Events, Verisoph

25 January 1077 Road to Canossa 0 cit. Emperor Henry IV traveled to Canossa and waited three days in the snow before Pope Gregory VII lifted his excommunication on 28 January. The scene became a lasting image of a monarch submitting to the pope. politics / religion ●●●●

January 1077 Henry IV at Canossa legendary 0 cit. Henry IV crossed the winter Alps and, by tradition, stood barefoot in the snow for three days outside the castle of Canossa to beg the pope's forgiveness. Gregory VII lifted the excommunication. The scene became a lasting symbol of a king humbled by the Church, though some historians read it as a shrewd move by Henry to win back his crown and outflank his rivals. politics / religion ●●●

1084 The bishop of Speyer charters a Jewish community 0 cit. Bishop Rüdiger Huzmann invited Jews to settle in Speyer and granted them a charter with rights to trade, own land, and govern their own affairs. He wrote openly that their presence would raise the standing of his town. Speyer joined Worms and Mainz as one of the three ShUM cities, from the Hebrew initials Shin, Vav, Mem. economy / politics / society ●●

1085 Toledo falls to Christian Castile 0 cit. Alfonso VI of Castile captured Toledo, a major step in the Christian Reconquista of Iberia. Under early Christian rule Jews often kept their standing, and Toledo became a famous center where Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars translated Arabic and Greek learning into Latin. For a time the transfer of power did not end Jewish flourishing. politics / science / war ●●

27 November 1095 Council of Clermont launches the First Crusade 0 cit. Pope Urban II called on Western knights to march east and recover Jerusalem, promising spiritual rewards to those who went. The appeal launched the Crusades and showed the papacy directing armies across the continent. politics / religion / war ●●●●

15 July 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem 0 cit. After a long siege, the armies of the First Crusade stormed Jerusalem and killed much of its Muslim and Jewish population. The massacre, carried out in the name of the faith the pope had called them to defend, became a lasting symbol of holy war. politics / religion / war ●●●

c. 1100 Rise of Great Zimbabwe 0 cit. The stone city of Great Zimbabwe became the center of a powerful southern African kingdom. It thrived on cattle herding and trade in gold and ivory. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 1110 The Exchequer counts with tally sticks 0 cit. Medieval England ran royal finance through the Exchequer, which recorded debts on notched wooden tally sticks split in two so debtor and Crown each held a matching half that could not be forged. The system lasted centuries. When the old tallies were finally burned in 1834 the fire destroyed the Houses of Parliament. economy / politics ●●

c. 1115 Florentine Republic and civic humanism 0 cit. Florence governed itself as a republic through councils of citizens and guilds, though power often rested with wealthy families such as the Medici. Its debates over liberty and self-rule fed Renaissance political thought. culture / politics ●●●

c. 1120 Sicut Judaeis protects Jews from forced baptism 0 cit. Around 1120 Pope Calixtus II issued the bull Sicut Judaeis, which forbade Christians to baptize Jews by force, harm them, seize their property, or disturb their festivals and cemeteries. More than twenty popes reissued it over the following centuries, making it the papacy's standing protective charter for Jews. The same popes still upheld the laws that kept Jews in a subordinate legal position. politics / religion / society ●●●

23 September 1122 Concordat of Worms 0 cit. Agreement between Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V ending the Investiture Controversy. It separated the spiritual and secular elements of appointing bishops, a landmark in church-state relations. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●

23 September 1122 Concordat of Worms ends the Investiture Controversy 0 cit. The pope and the Holy Roman Emperor reached a compromise on the appointment of bishops, ending the Investiture Controversy. The Church gained the right to invest bishops with spiritual authority while the emperor kept a role in granting their lands. politics / religion ●●●

23 September 1122 The Concordat of Worms settles the investiture dispute 0 cit. Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II reached a compromise on appointing bishops. The Church would grant the spiritual office while the emperor granted the lands and worldly powers that came with it. The deal ended a 50-year struggle but left the deeper question of who ranked above the other unresolved. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●

1127 Jurchen Jin conquer the north and Southern Song 0 cit. The Jurchen Jin captured the Song capital Kaifeng in 1127 and seized northern China. The Song court fled south and rebuilt at Hangzhou as the Southern Song. politics / war ●●●●

