jews had long been persecuted in Europe as the enemies of Christianity. It was said that they had handed Christ over to the Romans to be crucified, or nailed to the cross, and were thus the targets of hatred for centuries. It was as if the local population in England and Europe felt that they should begin to kill the "infidels" (non-Christians) at home before they set off for the Holy Land to murder Muslims. The Third Crusade, led by Richard I, was not the only one to inspire such terrible events. With the First Crusade (1095-99) the killings had already begun. One of many unofficial leaders of a Crusader army, Count Emich of Leiningen was especially infamous, or notorious, for his cruelty toward Jews that his army encountered along the route to the Crusades. This German set his band of mercenaries, or paid soldiers, loose on the Jewish populations in towns throughout Germany, including Spier, Worms, and Mainz, taking prisoners and demanding ransom, or payment to set them free. Even when the money was paid, Emich killed his helpless victims anyway. Another German Crusader named Volkmar did the same thing to the Jewish community in Prague while on his way to the Holy Land; however, when he tried the same deed in Hungary, he and his band were killed by the Hungarian army, one of the few countries in Europe to protect its Jewish population. Emich, too, was defeated by the Hungarians and never reached the Holy Land. These Jewish massacres were an awful foreshadowing, or warning, of what could be done in the name of Christianity or any strong belief system. While these soldiers claimed they were only fighting the enemies of God in Europe, they were actually motivated by a shameful reason: greed. They were after the money and wealth they could steal from the Jews along the route to help pay for their travels to the Holy Land. Of 1190 he was ready to set sail for Palestine, leaving England to be ruled by his chancellor, William Longchamp. His brother John did not join the Crusade; instead, he stayed in England and immediately began to stir up factions (smaller groups) against Richard. Richard sailed with the French king, who was also taking an army to fight the Muslims. A third army, under the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1123-1190), traveled by land to the Middle East. Richard, however, was not content to journey peacefully to the Crusades. He managed to fight battles and create new enemies for himself along the way. Arriving in Sicily, in the far south of Italy, he became involved in the struggle for succession to determine who would become the next king. Richard ultimately backed a man named Tancred, who had seized control after the death of the previous king. Tancred had imprisoned Richard's sister, Joan, widow of the former king, and was ruling in the place of Constance, the rightful heir to the throne and the wife of Henry VI, the man who would shortly become Holy Roman Emperor. Although this emperor was really a ruler in name only, officially he was the head of a loose collection of kingdoms making up the Holy Roman Empire (962-1806), in present-day eastern France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Nevertheless, it was not a good idea to anger him, as Richard would later learn. Charging ahead into this dangerous and delicate situation, Richard sacked and burned the city of Messina, won the release of his sister, and stayed on until March 1191. He then made another stopover on the island of Cyprus, where he again fought over and captured the Christian city of Limassol, looting and killing all who opposed him. In Cyprus he married Berengaria of Navarre, the woman his mother had handpicked for him. This wedding angered his Crusader partner, Philip II, because Alais, the French king's own half-sister, had long been pledged to Richard, even though she had been the mistress (lover) of Henry II. Richard finally reached the Holy Land in June 1191, in time to aid in the siege of Acre, a Saracen stronghold. (The Saracens were a nomadic Muslim people who came from a region between Syria and Arabia and whose name was equated by the Crusaders with all Muslim or Arab forces.) Despite being sick with fever, Richard and the Crusaders finally captured the city on July 12, 1191. This victory occurred after a two-year siege, and though the Crusaders came to respect the defending Muslims, this did not prevent them from slaughtering most of the Muslims—under Richard's orders—once they had been disarmed and were defenseless. During the battle for Acre, Richard managed to anger yet another ally, Austrian duke Leopold V, who was placed in charge of the German Crusaders following the death of Frederick Barbarossa. At one point in the fighting Richard threw Leopold's standard, or flag with his battle colors, into the mud, not wanting it to stand alongside his and Philip's. Soon Richard and Philip also had a disagreement, and the French king set sail for his homeland. Richard was now solely in charge of the Crusader army. Despite being badly outnumbered, he defeated the Muslims under Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf. These two military leaders continued to fight each other for the next few months, with talks of a truce repeatedly called off because of Richard's unreasonable demands. At one point Richard even offered to give his widowed sister to Saladin's brother in marriage if the man converted to Christianity. This offer, like his demands for total control of the Holy Land, was rejected by the Muslim leader. A final victory at Jaffa was not enough to win Richard his most desired prize—Jerusalem. Badly outnumbered, he knew that he would not be able to hold the city even if he were able to capture it. Also, word had reached him of trouble at home: His brother John and King Philip II of France were conspiring against him to rob him of his crown. In July 1192 he set sail for England, determined to hold on to his kingdom. The Final Years Fearful of the enemies he had made during the Third Crusade, Richard traveled secretly, in the company of pirates. When his ship was wrecked, he made his way by land, still disguised because of his earlier insult to Leopold of Austria. In the city of Vienna, Austria, Richard was recognized and thrown into a cell in Leopold's castle at Dürnstein on the Danube. From there he was handed over to Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor, who also had a grudge against him. Henry kept Richard as a hostage, and for the equivalent of roughly one hundred billion dollars in the currency of modern times, he agreed to set Richard free. Meanwhile, John continued his scheming to become king. However, his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, now entered this battle and managed to gather supporters for Richard. The English finally raised a first installment on his ransom, and in March 1194 Richard reached England, put down the revolt, and was crowned king of England for the second time. He remained in the country for just two months, long enough to raise more funds to help him regain territory lost in France along the border of Normandy. Leaving in place Hubert Walter as governor, Richard returned to Aquitaine, where he fought for the next five years. Although the ransom paid for Richard all but ruined England economically, he demanded more funds to build a series of castles to defend his far-flung lands in England and France, the largest being the fortifications at Château Gaillard, on the river Seine, which cost almost two years' income of the British Crown. While other military leaders would end hostilities from harvest time to Christmas every year, for Richard it was always war all the time. His victories against Philip II of France kept the barons (men who had earned titles and land through service to a lord) in line and the money coming in to fuel his war machine. In the end, however, it was not fighting his longtime rival Philip II that ended Richard's career, but rather a petty (silly) argument over discovered treasure. Philip and Richard agreed to a five-year truce in 1198, but Richard was stirred back into battle when the viscount (a rank of nobleman) of Limoges, France, refused to turn over to the king a treasure that had been discovered by a peasant while plowing his field. When Richard surrounded the castle of the viscount at Chaluz, he forgot to wear his armor and was shot in the shoulder by a crossbow. The surgery to remove the metal tip left his shoulder badly torn, and deadly gangrene (a blood infection) set in. After making his younger brother John the new king, Richard II died on April 6, 1199, and was buried in the abbey (home for nuns) church of Fontevrault, where his parents were also laid to rest. Richard had so weakened the English treasury, or royal bank, that when John was king (1199-1216) it was impossible for him to retain the lands in France that the English had long held. Despite his reckless act of pushing the monarchy to the edge of financial disaster with his war economy, Richard was made famous by the balladeers and troubadours, or roving singers and poets, of the day. His fame became the stuff of legend in stories by the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and tales about the good-hearted bandit Robin Hood. Richard's claim to fame is a complex one: He was an outstanding soldier and military leader, but he was also capable of great cruelty. In many ways he was politically intelligent, but he was also ignorant of the most basic skills of diplomacy, or international relations. His overblown sense of himself made foes of friends, but his actual enemies, such as Saladin and the Muslims, respected his energy and battle skill. Richard was one of the most famous of medieval kings because of his warlike nature, yet his accomplishments were not as great as those writing about him after his death would have us believe. As James Reston Jr. has noted, Richard I of England

