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Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of Rome, was deposed in 476 AD when a Germanic warlord from an unknown tribe invaded Italy and took control of the peninsula.
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The early Middle Ages began with the fall of Rome.
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Europe as we know it today had begun to take shape.
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In popular imagination 1066 is the date of the last successful invasion of England, the year in which William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England's Saxon army, killed the king, Harold, and seized the throne. The battlefield survives remarkably intact.
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Pope urban II delivers speech at council of Clermont, calling for the first crusade. This speech urged Christians to take up arms and reclaim the Holy land from Muslim control.
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The Second Crusade, led by European kings like Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, ends in disappointment with failed attempts to recapture territories lost to the Muslims.
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Philip II of France, Richard I of England (The Lionheart) and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor lead the Third Crusade. They took back many territories from Saladin but failed to win back Jerusalem.
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Saw the end of the great growth and wealth of the high Middle Ages. Famines and plagues such as the black death killed millions of people.
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Pope Innocent III declares the Fourth Crusade to take back Jerusalem.
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Started by a French child named Stephen of Cloyes. Tens of thousands of children gathered to march to the Holy Land. This ended in total disaster. None of the children made it to the Holy Land and many were never seen again. They were likely sold into slavery.
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Over the next several years there would be 5 more Crusades. None of them would be very successful in terms of gaining control of the Holy Land.
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To some, Henry VIII was a strong and ruthless ruler, forcing through changes to the Church-State relationship which excluded the papacy and brought the clergy under control, thus strengthening the Crown's position and acquiring the monasteries' wealth.
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