January 1129 Council of Troyes Endorses the Templars 0 cit. A church council formally recognized the Knights Templar and approved a written rule for the order. The Latin Rule set out how the warrior monks were to live. politics / religion ●●●

c. 1137 The Zagwe dynasty takes power 0 cit. The Zagwe dynasty, drawn from the Agaw people, took control of the Christian highland kingdom and ruled from Lasta rather than the old Aksumite heartland. Because they did not claim descent from the biblical kings, later Solomonic writers cast them as usurpers, which colours much of the surviving record. Their most lasting achievement was a set of extraordinary churches carved from solid rock. politics / religion ●●

29 March 1139 Papal Bull Omne Datum Optimum 0 cit. Pope Innocent II issued a bull placing the Templars directly under papal authority and exempting them from local taxes and bishops. The privileges let the order operate freely across kingdoms. politics / religion ●●●●

1139 Papal bull grants the Templars broad exemptions 0 cit. Pope Innocent II issued the bull Omne Datum Optimum, exempting the Templars from local taxes and putting them under papal authority alone, answerable to no king or bishop. This independence let the order grow fast across Europe and the Holy Land. politics / religion ●●

c. 1141 Treaty of Shaoxing 0 cit. Peace between Song China and the Jurchen Jin dynasty that ceded northern China to the Jin and made the Southern Song a tribute-paying state. It fixed the border at the Huai River for decades. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

c. 5 October 1143 Independence of Portugal 0 cit. no story The Treaty of Zamora recognizes Afonso Henriques as King of Portugal, establishing the independent Portuguese kingdom. politics ●●●

1147 The Almohads shatter the Golden Age 0 cit. The Almohads, a strict Berber dynasty from North Africa, conquered Muslim Spain and abolished the old tolerance of Jews and Christians. They offered conversion, exile, or death, and the ancient Jewish communities of al-Andalus were destroyed or driven out. Maimonides was among the refugees. The Golden Age under Muslim rule was over. politics / religion / war ●●●

c. 1150 The Guelphs and Ghibellines divide Italy 0 cit. Across the Italian cities, factions formed around two loyalties: Guelphs backing the pope and Ghibellines backing the emperor. The names came from rival German dynasties but became labels for local feuds that ran for generations. The split shows how the papal-imperial rivalry seeped into everyday politics. politics / religion / war ●●

c. 1157 The word Holy attaches to the empire under Barbarossa 0 cit. Documents of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa began calling the realm the Holy Empire, Sacrum Imperium. The word asserted that imperial authority came from God directly, not only through the pope. The fuller name Holy Roman Empire became standard only in the following centuries. politics / religion ●●

1169 The Norman invasion of Ireland 0 cit. The deposed king of Leinster, Diarmait Mac Murchada, invited Anglo-Norman lords from Wales to help recover his kingdom. Led by Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, they landed in 1169 and quickly seized Wexford, Waterford and Dublin. Their arrival began roughly eight centuries of English and later British involvement in Ireland. politics / war ●●●

1171 Fall of the Fatimid Caliphate 0 cit. In 1171 Saladin abolished the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt after the death of its last caliph. Egypt returned to Sunni rule and became the base of Saladin's Ayyubid dynasty. politics / religion ●●●

c. 1171 Blood libels spread across Europe 0 cit. The Norwich charge was copied again and again. At Blois in France in 1171 more than thirty Jews were burned on a blood libel accusation, though no body was ever found. Later cases at Lincoln in 1255 and elsewhere followed the same pattern of rumor, trial, and killing. Popes and some rulers condemned the libel as false, but it kept returning for centuries. politics / religion / society ●●

1171 Henry II and the Lordship of Ireland 0 cit. Alarmed by Strongbow's success, King Henry II of England landed in 1171 to bring the Norman lords and Irish kings under his authority. He took the title Lord of Ireland, a claim the papacy had earlier endorsed. English control was real near Dublin but thin elsewhere, and over later centuries many Norman families became, as the saying went, more Irish than the Irish themselves. politics / war ●●

29 May 1176 The Lombard League defeats Barbarossa at Legnano 0 cit. An alliance of northern Italian cities, backed by the pope, beat Emperor Frederick Barbarossa's army in the field. The loss forced him to recognize the cities' self-rule. It showed the limits of imperial power south of the Alps against wealthy, self-governing towns. politics / war ●●

