The Middle Ages

TEXTS	CONTEXTS
	40-420 Romans govern Britannia 432 St. Patrick arrive sin Ireland; Catholic mission begins 450 Anglo-Saxons begin takeover of Britain
	529 Foundation of Monte Cassino, first Benedictine monastery
610–32 The Koran	597 Conversion of Anglo-Saxons from paganism to Christinaity, begins with the aid of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Kent
8th–10th centurie Beowulf Latin lyrics, saints’ lives, and histories	8th–10th centuries Invasions of Western Europe by Arabs, Norsemen, and Magyars
	800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor
	871-899 King Alfred’s reign 899 Alfred the Great, king of Wessex in England, dies
11th century Hispano-Arabic and Provençal lyrics The Song of Roland	11th century Consolidation of feudal social structure
	1066 Norman invasion of England
	1099 Knights of the First Crusade capture Jerusalem 1095-1221 Crusades in the Holy Land
12th century Marie de France, Lais Chrétien de Troyes, Story of the Grail	12th century Establishment of the universities of Paris, Oxford, and Bologna Recovery of Aristotelian philosophy Period of religious reform
	1152 Henry II marries Eleanor of Acquitaine, giving the English crown vast parcels of French land 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket murdered at Canterbury Cathedral 1187 Arabs recover Jerusalem permanently
13th century Fabliaux Romance of the Rose Thorstein the Staff-Struck	13th century Age of the great cathedrals and of scholastic philosophy
	1215 King John forced to seal the Magna Carta 1226 Francis of Assisi, founder of the first order of friars, dies
	1274 Thomas Aquinas, leading scholastic philosopher, dies
1301–21 Dante, The Divine Comedy
	1337 War begins between France and England (The Hundred Years’ War), ending only in 1453
	1348–50 Bubonic plague sweeps through Europe, killing over a third of the population
1353 Boccaccio, The Decameron	1362 Pleading in English Act
1380? Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	1381 People take control of London in an uprising; promptly suppressed
	1384 John Wyclif, promoter of religious views that prepare for the Reformation, dies
1386–1400 Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales	1399 Richard II deposed by King Henry IV (Bolingbroke) 1400 Richard II murdered
14th century The Thousand and One Nights	14th century Peasant risings in England, France, Flanders, and Italy
	15th century Growing centralization of state power throughout Europe
	1415 Battle of Agincourt; Henry V defeats the French 1431 Joan of Arc burned at the stake in Rouen by the English 1453 Fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Turks
	1455 Gutenberg prints the Bible, the first printed book 1455-1485 War of the Roses
	1476 First printing press assembled in England by William Caxton 1485 War of the Roses ends, Earl of Richmond (Henry VI) defeats Richard III, beginning of the Tudor dynasty
ca. 1470 Villon, The Testament	1491 King Henry VIII born 1492 Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Western Hemisphere
1495? Everyman	1504 Mona Lisa painted 1508-1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling painted 1509 Henry VIII succeeds the throne