| 1000 |
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The Viking Biarni Heriulfsson sights North America
after being blown off course.
Battle of Svolder--Sweyn kills Olaf of Norway and annexes
Norway to Denmark.
King Aethelred II ("the Unready" or "Poorly
Counseled") ravages Cumberland and southwestern
Scotland.
|
| 1001 |
Approximate date the Chinese perfect gunpowder. |
| 1002 |
Leif Ericson, son of the Eric the Red, leads an expedition
to the west, journeys down coast of North America, possibly
as far south as Maryland.
Aethelred the Unready marries Emma, sister of Duke
Richard of Normandy.
Massacre of St. Brice's Day--Aethelred orders the slaughter
of all Danish settlers and mercenaries in southern England.
|
| 1003 |
In retaliation for the Massacre of St. Brice's
Day, Sweyn leads an army of Norsemen to land in England
and wreak a terrible vengeance. |
| 1007 |
Aethelred the Unready pays Danegeld
to gain two years peace. The cost of this bribe is
36,000 pounds in silver. |
| 1010 |
The
Danes attack East Anglia and sack Ipswich. |
| 1012 |
The Danes sack Canterbury. Aethelred the
Unready pays 48,000 pounds of silver in Danegeld. |
| 1013 |
Sweyn Forkbeard lands in
England and is proclaimed king. Aethelred the Unready
flees
to Normandy . |
| 1014 |
Sweyn Forkbeard dies--dramatically
struck dead while threatening to sack the town of St.
Edmunds unless paid Danegeld. The English recall Aethelred
to England as king. Sweyn's
successor
Canute flees to
Denmark. |
| 1015 |
Canute invades England; war between Danes
and Saxons begins. |
| 1016 |
Aethelred II's son Edmund Ironside becomes King of
England. He works out a treaty where he and Canute divide
the kingdom. Edmund holds Wessex and King Canute holds
the North.
Edmund assassinated. Canute becomes King of all England.
He rules until 1035.
Olaf II becomes King of Norway. He rules until 1028.
|
| 1017 |
King Canute divides England into four
earldoms. He raised a "Danegeld" of 82,500 pounds
in silver from the region, including 10,500 pounds
in silver from London.
|
| 1018 |
Mahmud pillages the city of Muttra in India. |
| 1019 |
Canute marries Emma of Normandy, widow of
Aethelred II. |
| 1020 |
Canute establishes a Benedictine monastery at Bury. |
| 1024 |
The German king Conrad II declared Holy
Roman Emperor. He will rule until 1039. |
| 1027 |
Robert le Diable (Robert the Devil) becomes
Duke of Normandy. He rules until 1035. |
| 1028 |
King Canute conquers Norway. He puts his son Sweyn
on the Norwegian throne.
Zoë, Empress of the Byzantine
Empire until 1050.
|
| 1030 |
Olaf leads rebellion in Norway. Sweyn's
forces kill him at the battle of Stiklestad. |
| 1031 |
Henry I ascends to throne of France. Rules
until 1060. |
| 1032 |
|
| 1034 |
Duncan becomes King of Scots until 1040. |
| 1035 |
Death of King Canute. Harold I, Harefoot,
becomes King of England. Hardicanute becomes King of Denmark
up to 1042. |
| 1039 |
Henry III (the Black) ascends to throne
of Holy Roman Empire in German. |
| 1040 |
Hardicanute, King of England rules until 1042.
Macbeth, Mormaer of Moray, kills Duncan in the battle
at Elgin. Macbeth rules as King of Scots until 1057.
|
| 1042 |
Hardicanute, king
of England dies of alcohol poisoning, ending Danish
rule of the island.
Edward the Confessor, son of Aethelred II, becomes
king
of England. Edward is forced to flee to Normandy.
Earl Godwin and his sons control England.
Magnus the Good, son of Olaf II, becomes king of Denmark.
He rules until 1047.
|
| 1046 |
Harold Hardraadi becomes king of Norway.
He rules until 1066. |
| 1047 |
Sweyn II, Canute's nephew, becomes king
of Denmark. He rules until 1076. |
| 1051 |
Earl Godwin exiled. |
| 1052 |
Earl Godwin returns from exile to England along with
a fleet and army. He wins back his power.