1179 to 1215 The Lateran Councils impose the Jewish badge and segregation 0 cit. The Third Lateran Council of 1179 and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, both summoned by the papacy, tightened restrictions on Jewish life across Western Christendom. The Fourth Lateran under Innocent III required Jews and Muslims to wear distinguishing dress or a badge, barred them from public office, and ordered them to stay indoors during Holy Week. These canons spread the marking and segregation of Jews through Europe. politics / religion / society ●●●

1180 to April 1185 Genpei War 0 cit. no story The Minamoto and Taira clans fight a civil war that ends with the Taira destroyed at the naval battle of Dan-no-ura. The victory establishes the Kamakura shogunate and seven centuries of samurai rule. politics / war ●●●

c. 1180 Founding of the Kingdom of Benin 0 cit. The Kingdom of Benin arose in West Africa and developed a strong centralized monarchy. It became renowned for its bronze and ivory artwork. culture / politics ●●●

c. 1180 Aaron of Lincoln, financier to the English crown 0 cit. Aaron of Lincoln became one of the wealthiest financiers in England, lending to abbeys, nobles, and the crown for building projects. When he died in 1186 the king seized his estate and set up a special treasury branch just to collect the debts owed to him. His fortune shows the real scale a few Jewish lenders could reach, but also how completely that wealth depended on a king who could take it at will. economy / politics ●●

1181 The Assize of Arms sets the duty to bear arms for defence 0 cit. Henry II's Assize of Arms required free men to keep weapons and armour matched to their wealth and to answer a muster in defence of the realm. It put into law an older idea that ordinary men, not just paid soldiers, owed service to defend their own country. This obligation became the root of the English militia and, much later, of the home guard tradition. politics / war ●

1184 Ad abolendam begins the medieval Inquisition 0 cit. Pope Lucius III ordered bishops to seek out and punish heretics, an early step toward organized Church courts against dissent. It laid groundwork for the later inquisitions. politics / religion / society ●●●

1198 to 1216 Innocent III and the height of papal power 0 cit. Pope Innocent III treated kings as vassals of the Holy See, placed England and other realms under interdict, and intervened across European politics. His pontificate is often seen as the peak of medieval papal authority. politics / religion ●●●●

1198 Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia crowned 0 cit. Armenian refugees and nobles who settled in Cilicia after Manzikert build a new state on the Mediterranean, and Levon I is crowned king in 1198. The kingdom becomes a close ally and supply base for the Crusader states, trading with Europe and marrying into Crusader families. It is a bridge between Armenian and Western Christendom for nearly two centuries. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●

c. 1200 The Inca establish themselves at Cusco 0 cit. According to Inca oral tradition, a founding lineage settles the valley of Cusco and builds it into a small highland kingdom. For its first centuries it is one of many rival Andean polities rather than a great power. The early chronology rests on later Spanish accounts of Inca oral history and is uncertain. politics / society ●

13 April 1204 The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople 0 cit. A crusade meant for the Holy Land was diverted and turned on the Christian city of Constantinople, which the crusaders looted and burned. Pope Innocent III had forbidden the attack and condemned it, but the assault crippled the Byzantine Empire and deepened the split between Rome and the Eastern Church. politics / religion / war ●●●●

c. 1206 Genghis Khan unites the Mongols 0 cit. Temujin is proclaimed Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Mongol tribes. His armies go on to build the largest contiguous land empire in history, linking and devastating much of Eurasia. politics / war ●●●●

1206 Founding of the Mongol Empire 0 cit. Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes and was proclaimed ruler of all the steppe peoples. The Mongols went on to build the largest contiguous land empire in history. politics / war ●●●●●

1206 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate 0 cit. Qutb al-Din Aibak established Muslim rule over northern India from Delhi. The sultanate reshaped the politics and culture of the subcontinent. politics / religion ●●●●

1209 to 1229 The Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars 0 cit. Pope Innocent III called a crusade against the Cathars, a dissenting Christian sect in the south of France. Tens of thousands were killed over twenty years, and the massacre at Beziers, where a papal legate is reported to have said to kill all and let God sort them out, became infamous. The war destroyed Cathar society and extended the Inquisition to root out survivors. politics / religion / war ●●●

15 June 1215 Magna Carta 0 cit. King John seals a charter accepting that even the king is bound by law. Magna Carta becomes a founding symbol of limited government and individual rights in the English-speaking world. politics / society ●●●●

November 1215 Fourth Lateran Council 1 cit. Called by Innocent III, the council defined Catholic doctrine, required annual confession, and issued rules that included marks and restrictions on Jews and Muslims. It showed the papacy legislating for all of Western Christendom. politics / religion / society ●●●

