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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. Several decades the Empire was under threat. In 476CE the Germanic Leader Odoacer staged a revolt and deposed of the Emperor Romulus Augustulus. No Roman Emperor would ever rule again and 476 was the year the Western Empire suffered its deathblow.
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Charlemagne’s prodigious range of activities during the first 30 years of his reign were prelude to what some contemporaries and many later observers viewed as the culminating event of his reign: his coronation as Roman emperor. In considerable part, that event was the consequence of an idea shaped by the interpretation given to Charlemagne’s actions as ruler.
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In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late-summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year.
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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.
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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 plague arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the Black Sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered on the docks were met with a horrifying surprise: Most sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed blood and pus.
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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.
