Timeline Eleventh Century 1000-1099
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1000 Jan 1,
Stephen became the first king of Hungary.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T5)
1000 Oct 9, Leif Ericson
discovered "Vinland." [see 1001]
(MC, 10/9/01)
c1000 A 174-page manuscript was
copied onto goatskin parchment in Constantinople from papyrus
versions of Archimedes original calculations and mathematical
diagrams. Over the years it was written over. The Archimedes
Palimpsest was later discovered and examined using x-ray technology
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
(SFC, 5/23/05, p.A4)
c1000 An early Andean culture
known as the Huari cultivated crops with complex irrigation systems
back to this time.
(NH, 10/02, p.62)
1000 In Brazil megaliths were
arranged into an astronomical observatory in the Rego Grande area of
the Amazon. The stones were uncovered in the 1990s during
deforesting operations in the area. In 2016 scholars in the field of
archaeoastronomy determined that an indigenous culture had arranged
the megaliths about this time.
(SFC, 12/15/16, p.A4)
1000 Gunpowder was invented in
China about this time.
(V.D.-H.K.p.179)
1000 Scientists suspect that
the sun was particularly bright for a period of time that is called
the Medieval Optimum with global temperatures about 1 to 2 degrees
higher than today.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.127)
c1000 The Sinagua Indians, in
what is now Arizona, made granaries in the cliffs along the Verde
River some 100 miles north of Phoenix.
(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.T6)
c1000 The Numic-speaking
Shoshone Indians took part in a widespread migration out of the
Cosos Mountains on the northwestern edge of the Mojave Desert about
this time and populated a large portion of the western US.
(PacDis, Summer 97, p.10)
c1000 The Cahokia settlement in
Southern Illinois numbered about 30,000.
(SFC, 3/20/99, p.B4)
c1000 The Mississippian
transformation was marked by the rise of agriculture and the
appearance of belligerent chiefdoms. The Calusa Indians of southern
Florida avoided the Mississippian transformation and maintained
their ancient lifeways based on fishing and collecting.
(AM, 7/97, p.75)
1000 By this time the whole of
East and Central Africa was occupied by the Bantu people. Older
inhabitants such as the Hottentots and Bushmen were either absorbed
or pushed into less desirable places such as the Kalahari.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.169)
1000 By about this time the
initial Arctic culture had given way to a second eastward flow of a
people now known as the Thule. (Evidence from Ellesmere Island in
Canadian Arctic).
(NG, 6/1988, 762)
1000 A divided England, ruled
by Ethelred the Unready, was in a state of intermittent warfare with
the Vikings, who controlled much of the realm.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.E1)
c1000 In England the Vikings
established a thriving economy in the town they called Jorvik. It
had been founded by the Romans as a fortress and later came to be
called York.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T4)
1000 The Loire Valley vineyard
Chateau de Goulaine was founded. In 2004 it was considered to be
Europes oldest and continuous family business
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)
c1000 Cloisters take up brewing
at about the turn of the first millennium. The monks were
particularly interested in the scientific aspects of brewing, and so
it was that at the Brabant Cloister zum Wrzen that hops were tried
for the very first time. That probably led to the legend that
Brabant King Gambrinus was the inventor of beer. He is still
remembered today as a great patron of the brewers and a beer lover
in his own right.
(www.oldworld.ws/okbeerhist.html)
1000 The Gypsy people (Romany)
migrated from Rajasthan, India, about this time.
(Wired, 9/96, p.46)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.35)
1000 In Agnone, Italy, the
Fonderia Pontificia Marinelli, a bell foundry, was founded about
this time.
(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)
c1000 Graves of rich Curonian
warriors from near Kretinga in western Lithuania revealed cremated
bones in a tree-trunk coffin, nine fibulae, a leather belt with
bronze and amber beads, 3 spears and an iron battle-axe, an iron
instrument for striking fire, a sickle, an iron key and bronze
scales, a saddle and iron bridle bits along with miniature tools and
weapons.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1000 Large portions of the
island fauna of Madagascar, that once included a lemur the size of
bear and the ostrich-like Elephant Bird, was eliminated by the
Malagash people of Madagascar.
(NOHY, 3/90, p.188)
1000 The flightless elephant
bird Aepyornis maximus, which had stalked the savannah and
rainforests of Madagascar, was hunted to extinction about this time.
The elephant bird died out after a new wave of human settlers
arrived. Researchers in 2018 said the creature would have stood at
least three meters (10 feet) tall, and had an average weight of 650
kg, making it the largest bird genus yet uncovered.
(AFP, 9/26/18)
1000 In Cracow, Poland, the
Wawel Castle was built overlooking the Vistula River.
(WSJ, 7/13/00, p.A24)
c1000 In Siberia the Yakut
nation, a Turkish-speaking people, wandered north about this time to
avoid the Mongols.
(SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.4)
1000 About this time in the
Hadramawt region of Yemen a dam burst near the village of Senna, and
the people of the valley fled. In 1997 researchers using DNA studies
found that the Lemba, a Bantu speaking people of southern Africa
carry markers distinctive of the Cohanim, Jewish priests believed to
be descended from Aaron. Lemba oral tradition held that they came to
Africa from Senna. Dr. Tudor Parfitt authored "Journey to the
Vanished City," a description of his work on the Lemba.
(SFEC, 5/9/99,
p.A24)(www.answers.com/topic/lemba)
1000 The Zapotecs founded and
ruled the archeological site of Monte Alban in the Mexican state of
Oaxaca for more than a millennium until about this time when the
Mixtecs took over.
(SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-8)
1000 In 1999 Robert Lacey and
Danny Danziger published "The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the
Turn of the First Millennium." It focused on life in England and
used the Julius Work Calendar as a major source. Other millennium
books included "AD 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse," and
"The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000 AD."
(WSJ, 1/29/99, p.W7)(WSJ, 4/6/99, p.B1)(SFEC,
7/25/99, BR p.2)
1000 The population at this
time was about 200 million people in the world.
(WSJ, 12/23/99, p.A18)
1000-1020 The Bamberg Apocalypse, a richly
illuminated manuscript containing the Book of Revelation and a
Gospel Lectionary, was created in the scriptorium at Reichenau
during this period.
(SSFC, 6/9/13,
p.E7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamberg_Apocalypse)
1000-1100 Eilmer of Malmesbury (also known as
Oliver due to a scribe's miscopying, or Elmer, was an 11th-century
English Benedictine monk best known for his early attempt at a
gliding flight using wings. He reportedly strapped wings to his
hands and feet and jumped off a tower at England's Malmesbury Abbey
gliding some 200 meters before crashing and breaking both legs.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eilmer_of_Malmesbury)(Econ.,
10/10/20, p.75)
1000-1100 There was a Confucian revival in China.
The scholar Cheng I held that the I Ching was a means of inquiry
into any possible matter.
(NH, 9/97, p.12)
1000-1100 Chinese kilns mass produced ceramics for
the imperial court.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1000-1100 In 2002 the remains of a longhouse from
this time were uncovered in northern Iceland. It was believed to be
associated with Snorri Thorfinnson, son of Viking explorers and the
1st European born in the New World.