15 June 1215 Magna Carta limits the English crown 0 cit. Rebel barons forced King John to accept a charter promising that the king was bound by law and could not act purely at will. It became a lasting symbol of limits on royal power and the roots of constitutional monarchy. politics ●●●●●

15 June 1215 Magna Carta limits the power of the English king 0 cit. Rebellious barons force King John to seal Magna Carta, which states that the king cannot tax or imprison freemen at will and must act within the law. Most of its clauses address feudal grievances of the time, but its principle that the ruler is bound by law becomes a founding text of English constitutionalism. politics ●●●

1215 The Fourth Lateran Council orders Jews to wear distinguishing marks 0 cit. The Fourth Lateran Council, called by Pope Innocent III, required Jews and Muslims to wear distinguishing clothing or badges so Christians would not mix with them unknowingly. It also moved to bar Jews from public office and to limit their contact with Christians. These rules formalized segregation and marked Jews as a group apart. Later states would harden this legal separation into ghettos and exclusion. politics / religion / society ●●

c. 1221 Fall of the Khwarazmian Empire 0 cit. Between 1219 and 1221 the Mongols under Genghis Khan destroyed the Khwarazmian Empire that ruled Central Asia and Persia. Great cities such as Samarkand and Urgench were sacked and their populations slaughtered. politics / war ●●●

1224 Frederick II founds the University of Naples 0 cit. Emperor Frederick II founded the University of Naples in 1224, the first university created by a ruler to train officials for the state. It marked an early tie between higher education and government need. politics / society ●●●

1231 The papal Inquisition is established 0 cit. Pope Gregory IX created a standing office to investigate heresy and appointed inquisitors, often drawn from the Dominican order. It marked the papacy building a permanent machinery to police belief. politics / religion / society ●●●

c. 1235 Founding of the Mali Empire 0 cit. Sundiata Keita defeated his rivals and founded the Mali Empire in West Africa. It controlled the trans-Saharan gold trade and became famously wealthy. economy / politics ●●●●●

c. 1238 Founding of the Sukhothai Kingdom 0 cit. The Sukhothai Kingdom is founded, traditionally regarded as the first Thai state; Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never colonized. politics ●●●

1239 Frederick II, the wonder of the world, wars with the papacy 0 cit. Emperor Frederick II, a brilliant and unconventional ruler nicknamed stupor mundi, the wonder of the world, was excommunicated more than once as he fought to control Italy. Popes branded him a heretic and even the Antichrist. His long duel with Rome exhausted the empire's grip on the south. politics / religion / war ●●

December 1240 Mongol Sack of Kiev 0 cit. In December 1240 the Mongols captured and destroyed Kiev, the chief city of the Rus. The sack broke the power of Kievan Rus and placed its lands under Mongol overlordship. politics / war ●●●

1240 The Disputation of Paris and the burning of the Talmud 0 cit. A convert from Judaism accused the Talmud of blasphemy, prompting a forced disputation before the French court in which rabbis had to defend their own sacred texts. The trial ended in condemnation, and in 1242 wagonloads of Talmud manuscripts were burned in Paris. Forced disputations trapped Jews in a debate they could not win, since a strong defense could itself be treated as an attack on Christianity. culture / politics / religion ●●

1240 The Talmud burned after the Paris disputation 0 cit. In 1240 a convert's denunciation, taken up by Pope Gregory IX, led to a public trial of the Talmud in Paris. The book was condemned, and in 1242 wagonloads of confiscated Jewish manuscripts, said to number in the thousands, were burned in the city. Later popes ordered further seizures and censorship of Hebrew texts. culture / politics / religion ●●●

c. 1242 Establishment of the Golden Horde 0 cit. The Mongols set up the Golden Horde, a khanate that made the Rus principalities tributary states for roughly two and a half centuries. Rus princes had to seek a patent to rule from the khan and collect tribute for him. politics / society ●●●●

c. 1250 Mamluk slave soldiers rule Egypt 0 cit. The Mamluks were enslaved soldiers, mostly from the Caucasus and Central Asia, who seized power and ruled Egypt and Syria for centuries. Their rise shows how slavery could take military and political forms far from plantation labour. politics / war ●●

c. 1250 Jews prosper, then decline, under Christian rule 0 cit. In the Christian kingdoms of the thirteenth century Jews served kings as physicians, tax collectors, financiers, and translators, and Sephardic learning continued. But their position rested on royal favor and grew more precarious. Church preaching, forced public debates, and popular resentment steadily worsened the climate through the fourteenth century. politics / religion / society ●●

c. 1250 The Great Interregnum leaves the throne contested 0 cit. After the Hohenstaufen dynasty collapsed, rival and often absent claimants held the imperial title while no one ruled effectively. Princes and cities grew stronger as central power faded. The years of weak or disputed kingship deepened the empire's drift toward a loose federation. politics ●●