Emperor Sigismund

Sigismund (1368-1437) was king of Hungary from 1385 to 1437, Holy Roman emperor from 1411 to 1437, and king of Bohemia from 1420 to 1437. Born on Feb. 15, 1368, Sigismund was the second son of the emperor Charles IV and the brother of the emperor Wenceslaus. His reign as king of Hungary and Holy Roman emperor witnessed three of the most crucial events in later medieval history: the Turkish invasion of Hungary and the defeat of the ill-fated Crusade of Nicopolis in 1396; the burning of John Hus as a heretic and the subsequent revolution of the Hussites in Bohemia; and the important Council of Constance (1415-1417), over which Sigismund presided and which ended the Great Schism in the Roman Catholic Church (1378-1415) but which alienated Sigismund from the Czechs and deprived him of the Bohemian resources of the imperial house of Luxemburg, of which he was the last member. King of Hungary Sigismund's debut in the political life of eastern Europe occurred at the age of 17, when the death of Louis the Great of Hungary left the crown of Hungary to Louis's daughter Mary (reigned 1382-1395) and to Sigismund, her fiancé. After invading Hungary, Sigismund was recognized as king in 1387 but at the cost of losing Poland to the Jagiellon dynasty of Lithuania and, after 1389, of losing large portions of southern and eastern Hungarian territory to the Ottoman Turks, who established their footing in continental Europe with a shattering victory over Sigismund's crusading army at Nicopolis in 1396. After Sigismund became king of Hungary, his lavish scale of living—as well as his military expenses and the cost of his later candidacy for the imperial crown—rapidly depleted the resources of the Hungarian royal treasury. Sigismund's fiscal policies crushed the Hungarian peasantry with unbearable burdens of taxation and alienated the restive Hungarian aristocracy. Although Sigismund's prestige in Hungary was somewhat enhanced by his position as Holy Roman emperor after 1411 and by his nominal kingship of Bohemia after 1420, neither of these titles aided Hungary, and Sigismund's reign was a failure. Holy Roman Emperor Having spent much of his youth in Hungary, Sigismund was unknown in the West when he was elected emperor in 1411. He was a brave fighter, as his conduct at Nicopolis and elsewhere testified. Sigismund was reasonably well educated, he was a good Latinist, and he remained a patron of learning. In addition to these attributes, however, Sigismund had less attractive ones. He had many amorous adventures; he was subject to fits of extreme cruelty; and his limitless ambition to make his imperial title a reality in the western parts of the empire ill suited his limited financial resources. The political conditions of the German part of the empire had steadily deteriorated under Sigismund's two immediate predecessors, Wenceslaus (reigned 1376-1400) and Rupert of the Palatinate (reigned 1400-1410). The lack of a uniform law code; the rivalry among electors, lesser nobles, and the city-leagues; and the empire's diversified territories in Germany, Italy, Bohemia, and Hungary—all required the hand of a great ruler with infinite financial and administrative resources. In addition, Sigismund's diplomatic connections distracted his attention far to the east and north, where he established the Hohenzollern house in Brandenburg and negotiated with the Teutonic Knights in their struggle with newly Christianized Lithuania. Council of Constance Sigismund's greatest imperial project was the calling of the Council of Constance in 1415. Since 1378 two popes had claimed legitimacy, and since 1409 three had simultaneously claimed St. Peter's chair. Christendom was politically and ecclesiastically fragmented along the lines of loyalty to one or the other of the three popes, and Sigismund saw an opportunity to fulfill his duties as protector of the Church and to enhance his own status. The council settled the papal schism, but it also violated the safe-conduct that the Emperor had issued to the Bohemian reformer John Hus. The council ordered Hus burned at the stake as a heretic. His death aroused great indignation among the Czechs and inaugurated a bloody social war that lasted for 2 decades. Sigismund's prestige in Bohemia was greatly diminished. Sigismund's other imperial reform activities during the period 1415-1417 met equally disastrous results. Last Years Sigismund's last years were spent in diplomatic activities on the borders of his wide territories. Problems in Poland, the Bohemian revolt, the Turks in Hungary, and political factionalism in Germany wore the Emperor down. His own limited resources and resistance on the part of his subjects and rivals in the kingdoms over which he ruled made all his attempts at reform fruitless. The settlement that he had greatly helped the Church to achieve was threatened at the Council of Basel, which lasted from 1431 until after Sigismund's death. Only the compromise in Bohemia, which brought the Hussite wars to an end in 1436, brightened the Emperor's last years. He was finally crowned emperor by the Pope in 1433, and the pacification of Bohemia was his last effective act. At his death on Dec. 9, 1437, Sigismund was once again planning to intervene between Pope and council.

Emperor Qing (British Dispute)

