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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. -
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 Repealed and re-enacted throughout eighth and ninth centuries.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.