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High Middle Ages (1000-1200)
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Important Terms, People, and Events
Terms
Theme -
· Military district in Anatolia. From Heraclius onwards, commander
combined administrative and military roles, with a peasant-soldier
population.
fursten -
· Princes set up German monarchs to help in urban administration and
sidestep nobles. Became nobles.
enqueteurs -
· Philip Augustus' agents sent out to monitor local officials.
Cluny -
· In Burgundy, earnest monastics convinced William the
Pious of Aquitane to found the Cluny monastery around 910. It
was endowed generously from the start, so that it would not be dependent
on secular rulers. Additional gifts of land or provisions would
not be in return for feudal services, but would be recompensed
by the monks' prayers. The monks received the right to elect their
own abbot, putting the position beyond lay interference. Cluny's
founders tried to eliminate any potentially idle time by instituting
heavy schedules of communal liturgical prayer services, in addition
to fieldwork and manuscript reproduction. Cluniac monks attained
a high level of sustainable piety and discipline throughout the
tenth century and into the eleventh.
Constitution of Melfi -
· Frederick II's new code of Law for Sicily. The king's
total authority as legislator and adjudicator was underscored.
Nobles saw prerogatives limited, and all major cases were assigned
to royal courts. Sicily was administratively divided into provinces, and
local officials were supervised by the central government. To
encourage trade, customs duties were decreased.
Curia -
· Papal cabinet of sorts, invigorated under Urban II
to help him centrally administrate Church.
Carthusian -
· Part of the monastic revival movement of the 1100s.
Bernard of Clairvaux was one.
Cathari -
· Heretical movement coming first from Anatolia and then Bulgaria.
Manicheans seeing the Catholic Church as the incarnation of the
Devils' rule. Also called Albigensians, focused in Languedoc.
Kingdom of Asturias -
· Small kingdom in northern Spain. Christian, emerges
in 700s.
Names
Muawiya -
· First Ummayad Caliph, comes to power by defeating
Ali in 661. Starts naval incursions into Byzantium.
Bulgars -
· Pagan people that moved southwest from Caspian are
and began raiding Byzantium from 500s. Created state in 700-800s.
Destroyed by Basil II.
Leo the Isuarian -
· Byzantine Theme General who took power in 717 and then fought
off the second Muslim siege. Inaugurated Iconoclasm.
Irene -
· Byzantine Empress at end of 9th century. Rejected
Iconoclasm and was financially profligate. Overthrown in 802.
John Tzimisces -
· Brilliant Byzantine general, on December 10, 969 murdered Nicephoras
Phocas. Major concerns dealt with his neighbors to the north and
east, such as Sviatoslav of the Russians, who was finally defeated
at Dristra on the Danube, in July 972. In 975, John turned his
full attention to the East, campaigns here would represent the
furthest extent of Byzantine reconquest for all the state's history.
By the fall of that year, most of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon
were under Byzantine control.
Sviatoslav -
· Russian leader and general, led men south of the Danube
in 970s. Imperial forces utterly defeated the Russians at Arcadiopolis.
In 972, John Tzimisces led armies to the old Bulgarian capital
of Preslav and engaged the Russians in a fierce battle. The Russians broke,
and so Preslav was later occupied by Greek forces around Easter
972. Sviatoslav fled and was finally defeated at Dristra on the
Danube, in July 972.
Fatimid -
· Shi'i Muslim dynasty emerging from Tunisia to conquer
Egypt in 969. Controlled Palestine during Crusades to 1170s.
Basil II -
· Byzantine Emperor, 976-1025. Destroyed Bulgars, held
up eastern defenses. Most glorious ruler of Byzantium after Heraclius.
Vladimir of Rus -
· Head of Russian Kiev state. Helped Basil II retain
power early on; married Basil's sister in return for conversion
to Greek Orthodoxy.
Otto I (r. 936-973) -
· Saxon emperor of Germany. Defeated Magyars, settled
Papal matters, was crowned emperor. Ruled without feudal relations.
Henry III (r. 1039-1056) -
· German Emperor descending into Rome to install mostly
reform popes.
Pope Leo IX (1048-1054) -
· Pope installed by Henry III, supported papal autonomy
from secular rulers and was a reforming bishop.
Henry IV (1056-1106) -
· German Emperor during Investiture
Controversy. German nobles had gained power during
his long minority, and as emperor he faced a revolt of nobles in
league with the papacy. Eventually put both down, but the effort
weakened the German monarchy.
Pope Gregory
VII (1073-1085) -
· Hildebrand, reforming pope, and chief Church protagonist
in Investiture Controversy. Died as a Norman hostage. Began many
ideas that later emerged in Crusades.
Pope Urban II
(1088-1099) -
· Had been a secretary to Gregory VII. Brought Papacy
back to Rome. Was a Cluniac Prior. Articulated Crusader idea, launched
the first one. Established a better central papal bureaucracy.
Alexius Comnenus -
· Byzantine Emperor from 1080-1118. Appealed to West
for help post-Manzikert. Reclaimed western Asia Minor lands after
First Crusade.
Godfrey of Bouillon -
· Crusading leader in First Crusade, became king of Jerusalem
for one year in 1099.
Bohemond -
· Norman adventurer-crusader from First Crusade. Became Count
of Antioch in 1098.