The Qing Dynasty was an empire led by the Manchu ethnic group, which ruled China from AD 1644 to AD 1911. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, British traders began selling opium, harvested in India, to the Chinese people. China soon became Britain's primary opium market, and the opium trade became one of the largest illegal drug operations in global history. Opium addiction became a serious problem in China, and social reformers in the Qing government began attempting to restrict the opium trade and to expel the British opium dealers. The British violently defended their opium trade despite laws that made their activities illegal both in China and Britain. After the Qing conducted raids of British trade ships in 1838 and 1839, the British responded by sending a naval detachment to China. From 1840 to 1841, in what was later called the First Opium War, the British bombarded the Chinese coast with gunboats. The Qing government surrendered and was forced to sign treaties that granted the British unlimited access to China's most productive ports. In the wake of the opium wars, the government faced an increase in popular unrest and was forced to commit their military to internal peacekeeping. Recognizing that the Qing government was deteriorating, the Japanese began taking steps to annex the Korean peninsula. Korea was an important strategic territory, and both China and Japan wanted to control the nation for military and economic gain. From 1894 to 1895, the Qing military fought a losing battle against the Japanese for control of the Korea. After their defeat, the Qing government was burdened by conflict on many simultaneous fronts and mired by internal dissent. The United States, France, Britain, and Japan forced the government to sign treaties allowing for unlimited free trade and began to divide China into economic districts, largely replacing the government. The Qing responded by funneling funds into secret societies organized to fight against foreign control. The Boxer Uprising of 1900, led by the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists," or "Boxers," was a popular rebellion in Beijing in which groups of Chinese fighters attacked foreign traders and trade offices. A coalition of French and British soldiers violently subdued the Boxers in Beijing and forced the Qing to allow the establishment of permanent, foreign military installations. The Qing government instituted a series of democratic reforms aimed at holding the empire together despite widespread public dissent and the dominance of foreign powers. The reforms were ultimately unsuccessful as rebel groups gained strength. In the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, the Qing government lost a series of crucial battles to a rebel faction led by democratic reformer Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925). Though some factions of the Qing continued to fight with Sun Yat-Sen's faction for the next several decades, the uprising signaled the end of the imperial age and the beginning of China's modern period. Aftermath After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, China was divided into regions under the control of local gentry and warlord leaders. Sun Yat-sen's faction, which gained an early advantage in Beijing, was forced to contend with warlord armies, Qing loyalists, and a growing communist movement fueled by military support from the Soviet Union. The resulting power struggle lasted for decades and ultimately resulted in the establishment of a communist state, the People's Republic of China. The legacy of the Qing Dynasty was evident in the administrative and military structure of both the republican and the communist factions. Though subsequent governments would utilize a more diffuse distribution of power and reject the idea of imperial, hereditary leadership, the Qing legacy remained a part of Chinese government into the modern age.

Universities

Universities Do you know where the word university comes from? The University arose around mutual-aid societies of foreign students called "nations" (as they were grouped by nationality) for protection against city laws which imposed collective punishment on foreigners. These students then hired scholars from the city to teach them. In Bologna, these various "nations" decided to form a larger association, or universitas - the first university. University education, across the whole of the continent, was a luxury to which only the wealthiest and brightest could ever aspire. Since the creation of the first university in 1088 [1. There are multiple accounts placing Bologna's university founding in 1088, but it is not certain. ] A.D. in Bologna, Italy, universities have been considered to be self-regulated, scholastic guilds of students and teachers who work under the sanction of an ecclesiastical or civil authority. Initially, medieval universities had no physical manifestation. Students and teachers met in houses or churches and, occasionally, public parks (mimicking the ancient Greek philosophers). Later, universities began to rent and, in the case of many, construct buildings specifically for their purposes. The students Students attended the Medieval University at different ages, ranging from 14 (if they were attending Oxford or Paris to study the Arts) to their 30s (if they were studying Law in Bologna). During this period of study, students were often living far from home and were unsupervised; thus students developed a reputation, both among contemporary sources and modern historians, for drunken debauchery. Students were frequently criticised in the middle ages for neglecting their studies in favour of drinking, gambling and sleeping with prostitutes. Considering the fact that 1/3 of the high clergy (bishops, archbishops, cardinals) attended university by the 1400s, this paints a very interesting picture of the early lives of those who commanded the Catholic church. While students were "in tenure" they were afforded the legal protection of the clergy. Because of this, no one was allowed to physically harm them. For church-founded universities, this extended to a ruling that students could only be tried for crimes in an ecclesiastical court. The students' immunity to corporal punishment led to the breaking of various secular laws, and even promoted acts of theft, rape and murder. It is fair to say that there were uneasy tensions with secular authorities. Student strikes were not uncommon; in Paris, after a riot which left several students dead, all the students left the city for two years. The student - teacher dynamic The dynamic between students and teachers in a medieval university was significantly different from today. In the University of Bologna students hired and fired teachers by consensus. The students also bargained as a collective regarding fees, and threatened teachers with strikes if their demands were not met. The "Denouncers of Professors" was a special committee that judged the quality of a professor's work and fined them if they hadn't completed a course on time, or if they failed to achieve the educational standard expected. Professors themselves were not powerless, however; forming a College of Teachers, they secured the rights to set examination fees and degree requirements. Eventually, the city of Bologna ended this arrangement, paying professors from tax revenues and making the university a chartered, public institution. Medieval Education in Europe: Meeting of Doctors in the University of Paris The curriculum & the seven liberal arts New university students would enter the institution around the age of 14 or 15 years old, following the successful completion of Grammar school; however, only the most capable students would have been accepted. University studies started before sunrise (5:00-6:00 am) every weekday. A Master of Arts degree in the medieval education system would have taken six years; a Bachelor of Arts degree would be awarded after completing the third or fourth year. By "Arts" the degree was referring to the seven liberal arts - arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These were all taught in Latin, both speech and text, and students were expected to be fluent and able to converse and debate intelligently in the language. The trivium comprised the three subjects which were taught first - grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These three subjects were the most important of the seven liberal arts for medieval students. Later the curriculum also came to include the three Aristotelian philosophies - physics, metaphysics and moral philosophy. It is important to note that subjects were separated into courses and each course was essentially the study of a book or key text, such as a book from the bible or one of Aristotle's works. Once a student attained the level of Master, he was able to pursue studies in one of the higher faculties of law, medicine or - the most prestigious degree of medieval education - theology. Studies in the higher faculties could take up to twelve years for a master's degree or doctorate, which were initially considered the same. Within these additional six to twelve years, a student was awarded an additional bachelor qualification and a licentiate ('licence' in Latin) which meant that the individual had the right to exercise this discipline. Private Tuition In some cases, especially in Scotland, wealthy Lairds (lords) and Burghes used their assets to transform their home into a school. This started with just the members of the family and kin but, in some cases, expanded to become what is know as a "household school" which would educate neighbours and family alike. These schools were primarily, though not restrictively, focussed on boys. Most girls would get their education in a nunnery if possible but, by the end of the middle ages, girls' schools funded by local lairds started to make an appearance. Education of the serfs Medieval Europe education: Elizaberh de Clare Elizabeth de Clare, Elizabeth de Clare inherited a third of her family estates after her brother died at the Battle of Bannockburn. Elizabeth took a keen interest in education. After the death of her third husband in 1322, Elizabeth decided against marrying again and focussed all her power into helping the education of those who needed it most. In the mid-1300s Elizabeth was one of the richest women in England but, unlike many rich people, Elizabeth believed it was important to help the poor. Her accounts show that in one five-month period she gave help to over 5,000 different people; of these, 800 received a daily allowance from Elizabeth. Elizabeth de Clare disagreed with the view that serfs should not go to school. She arranged for a large number of people who lived in her villages to be educated. She also paid for those boys who showed talent to be educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities. In 1336 Elizabeth supplied the money for the foundation of Clare College, Cambridge. This provided an education for twenty scholars. As well as donating a considerable amount of money, she also became involved in deciding what the students should study. Students at Clare College attended lectures on law, medicine, religion and the arts. The sons of the peasants could only be educated if the lord of the manor had given his permission. In 1391, King Richard the II of England and his parliament passed a law which stated "No serf or villein.... should put his children to school." Any family caught having a son educated without permission was heavily fined. Whilst this legislation was maintained, the education of all serfs in England was halted. Historians today believe that this policy was another way in which authority figures attempted to control the peasants, since an educated peasant/villein might prove to question the way things were done and upset the balance of power which kept the nobles strong. Education of Women Students held the legal status of clerics which, according to the Canon Law, could not be held by women; women were therefore not admitted into universities. Medieval education: Catherine de'Medici Catherine de'Medici, a Florentine, educated woman in a position of power Most girls were not educated at all, unless their parents placed them in a nunnery. Their education would not have been scientific, but would have focused on the study of scripture and on child care, and they would not necessarily have been taught to read. The text De eruditione filiorum nobilium (On the Education of Noble Girls) was the first medieval pedagogical text to both systematically present a comprehensive method of instruction for lay children and to include a section devoted to girls. In some rare instances, women were taught reading and basic calculus; this was mostly the case when the assets they had to manage, for their manor, required significant management skills and trading. This was more often seen in the Italian States, where women held higher positions of power, such as in the Medici family. The quill and the paper Paper was expensive and ink could only be afforded by monasteries and the highest ranks of nobility. Students in grammar schools hardly ever used a quill. Instead, students learnt how to write using a waxed tablet and a stylus. Only when their calligraphy was perfected, and only then if they could afford it, would students be allowed to use paper for writing. Medieval Education in Europe The King Edward VI Grammar School mid 1500s King Edward VI Grammar School, mid-1500s Medieval education differences across European states As aforementioned, education in Europe varied greatly from kingdom to kingdom. Restricted access to medieval education became the whip that kept the populace in line, and for those lucky enough to be educated it was a sword that freed them from a life of ignorance and forced servitude. Generally, there is a very clear negative correlation between the strictness of the regime and the access to education; the more centralised and rigid the system, the less likely the populace is to have access to education. A clear example of this can be found in the differences of approach between England and Scotland. England, with a very strict authority model and a governance system which aimed to become more centralised, allowed no serf to be educated and provided no education for women. At the same time Scotland, a decentralized system of authority, saw the rise of open-to-all universities and serfs who had their education fees paid by local lairds (if the laird saw promise into them), and where women also had some access to education. Even more extreme, in France we see a decentralized system which is highly focused on education; this translated into tens of universities founded in the duchies of the country. Furthermore in Spain we see both Muslim, Basque and Castilian professors and students joining to study and research together, something unprecedented in any other European nation, and all of this regardless of the strong relations between Spain and the Vatican and the Holy See.