(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A2)
1000-1100 The writer Mahmud of Kashgar recorded a
variant of an Uighur story that Alexander the Great during his
conquests ordered his doctors to invent a remedy for sick people
that was good to eat. In the original story they then came up with
pilaf, but Mahmud substituted tutmach (noodles) in a setting of
starvation.
(SFC, 8/14/96, zz-1 p.2)
c1000-1100 Tenkaminen reigned as Caliph of Ghana.
He exported gold, ivory and salt and kept his wealth in gold. He put
glass windows into his palace in Kumbi and kept a menagerie of
elephants and giraffes.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1000-1100 From India the sandstone sculpture "Uma
Maheshvara" is a variant of the archetypal couple Shiva and Parvati.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.E1)
1000-1100 In southern India an 11th century temple
was constructed in Thanjavur.
(WSJ, 6/9/97, p.A1)
c1000-1100 A Buddhist shrine was constructed in
Uji, Japan. In 1968 the Byodo-In Temple at the foot of the Koolaus
Mountains on Oahu, Hawaii, was built as a replica of the
900-year-old shrine.
(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.20)
1000-1100 In Laos Wat Phu was last renovated by
King Suryavarnam I.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)
1000-1100 Marrakech was founded in the 11th
century. It was the terminus of a trade route running southward to
the Niger River and of another running eastward to Cairo.
(NH, 5/96, p.40)
1000-1100 In Mali the desert village of Araouane,
161 miles north of Timbuktu, was first mentioned about this time. It
was a wealthy settlement that flourished off the caravans and drew
water from 150-foot wells.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.84)
c1000-1200 The 11th or 12th century document "De
Mirabilibus Brittanniae" (the Wonders of Britain) was written by
Radulfi de Diceto Lundoniensis.
(AM, 9/01, p.42)
1000-1250 Early post classic period of the Maya.
(AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)
1000-1260 The Popoloca Indians of Mexico's Puebla
state built the Ndachjian-Tehuacan temple complex during this
period. In 2018 archeological excavations found the first temple of
the Flayed Lord, Xipe Totec, depicted as a skinned human corpse, at
the complex. The Popolocas were later conquered by the Aztecs.
(SFC, 1/4/19, p.A2)
1000-1300 Bantu people called the Shona build the
Great Zimbabwe, which means "Houses of Stone." This grand city
became Zimbabwes capital and trade center.
(ATC, p.135)
c1000-1400 Angkor Thom, capital of the Khmer
empire, reached its apogee during this period. It included the
religious monument of Angkor Wat. In 2007 new technology indicated
that the city covered an area over 115 square miles at its peak and
used sophisticated technology for managing and harvesting water.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.A)(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.T6)(SFC,
8/14/07, p.A18)
c1k-14kCE The Mapungubwe kingdom thrived in South
Africa. It was rediscovered by archeologists in the 1930s.
(Arch, 1/05, p.10)
1001 Otto III was ousted. He
had moved his thrown from Germany to Rome and fancied himself Holy
Roman Emperor.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R54)
c1001 Norse sagas claim that
Leif Ericson and a band of 35 men sailed for western lands based on
an account by the Viking Bjarni Herjulfsson, who had sighted land
after being blown off course. They found a land they called Vinland
and built houses but returned to Greenland before the winter.
(HT, 5/97, p.31)
1002 Jun 6, German king Henry
II, the Saint, was crowned.
(MC, 6/6/02)
1002 Jun 21, Pope Leo IX was
born. He brought the conflict between Rome and the eastern Church to
a head in 1054, ending with the Patriarch of Constantinople being
excommunicated and the creation of the Schism.
(Camelot, 6/21/99)
1002 Aug 2, Abu Amir Mohammed
ibn Abd Allah ibn Mohammed ibn Abi Amir (64) died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1002 Nov 13, English king
Ethelred II launched a massacre of Danish settlers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready)
1002 Thorer Eastman (d.1002), a
Norwegian sea captain, was blown off course on a trading voyage from
Iceland to Greenland. He and his wife, Gudrid, along with a crew of
13 became stranded on a rock near the coast of Newfoundland for
weeks until they were rescued by Leif Eriksson, who was on his way
home to Greenland from North America with a cargo of timber. That
fall an epidemic swept Greenland and Eastman died.
(ON, 12/07, p.4)
1002-1019 In Japan Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote her
classic court novel "The Tale of Genji." The novel "Genji
Monogatari" (Genji the Shining One) was later considered the world's
1st novel. The long work explored the imperial court of the Heian
period through the life and many loves of Genji, son of the
emperor's favorite concubine. Arthur Waley made an English
translation in 6 installments between 1925 and 1933. Edward
Seidensticker made a translation in 1976. Royall Tyler made a new
translation in 2001. In 2000 Liza Dalby authored her novel
"The Tale of Murasaki."
(Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(WSJ, 2/5/98,
p.A20)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 11/16/01,
p.W14)(SFEC, 7/16/00, BR p.3)
c1002-1066 Edward the Confessor, English king
(1042-1066), saint and founder of Westminster Abbey.
(WUD, 1994, p.454)
1003 May 12, Gerbert, French
scholar, died in Rome.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1003 Gregory of Narek (b.951)
died in Armenia. He was later is considered one of the most
important figures of medieval Armenian religious thought and
literature. His Book of Prayers, also called the Book of
Lamentations, is his best-known work. In 2015 Pope Francis named St.
Gregory named a doctor of the church.
(AP,
2/23/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_of_Narek)
1003 The church of Maria di
Criptu was built in the village of Fossa in the Grand Sassi
mountains of central Italy.
(SFC, 7/26/00, Z1 p.1)
1004 The San Nilo abbey was
founded atop a Roman villa in the Alban Hills.
(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.C6)
c1004 In 2004 archaeologists in
western Norway found the remains of a harbor complex built by the
Vikings about this time, at the ancient harbor complex at
Faanestangen, near the west coast city of Trondheim, some 250 miles
north of Oslo.
(AP, 3/6/04)
1005 Leaf Ericsons brother,
Thorvald, had arrived in Vinland but was killed by native Indians
and his Viking companions returned to Greenland. A 3-year settlement
was begun a few years later when Thorfin Karlsefni established a
base with around 100 men and women at the LAnse aux Meadows in
Newfoundland.
(HT, 5/97, p.33)(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1005 Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir
and Thorstein Erikson set sail to the New World to recover the body
of Thorvald Erikson and to start a new colony. They failed to catch
easterly winds and spent the winter in northwest Greenland. That
winter Thorstein died.
(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1006 Thorfinn Karlsefni
arrived in Greenland from Iceland and married Gudrid
Thorbjarnardottir. She soon talked him into leading an expedition to
the New World.
(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1007 Thorfinn Karlsefni
and Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir embarked with a 3-ship expedition to
the new World. Snorri Thorfinnson, son of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir
and Thorfinn Karlsefni, was born in Vinland (probably Newfoundland),
the 1st European born in the New World. The family later returned
east and settled in Iceland.