Edward the Confessor founds Westminster Abbey.
|
| 1053 |
Death of Earl Godwin. His son Harold succeeds
him in the Earldom of Wessex. |
| 1054 |
Abdallah ben Yassim begins the Muslim conquest of West
Africa.
Final break between the Byzantine Empire and the Roman
Catholic Church. The Eastern Church is now functionally
independent under the Patriarch and the council of Constantinople.
|
| 1055 |
King Harold's brother (Tostig) set up as
Earl of Northumbria. |
| 1056 |
Queen Agnes rules the Holy Roman Empire
as queen regent until 1065. |
| 1057 |
Malcolm Canmore ("Big Head")
defeats and kills Macbeth in the battle of Lumphanan.
Lulach,
the stepson of Macbeth, becomes king of the Scots and
survives on the throne for one year. |
| 1058 |
Malcolm Canmore kills Lulach in battle and
rules Scotland until 1093. |
| 1060 |
Philip I becomes king in France. He rules
until 1108. |
| 1061 |
Muslim Almoravid Dynasty in North Africa.
Begins expansion toward Spain across the Gibraltar Straits. |
| 1063 |
Marrakesh founded in Morocco |
| 1064 |
Harold shipwrecked in Normandy.
Duke William the Bastard of Normandy takes him into
his fortress as
a "guest." Under duress, Harold swears on relics
of a saint to support Duke William's claim to the throne
of England. (Apparently, Edward the Confessor had made
a verbal agreement to let Duke William inherit the throne
some years earlier while Edward was in exile from England). |
| 1065 |
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV takes the throne
as an adult. His mother Agnes steps down. Henry rules
the Empire until 1106. |
| 1066 |
Harold II (Harold Godwinson) is crowned king by the
Anglo-Saxon nobles the day after Edward the Confessor
dies.
Tostig and Harold Hardraadi of Norway invade the northern
regions of England hoping to seize the country before
Harold II can consolidate his power. Harold raises the
Anglo-Saxon troops and defeats them at the Battle of
Stamford Bridge. He kills both Norwegian contenders
for the throne.
Meanwhile, Duke William the Bastard gains papal support
for his cause and hires mercenaries from Picardy and
Normandy. He sails across the channel and landed at
Dover in Kent. Harold II marches his army from the northern
reaches of England all the way to the southeast corner
to confront Duke William nineteen days later after the
Battle of Stamford Bridge. At the Battle of Hastings,
the two sides meet. The Anglo-Saxon forces, having achieved
a favorable position of high elevation, repel two Norman
attacks. On the third attack, Duke William has his men
pretend to retreat in terror. The Anglo-Saxon warriors,
thinking that victory is theirs, break ranks to pursue
the Normans onto level ground. At that point, Duke William
signals his troops to turn and fight. In the melee,
archers fire randomly into the Anglo-Saxon ranks. King
Harold Godwinson is shot through his eye and instantly
killed. Other arrows kill Harold's brothers, who are
the commanding officers. In the following bloodbath,
most of the Anglo-Saxon nobility is wiped out.
A month later, Duke William the Bastard of Normandy
becomes King William I, the Conqueror. He is the first
Norman king of England, ruling until 1087. He imports
French-speaking Norman warriors into England to replace
Anglo-Saxon chiefs and clergy. His reign marks the end
of the Anglo-Saxon period and the beginning of Middle
English.
|
| 1067 |
The
Tower of London is rebuilt by William on earlier
Roman ruins.
Monte
Cassino monastery in Italy rebuilt. (It was originally
built by Saint Benedict in 529 AD as the principle monastery
of the Benedictine order.
|
| 1068 |
Shen Tsung, Emperor of China takes the Imperial Dragon
Throne. Radical reforms are carried through by his minister
Wan An-Shih.
William the Conqueror continues the Norman Conquest,
expanding into new parts of England and violently putting
down occasional rebellions among his own power-hungry
followers.
|
| 1069 |
Famine strikes Egypt, which does not recover until
1072.