Pope Gregory VII (Papal Supremacy)

Although Gregory VII did not create the grandiose structure of the medieval papacy, he was certainly one of its chief architects. He became pope at a time when powerful forces were striving to rid the Latin Church of moral corruption and organizational confusion, when the papacy had already begun to assume the role of reforming leadership previously filled by emperors, kings, and lesser churchmen, and when imperial control over the Church in Italy (and, therefore, the papacy) had already weakened. Gregory continued the policies he had previously advocated as a prominent member of the papal court. He intensified papal involvement in the reforming movement and directed that movement along the road that was to lead to the first major clash between pope and Western emperor and ultimately to the papal theocratic claims of the High Middle Ages. Fully reliable evidence about Gregory VII's origins and early career is scanty. His name was Hildebrand, and he was born in Tuscany, probably in the early 1020s. He spent his early years at Rome, where he received his education and first came into contact with the papal court, then still wracked with corruption. About 1046 he became associated in Lorraine with the most vigorous of the reforming groups of the day. Probably at this time, too, he became a monk, though probably not, as once was assumed, at the great reforming monastery of Cluny. Early Career Report Advertisement Returning to Rome in 1049 as a follower of the newly elected pope, Leo IX, Hildebrand spent the next 24 years in the service of that pope and his four successors. During this vital period in the history of both the reforming movement and its papal leaders, he was involved in every aspect of the reform and in every phase of the process by which the papacy liberated itself from lay control, German as well as Italian, and sought to establish its rights of jurisdiction over the local churches of Latin Christendom. He was sent on legatine missions in Italy, France, and Germany, and his influence over both the formulation and implementation of papal policy grew steadily, so that by the 1060s he had become preeminent among papal advisers. Though physically small and weak of voice, Hildebrand possessed a commanding personality, and his contemporaries were impressed by the keenness of his glance, the vigor of his enthusiasm, and the persistence and prophetic ardor with which he denounced what he conceived to be wrongdoing and pursued his lifelong aim of vindicating righteousness in a sinful world. When Alexander II died in April 1073, Hildebrand was so obvious a choice as successor that, despite the 1059 election decree placing the choice of popes in the hands of the cardinals, he was acclaimed pope by a tumultuous crowd, the cardinals later acceding to the popular choice. His enemies were later to make much of these irregular proceedings; the cardinals, however, acceded willingly at the time, and Hildebrand, taking the name of Gregory VII, was able to embark upon his pontificate without the embarrassment of a contested election. Character of His Pontificate Gregory's interests and activities as pope were extremely varied, ranging from the introduction of the Roman liturgical rite into Spain to the promotion of the crusading ideal, soon after his death to be transformed into a reality. In pursuit of the complex diplomatic initiatives which his policies necessitated, he was in contact with most of the rulers of Latin Christendom, to whom, as with William the Conqueror of England, he did not always show the inflexibility that was increasingly to mar his relations with the German emperor-elect, Henry IV. Three related objectives dominated Gregory's pontificate: Church reform, assertion of his jurisdictional primacy in the Church, and vindication of reform and of his primacy against Henry IV's spirited defense of the religiopolitical status quo. Gregorian Reform The dominant concern of the reforming movement had long been with the twin corruptions of simony (the buying and selling of ecclesiastical office) and clerical marriage, which was common despite its prohibition by ancient disciplinary regulations in the Latin Church. Both of these corruptions were symptomatic of the degree to which, during centuries of invasion and turmoil, the spiritual goals of the Church had been subordinated to family, proprietary, and political interests. Intimately connected with these developments was the gradual extension of lay control, royal or aristocratic, over ecclesiastical appointments, a control symbolized by the ceremony of investiture, by which the lay ruler conferred Church office on the chosen nominee. Only in the latter half of the 11th century did the more radical reformers begin to challenge this principle of lay control. Gregory was not the most radical among these, but unlike the more moderate reformers, he was convinced that the traditional goal of moral reform was unattainable without the elimination or regulation of lay control. To this Gregory added the further conviction that the papal primacy of jurisdiction in the universal church—involving also for him an inexactly defined superiority to all temporal rulers—was no longer to be minimized or gainsaid. These convictions were not the outcome of the pressure of events during Gregory's pontificate: they were deeply held even at the very outset and are reflected in the clauses of the peculiar document known as the Dictatus papae, which was inserted in his register and which included the unprecedented claim "that he [the Pope] may depose emperors." Investiture Contest Gregory's attempts to realize his reforming objectives led, by a process which in retrospect seems inevitable, given the dependence of Henry IV's government upon the loyalty and resources of his bishops, to a clash between Pope and Emperor and to the onset of the "Investiture Contest." This conflict, which outlasted both of the initial protagonists, involved the tragedy of civil war and set Germany on the course that was ultimately to lead it to political disintegration. During its long and tortuous course, Gregory excommunicated Henry IV on two occasions, throwing his support finally to a rival claimant, Rudolf; while Henry twice sought Gregory's dismissal and sponsored the election of an antipope, Clement II. Two dramatic events may be singled out for mention. The first is Gregory's absolution of Henry IV in January 1077. Henry had appeared before the Pope at Canossa as an abject penitent—for Henry, a personal humiliation but a diplomatic victory; for Gregory, a diplomatic disaster but a triumph of priestly conscience. The second is Gregory's death at Salerno on May 25, 1085. Undaunted by what must have seemed a disastrous defeat, he is reputed to have said, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile." Since 1606 he has been venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