15 May 1252 Ad extirpanda authorizes torture 0 cit. Pope Innocent IV issued a bull permitting inquisitors to use torture to extract confessions from suspected heretics. It gave formal Church sanction to a practice that shaped inquisitorial trials for centuries. politics / religion / society ●●●

1255 The Lincoln blood libel and Little Saint Hugh 0 cit. When a boy called Hugh was found dead in Lincoln, authorities accused the town's Jews of killing him in a ritual. Around ninety were arrested and roughly nineteen executed after confessions extracted under threat. The cult of Little Saint Hugh grew from a baseless charge. King Henry III's direct role in the trials showed how the crown could use the libel to justify seizing Jewish property. politics / religion / society ●●

10 February 1258 Fall of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate 0 cit. On 10 February 1258 the Mongols under Hulagu Khan took Baghdad and soon killed the last Abbasid caliph. The sack ended the caliphate and is often seen as the close of the Islamic Golden Age. politics / religion / war ●●●●●

c. 1260 Yuan dynasty paper currency 0 cit. Under Kublai Khan the Yuan dynasty made paper money the main currency across its empire and required its acceptance. The traveler Marco Polo described the system with astonishment in his account of China. economy / politics ●●●●

25 July 1261 The Byzantines retake their capital 0 cit. Forces of the Nicaean successor state under Michael VIII Palaiologos recaptured Constantinople from the Latins and restored the empire. But the state they revived was a shadow of the old power, poor, encircled, and shorn of most of Anatolia. The Palaiologan dynasty would rule a shrinking realm for its final two centuries. politics / war ●●

1263 The Disputation of Barcelona 0 cit. King James I of Aragon summoned the scholar Nachmanides to a public disputation with the convert Pablo Christiani over whether Jewish texts proved Jesus was the messiah. Nachmanides was promised free speech but was later punished for the written account he gave and chose to leave Aragon. These staged debates were meant to pressure Jews toward conversion rather than to seek any honest conclusion. culture / politics / religion ●

1264 Poland-Lithuania offers charters of refuge 0 cit. As western states expelled Jews, rulers in the east invited them in. The Statute of Kalisz of 1264, later confirmed and widened by King Casimir the Great, granted Jews legal protection, freedom of worship, and the right to trade and lend. Over the following centuries Poland-Lithuania grew into the home of the largest Jewish population in the world. The contrast shows that expulsion was a political choice, not an inevitability. economy / politics / society ●●

1264 The Statute of Kalisz protects Jews in Poland 0 cit. Duke Bolesław the Pious of Greater Poland issued the Statute of Kalisz, a charter granting Jews wide protection. It guaranteed their safety, their trade, their courts, and their synagogues, and it explicitly rejected the blood libel. Later Polish kings confirmed and extended the charter, making Poland a refuge as western Europe expelled its Jews. economy / politics / society ●●●

20 January 1265 Simon de Montfort summons an early parliament 0 cit. During a baronial revolt against Henry III, Simon de Montfort calls an assembly that for the first time includes elected knights and burgesses from towns, not just nobles and bishops. It is a precedent for representative government, even though de Montfort is killed later that year and the king reasserts control. politics ●●●

c. 1270 Founding of the Ethiopian Empire 0 cit. Yekuno Amlak establishes the Solomonic dynasty, founding the Ethiopian Empire that endured until 1974; Ethiopia was never colonized. politics ●●●●

1270 The Solomonic dynasty is restored under Yekuno Amlak 0 cit. Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last Zagwe king and founded a line that claimed direct descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This so-called Solomonic dynasty would rule Ethiopia, with breaks, until 1974. The claim gave the emperors a sacred charter, tying the throne to the Bible and to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. politics / religion ●●●

1271 Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty 0 cit. Kublai Khan proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271, establishing Mongol rule over China with its capital at Dadu, modern Beijing. It was the first foreign dynasty to rule all of China. politics / war ●●●●●

