Medieval history timeline
Kings, castles, crusades and the great kingdoms of the Middle Ages.
142 events, oldest first.
Timeline of Medieval history
-
525
The AD system of counting years is devised
Dionysius Exiguus devised it to calculate Easter - and left out a year zero.
-
529
Justinian publishes his law code
His Code became the basis of law in much of continental Europe.
-
AD 537
Hagia Sophia is completed
It was the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years.
-
541
The Plague of Justinian strikes
It was the first recorded outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe.
-
597
Augustine arrives in England as a missionary
He became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
-
618
The Tang dynasty begins in China
Its capital, Chang'an, was probably the largest city in the world at the time.
-
AD 622
Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina
The Hijra marks year one of the Islamic calendar.
-
c. 625
The Sutton Hoo ship burial takes place
The ship was dragged up from the river and buried with its king's treasures.
-
691
The Dome of the Rock is completed
It is the oldest major Islamic monument still standing.
-
710
Nara becomes Japan's capital
Nara's Todai-ji temple houses a giant bronze Buddha.
-
c. 715
The Lindisfarne Gospels are created
They were made by a single monk, thought to be Bishop Eadfrith.
-
731
Bede completes his history of England
Bede helped popularise dating years from the birth of Christ.
-
732
Charles Martel wins the Battle of Tours
His victory halted the Umayyad advance into France.
-
751
The Battle of Talas
Legend says Chinese prisoners taken there spread papermaking westward.
-
762
Baghdad is founded
It was laid out as a perfectly round city.
-
c. 785
Offa's Dyke is built
The earthwork ran for much of the border between England and Wales.
-
785
Work begins on the Great Mosque of Córdoba
Its forest of red-and-white arches rests on more than 850 columns.
-
786
Harun al-Rashid becomes caliph
His court in Baghdad is the setting for many tales in the Arabian Nights.
-
793
Vikings raid the monastery at Lindisfarne
The raid shocked Europe and is often seen as the start of the Viking Age.
-
794
Kyoto becomes Japan's capital
It remained the imperial capital for more than a thousand years.
-
800
Charlemagne is crowned emperor
Pope Leo III crowned him in St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day.
-
c. 800
The Book of Kells is created
Its vellum pages were made from the skins of around 185 calves.
-
841
Vikings found Dublin
Dublin's name comes from the Irish 'Dubh Linn', meaning 'black pool'.
-
843
The Treaty of Verdun splits Charlemagne's empire
The three-way split roughly foreshadowed modern France and Germany.
-
859
Al-Qarawiyyin, the oldest university, is founded
It was founded in Fez, Morocco, by a woman: Fatima al-Fihri.
-
868
The Diamond Sutra is printed
Found in a Chinese cave, it is the oldest known dated printed book.
-
871
Alfred the Great becomes king
He is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'.
-
910
Cluny Abbey is founded
Its church was the largest in Christendom until St Peter's was rebuilt.
-
911
Rollo the Viking founds Normandy
His descendant, William the Conqueror, would conquer England.
-
927
Athelstan becomes the first King of England
Alfred the Great's grandson was the first to rule all of England.
-
930
Iceland's parliament, the Althing, is founded
It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world.
-
960
The Song dynasty begins in China
Under the Song, China issued paper money and used gunpowder weapons.
-
962
Otto I is crowned Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Empire lasted until Napoleon brought it to an end.
-
966
Mont-Saint-Michel's abbey is founded
The island abbey is cut off by some of Europe's strongest tides.
-
969
Cairo is founded
The Fatimids named it al-Qahira, 'the Victorious'.
-
c. 985
Erik the Red founds a colony in Greenland
He chose the name 'Greenland' to attract settlers.
-
988
Prince Vladimir of Kiev converts to Christianity
Legend says he rejected Islam partly because it banned alcohol.
-
1014
Brian Boru wins the Battle of Clontarf
Ireland's High King won the battle but was killed in its aftermath.
-
1016
Cnut becomes King of England
The legend of him ordering back the tide was meant to show his humility, not arrogance.
-
1024
China issues the first government paper money
Song-dynasty China switched to paper partly because iron coins were too heavy to carry.
-
1025
Avicenna completes his Canon of Medicine
It was used as a medical textbook in Europe for about 600 years.
-
1040
Macbeth becomes King of Scotland
The real Macbeth ruled for 17 years and was far less villainous than Shakespeare's.
-
1044
The first known gunpowder recipe is written
It appears in a Song-dynasty Chinese military manual.
-
1054
The Great Schism splits Christianity
It divided the Church into Catholic and Orthodox branches.
-
1065
Westminster Abbey is consecrated
Edward the Confessor was too ill to attend and died days later.
-
1066
Harald Hardrada is killed at Stamford Bridge
The battle came just weeks before the Battle of Hastings.
-
1066
The Battle of Hastings
William of Normandy's victory flooded English with French words, which is why we eat 'beef' from a 'cow'.