Girolamo Savonarola (Inquisition)

Girolamo Savonarola The Italian religious reformer Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) became dictator of Florence in the 1490s and instituted there, in the middle of the Renaissance, a reign of purity and asceticism. Girolamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara on Sept. 21, 1452. He was the third of seven children of Niccolo Savonarola, a physician, and Elena Bonacossi. His father groomed Girolamo for the medical profession, but even as a youth he took more interest in the writings of the Schoolmen, particularly Thomas Aquinas. Savonarola had time for neither the comfortable, courtly life of his father's household nor youthful sports and exercises, so absorbed was he in the subtleties of the scholastics and their spiritual father, Aristotle. Repelled by the corruption of the world around him, Savonarola withdrew ever further into solitude, meditation, and prayer. In 1475 he entered a Dominican monastery at Bologna. After living quietly there for 6 years, Savonarola transferred to the convent of S. Marco in Florence and began preaching in the church of S. Lorenzo. His style, laden with scholastic didacticism, was not appealing, and few came to hear him. In 1486, however, while preaching in Lombardy, he shed all syllogisms and circumlocutions and began to speak directly, simply, and passionately of the wrath of God. His popularity as a preacher grew immensely. Report Advertisement Savonarola's fame spread to Florence as he prophesied the doom of all tyrants who then prevailed in the world. In 1490, through the influence of Pico della Mirandola, he was called back to Florence and in July 1491 became prior of S. Marco. All the while he thundered against the vanity of the humanists and the viciousness of the clergy. Because he spared no one, Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of Florence, urged him to bridle his tongue. He would not yield, and in April 1492 Savonarola refused to grant Lorenzo absolution because the ruler would not give liberty to the Florentines. Lorenzo's son and successor, Piero, was weak, and the 2-year period of his rule witnessed Savonarola's rise to the most powerful authority in the city. He acquired with difficulty the consent of the new pope, Alexander VI, to sever his convent from the Lombard Congregation of the Dominican order. Then, as leader of an independent monastic house, Savonarola instituted reforms that inspired respect and swelled the ranks of recruits. Admiration and wonder filled Florentine hearts when the prophecies that accompanied his fiery denunciations proved frighteningly accurate. He had predicted the deaths of Lorenzo and Pope Innocent VIII in 1492. Now Savonarola foretold the terrible fate about to descend upon Italy as punishment for the sins of its tyrants and priests. Early in 1494 he told his congregation that Charles VIII, King of France, would invade Italy and that this would be divine retribution. In September the prophecy was fulfilled. Savonarola as Dictator When Charles arrived in Florentine territory, Piero surrendered to the invader. When the Florentine Signory heard of this, they angrily deposed Piero and revived the republic. A delegation including Savonarola met Charles at Pisa and attempted to persuade him to moderate his demands. The King showed that he was not so disposed. After he entered Florence on Nov. 17, 1494, Charles insisted on exorbitant indemnities, yielding only to the eloquence of Savonarola, who persuaded him to reduce his demands and leave the city. Upon Charles's departure Florence's grateful citizens placed themselves in the hands of the monk. Like the Medici before him, Savonarola held no public office, but under his guidance a new constitution was promulgated, establishing a new republic on June 10, 1495. He initiated the abrogation of arbitrary taxation and its replacement with a 10 percent tax on all real property. He undertook the immediate relief of the poor and the strict administration of justice. He also instituted a regime of austerity that seemed out of place in the Florence of the High Renaissance. Hymns supplanted profane songs, art objects and luxuries were cast aside or burned, and somber unadorned clothing was worn by all. Fall from Power At the height of his power, Savonarola made bitter enemies both at home and abroad. The Arrabiati, or Medicean adherents in Florence, and Pope Alexander VI were eager to rid Florence of the troublesome monk. Alexander's motives were mainly political, for he was angered by Savonarola's alliance with France. He was also displeased at the public criticism leveled by Savonarola against his scandalous pontificate. Twice in 1495 the Pope summoned Savonarola to Rome and ordered him to stop preaching, but the monk refused to obey. On May 5, 1497, encouraged by the Arrabiati, Alexander excommunicated him. Savonarola remained rebellious and continued to celebrate Mass. Alexander then warned the Signory that unless Savonarola was silenced he would place an interdict upon the city. On March 17, 1498, the Signory ordered Savonarola to stop preaching, and he obeyed. By this time the Florentines had grown weary of puritanic life. Maddened by disappointment when an ordeal by fire to which Savonarola had been challenged did not take place because of rain, they joined the Arrabiati. With unexampled fickleness, the Florentines demanded Savonarola's arrest. A mob attacked the monastery of S. Marco, and peace was restored only when Savonarola himself begged all men to lay down their arms. Savonarola was tortured until he confessed many crimes, and on May 23, 1498, convicted falsely of heresy, he was burned at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria.