(SFC, 9/16/02, p.A2)(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1005 Kazan, the capital of the
Russian province of Tatarstan, was founded on the Volga River. In
2005 the city celebrated a millennial anniversary.
(AP, 8/26/05)
1006 May 1, A supernova was
observed by Chinese and Egyptians in constellation Lupus.
(MC, 5/1/02)
1008 The Univ. of Bologna
(Italy) was founded. It was later recognized as the oldest
university in Europe.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.57)
1008 The earliest known
water-powered wool-processing plant was operated at Ludi near Milan.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1009 Feb 14, Lithuania was 1st
mentioned in relation to an announcement of the death of St. Bruno.
[see Mar 9]
(LHC, 2/14/03)
1009 Mar 9, Lithuanias name
(Lituae) was first mentioned in Quedlinburgs annals: "St. Bruno, an
archbishop and monk, who was called Boniface, was struck in the head
by Pagans during the 11th year of his conversion at the Russian and
Lithuanian border (in confinio Rusciae et Lituae), and along with 18
of his followers, entered heaven on March 9th" (Feb 14 is also cited
in other sources).
(DrEE, 10/12/96, p.2)(Book of the Millennium. Kaunas: Krastotvarka,
1999. Vol. 1: The State, p. 10, series "Acquaintance with
Lithuania") http://www.krastotvarka.lt
(DrEE, 10/12/96, p.2)
1009 Oct 18, Al-Hakim ordered
the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and its
associated buildings, apparently outraged by what he regarded as the
fraud practiced by the monks in the "miraculous" Descent of the Holy
Fire, celebrated annually at the church during the Easter Vigil.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hakim_bi-Amr_Allah)(WSJ, 5/7/01,
p.A20)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1010 May 3, Ansfried (~69), 9th
bishop of Utrecht (995-1010), saint, died.
(MC, 5/3/02)
1010 Thorfinn Karlsefni and
Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir returned from the New World to Greenland
and then moved to Iceland the following year, where they raised a
large family.
(ON, 12/07, p.5)
1010 Abolqasem Firdawsi
(Ferdowsi), a Persian poet, completed the Shahnameh, or Book of
Kings. It is an epic of more than 50,000 rhyming couplets weaving
the history of ancient shahs with myth and legend. One might call it
the Iliad of Persia. Over the centuries shahs have had the poem
copied and illustrated by the best artists of the day. In 2006 Dick
Harris made an abridged translation to English in prose.
(WSJ, p. A-18, 10/13/94)(WSJ, 3/7/06, p.D8)
1010 King Ly Thai To decided to
move Vietnam's capital 62 miles (100 km) north to Hanoi, then called
Thang Long.
(AP, 10/10/10)
1012 The Arabian trade with
Europe abruptly ceased and no more Cufic coins streamed into Europe.
(VilNews, 12/17/10)
1013 The last Viking attempt to
settle Vinland was made.
(SFEM, 11/15/98, p.25)
1014 Feb 3, Sweyn Forkbeard
(b.960), Danish-born Viking king of England (1013-14), died.
(www.nndb.com/people/718/000093439/)
1014 Feb 14, Pope Benedict VIII
crowned Henry II, German King (1002), as Roman German emperor
(1014-1024).
(HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)(MC, 2/14/02)
1014 Apr 23, The Battle of
Contarf ended Danish rule in Ireland but a Dane killed Irish King
Brian Boru (87).
(PCh, 1992, p.80)(MC, 4/23/02)
1014 Oct 6, The Byzantine
Emperor Basil II (958-1025) earned the title "Slayer of Bulgars"
after he ordered the blinding of 15,000 Bulgarian troops. Basil II
was godfather to Russias Prince Vladimir.
(HN,
10/6/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_II)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.60)
1014 Rajendra Chola I (d.1044)
(aka Rajendra I), ascended to the throne of South India (which
included present day Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka
and Telangana, Orissa, West Bengal), succeeding his father Rajaraja
Chola I. During his reign, he extended the influence of the Chola
empire to the banks of the river Ganga in North India and across the
Indian ocean to the West and South East Asia, making the Chola
Empire one of the most powerful maritime empires of India.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_Chola_I)
1015 Sep 12, Lambert I with the
Beard, count of Leuven, died in battle at about 65.
(MC, 9/12/01)
1015 After converting to
Christianity in France, Olaf Haraldsson returned to Norway and
promptly conquered land held by Denmark, Sweden and Norwegian lords.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1015 Vladimir I (b.958), a
prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Kiev, died. He had married
the sister of Byzantine Emp. Basil II and was baptized in Crimea.
Originally a Slavic pagan, Vladimir had converted to Christianity in
988 and Christianized the Kievan Rus. His domain split into warring
fiefs that eventually gave rise to Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_I_of_Kiev)(Econ, 11/5/16,
p.44)
1016 Apr 23, Ethelred II "the
Unready", king of England (979-1016), died.
(MC, 4/23/02)
1016 Oct 18, Danes defeated the
Saxons at Battle of Assandun (Ashingdon).
(MC, 10/18/01)
1016 Nov 30, Edmund II (27),
Ironsides, King of Saxons, died.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1016-1029 In Norway Olaf Haraldsson served as
king. He later became Saint Olaf, the patron saint of Norway.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
1016 Canute, Prince of Denmark
became King of England as Canute I.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1017 Oct 28, Henry III, Roman
Catholic German emperor (1046-56), was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1017 In China a hermit
introduced the prime minister to "variolation," an inoculation using
germs from smallpox survivors.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.47)
1017 The south Indian Cola
Empire transferred the capital of Sri Lanka to Polonnaruva which
then served as the capital of Sri Lanka until 1300. It was a
fortified citadel surrounded by Hindu and Buddhist religious
complexes.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)(Arch, 7/02, p.34)
1017-1144 A Romanesque nave was added to the abbey
Mont St. Michel off the coast of Normandy, France.
(WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P18)
1018 By this year Basil II had
annexed Bulgaria.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1019 Canute, King of England,
became also King of Denmark as Canute II or Canute the Great.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1019 Machmud of Ghazni, a
kingdom in central Asia, invaded India and took so many captives
that the prices of slaves plummeted for several years. He invade
India annually for 25 years.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4)
1019-20 BabaTaher, Persian poet, died.
(WSJ, 1/25/00, p.A18)
1021 Feb 13, Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr
Allāh, the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam (9961021),
died. He is known as the mad caliph of Cairo. The Fatimid
Caliphate was an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate that spanned a large
area of North Africa, from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic
Ocean in the west.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimid_Caliphate)
1023 In China a government
agency was formed to print paper money.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)
1024 Apr 7, Pope Benedict VIII
died.
(PTA, 1980, p.288)
1024 Jul 13, Henry II, the
Monk, German King (1002-24), died.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1024 Sep 4, Conrad II (the
Sailor) was chosen as German king.
(MC, 9/4/01)
1024 In China the first
state-backed paper money was introduced.