-
1066
William the Conqueror is crowned at Westminster
Almost every English and British monarch since has been crowned there.
-
1071
The Battle of Manzikert
The Byzantine emperor was captured by the Seljuk Turks.
-
1086
The Domesday Book is compiled
Its survey was so thorough that people compared it to the Last Judgement.
-
1088
Shen Kuo describes the magnetic compass
The Chinese scholar described a magnetised needle pointing south.
-
1088
The University of Bologna is founded
It is the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world.
-
1096
Teaching begins at the University of Oxford
Oxford was already teaching students more than two centuries before Tenochtitlan was founded.
-
1099
The First Crusade captures Jerusalem
The crusaders had marched for about three years to get there.
-
c. 1100
Cahokia, a great city on the Mississippi, peaks
No city in what is now the US was larger until around 1800.
-
1119
The Knights Templar are founded
The order began with just nine knights protecting pilgrims.
-
1152
Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Henry of Anjou
She was queen of France, then queen of England.
-
1163
Notre-Dame de Paris's foundation stone is laid
The cathedral took almost two centuries to complete.
-
1170
Thomas Becket is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral
He was made a saint less than three years later.
-
1173
Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins
It began to tilt during construction, which then paused for almost a century.
-
1187
Saladin captures Jerusalem
His capture of the city triggered the Third Crusade.
-
1190
Frederick Barbarossa drowns on crusade
Legend says he sleeps under a mountain, waiting to return.
-
1192
Japan's Kamakura shogunate begins
It was the first government run by samurai.
-
1192
Richard the Lionheart is taken prisoner
England paid a huge ransom to free him from the Holy Roman Emperor.
-
1194
Chartres Cathedral is rebuilt after a fire
Its stained glass is famous for a deep blue known as 'Chartres blue'.
-
c. 1200
Lalibela's rock-cut churches are carved
The Ethiopian churches were carved downward from solid rock.
-
1204
Crusaders sack Constantinople
The Fourth Crusade was meant to attack Egypt, but sacked a Christian city instead.
-
1206
Genghis Khan is proclaimed ruler of the Mongols
The empire he founded became the largest contiguous land empire in history.
-
1209
Old London Bridge is completed
The stone bridge stood for over 600 years, lined with houses and shops.
-
1209
St Francis founds the Franciscan order
Francis gave up a wealthy life and is said to have preached to birds.
-
1209
The University of Cambridge is founded
It was founded by scholars who fled Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople.
-
1215
Magna Carta is sealed
Only three of its original clauses are still part of English law.
-
1227
Genghis Khan dies
His burial place is still unknown.
-
c. 1235
Sundiata founds the Mali Empire
His story is still told by West African griots, or storytellers.
-
1241
The Mongols invade Central Europe
They turned back after the death of the Great Khan Ögedei.
-
1242
Alexander Nevsky wins the Battle on the Ice
It was fought on a frozen lake on today's Estonia-Russia border.
-
c. 1250
The Icelandic sagas are written down
Icelanders today can still largely read the Old Norse they were written in.
-
1252
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is cast
The temple hall around it was later washed away by a tsunami.
-
1257
The Sorbonne is founded
It is named after its founder, Robert de Sorbon, a chaplain to the French king.
-
1258
The Mongols sack Baghdad
The city's famous library, the House of Wisdom, was destroyed.
-
1260
The Mamluks halt the Mongols at Ain Jalut
It was one of the first major defeats suffered by the Mongols.
-
1265
Simon de Montfort's parliament meets
It was the first English parliament to include elected representatives from towns.
-
1265
Thomas Aquinas begins the Summa Theologica
He never finished it.
-
1271
Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty
Kublai was Genghis Khan's grandson, and Marco Polo later served at his court.
-
1281
Typhoons wreck a Mongol invasion of Japan
The storms were hailed as kamikaze, or 'divine winds'.
-
1283
Edward I begins Caernarfon Castle
Its walls were modelled on those of Constantinople.
-
1295
The Auld Alliance with France is signed
Scotland and France agreed to support each other against England.
-
1295
The Model Parliament meets
It included knights, burgesses and clergy alongside the nobles.
-
1296
Edward I takes the Stone of Destiny to London
The Scottish coronation stone was finally returned to Scotland 700 years later.
-
1297
William Wallace wins at Stirling Bridge
He won by attacking as the English army crossed a narrow bridge.
-
c. 1299
The Ottoman Empire is founded
It takes its name from its founder, Osman I.
-
c. 1300
The Hereford Mappa Mundi is drawn
The medieval world map puts Jerusalem at the centre of the world.
-
1307
The Knights Templar are arrested
The arrests in France took place on Friday the 13th.
-
1309
The popes move to Avignon
Seven popes in a row lived in France rather than Rome.
-
1314
Robert the Bruce wins at Bannockburn
The victory was a turning point in Scotland's wars of independence.
-
1315
The Great Famine strikes Europe
Years of torrential rain ruined harvests across northern Europe.