St. Benedict

The political and social disorder that accompanied the end of the Roman Empire induced many people to turn away from society. The idea of an isolated ascetic life had developed in the East, particularly in Egypt, where St. Anthony inspired many. Some individual hermits began to form monastic communities, but for the most part the emphasis was still upon the private war between the spirit and the world. Knowledge of Benedict's life comes from the second book of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great, in which Gregory retells accounts he received directly from four of Benedict's close followers. Benedict was born about 480 in Nursia, 70 miles from Rome, to a distinguished family. He was sent to Rome to pursue his studies, but the vice of the city and of his fellow students impelled Benedict and his nurse to flee to the country. The Hermit Dissatisfied in his studies with his nurse, young Benedict left her secretly and disappeared into the wilderness of the Sabine hills. There, in Subiaco, he lived as a hermit in a cave, receiving food from a neighboring monk who lowered bread to him over a cliff. Dressed in wild animal skins, Benedict fought the wars of the soul. Once when tempted by a vision of a woman, he threw himself into a brier patch to subdue his emotions. "Benedict's soul, like a field cleared of briers, soon yielded a rich harvest of virtues," Gregory related. Others sought his guidance, and the monks of a neighboring monastery whose abbot had died prevailed upon Benedict to take his place. But the strict discipline and obedience demanded by the new abbot so angered the monks that they tried to poison him. Detecting the poison, Benedict "went back to the wilderness he loved, to live alone with himself in the presence of his heavenly Father." Monte Cassino Isolation was not Benedict's lot, however; soon other men gathered around him, and he organized 12 monasteries with 12 monks and an abbot in each. At regular intervals, under Benedict's direction they all gathered in the chapel to chant psalms and pray silently. About 529 Benedict moved his community to Monte Cassino, a hill 75 miles southeast of Rome. He and his monks demolished an old temple of Apollo on the summit, replacing it with a chapel dedicated to St. Martin, and began construction of monastery buildings. It is impossible to reconstruct Benedict's daily life at Monte Cassino; his chronicler was concerned only with relating the marvels—such as Benedict's detection of an impostor whom Totila, King of the Ostrogoths, had sent to the monastery in his place, and Benedict's prediction of the destruction of Monte Cassino, an event that actually took place in 589. The date generally given for Benedict's death is March 21, 547. He was buried at Monte Cassino next to his sister, St. Scholastica. Benedictine Rule Report Advertisement The Rule, written during the years at Monte Cassino, was Benedict's foremost literary achievement; it was also the means by which he exerted such great influence on the history of monasticism, enabling the Benedictines to expand across Europe and dominate the religious life of the Middle Ages. Benedict's purpose was "to erect a school for beginners in the service of the Lord," and he promised his followers, "If then we keep close to our school and the doctrine we learn in it, and preserve in the monastery till death, we shall here share by patience in the Passion of Christ and hereafter deserve to be visited with Him in His kingdom." Unlike the rigorously ascetic and solitary life that was the model for Eastern monasticism, Benedict's plan involved life in a community in which all members shared. Government was the responsibility of an elected abbot who ruled the monks as a father did his children. The details of daily life were set forward but were not "difficult or grievous." After 8 hours of sleep the monks got up for the night office, which was followed by six other services during the day. The remainder of the day was spent in labor and in study of the Bible and other spiritual books. A novice entered the community only after a probationary period, which tested him for the required virtues of humility and obedience. Benedict believed that the life of the monk depended on his brothers in the community to which he was bound for life. The monk's daily duties and responsibilities were carefully outlined. He was to leave behind the world and grow to "greater heights of knowledge and virtue" in the seclusion of the monastery. Benedict changed the monastic movement in the West. The chaotic pattern of isolated individuals or disorderly communities was transformed by a sense of organization and practicality. Men were brought together in communities ruled by discretion and moderation. In subsequent centuries the Rule of Benedict guided communities located over all of Europe. Saint Benedict (bĕn´ədĬkt), d. c.547, Italian monk, called Benedict of Nursia, author of a rule for monks that became the basis of the Benedictine order, b. Norcia (E of Spoleto). He went to Rome to study, then withdrew to Subiaco to live as a hermit; after three years he was renowned for his holiness. He founded a community of monks made up of cells of 13 monks each. This he eventually left, and at Monte Cassino, in an old pagan holy place, he started the first truly Benedictine monastery, although the benedictine order did not come into being until Carolingian times. The fruits of Benedict's experience appear in the Rule of St. Benedict (in Latin), which became the chief rule in Western monasticism under the Carolingians. The Cistercians also follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. The Rule's 73 chapters are full of a spirit of moderation and common sense. They set forth the central ideas of Benedictine monasticism. St. Benedict's sister, St. Scholastica, also was a religious.

Saladin the Great

Introduction to the Crusades (1096-1291) Between the late eleventh and late thirteenth centuries, the Middle East was subject to waves of invasion known as the Crusades. Thousands of western European Christians came to Palestine, Egypt, and Syria with the idea of placing these areas in Christian hands. The primary motivation was genuine piety; they believed that God willed them to do it. However, other motivations also inspired individuals, ranging from greed or desire for land, to simple adventure. Pope Urban II made the first call for Crusade. In 1095, Emperor Alexius of the Byzantine Empire requested aid to help regain territory in modern Turkey overrun by the Muslim Seljuk Turks. What he received was unexpected. Rather than recruiting a few hundred knights as Alexius desired, Urban called for a holy war against the Muslims, urging all to take the cross and fight to restore the lands of Jesus to the Christian world. Although not known as a Crusade at the time, the term gained ground, coming from the Latin word crux , or cross, the symbol of Christianity. As an enticement to leave their homes and take on the enormous financial burden of the trip, Pope Urban promised salvation to those who marched to Jerusalem or died in the cause. Thousands of people from all walks of life answered the call, sewed red crosses on their clothing, and marched east. Despite the dangers of the trips, over one hundred thousand Crusaders marched east between 1096 and 1101. During the course of this period, they established four states: Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem (the largest, eventually stretching from Gaza to Beirut), and the County of Tripoli. Although the original idea was to restore conquered territory to the Byzantines, the knights secured the territories for themselves, as they mistrusted the Orthodox Byzantine emperors. Secured with castles, they eventually adopted many of the customs of the indigenous population. Although the bulk of the Crusaders, regardless of which Crusade, would return to Europe, those who stayed learned the reality of the situation. In order to survive they made alliances with Muslim rulers and occasionally fought each other.

