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The fall of the Western Roman Empire marks the beginning of the Middle Ages. Western’s Rome collapse was due to a string of military losses. Rome had fought with Germanic tribes for centuries. In the 300’s barbarian groups encroached beyond the Empire’s borders.
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Charlemagne or Charles the Great was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, Charlemagne united the majority of western and central Europe.
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During the First Crusade, Christian knights from Europe capture Jerusalem after seven weeks of siege and begin massacring the city's Muslim and Jewish population. The Crusades were organized by western European Christians after centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their primary objectives were to stop the expansion of Muslim states, to reclaim for Christianity the Holy Land in the Middle East, and to recapture territories that had formerly been Christian.
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The Magna Carta was signed 15 June, 1215 at Runnymede by King John. Magna Carta means ‘great charter’. The Magna Carta has become one of the founding documents of the English legal system.
The Magna Carta’s significance was not immediately recognised. England was in a period of political and military upheaval and King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta by rebel barons as part of peace negotiations. -
Great Famine, also called Irish Potato Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845–49, famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant.
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The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351
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The Pope’s residency between 1309-1377 in France. In 1377 Romans rioted to ensure the pope was a Roman, and with Gregory XI returning to Rome the Pope resided in Rome. Pope Urban VI was elected in 1378. Urban VI proved suspicious, a reformist, and prone to violent outbursts of bad temper. The cardinals that had elected him regretted their decision and in 1378 elected a rival pope, Robert of Geneva.