-
1320
The Declaration of Arbroath
It asked the Pope to recognise Scotland's independence.
-
1324
Mansa Musa makes his pilgrimage to Mecca
He gave away so much gold in Cairo that its value there fell for years.
-
1325
The city of Tenochtitlan is founded
Built on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztec capital lies beneath modern-day Mexico City.
-
1327
Timbuktu's Djinguereber Mosque is built
It is made almost entirely of mud brick and wood.
-
1337
The Hundred Years' War begins
It actually lasted 116 years.
-
1341
Petrarch is crowned poet laureate in Rome
He is often called the 'father of humanism'.
-
1345
The Ponte Vecchio is rebuilt in Florence
It was the only bridge in Florence that retreating German forces spared in 1944.
-
1346
The Battle of Crécy
English longbowmen defeated a much larger French army.
-
1347
The Black Death reaches Europe
It killed perhaps a third of Europe's population within about five years.
-
1348
The Order of the Garter is founded
Its motto means 'Shame on him who thinks evil of it'.
-
1354
The Ottomans take Gallipoli
It was their first foothold in Europe.
-
1356
The Black Prince wins at Poitiers
The French king, John II, was captured and held for ransom.
-
1368
The Ming dynasty is founded
Its founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, had once been a poor peasant and a beggar.
-
1377
Ibn Khaldun writes his Muqaddimah
It is often called one of the first works of sociology.
-
1381
The Peasants' Revolt
Rebel leader Wat Tyler met the 14-year-old King Richard II face to face.
-
1389
The Battle of Kosovo
Both the Serbian prince and the Ottoman sultan were killed.
-
1392
The Joseon dynasty is founded in Korea
It ruled Korea for more than 500 years.
-
1397
Kyoto's Golden Pavilion is built
The current pavilion is a rebuild: the original was burned down by a young monk in 1950.
-
1397
The Kalmar Union unites Scandinavia
Denmark, Norway and Sweden shared one monarch for over a century.
-
1397
The Medici Bank is founded in Florence
It made the Medici one of the richest families in Europe.
-
1398
Timur sacks Delhi
The Central Asian conqueror carried off craftsmen to build his capital, Samarkand.
-
1408
China's Yongle Encyclopedia is completed
It had more than 11,000 volumes.
-
1413
The University of St Andrews is founded
It is Scotland's oldest university.
-
1415
The Battle of Agincourt
Henry V's army was heavily outnumbered, but English longbowmen helped win the day.
-
1420
Beijing's Forbidden City is completed
The palace complex was home to 24 Ming and Qing emperors.
-
1421
Ming China moves its capital to Beijing
The move came a year after the Forbidden City was finished.
-
1428
The Aztec Empire is founded
It began as a Triple Alliance of three city-states: Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan.
-
1429
Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans
She was only about 17 years old at the time.
-
1436
Brunelleschi completes Florence's cathedral dome
It is still the largest brick dome ever built.
-
1438
Pachacuti begins building the Inca Empire
In less than a century, the Inca built the largest empire in the Americas.
-
1443
King Sejong creates the Korean alphabet
He designed hangul so ordinary people could learn to read easily.
-
c. 1450
Machu Picchu is built
It was built for the Inca emperor Pachacuti and abandoned about a century later.
-
1453
Constantinople falls to the Ottomans
It ended the Byzantine Empire, the last remnant of the Roman Empire, nearly 1,000 years after Rome fell.
-
c. 1455
Gutenberg prints his Bible
Fewer than 50 copies of the first major book printed with movable type survive today.
-
1455
The Wars of the Roses begin
The name was coined much later, inspired partly by a scene in Shakespeare.
-
1459
Work begins on Topkapi Palace
It was home to the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years.
-
1461
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is built
With thousands of shops, it is one of the largest covered markets in the world.
-
1462
Ivan the Great becomes ruler of Moscow
He tripled Moscow's territory and rebuilt the Kremlin.
-
1469
Lorenzo de' Medici takes charge in Florence
His patronage supported artists like Botticelli and the young Michelangelo.
-
1476
Caxton sets up England's first printing press
Among William Caxton's first books was Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.
-
1478
The Spanish Inquisition is established
It was not finally abolished until 1834.
-
1480
Ivan III throws off Mongol rule
The 'Great Stand on the Ugra River' ended without a battle.
-
1483
The Princes in the Tower disappear
Bones found in the Tower in 1674 are thought to be theirs.
-
1485
Richard III dies at the Battle of Bosworth
He was the last English king to die in battle.
-
1492
Granada falls to Ferdinand and Isabella
It ended almost 800 years of Muslim rule in Spain.
-
1494
The Treaty of Tordesillas
It split the newly explored world between Spain and Portugal.
Think you know your history?
Put 5, 7 or 10 events in chronological order in three tries. A new Chrono-Shift puzzle arrives every day.
Play today's Chrono-ShiftOr try Eras and Higher or Lower.