(Econ, 2/25/12, SRp.4)
1024 Olaf Haraldsson
introduced a religious code in his efforts to convert the Norwegians
to Christianity.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1025 Dec 15, Basil II was
succeeded as emperor [by] Constantine VIII, his brother and
co-ruler.
(HN, 12/15/98)
1026 Mar 23, Koenraad II
(Conrad II) crowned himself king of Italy.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1027 Mar 26, John XIX crowned
Conrad II the Salier Roman German emperor.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1028 Canute the Great (d.1035)
became also King of Norway.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1028 Olaf Haraldsson was forced
to flee Norway by Canute, king of England and Denmark, Olaf returned
to reconquer Norway, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of
Stiklestad in 1030.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1029-1094 Al-Mustansir, ruler of most of North
Africa. He was the wealthiest of the Fatimid caliphs and was based
in Cairo.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1030 Jul 29, The patron saint
of Norway, King Olaf the Second, was killed in the Battle of
Stiklestad. Olaf Haraldsson was born a pagan and lived as a warrior
for most of his years going on to become the patron saint of Norway.
The son of Harald I, Oafs early career was spent outside Norway
fighting the Danes and English among others.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)(AP, 7/29/01)
1030 Mahmud Ghazni died.
Conflicts between various Ghaznavid rulers arose and as a result the
Afghan empire started to crumple.
(https://www.afghan-web.com/history/chronology/)
1030 In China a landslide on
the Yangtze River cut off navigation for 21 years.
(NH, 7/96, p.32)
1030 Fan Kuan (b.960), Chinese
artist, died. His work included Travelers and Streams and
Mountains.
(WSJ, 10/29/08, p.D9)
1030 The city of Tartu in
Estonia was founded.
(Hem, 4/96, p.24)
1030-1093 In China Shen Kua was an engineer and
high official Chinese astronomer. In his1086 work "Dream Pool
Essays," Shen Kua made the first reference to the magnetic compass.
The work also gave the first account of relief maps and an
explanation of the origin of fossils, along with other scientific
observations. Shen Kua wrote his essays after being banished from
office after an army under his command lost 60,000 killed in a
battle with Khitan tribes.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(HNQ, 4/22/99)
1031 Sep 2, In Hungary Emeric
(b.1007), the son of King Stephen, was killed by a boar while
hunting. On Nov 5, 1083, King Ladislaus I unearthed Emeric's bones
in a large ceremony. Emeric was canonized for his pious life and
purity along with his father and Bishop Gerhard by Pope Gregory VII.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Emeric_of_Hungary)(Econ,
9/19/15, p.48)
1031 Oct 19, Abbot Humbertus
van Echternach opened the grave of Saint Willibrord.
(MC, 10/19/01)
1031 Olaf II, aka Olaf
Haraldsson (d.1030) of Norway, was named a saint.
(HNQ, 11/30/00)
1032 Feb 2, Conrad II claimed
the thrown of France.
(HN, 2/2/99)
1032 Theophylactus, the nephew
of Pope John XIX, became Pope Benedict IX. His papacy was bought for
him by his father.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.61)
1033 An enormous pilgrimage to
Jerusalem marked the 1000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus
Christ.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A3)
1034 Apr 11, Romanus III
Argyrus, Byzantine emperor (1028-34), was assassinated by his wife.
(MC, 4/11/02)
1035 Nov 12, King Canute
(b.994) died. He was king of Denmark, England and Norway.
(HN, 11/12/98)
1032 Theophylactus, the nephew
of Pope John XIX, became Pope Benedict IX. His papacy was bought for
him by his father.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.61)
1035 Nov 12, Cnut the Great
(b.c995), King of Denmark, England and Norway, died in England. The
area of his rule is often referred to as the North Sea Empire. As a
Danish prince, Cnut (Canute) won the throne of England in 1016 in
the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe.
Scotland submitted to him in 1017. His later accession to the Danish
throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnut_the_Great)
1035 In Spain 66 Jews were
killed in Castrojeriz near Burgos. Others were expelled and settled
on a nearby hill that was named Castrillo Motajudios (Jews Hill).
Records from 1627 show the name was changed to Castrillo Matajudios,
meaning "Kill Jews." In 2014 the 56 town residents planned a May 25
vote on changing the name back to Castrillo Mota de Judios. The name
change was celebrated on Oct 23, 2015.
(AP, 4/22/14)(http://tinyurl.com/pzmhvqh)(SFC,
10/24/15, p.A2)
1036 The Romans drove Pope
Benedict IX out of Rome.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1036-1056 Henry III ruled the Holy Roman Empire,
which extended from Hamburg and Bremen in the north to the instep of
Italy to the south, Burgundy in the west, and Hungary and Poland to
the east.
(V.D.-H.K.p.111)
1037 May 28, Holy Roman Emperor
Conrad II issued The Constitutio de feudis ("Constitution on
Fiefs"), a law regulating feudal contracts. It included a phrase
similar to law of the land. The law was based, in its own words,
on the "legal code of our predecessors" (constitucio antecessorum
nostrorum).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutio_de_feudis)(Econ, 12/20/14,
p.34)
1037 Jun 21, Avicenna (b.980),
a Persian polymath, died in Iran. Of the 450 works he is known to
have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy
and 40 on medicine. He attributed illness to an imbalance in bodily
fluids.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna)(Econ,
4/18/20, p.36)
1038 King Stephen of Hungary
died.
(SFC, 8/7/99, p.A8T5)
1040 Mar 7, Harold I, King of
England (1035-40), died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1040 Aug 15, In Scotland
Donnchad led an army into Moray, where he was killed by Mac Bethad
at Pitgaveny near Elgin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_of_Scotland)
1040-1057 Macbeth ruled over Scotland. He
succeeded King Duncan.
(WSJ, 5/23/96, p.B-1)
1040-1100 Eruptions at Sunset Crater, Az., are
believed to have lasted over this period.
(NH, 6/97, p.56)(AM, 3/04, p.50)
1040-1275 In Arizona as many as 12 families
occupied the White House of Canyon de Chelly.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.T10)
1041 In China Bi Sheng devised
the first movable-type printing system with clay characters.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1042-1066 Edward the Confessor (b.1002) served as
King of England. Monks penned the manuscript "The Life of King
Edward the Confessor" and in 1998 it was put on a WWW page:
www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Ee3.59
(WUD, 1994, p.454)
1043 Apr 3, Edward the
Confessor was crowned king of England.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1044 The Romans drove Pope
Benedict IX out of Rome for a 2nd time. John, bishop of Sabina, was
set up as Pope Sylvester III, but Benedicts family base from
Tusculum fought their way back into Rome and restored Benedict.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1044-1287 Bagan served as the capital of the Pagan
empire, ruling what later became known as Myanmar during this
period. The rulers of Bagan built more than 10,000 magnificent
religious monuments.
(AP, 8/25/16)
1045 Pope Benedict IX abdicated
and, for a large sum of money, turned the papacy over to his
godfather, archpriest John Gratian, who became Pope Gregory VI.
