The Pope calls for another crusade In 1200 AD, Pope Innocent began to ask the rulers of Europe to participate in a fourth crusade, again attempting to take Jerusalem away from the Ayyubids who ruled there. Saladin had died in [...]
Lorenzo de' Medici In the early 1400s AD, a few rich families ruled the city-state of Florence in northern Italy. With the Holy Roman Empire very weak, these families ran Florence as an independent country. But most people in [...]
The siege of Damietta: Fifth Crusade Europeans attack Jerusalem In 1216 AD, Pope Honorius III succeeded in getting some more Europeans to agree to try again to conquer Jerusalem from the Ayyubids. The Fourth [...]
Louis IX sailing to Tunis with the Eighth Crusade (1270 AD) Why even do an Eighth Crusade? When Blanche of Castile died, her son Louis IX of France had to spend some [...]
Richard III of England For a project on the Wars of the Roses, you can't do better than Shakespeare. Shakespeare wrote a play about the Wars of the Roses. He called the [...]
St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy (about 1100 AD) The Seljuks destabilize Europe's neighbors In 1071 AD, the Byzantine Empire lost most of Anatolia (modern Turkey) to the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert. [...]
St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, Italy (about 1100 AD) During the fall of the Roman Empire, in the 400s AD, people who lived along the north-east coast of Italy didn't feel safe. Central [...]
Saladin (Salah al-din) When the Mamluk general Imad-ed-din Zangi died, he was succeeded by his son Nureddin, who added Damascus to the land his father had gathered together. And after Nureddin died in 1174 AD, [...]
Castle of Edessa After the First Crusade After the First Crusade in 1096 AD set up Christian kingdoms all along the coast of Israel and Lebanon, of course the Fatimid caliphs who had ruled that area before [...]
Santa Sophia in Kiev (modern Ukraine) As the new country of Poland got stronger and stronger in the late 900s AD, it became more of a threat to Russia. The powerful Polish king Boleslaw conquered [...]