Battle of Lepanto (1571)

LEPANTO, BATTLE OF LEPANTO, BATTLE OF. The Battle of Lepanto took place on 6-7 October 1571 between the Catholic Holy League fleet led by Don Juan of Austria, a bastard son of Habsburg emperor Charles V, and an Ottoman fleet under Müezzinzade Ali Pasha. It occurred at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, near where the Peloponnesian peninsula joins the mainland (now in modern Greece). An Ottoman debacle, Lepanto was the last great galley battle in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans sent about 280 ships there, and the Holy League had about the same number. The battle featured the use by the Holy League of a new naval weapon: galleasses. These were Venetian merchant ships outfitted with high cannon superstructures sent in front of the armada to pound the Ottoman fleet as it tried to sweep around them. Debate has persisted about whether it was these new ships with their improved firepower or the Ottoman failure to outflank the Christian force that caused the latter's victory. The battle resulted in about two hundred Ottoman ships being sunk or captured and thirty thousand Ottoman sailors and soldiers killed or captured with only minimal casualties on the Christian side. A CELEBRATED BUT QUESTIONABLE MILESTONE This defeat occurred only one month after the shattering Ottoman defeat of Venetian forces defending Cyprus, which the Ottomans then conquered and controlled for the next three centuries. Lepanto was soon celebrated in Europe as a reversal of this defeat and as the end of many years of naval defeats that the Ottomans had inflicted on the Christians. The battle came to be seen as the beginning of subsequent naval decline of the Ottoman Empire. Some modern historians have discounted this view by pointing out that the Ottoman Empire rebuilt virtually the entire fleet that it had lost at Lepanto within a year. Others have pointed out that although the Ottomans did restore their fleet, they suffered a crippling loss of manpower that was particularly harmful for galley warfare. The battle provided a psychological boost for the Catholic world then locked in numerous conflicts across Europe. It was commemorated in Europe through paintings and drawings that depicted it as evidence of a renewed crusading spirit. Miguel de Cervantes, a soldier for Habsburg Spain, was so severely wounded in the hand at Lepanto that he became a writer. G. K. Chesterton memorialized the battle in a poem.

Medieval Universities

Medieval Universities Universities first appeared in the High Middle Ages across Europe, including Italy, France, Spain and England. The first university to arrive in England was in Oxford, constructed in the 11th Century, followed by Cambridge in the 13th Century. Both became known as the first models of higher education around the world. Those studying at university would arrive at around 14 or 15 years of age and would choose between Theology, Law, Medicine or Arts. No space was dedicated to learning, and instead classes were taught wherever there was a room available, such as in churches. However, it didn't take long for universities to begin renting rooms and constructing rooms of their own. Meeting of doctors at the university o Paris There is evidence that teaching began in Oxford in the late 11th Century, but it wasn't until a quarrel between Henry II and Thomas Becket in 1167 when the university grew. During this time a temporary ban on English scholar studying in Paris meant higher learning was limited, so scholars turned to Oxford to continue their studies. From this moment on universities in England Scotland started to establish their reputations. Cambridge University was established in 1209, while the University of St Andrews was built between 1210 and 1213. Pope Gregory VII also helped universities grow elsewhere in Europe, beginning with the issuing of a papal decree in 1079 that mandated that cathedral schools should be created to educate the clergy. This resulted in the spread of centres of learning around Europe, evolving quickly into Europe's first medieval universities. Two of the most notable European centres include the University of Bologna, founded in 1088, and the University of Paris, which grew into a single centre in 1119.

How the division of Ancient Rome into the east and west resulted in the formation of two empires; Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire.

Overview The Byzantine Empire was the eastern continuation of the Roman Empire after the Western Roman Empire's fall in the fifth century CE. It lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Ottoman conquest in 1453. Continuities: The Byzantine Empire initially maintained many Roman systems of governance and law and aspects of Roman culture. The Byzantines called themselves "Roman". The term "Byzantine Empire" was not used until well after the fall of the Empire. Changes: The Byzantine Empire shifted its capital from Rome to Constantinople, changed the official religion to Christianity, and changed the official language from Latin to Greek. From Rome to Byzantium The fall of the Roman Empire was a pivotal moment in world history. But we sometimes forget that part of the Roman Empire continued on. Even though the Western Roman Empire, which was centered around Rome, collapsed, the Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire lasted for a millennium after the fall of the Roman Empire, ending with the Ottoman conquests in 1453. While the Roman Empire's capital was Rome (for most of its history), the Byzantine Empire's capital city was Constantinople, which was previously called Byzantium, and today is Istanbul. The capital was well-positioned near active trade routes connecting east and west. Constantinople was named after Emperor Constantine I, the first Byzantine emperor. In this article, we're going to look at some of the continuities between the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. We'll also examine some of the changes that occurred, transforming the Eastern Roman Empire into the Byzantine Empire. The Roman Empire in the east transformed into the Byzantine Empire over time, so it's pretty hard to neatly separate the histories of the two empires, but most scholars agree that Emperor Constantine's reign was the start of the Byzantine Empire. A map depicting Constantine's empire, which spread over modern-day Italy, Greece, and Turkey and more. A map depicting Constantine's empire, which spread over modern-day Italy, Greece, and Turkey and more. Constantine—who ruled from 324 CE to 337 CE—made some significant changes to the Roman Empire. Two of these changes were the new capital at Byzantium and the new Christian character of the empire (Constantine legalized Christianity and eventually converted himself). These changes eventually created a distinct culture which would characterize the Byzantine Empire after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476. Even so, people living under the Byzantine Empire continued to see themselves as Romans and continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire; the terms Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were created much later.

Pazzi

Pazzi Conspiracy The Pazzi Conspiracy was an important event in the history of the city of Florence, a center of the Italian Renaissance. The name comes from a wealthy banking family of Tuscany who traced their lineage to a famous eleventh-century crusader, whose bold fighting style during a siege of Jerusalem earned him the nickname of "Pazzo" (the Madman). In honor of their illustrious ancestor, each year the Pazzi struck a light from a stone of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, to relight the altar candles in the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence. At a time when the Medici family ruled Florence, the wealthy and ambitious Pazzi were striving to usurp the Medici and take control of the city for themselves. To this end, they allied with Pope Sixtus IV, who was at odds with the Medici over contested territory between the Papal States of central Italy and Tuscany, the region dominated by Florence. A loan from the Pazzi bank allowed the pope to purchase strategic land and cities in exchange for granting the Pazzi a monopoly on valuable mines. Furious by this arrangement, Lorenzo de' Medici took his revenge by thwarting the pope's efforts to appoint Francesco Salvati, an ally of the Pazzi, as an archbishop in Tuscany. With the pope's connivance, the Pazzi then allied with Salvati and Girolamo Riario, the pope's nephew, to kill Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano de' Medici during Sunday services in the Duomo. Federigo da Montefeltro, the Duke of Urbino, was brought into the plot and promised to bring a company of six hundred men to Florence in support of the Pazzi. During the solemn singing of Mass on the appointed day, April 26, 1478, a group of men fell on Giuliano de' Medici and brutally stabbed him to death, while his brother escaped to the sacristy of the church. Unable to reach Lorenzo through a locked door, the conspirators left the Duomo and then attempted to capture the Signoria (town hall) of Florence. They were captured by an angry mob of Florentine citizens and immediately lynched. Salviati himself was hanged from the wall of the Signoria, an execution captured in a famous sketch by Leonardo da Vinci. In revenge for the killing of the archbishop, the pope forbade Mass to be held in Florence, and enlisted the king of Naples to attack the city. Lorenzo de' Medici, however, voyaged to Naples to surrender himself to the king and dissuade him from this plan. The conspiracy resulted in the exact opposite of what it intended, laying low the Pazzi dynasty in Florence and in-spiring widespread support of Medici rule in Florence.