(PTA, 1980, p.292)
1045 Richard of Aversa, a
nephew of Rainulf of Aversa, came from Normandy to southern Italy in
1045 with 40 knights.
(HNQ, 7/17/00)
1045-1066 In Norway King Harold Hardready reigned.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1046 Sep 24, In Hungary Gerard
Sagredo (b.980), an Italian bishop from Venice (also known as
Gellert or Gerhard), was placed on a 2-wheel cart, hauled to a
hilltop and rolled down the later named Gellert Hill, and still
being alive at the bottom was beaten to death. He operated in the
Kingdom of Hungary (specifically in Budapest), and educated Saint
Emeric of Hungary, the son of Saint Stephen of Hungary). Gellert
played a major role in converting Hungary to Christianity. He was
canonized in 1083 along with St. Stephen and St. Emeric and became
one of the patron saints of Hungary.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Sagredo)
1046 Dec, Pope Gregory VI
abdicated. As Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI claimed the
papal throne, all were deposed by Henry III in the Synod of Sutri.
Henry selected Clement II. Clement then crowned Henry and his wife
as emperor and empress.
(PTA, 1980, p.294)(V.D.-H.K.p.111)
1046 Dec 25, Suidger, bishop of
Bamberg, was enthroned as Pope Clement II.
(PTA, 1980, p.296)
1046 AD Synod of Sutri where three men claimed the
papal throne, but were all deposed by Henry III, who selected
Clement II. Clement then crowned Henry and his wife as emperor and
empress.
(V.D.-H.K.p.111)
1047 Oct 9, Pope Clement II
died.
(PTA, 1980, p.296)
1047 Oct 25, Magnus I Godhi,
king of Norway and Denmark (1035-47), died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1047 Pope Gregory VI died.
(PTA, 1980, p.294)
1047 In France construction
began on the Abbaye-aux-Dames near the town of Saintes.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.T8)
1048 Jul 17, Damasus II, born
as Poppo, became Pope. He was the second of the German pontiffs
nominated by Emperor Henry III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Damasus_II)
1048 Aug 9, Pope Damasus II,
born as Poppo, died. He was the second of the German pontiffs
nominated by Emperor Henry III.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Damasus_II)
1048 Dec 13, Al-Biruni (74),
Arabic royal astrologer, died.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1049 King Svein ruled in
Denmark.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1049-1051 Snorre Sturleson wrote the
"Heimskringla."
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/
(DrEE, 11/23/96,
p.3)(TB-Com, 10/11/00)
1050 Nov 11, Henry IV, Holy
Roman Emperor, was born.
(HN, 11/11/98)
1050 An Anasazi trade center in
New Mexico offered pottery, turquoise and buffalo meat.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1050 Arabs brought their
decimal system to Spain.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
c1050 In 2004 some 280 silver
coins, that probably originated from a trade journey by Gotlanders
to the area around the river Elbe in Germany around 1050, were found
on the Swedish island of Gotland.
(AP, 3/1/04)
1051 King Magnus ruled in
Denmark.
(DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)
1053 Jun 18, In Italy Richard
of Aversa helped win the Battle of Civitate, inflicting a decisive
defeat over the papal army, which had joined Byzantium in an
alliance against the Normans.
(www.fanaticus.org/DBA/battles/civitate.html)
1054 Mar 12, Pope Leo IX
escaped captivity and returned to Rome.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1054 Jul 4, Chinese and Arabian
observers first documented the massive supernova of the Crab Nebula
created thousands of years ago and consisting of a huge expanding
cloud of gas and dust 6,000 light-years from Earth. The great nova,
as Oriental astronomers described it, was six times brighter than
Venus and was only outshone by the sun and moon. For 23 days the
nova could be observed in broad daylight. An entry in the Records of
the Royal Observatory of Peking reads: "In the first year of the
period Chihha, the fifth moon, the day Chi-chou, a great star
appeared approximately several inches southeast of Tien-Kuan (i.e.
Zeta Tauri). After more than a year it gradually became invisible."
In 1999 the Chandra X-Ray Telescope observed a ring around the heart
of the Crab Nebula which continued to generate energy of more than
100,000 suns.
(LSA., p.29)(TNG, p.96)(SCTS, p.183)(IB,
Internet, 12/7/98)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.A7)
1054AD Jul, The Council of Florence in 1445
established this date for the Great Schism between the Eastern and
Western (Orthodox and Catholic). An official date was needed so that
talks could begin on reunion.
(WSJ, 7/16/97, p.A23)
1054AD The Roman and Orthodox Churches split
decisively. [see 330AD] The Orthodox Church did not accept the papal
authority from Rome. Christians in southern Albania were left under
the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and those in the north
under the pope in Rome. The Orthodox Church maintained the tradition
of married priests.
(WSJ, 11/14/95, p. A-12)(WP, 6/29/96, p.B7)(www,
Albania, 1998)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)
1055 The Seljuks under Tughril
Beg ousted the Buyids (Buwayhids) in Baghdad. The nomadic Turks from
Central Asia, descended from a warrior named Seljuk, took control of
the government and continued governing the empire in the tradition
of Islamic law.
(www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/iraq/HISTORY.html)
1056 Apr 22, Supernova Crab
nebula was last seen by the naked eye.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1057 Jul 10, Lady Godiva rode
naked on horseback throughout Coventry on a dare from her husband,
the Earl of Mercia, who abolished taxation in this year.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1057 Aug 15, Macbeth, the King
of Scotland, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Lumphanan, by
Malcolm Canmore, the eldest son of King Duncan I, who was killed by
Macbeth 17 years earlier.
(AP,
8/15/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_of_Scotland)
1057 Aug 31, Leofric, count of
Mercia and husband of Lady Godiva, died. His wife, the Countess
Godgifu (Godiva), had founded a Benedictine priory on a hill
overlooking the River Sowe, and the town of Coventry grew up around
it. The priory probably ran a market that would have formed the
nucleus of the growing town. Such a market would bring fees and
taxes to the priory and the Earl while flooding the district with
goods and money. Godiva may well have ruled the settlement between
Leofrics death and her own in 1066.
(HNC, 12/2/00)(MC, 8/31/01)
1057 King Anawratha, founder of
the first Burmese empire, conquered the Mon kingdom to the south and
introduced Theravada Buddhism to the Burmese people. He and his
heirs oversaw building projects and Bagan (Pagan) became a center of
Buddhist learning.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.W12)
1057 In Italy Richard of Aversa
seized Capua.
(HNQ, 7/17/00)
1058 Nov 28, Kazimierz I
Restaurator (b.1015), grand duke of Poland (1034-58), died. He
succeeded in reuniting the central Polish lands under the hegemony
of the Holy Roman Empire, but he was never crowned king.
(MC, 11/28/01)(www.infoplease.com)
1058 Despite protests from the
cardinals Count Gregory of Tusculum led the selection of John,
bishop of Velletri, as Pope Benedict X.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1058 Al-Maarri (b.973), a
blind Syrian philosopher, poet and writer, died. He attacked the
dogmas of religion and rejected the claim that Islam or any other
religion possessed the truths they claimed.