1273 Rudolf of Habsburg elected king, the dynasty's first crown 0 cit. The electors chose Rudolf I of Habsburg, a middling count thought easy to control, to end the leaderless years. He used the office to build a family power base in Austria. It was the first step in the Habsburgs' long climb toward dominating the imperial title. politics ●●

c. 1275 Rulers tax the Jews as a royal sponge, then expel them 0 cit. English kings treated Jews as royal property and taxed them through heavy levies called tallages until the community was drained of wealth. Once the Jews could no longer yield revenue, expelling them let the crown cancel its own duty to protect them and seize outstanding debts and assets. Historians describe the method as squeezing a sponge dry and then throwing it away. The 1290 expulsion followed decades of this fiscal exploitation. economy / politics / society ●●

c. 8 September 1278 Formation of Andorra 0 cit. no story The Pareage of 1278 establishes Andorra as a co-principality shared between the Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix. politics ●●

c. 1278 The friars and the forced conversion sermons 0 cit. From the thirteenth century Dominican and Franciscan friars led campaigns to convert Jews, staffing the Inquisition and staging public disputations. Pope Nicholas III's bull Vineam Sorec of 1278 ordered friars to preach to Jews, and Jews were increasingly compelled to attend such sermons. Pope Gregory XIII later made attendance at weekly conversion sermons compulsory in Rome in 1584. politics / religion / society ●●

19 March 1279 Fall of the Song Dynasty 0 cit. At the naval Battle of Yamen on 19 March 1279 the Mongols destroyed the last Song fleet, and the boy emperor died. The victory completed the Mongol conquest of China under the Yuan dynasty. politics / war ●●●●

March 1282 to 1302 War of the Sicilian Vespers 0 cit. no story A Sicilian uprising against Angevin French rule draws Aragon into a twenty-year Mediterranean war. The peace splits the old Kingdom of Sicily between Naples and Aragonese Sicily. politics / war ●●

1285 Statute of Winchester establishes the watch and ward 0 cit. The Statute of Winchester codified the watch and ward system, requiring towns to post watchmen at night and obliging able-bodied men to help pursue criminals when the hue and cry was raised. It also revived the ancient obligation of local communities to keep arms and maintain order themselves. This system of unpaid, part-time local policing remained the basis of English law enforcement for over 500 years. politics ●●

July 1290 Expulsion of the Jews from England 0 cit. King Edward I expelled the Jewish community from England in 1290. Jews were not formally readmitted until the 1650s. politics / religion ●●

July 1290 Edward I expels the Jews from England 0 cit. King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion, ordering every Jew out of England. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people were forced to leave, and Jews would not be legally readmitted until the 1650s. It was the first permanent expulsion of a Jewish community by a European kingdom, and it set a pattern that other states copied. politics / religion / society ●●

1290 The royal sponge and the expulsion from England 0 cit. For a century English kings taxed and squeezed their Jewish subjects as a private source of cash, a pattern historians call the royal sponge: rulers used Jewish lenders, absorbed their wealth, then wrung them out. In 1290 Edward I expelled the Jews from England entirely, cancelling debts owed to them and keeping their property. The expulsion shows Jews as victims of royal power, not its hidden masters. politics / society ●●●

c. 1290 Why the expulsions: religious zeal and fiscal need 0 cit. Historians see the recurring medieval expulsions of Jews as driven by a mix of religious zeal and fiscal need, the two reinforcing each other. Church teaching, the blood libels, and the pressure to convert supplied the hostility; rulers supplied the motive of profit, taxing their Jewish subjects as a 'royal sponge' and then expelling them to cancel their own debts and seize their property. Piety and plunder ran together. economy / politics / religion / society ●●●

July 1290 England expels its Jews 0 cit. King Edward I ordered every Jew out of England, ending a community that had lived there since the Norman Conquest. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people were forced to leave, and Jews were not legally readmitted until the 1650s. It was the first permanent expulsion of a Jewish community by a European kingdom and set a pattern others copied. politics / religion / society ●●

c. 1 August 1291 Formation of Switzerland 0 cit. no story The cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swear the Federal Charter, the traditional founding of the Swiss Confederation. politics ●●●

