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Invasions by Barbarian tribes. The most straightforward theory for Western Rome's collapse pins the fall on a string of military losses sustained against outside forces.
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Charlemagne (742-814), also known as Karl and Charles the Great, was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814. In 800, Pope Leo III (750-816) crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans.
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Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land.
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The Magna Carta is a document guaranteeing English political liberties that was drafted at Runnymede, a meadow by the River Thames, and signed by King John.
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Great Famine, also called Irish Potato Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845 to 49, famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845 to 49 when the potato crop failed in successive years.
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The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid 1300s.
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The Great Schism split the main faction of Christianity into two divisions, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. This split is known as the Great Schism, or sometimes the East West Schism or the Schism of 1054.