(Econ, 7/13/13, SR
p.13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ma%CA%BFarri)
1058-1111 Al-Ghazali (Algazal), Islamic scholar.
(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A23)
1059 May 23, Henri I crowned
his son King Philip I of France.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1059 A council gathered at
Lateran and declared that the election of Benedict X was invalid.
The council enthroned Gerard of Burgundy as Pope Nicholas II. A
synod at Rome followed and set decrees for papal elections that
rested election powers with the cardinal-bishops.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1059 Richard of Aversa and his
brother-in-law, Robert Guiscard, met with Pope Nicholas II. The
Norman chiefs swore allegiance to the Pope in return for papal
recognition for their conquests, whereupon Richard was invested as
prince of Capua.
(HNQ, 7/17/00)
1060 Aug 4, Henry I (52), King
of France (1027-60), died.
(MC, 8/4/02)
1060 England minted a coin
shaped like a four-leaf clover. Users broke off each leaf as needed
as a separate piece of currency.
(SFC, 6/30/96, Z 1 p.5)(SFEC, 8/1/99, Z1 p.8)
1060 Rashi, the great
Talmudist, studied in Worms.
(NH, 9/96, p.24)
1061 Apr 24, Halley's Comet
inspired an English monk to predict that England would be destroyed.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1061 Jul, Pope Nicholas II died
in Florence.
(PTA, 1980, p.306)
1062 Marrakech [Marakesh], the
Arab name for Morocco, was built as a fortified city by the first
Berber dynasty, the Almoravids. It was the terminus of a trade route
running southward to the Niger River and of another running eastward
to Cairo.
(NH, 5/96, p.40)(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T10)
1065 Apr 12, Pilgrims under
bishop Gunther of Bamberg reached Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1064 Jun 9, Coimbra, Portugal,
fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.
(HN 6/9/98)
1065 Apr 16, The Norman Robert
Guiscard took Bari, ending five centuries of Byzantine rule in
southern Italy.
(HN, 4/16/98)
1065 Dec 28, Westminster Abbey
opened in London.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1066 Jan 5, Edward the
Confessor (b.1003), king of England (1043-66), died heirless.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor)
1066 Jan 6, (Harald) Harold
Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, was crowned King of England.
(TLC, BTCW, 6/25/95)(HN, 1/6/99)
1066 Feb 28, Westminster Abbey
opened.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1066 Mar 23, The 18th recorded
perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. Haleys Comet was seen and
soon after depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. The 230-foot tapestry
was created by craftsmen working for a Norman Bishop to depict the
1066 Norman invasion. In 2005 Andrew Bridgeford authored 1066: The
Hidden History in the Bayeux Tapestry.
(SS, 3/23/02)(NH, 7/98, p.78)(WSJ, 4/22/05, p.W6)
1066 Sep 21, At the Battle at
Fulford Norway king Harald III Hardrada beat the British militia.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1066 Sep 25, King Harold
Godwinson II marched north and attacked the Vikings at the Battle of
Stampford Bridge in Yorkshire. Harald III Hardrada (51), King of
Norway (1046-1066), died in battle. Godwinsons
forces destroyed the Vikings who returned to Norway in 24 of their
300 ships. Marching north to face a Norwegian invasion force
commanded by King Harald Sigurdsson, aka Hardraade, and by his
usurper brother, Tostig, Godwinson defended his crown at Stamford
Bridge, resulting in a Saxon victory and the deaths of both Harald
and Tostig. Soon afterward, however, Harold had to march south to
face another invading contender for his throne, Duke William the
Bastard of Normandy, who defeated and killed Harold at Hastings on
October 14, and took the English crown as William the Conqueror.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson)
1066 Sep 28, William the
Conqueror invaded England to claim the English throne.
(AP, 9/28/97)(HN, 9/28/98)
1066 Sep, Duke William of
Normandy sailed with 12,000 men to capture the English crown. His
fleet encountered a severe storm that disrupted his landing.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror)
1066 Sep, Harold Hardrata, King
of Norway, sailed south with 10,000 men in 300 ships to attack
England.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World, 6/25/95)
1066 Oct 2, The Normans landed
in southern England and King Harold was forced to march his men
south to face the Normans.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World, 6/25/95)
1066 Oct 14, King Harold and
his army locked into a massive shield wall and faced Duke William,
William the Conqueror, and his mounted knights near the town of
Hastings, Battle of Hastings. Duke William planned a three point
attack plan that included a) heavy archery b) attack by foot
soldiers c) attack by mounted knights at any weak point of defense.
The bloody battle gave the name Sen Lac Hill to the battle site. The
Normans won out after Harold was killed by a fluke arrow. This
placed William on the throne of England.
(TLC, Battles That Changed the World,
6/25/95)(AP, 10/14/97)(HN, 10/14/98)
1066 Dec 25, William the
Conqueror (d.1087), Duke William of Normandy, was crowned king of
England. Under the reign of William I the construction of Windsor
Castle began. Over the next 50 years every English cathedral church
and most big abbeys were raised to the ground, and rebuilt in a new
continental style.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror)(SFC, 5/25/96,
p.A12)(AP, 12/25/97)(Econ, 12/24/16, p.34)
1066 Edith Svanneshals was the
beautiful mistress of the ill-starred Harold Godwinsson, king of the
Anglo-Saxons and loser at Hastings. No picture of her exists. Her
last name means "swan's throat."
(EHC, 5/12/98)
1066 The Channel Islands, 35
miles off the coast of France, became possessions of the English
Crown when the Normans conquered England.
(SFC, 8/10/96, p.A10)
1066 In England prior to 1066,
hunting was virtually unrestricted. The Forest Laws, strictly
enforced by English kings starting in the 11th century, placed
restrictions on hunting, making it the sole privilege of the
nobility. Unauthorized slayers of the kings deer were often put to
death. The Game Act of 1831, enacted under William IV, extended
hunting rights to anyone who obtained a license.
(HNQ, 3/3/00)
1066 The Countess Godgifu
(Godiva) died. She had founded a Benedictine priory on a hill
overlooking the River Sowe, and the town of Coventry grew up around
it.
(HNC, 12/2/00)
1067 Minsk (Belarus) was
founded.
(SFC, 7/5/97, p.C2)
1067 Chepstow Castle was built
in Wales to protect a strategic crossing of the River Wye and for
the defense of the Wye Valley near the English border by the troops
of William the Conqueror.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)(SFEC, 5/10/98,
p.T4)
1068AD Historian al-Bakri wrote his "Book of the
Roads and Kingdoms." He described Ghana in the Western Sudan from
information given him by merchants and others.
(ATC, p.113)(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.171)
1070 Jun 4, Roquefort cheese
was accidentally discovered in a cave near Roquefort, France, when a
shepherd found a lunch he had forgotten several days before.
