Middle Ages
El Cid and the Capture of Valencia (1094): Spain's Hero
El Cid took Valencia after a siege of nearly a year and ruled it as an independent lord until his death in 1099; the city fell to the Almoravids in 1102.
Region
Europe
Middle Ages
People's Crusade (1096): Peter the Hermit's Doomed March
The expedition was destroyed by Seljuk Turks near Civetot in October 1096; a few thousand survivors were rescued by the Byzantines.
Middle Ages
First Crusade (1096-1099): From Clermont to Jerusalem
Crusader capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and creation of four Latin states in the Levant: Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem and Tripoli.
Middle Ages
University of Oxford: How England's Oldest University Began
Oxford became England's first university, a self-governing guild of masters and students whose colleges and privileges shaped higher education in the English-speaking world.
Middle Ages
Founding of Cîteaux (1098): Rise of the Cistercian Order
The 'New Monastery' became the head of the Cistercian Order, which grew to hundreds of abbeys across Europe within a century.
Middle Ages
Death of William Rufus (1100): Killed in the New Forest
William II was killed by an arrow while hunting; his younger brother Henry seized the treasury and was crowned within three days.
Middle Ages
Knights Hospitaller: Order of St John from Jerusalem to Rhodes
A hospital brotherhood became one of the great military orders, outlived the crusader states and survives today as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Middle Ages
Abelard and Heloise: Love and Scandal in 12th-Century Paris
The affair ended in Abelard's castration and both lovers entering religious life; their later letters made them Europe's most famous medieval couple.
Middle Ages
Knights Templar: The Crusading Order from Founding to Downfall
The order defended the crusader states for nearly two centuries but was arrested in France in 1307 and dissolved by Pope Clement V in 1312.
Middle Ages
White Ship Disaster (1120): The Shipwreck That Doomed a Dynasty
About 300 people drowned, including Henry I's heir; the succession crisis that followed led to the civil war known as the Anarchy.
Middle Ages
Almohad Caliphate (1121-1269): Ibn Tumart's Reform Empire
A Berber religious movement replaced the Almoravids and ruled North Africa and al-Andalus until defeat in Spain and rebellions in Africa broke it up.
Middle Ages
Concordat of Worms (1122): Ending the Investiture Controversy
The emperor gave up investing bishops with ring and staff and allowed free church elections, while keeping a role in elections and in granting their lands.