William subdues the north of England
in his famous "Harrying of the North." He
lays the region to complete waste, and the area remains
depopulated
in comparison to southern England for centuries afterward,
with abandoned fields and burned villages returning
to wilderness.
|
| 1070 |
Hereward the Wake begins a Saxon revolt.
He sets up secret fortresses in the Fens of eastern England,
where the miserable weather and terrain prevent heavily-armored
Norman knights from rooting out the rebels. |
| 1071 |
The Seljuk Turks, lead by Alph Arslan, defeat
Byzantine forces and seize control of Asia Minor (modern
Turkey). |
| 1072 |
Famine ends in Egypt.
William the Conqueror invades Scotland. He also accepts
Hereward the Wake's surrender after a two-year stalemate.
The Normans begin a conquest of Sicily.
Alfonso VI becomes king of Castile.
|
| 1073 |
Gregory VII (Hildebrand of Soana) becomes
Pope until 1085. He will be one of the most dynamic popes
during the medieval period, and will make important precedents
for establishing the supremacy of the papacy over secular
rule. |
| 1075 |
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory
VII engage in dispute concerning who can appoint bishops. |
| 1076 |
At the Synod of Worms, bishops loyal to Henry IV declare
Pope Gregory deposed.
In response, Pope Gregory excommunicates Henry IV.
|
| 1077 |
Henry IV's position has become untenable as his subjects
abandon him or rebel against him. He goes to Pope Gregory
at Canossa, putting on sackcloth and ashes, and stands
for three days in the snow outside the pope's quarters
as a sign of penitence. After Pope Gregory has successfully
demonstrated his supremacy, he takes Henry back into
the body of the Church and removes the penalty of excommunication.
The damage to Henry's kingdom is already done, however,
for civil war disrupts the Holy Roman Empire, triggered
by Henry's excommunication.
|
| 1080 |
Canute IV becomes king of Denmark.
Civil war in the Holy Roman Empire comes to an end,
and Henry IV brings the last of his rebellious barons
to heel. With his position solidified, he again asserts
his power over the pope.
Pope Gregory again excommunicates Henry IV and declares
him deposed.
|
| 1081 |
Alexius I Comnenus becomes Byzantine emperor.
He will rule until 1118. |
| 1083 |
Henry IV storms Rome. |
| 1084 |
Duke Robert Guiscard of Paulia drives Henry
IV back into Germany. |
| 1085 |
Alfonso IV captures Toledo from the Moors. |
| 1086 |
The Domesday Book is completed in England--a vast,
comprehensive survey of natural resources, properties,
and agriculture. Its purpose is to provide William the
Conqueror with an accurate census of his holdings so
that he may more efficiently extract taxes from his
conquered people.
King Canute IV of Denmark dies.
|
| 1087 |
William the Conqueror dies. William II (William
Rufus) becomes king of England upon the death of King
William the Conqueror. His younger brother Robert is Duke
of Normandy. |
| 1088 |
The charismatic Urban II ascends the See
as pope. He remains pope until 1099. |
| 1090 |
Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, first "Old Man of the Mountains," founds
the Assassin sect in Persia (modern Iraq).
|
| 1091 |
Norman conquest of Sicily ends. |
| 1093 |
Malcolm III, king of Scotland, dies in confrontation
with William II's forces in England. Donalbain becomes
king of Scots |
| 1096 |
Pope Urban II preaches the first crusade.
Upwards of twenty-thousand individuals obey his summons
and prepare to march on the Holy Land. |
| 1097 |
Edgar, second son of Malcolm Canmore, becomes
king of Scotland, ruling until 1107. He defeats Donalbain
with aid from William Rufus. |
| 1098 |
Saint Robert founds the first Cistercian monastery
in Citeaux.
Crusaders defeat the Muslim forces at Antioch.
|
| 1099 |
Crusaders capture Jerusalem. Godfrey of
Bouillon is elected King of the city of Jerusalem. |
| 1100 |
Henry I, youngest son of William the Conqueror, becomes
the new king of England. He rules until 1113 following
the assassination of his older brother, William Rufus.
Crusaders claim fiefdoms in Holy Land. Baldwin of Bouillon
becomes Count of Edessa in the new Holy Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Raymond of Toulouse becomes Count of Tripoli. Bohemund
of Otranto becomes Prince of Antioch.
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