(HN, 6/4/01)
1070 In Egypt a famine forced
Al-Mustansir to send the women of Cairo to Baghdad to escape
starvation.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)
1070 The 8 gates of Marrakech,
Morocco, were built.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F5)
1070 Bergen was founded on the
southwest coast of Norway.
(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.F7)
1071 Aug 26, Seljuk Turks under
King Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV
at Manzikert (later Malazkirt), Eastern Turkey. Romanus was taken
prisoner.
(PCh, 1992, p.85)(Ot, 1993, p.4)(Econ, 9/9/17,
p.51)
1072 Jan 10, Robert Guiscard
and his brother Roger took Palermo in Sicily.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1072 Oct 6, Sancho II, king of
Castilia (1065-72), was murdered.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1073 Sep 30, Pope Alexander II,
born as Anselmo da Baggio, began serving as Pope.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_II)
1073 Apr 21, Pope Alexander II,
born as Anselmo da Baggio, died. He had begun serving as Pope in
1061.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_II)
1073 Apr 22, Gregory VII, St.
Hildebrand, became Pope. He was later driven from Rome and died in
exile in 1085.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_VII)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)
1073 Dec 20, Domingo, Spanish
monastery founder, abbot, saint, died.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1073 Pope Gregory VII canonized
Paschasius Radbertus (785-865), a monk of Corbje in Picardy, later
northern France.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschasius_Radbertus)
1074 Pope Gregory VII summoned
a council in the Lateran palace, which condemned simony and
confirmed celibacy for the Church's clergy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_VII)
1075 Feb 16, Ordericus Vitalis,
French monk, historian, poet, was born.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1075 The Jiaozhi (Vietnam)
launched a war against China, with a force of some 100,000
surrounding Yongzhou (the southern region of Nanning). It was
captured after a siege of 42 days.
(www.international-relations.com/cm4-1/Nanningwb.htm)
1075 The 3rd Cathedral at
Santiago de Compostela in Spain was built on the site of the tomb of
St. James. There had been a Cathedral on the site since the 9th
century.
(SFC, 9/22/96, p.T5)
1076 Feb 14, Pope Gregory VII
excommunicated Henry IV.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1076 Feb 22, Godfried III, with
the Hump, duke of Lower Lorraine, was murdered. [see Feb 26]
(MC, 2/22/02)
1076 Feb 26, Godfried III with
the Hump, duke of Netherlands-Lutheran, was murdered. [see Feb 24]
(SC, 2/26/02)
1076AD The Al Moravids, a group of Muslim warriors
who lived in the Sahara, set out to conquer Ghana. They captured
Koumbi in this year but gave it back up to the Soninke in 1087. The
Muslim religious reform Almoravid movement under Abu Bakr recaptured
Audoghast and then all of Ghana.
(ATC, p.117)(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.172)
1076AD The Danish King Svein Estrithson died.
(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.3)
1077 Jan 28, Pope Gregory VII
pardoned German emperor Henry IV at Canossa in northern Italy. Henry
had insisted that he reserved the right to "invest" bishops and
other clergymen, despite the papal decree, but became penitent when
faced with permanent excommunication.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.88)
1077 Apr 24, Geza I, King of
Hungary (1074-7), died.
(MC, 4/24/02)
1077 Windsor Castle was erected
by William the Conqueror to monitor travel on the Thames River.
(USAT, 11/19/97, p.2D)
1077-1090 The "heavenly clockwork," a mechanical
water clock of Su Sung, was housed in a pagoda 5 stories high.
(AM, 3/04, p.44)
1078 William the Conqueror
began work on the Tower of London. Henry III ordered it whitewashed
in 1240.
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.41)(Hem, 9/04,
p.28)
1079 May 9, Stanislaus, Polish
bishop of Cracow, was murdered.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1079 Peter Abelard (d.1142)
was born in Brittany. He later became a great medieval scholar in
Paris. Around 1117 he secretly married Heloise, niece of the Canon
Fulbert of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Canon Fulbert hired
gangsters who waylaid and castrated Abelard. His most famous
theological work, "Sic et Non" (Yes and No), consisted of a
collection of apparent contradictions drawn from various sources,
together with commentaries showing how to resolve the contradictions
and providing rules for resolving others. He also wrote "Scito te
Ipsum" (Know Thyself), which advanced the notion that sin consists
not in deeds, which in themselves are neither good nor bad, but only
in intentions. In 2005 James Barge authored Heloise and Abelard: A
New Biography.
(V.D.-H.K.p.116)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R22)(WSJ,
2/11/05, p.W6)
1080 The Knights of St. John
(the Hospitallers) were founded in Jerusalem about this time to care
for the sick.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller)
1081 Albania and Albanians
were mentioned for the first time in a historical record by a
Byzantine emperor.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1081-1151 Abbot Suger of St. Denis, France. He was
the 1st great patron of the arts in the current millennium.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R53)
1083 Jun 3, Henry IV of Germany
stormed Rome capturing St. Peter's Basilica.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1084 Mar 31, Anti-pope Clemens
crowned German emperor Hendrik IV.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1085 May 25, Alfonso VI,
Spanish Christian ruler, took Toledo, Spain, from the Moslems.
(ATC, p.100)(HN, 5/25/99)
1085 May 25, Gregory VII
[Ildebrando], Pope (1073-85), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1085 Oct 8, San Marcos
monastery in Venice started.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1085 William the Conqueror
ordered the Domesday survey of English manor's production capacity
in order to collect taxes. The survey was completed in 1086.
(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesday_Book)
1086 Jul 10, Knut IV, the
Saint, king of Denmark (1080-86), was murdered.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1086 Aug 1, English barons
submitted to William the Conqueror.
(MC, 8/1/02)
1086 In China Shen Kua
(1030-1093) gave an account of a magnetic compass for navigation in
his work "Dream Pool Essays." The work also gave the first account
of relief maps and an explanation of the origin of fossils, along
with other scientific observations. Shen Kua wrote his essays after
being banished from office after an army under his command lost
60,000 killed in a battle with Khitan tribes.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(HNQ, 4/22/99)
1086 In France St. Bruno
founded the austere Carthusian order of monks in Grenoble. The
silent orders mother house in La Grand Chartreuse, France, later
maintained support by the sale of its Chartreuse liqueur.
(WUD, 1994, p.227)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1087 Sep 9, William the
Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, died in Rouen while
conducting a war which began when the French king made fun of him
for being fat.
(HN, 9/9/00)
1087 The Soninke of Ghana
recaptured their capital, Koumbi, from the Al Moravids. They tried
to re-establish their empire but a number of their states had
adopted Islam and others broke away to form separate kingdoms.
(ATC, p.117)
1087 At Myra (Demre), Turkey,
merchants from the Italian port of Bari reportedly stole the bones
of St. Nicholas.
(WSJ, 8/31/98, p.B1)
1088 Cristodoulos persuaded the
Byzantine emperor to let him develop the Greek island of Patmos as
an independent monastic state.
(WSJ, 6/28/02, p.AW8)
1089 May 28, Lanfrance,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1089-1125 David the Builder, a king who increased
Georgia's wealth and prestige after, at age 16, taking the reins of
a country beset by attackers.
