Important Dates and Events in the West in the Middle-Ages 481 – 1485
481 Clovis is crowned king of the Franks; he converts his subjects to Christianity.
529 Benedict founds the Benedictine order of monks.
752 Pepin the Short, first of the Carolingians, is elected king of the Franks.
771 Charlemagne, son of Pepin, succeeds him and adds to the kingdom through wars of conquest.
778 Charlemagne is defeated at Roncesvalles in Spain by Moslems.
800 Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope.
814 Death of Charlemagne; his grandsons divide his empire.
849 The Moslem Saracens invade Italy and are stopped near the gates of Rome.
871 Alfred the Great of England defeats the Danish invaders in the west.
885 Norsemen besiege Paris but the defenders, led by the Count of Paris, drive them away.
910 The monastery of Cluny is founded and begins a reform movement in the church.
911 Norsemen are given permission to settle part of France.
933 The German army stops the invasions of Magyars.
962 Otto the Great of Germany is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
987 Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, is crowned king of France, founding a dynasty lasting 800 years.
1016 Canute, a Dane, seizes the English throne.
1066 William, duke of Normandy, invades England and defeats King Harold at the battle of Hastings.
1077 Henry IV of Germany is excommunicated and begs the pope’s forgiveness at Canossa, in the west.
1096 Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to free Jerusalem; the first crusade begins.
1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem from the Saracens.
1122 The Concordat of Worms settles the dispute between the emperor and the pope.
1147 The second crusade.
1152 Frederick Barbarossa becomes emperor; Henry of Anjou marries Eleanor of Acquitaine, uniting much of France under his rule.
1154 Henry of Anjou becomes the first Plantagenet king of England.
1170 Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered.
1189 Frederick Barbarossa, Richard the Lion-Hearted and Philip of France join the third crusade.
1190 Frederick dies in Asia Minor.
1204 Constantinople is sacked by the fourth crusade.
1212 The children’s crusade.
1214 John of England loses his French possessions at the battle of Bouvines.
1215 The English barons force John to sign Magna Carta; the Dominican monks are recognized.
1223 The Franciscan order of monks is recognized by the pope.
1233 The Inquisition is established in Rome.
1265 Simon de Montfort calls the first English Parliament.
1302 Philip the Fair of France calls the first meeting of the Estates General.
1338 The Hundred Years War between England and France begins.
1340 England destroys the French fleet at the battle of Sluys.
1346 England invades Normandy; The English win the battle of Crecy by the use of the long bow.
1347 The English capture and settle Calais.
1356 The English overwhelm the French at Poitiers and capture King John of France.
1415 The English under King Henry V defeat the French at Agincourt and conquer Normandy.
1420 The Treaty of Troyes gives England much of France and recognizes Henry as the next French king.
1422 Death of Henry V.
1429 French troops under Joan of Arc lift the English siege of Orleans; Charles VII is crowned king of France at Rheims.
1431 The English burn Joan of Arc at the stake as a heretic.
1453 End of the Hundred Years War.
1455-1485 The Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster.
1477 Louis XI defeats Charles of Burgundy and begins to unify the kingdom of France.
1485 Henry Tudor defeats King Richard III at Bosworth Field to win the crown of England.