May 1291 Fall of Acre and the Crusader Kingdom 0 cit. In May 1291 the Mamluks captured Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Its fall ended nearly two centuries of Crusader states in the Holy Land. politics / religion / war ●●●

c. 1 August 1291 The Federal Charter of the Old Swiss Confederacy 0 cit. The three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore a defensive pact against outside rule, the document later treated as the founding charter of the Swiss Confederation. It bound the communities to help one another and to settle disputes among themselves rather than submit to foreign lords. The alliance grew over the following centuries into a loose federation of cantons. politics ●●●

1293 Founding of the Majapahit Empire 0 cit. Raden Wijaya founded Majapahit on the island of Java after repelling a Mongol invasion. It became the most powerful maritime empire of the Indonesian archipelago. economy / politics ●●●●

13 November 1295 The Model Parliament sets the pattern for later assemblies 0 cit. Edward I summons a parliament that includes lords, bishops, and elected representatives of the counties and towns, seeking broad consent for taxation to fund his wars. Later parliaments are modeled on its composition, which is why historians call it the Model Parliament. politics ●●

1296 to 1357 Scottish Wars of Independence 0 cit. no story Scotland fights off English attempts at conquest in two long wars, with Robert the Bruce's victory at Bannockburn the turning point. Scotland preserves its independence for another three and a half centuries. politics / war ●●●

c. 8 January 1297 Formation of Monaco 0 cit. no story Francesco Grimaldi seizes the fortress of Monaco, beginning the Grimaldi dynasty's rule over the principality. politics ●●

c. 1299 Founding of the Ottoman Empire 0 cit. Osman I founded a small state in Anatolia that grew into the Ottoman Empire. Over centuries it came to rule southeastern Europe, the Near East, and North Africa. politics / war ●●●●●

c. 1299 Founding of the Ottoman beylik 0 cit. Osman I, leader of a small Turkish frontier principality, breaks with the declining Seljuk order and builds an independent state on the Byzantine border. The dynasty and empire take their name from him. The 1299 date is a traditional marker; the beylik grew over the following decades rather than being founded in a single year. politics / war ●●●

c. 1300 Rise of the Oyo Empire 0 cit. The Yoruba state of Oyo grew into a major empire in West Africa. Its cavalry and trade networks gave it dominance over neighboring peoples. politics ●●●

c. 1300 Expulsion becomes a recurring tool of medieval statecraft 0 cit. Across medieval Europe rulers expelled Jews again and again: England in 1290, France repeatedly through the 1300s, many German cities, and finally Spain and Portugal in the 1490s. Each expulsion let a ruler pose as a defender of the faith while canceling debts owed to Jews and taking their property. The pattern reflects persecution driven by a mix of religious zeal and fiscal need. Jews were often readmitted when a ruler wanted their trade and taxes, then expelled once more. economy / politics / religion ●●

c. 1300 The Swahili city-states reach their height 0 cit. Between roughly the 12th and 15th centuries, towns like Mombasa, Malindi, Pate, and Lamu grew into wealthy, competing city-states of coral-stone houses and mosques. Each was run by its own patrician families and webs of trade rather than by one coastal kingdom. Kiswahili and Islam bound them into a shared coastal culture that reached across the Indian Ocean. culture / economy / politics ●●●

18 November 1302 Unam Sanctam declares papal supremacy 0 cit. Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull Unam Sanctam, declaring that submission to the Roman pontiff was necessary for salvation. It was one of the strongest claims of papal authority over secular rulers, made during his conflict with the king of France. politics / religion ●●●

1306 Philip IV expels the Jews from France 0 cit. King Philip IV had the Jews of his royal domains arrested, seized their property and debts owed to them, and expelled them. Jews were readmitted and expelled several more times over the next century. The final expulsion came in 1394 under Charles VI, ending organized Jewish life in medieval France. economy / politics / religion ●●

1306 France expels its Jews and seizes their assets 0 cit. Philip IV, deep in debt and short of money, arrested the Jews of France, expelled them, and confiscated their property and the loans owed to them. Jewish communities were readmitted and expelled again over the following decades as the crown's finances demanded. The same rulers who relied on Jewish credit turned on Jewish communities when it was profitable, the royal sponge at work. economy / politics ●●

1306 France expels its Jews 0 cit. King Philip IV had the Jews of his realm arrested, seized their property, and expelled them, partly to cancel the crown's debts to them. Jews were readmitted and driven out several more times over the next century. The final expulsion under Charles VI in 1394 ended organized Jewish life in medieval France and pushed families toward the German lands and beyond. economy / politics / religion ●●