(AP, 1/25/04)(Internet)
1090 Bernard of Clairvaux. He
was known as "doctor mellifluus" for the honeyed sweetness of his
style. It was Bernard who got the pope to silence Abelard. He said
of Abelard: "This man presumes to be able to comprehend by human
reason the entirety of God." Bernard had a simple favorite prayer:
"Whence arises the love of God? From God. And what is the nature of
this love? To love without measure." He wrote a letter to kings and
popes on the monsters decorating churches: "What is the meaning of
these unclean monkeys, these savage lions, and monstrous
creatures?... Almighty God! If we do not blush for such absurdities
we should at least regret what we have spent on them."
(V.D.-H.K.p.117)(Hem, 4/96, p.51)
1090 Guo Xi (b.~1001), Chinese
artist of the song Dynasty, died about this time.
(SFC, 6/28/08, p.E1)
1091 The Norman conquest of
Saracen-held Sicily provided access to Arabic manuscripts that
showed a place-notated decimal system that forms the basis of modern
mathematics.
(I&I, Penzias, p.47)
1091 A trading deal was made
between Mahdiyah, near Tunis, and Genoa.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1093 Aug 12, In England the
foundation stone for Durham Cathedral was laid down. The main chapel
was completed in 1175. It served as the seat of the Bishop and the
church of the Benedictine monastery of Durham.
(SSFC, 12/14/08,
p.E4)(www.sacred-destinations.com/england/durham-cathedral.htm)
1093 Trade guilds were noted in
England.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1094 Jun 15, Rodrigo Diaz de
Vivar [El Cid] occupied Valencia on the Moren.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1094 Oct 8, St. Marks Basilica
in Venice was dedicated. Remains believed to have belonged to St
Mark, the Evangelist, were buried there.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marco_di_Venezia)
1094 The Islamic terrorist
organization Nizari Ismailiyun, a Shiite politico-religious sect,
was founded by Hasan-e Sabah. He and his followers captured the hill
fortress of Almaut in northern Iran, which became their base of
operations.
(www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/006664.php)
1095 Nov 26, Pope Urban urged
the faithful to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, heralding
start of Crusades.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1095 Nov 27, In Clermont,
France, Pope Urbana II made an appeal for warriors to relieve
Jerusalem, defeat the Turks and recapture the Holy Sepulchre from
the Muslims. He was responding to false rumors of atrocities in the
Holy Land. The first Crusade sparked a renewal of trade between
Europe and Asia. Urban declared to the assembled that Europe was
"too narrow for your large population" and urged them to take up
swords against the Saracens who defiled "that land that floweth with
milk and honey," thus inspiring the Crusaders. Peter, a disheveled
former soldier, seized the moment, preaching the "Peoples Crusade"
and quickly gathering a following of more than 20,000 Crusaders,
including Walter, a French Knight.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(HN,
11/27/99)(HN, 6/26/98)
1095-1099 The 1st Crusade.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A11)
1096 May 18, Crusaders
massacred the Jews of Worms. Before embarking on the First Crusade
to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim Turks, Count Emich von Leiningen
and his army swept through their own German homeland, murdering
thousands of Jews, whom they had declared "murderers of Christ."
When Emich arrived in the town of Worms in May, the town's Roman
Catholic Bishop tried to protect the Jewish population, but the
Crusaders overran his palace and slaughtered some 500 people who had
taken shelter there. Another 300 were killed over the next two days.
The graves of the massacre victims can still be seen at the Jewish
Cemetery at Worms.
(HNPD, 5/12/99)(SC, 5/18/02)
1096 Jun 25, The 1st Crusaders
slaughtered the Jews of Werelinghofen, Germany.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1096 Jun 26, Peter the Hermits
crusaders forced their way across Sava, Hungary. Peter the Hermit
and Walter the Penniless (also known as Peter of Amiens and Walter
Sansavoir) were two of the leaders of the "Crusade of the Poor
People" in 1096-1097, an ill-fated prelude to the several campaigns
waged in the Holy Lands between 1096 and 1270 that are commonly
referred to as the Crusades.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1096 Jul 12, Crusaders under
Peter the Hermit reach Sofia in Hungary.
(HN, 7/12/99)
1096 Aug 1, The crusaders under
Peter the Hermit reached Constantinople. Anna Comnena, a 13 year-old
Christian in Constantinople, watched as the crusaders marched into
the city.
(ATC, p.18)(HN, 8/1/98)
1096 Oct 21, Seljuk Turks under
Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea slaughtered thousands of German
crusaders at Chivitot.
(HN, 10/21/99)(MC, 10/21/01)
c1096 The Church of the Holy
Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem on the traditional site of the
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1997 renovation was
completed with a new 115-foot dome, designed by Fresno architect Ara
Normart.
(SFC, 1/3/97, p.A18)
1096 In France Saint-Eutropes
church was consecrated in the town of Saintes, the ancient capital
of the Saintonge.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.T8)
1096-1291 European Christians fought Arab Muslims
for control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In 2000 Evan S. Connell
authored "Deus Lo Volt," a history of the Crusades that included the
12th century accounts by pilgrims Geoffrey de Villehardouin and Jean
de Joinville that had been earlier published as "Chronicles of the
Crusades."
(ATC, p.160)(WSJ, 6/9/00, p.W8)
1097 Jun 30, The Crusaders
defeated the Turks at Dorylaeum.
(HN, 6/30/98)
1097 Jul 1, The 1st Crusaders
defeated Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1097 Oct 20, The 1st Crusaders
arrived in Antioch.
(MC, 10/20/01)
c1097 The pilgrimage routes of
France (chemins de pelerinage) were begun. Their 900th anniversary
was celebrated in 1997.
(SFEC, 6/15/97, p.T8)
1081 Jan 8, Henry V, Roman
German king, emperor (1098/1111-25), was born.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1098 Jun 3, Christian Crusaders
of the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey.
(HN, 6/3/99)
1098 Feb 10, Crusaders defeated
Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1098 Dec 12, The 1st Crusaders
captured and plundered Mara, Syria.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1099 Jan 13, Crusaders set fire
to Mara, Syria.
(MC, 1/13/02)
1099 Apr 14, Conrad, bishop of
Utrecht, was stabbed to death.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their
families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and
interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture
Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000
starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim
defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders
visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them
to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders
launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to
the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's
Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at
about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03,
p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded
the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 Aug 12, At the Battle of
Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, routed an
Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem. The Norman Godfrey,
elected King of Jerusalem, had assumed the title Defender of the
Holy Sepulcher. Disease starvation by this time reduced the
Crusaders to 60,000, down from an initial 300,000, and most of the
survivors left for home.
(HN, 8/12/99)(PC, 1992, p.88)
1099 The Aleppo Codex, owned by
Jewish community in Jerusalem, was seized by Crusaders who sacked
the city. It was then ransomed and made its way to Cairo, Egypt.
(AP, 9/27/08)
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