Zengi -
· Seljukid Amir of Mosul who began Muslim comeback in Crusades.
Took Edessa in 1144.
Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi -
· Overthrew Fatimids in Egypt, setting up Ayyubid dynasty
and uniting Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. Defeated crusader armies
at Hattin in 1187 and took Jerusalem back in 1188. Muslim personage
of great chivalry value to western medieval legend.
Seljuks of Rum -
· Turkic principality focused on Anatolia. Under nominal suzerainty
of Great Seljuks in Baghdad. Defeated Byzantine forces under
Manuel Comnenus in 1071 and 1176.
Manuel Comnenus
(1143-1180) -
· Byzantine Emperor, insisted on Crusader states recognizing
his imperial status. Allowed more privileges to westerners in empire.
Was defeated by Seljuks at Myriocephalum in 1176.
Philip I (1060-1108) -
· French king, began turning the tide of feudal decomposition
in France by insisting on his crown rights and using all means
to increase his power.
Philip II Augustus -
· French king, 1180-1223. Saw to institutional growth
of French monarchy; reined in feudal nobles. Fought Angevins and
beat John of England at Bouvines, bringing much of France back
to crown control. Participated in Third Crusade.
Louis IX -
· St. Louis, French king 1226-1270. French monarchy
at strongest relative to nobles. Known for piety, justice. Crusaded
twice, got all Plantagenet lands back except for Gascony.
Ferdinand I of Leon -
· Important Reconquista personage.
Began appointing French monks as Spanish bishops from the 1050s.
These monks were not as impressed with Muslim grandeur as the
Spaniards had been, and the Church reformation gave the Spaniards
a reinvigorated Christian identity, highlighting confessional differences
from the Muslims.
Barbarossa -
· German emperor, 1152-1190. Attempted over twenty years
to reassert German control in Italy, over towns and Popes. Extremely
activist, but was unable to control the independent Italian towns.
Died during Third Crusade.
Arnold of Brescia -
· Leader of Italian commune in 1050s. Anti-sacerdotal,
called on Church to return to apostolic poverty. Captured and
executed by Barbarossa.
Frederick II -
· German Emperor (1215-1250), king of Sicily through
mother. Highly cultured and of eclectic interests, knew Arabic,
more Sicilian than German, espoused feudal laissez faire policies
in Germany but aspired to close central control in Italy. Opposed by
Pope for his Italian interests, and excommunicated when negotiated
return of Jerusalem in 1229 rather than its military liberation.
Fought the resurrected Lombard league, was never able to pacify
north-central Italy.
Robert Guiscard -
· Norman leader in Sicily, agreed to protect Popes.
Alfonso VI of Leon -
· Began serious Reconquista in
late eleventh century. Defeated by Almoravids at Sagrajas, 1086.
Louis VII -
· Important French king able to build a central bureaucracy
and begin the taming of French nobles.
Almoravids -
· Revivalist Muslim dynasty from North Africa. Crossed
over to Spain in 1080s and shored up defenses against Christians
until early 1100s.
Alfonso VIII of Castile (1158-1214) -
· Victor at Las Navas de Tolosa, opened way for thirteenth-century Reconquista thrust.
Events
Iconoclasm -
· Campaign in Eastern Church started by Leo III to end
the use of pictorial representations of Christ, Mary, etc., in
prayer. Repealed and re-enacted throughout eighth and ninth centuries.
Manzikert -
· Battle in 1071 where Romanus Diogenes and Byzantine
forces were defeated by Seljuk Turks. Opens Anatolia up to Turkic migration
and Islamization.
Schism of 1054 -
· Final break between Eastern Greek Orthodox and Western Catholic
Churches.
Lechfeld -
· 955 battle where Otto I defeated Magyars definitively.
Established him as "the Great".
Second Crusade -
· Spurred by Zengi's capture of Edessa. Launched in
1145. Accomplished nothing.
Hattin -
· Salah al-Din's defeat of Crusader forces in 1187, leading
to Christian loss of Jerusalem soon after.
Third Crusade -
· Launched in 1189-90 in response to Christian defeat
at Hattin. Barbarossa participated and died. Richard Lionheart
also participated, as did Philip Augustus. Did nothing, but Richard did
capture Acre and received limited access to Jerusalem for pilgrims.
Myriocephalum -
· Defeat of Manuel Comnenus by Seljuk Kilij Arlsan.
Full scale military decomposition of Byzantium sets in.
Fourth Crusade -
· Called after failed Third Crusade, by Innocent III.
Diverted by Venetian and other leaders to sack Constantinople
when the Emperor they installed did not pay the funds or provisions
he had promised. Numerous Latin States sprang up as result.
Bouvines -
· Battle principally between John of England and Philip
Augustus of France. English defeat. Most Angevin lands return
to French Crown.
Magna Carta -
· John of England forced to give more power to English
barons regarding campaigns, taxes, and general policy, after the excesses
leading up to 1214 and rapacious taxation.
1259 Peace of Paris -
· St. Louis officially obtains English renunciation of
claims to Angevin lands in France.
Legnano -
· Lombard League defeat of Barbarossa, ends his aspirations
to establish dominion in northern Italy towns supported by the Pope.
Las Navas de Tolosa -
· Defeat of Almohads by Castilian-Aragonese kings. Opens
Iberia to large- scale Christian reconquest, in 1212.
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