Battle of Nicopolis

The Battle of Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied crusader army of Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, French, English, Burgundian, German and assorted troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at the hands of an Ottoman force, raising of the siege of the Danubian fortress of Nicopolis and leading to the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is often referred to as the Crusade of Nicopolis as it was one of the last large-scale Crusades of the Middle Ages, together with the Crusade of Varna in 1443-1444.

How did geography affect sea trade west of the Straits of Gibraltar and land travel between Turkey and the Himalayan Steppes?

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa and on the east by the Levant. Although the sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually referred to as a separate body of water. The sea was an important route for merchants and travellers of ancient times, facilitating trade and cultural exchange between peoples of the region. The history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. The countries surrounding the Mediterranean in clockwise order are Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco; Malta and Cyprus are island countries in the sea. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia have coastlines on the sea.

What advantages did the the Venetian Navy have in the Mediterranean over other European nations?

The Venetian navy (Venetian: Armada) was the navy of the Venetian Republic, and played an important role in the history of Venice, the Republic and the Mediterranean world. The premier navy in the Mediterranean for many centuries, from the medieval to the early modern period, it gave Venice a control and influence over trade and politics in the Mediterranean far in excess of the size of the city and its population. It was one of the first navies to mount gunpowder weapons aboard ships, and through an organised system of naval dockyards, armouries and chandlers, (the Venetian Arsenal, which was one of the greatest concentrations of industrial capacity prior to the Industrial Revolution) was able to continually keep ships at sea, and to rapidly make good any losses. Driven at first by a rivalry with the Byzantine Empire, and later the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa for primacy over trade with the Levant, the Venetian navy was at times technically innovative and yet operationally conservative. With the final fall of Constantinople it played a key role in checking the maritime advance of the Ottoman Empire for over three centuries. The navy's long decline mirrored that of the Republic, beginning in the 16th century and ending with the capitulation of the city to Napoleon in 1796.

University of Bologna

The university in the Italian city of Bologna was the first great medieval school to receive recognition. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa issued it a charter in 1158, and it became a model for schools in Italy, Spain and southern France. Bologna was a guild of students, who unionized to ensure that landlords and tavern owners charged them fair prices and teachers gave them excellent instruction. The students hired professors, set pay scales and assigned lecture topics. Bologna was Europe's premier center for advanced studies in law

Seljuks

a Turkish group who migrated into the Abbasid Empire in the 10th century and established their own empire in the 11th century SELJUK The Seljuk Sultanate was the first empire built by a Turkish nomadic tribe from Central Asia. In 1040, the Seljuks, who belonged to the Oghuz Turks, decisively defeated the Ghaznavid Sultan Mas˓ud under the leadership of two brothers, Tughril Beg and Chagri Beg. They went on to establish an empire in Iran that soon extended to Mesopotamia, where Tughril captured Baghdad in 1055 and assumed the titles of sultan and shahanshah (shah of shahs). His nephew and successor, Alp Arslan (1063-1072), defeated and captured the Byzantine emperor in the battle of Manzikert (Malazgird) and opened Anatolia to Turkish migration. His son, Malekshah (1072-1092), completed the conquest of Syria in 1084. The empire thus extended from the Oxus to the Mediterranean. It is known as the empire of the Great Seljuks, and remained unified for some half a century. The architect of this unity was Nizam al-Mulk (d. 1092), the great wazir of Alp Arslan and Malekshah. Nizam al-Mulk unified the centralized administrative systems of the Ghaznavids in eastern Iran and the Buyids in western Iran and Iraq. In the western regions, he took over the system of land assignments in exchange for military and administrative service known as iqta˓. In the east, where the conquering armies had been recruited among the Turks, large land-grants were made to the members of the Seljuk family as appanages, which, before long, were also referred to as iqta˓. Nizam al-Mulk also built an extensive network of colleges (madrasas) throughout the empire. These became known as the Nizamiyyas after him, and were devoted to the teaching of orthodox traditions, law, and theology. He appointed many of the professors himself, including the great Muslim thinker, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (d. 1111), who taught at the Nizamiyya college of Baghdad for a number of years. The Seljuk sultans and the women of the ruling household endowed similar colleges throughout the empire. The aim of Nizam al-Mulk's educational reform, which was somewhat controversially referred to as "the Sunni restoration," was to curb the influence of revolutionary Isma˓ili Shi˓ism, which emanated from the Fatimid Empire in Egypt, the fortresses in northern Iranian mountains and the Isma˓ili clandestine cells in the cities. There can, however, be no doubt about the long-term impact of the colleges on the pattern of learning and subsequent development of Sunni Islam. Isma˓ili militants assassinated both Nizam al-Mulk and Malekshah in the same year, 1092, which marked the end the unified empire. The Seljuks remained in power, and the sons and grandsons of Nizam al-Mulk remained prominent among their wazirs. The disintegration of the Seljuk Empire did not result from revolutionary Isma˓ili Shi˓ism, but rather from the Turkish tribal practice of dividing the kingdom as the patrimony of the ruler among his male heirs. In other words, the Seljuks, like the Timurids and a number of other Turko-Mongolian dynasties, failed to solve the problem of succession without the division of the empire, and in the twelfth century the territory had become fragmented into a large number of principalities. Malekshah's sons fought among themselves. One of them, Sultan Sanjar (1097-1157), became a powerful ruler in the East, but the disintegration of the empire elsewhere set in irreversibly. This fragmentation was facilitated by the practice of granting large iqta˓s, which alienated provinces from central control, and even more by another Turkish institution: rule by the atabeg, who was the tutor of a minor prince, but who would often marry his ward's mother. Important Atabeg dynasties came into being in Azerbaijan, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, and Fars, while different branches of the Seljuks ruled in Kerman and in Anatolia. Many of the Atabeg dynasties survived the death of the last mainline Seljuk sultan, Tughril III, in 1194. The courts of these local dynasties became centers of culture, and continued to support new institutions of Islamic learning, the madrasas, through endowments. The kingdom of the Seljuk of Rum (Anatolia) flourished in the thirteenth century, after the Mongol invasion, when their court received a large number of learned refugees, such as the great poet and mystic, Jalaludin Rumi (d. 1273), and his father, who fled from Iran to escape the advance of the Mongols. The women of the Seljuk ruling house were very powerful, owing to the continuation of the Turkish nomadic custom. They were active in courtly politics, and acted as patrons of religion and learning. Many of them had their own wazirs even under the Great Seljuk sultans. Their power increased further as queen mothers under the atabeg system after the fragmentation of the Seljuk territories, and a few of them ruled in their own right after the death of their husbands, as did Zahida Khatun, who ruled Fars in southern Iran for over twenty years in the mid-twelfth century.