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Medieval History
Page 3
- 481-511 Clovis, king of the Franks.
- 481 Clovis becomes leader of the Franks.
- 486 Clovis defeats Syagrius.
- 496 Clovis converts to Catholicism, rather than Arian Christianity.
- 507 Franks defeats the Visigoths and they retire to form their kingdom beyond the Pyrenees Mountains.
- 527-565 Reign of Justinian, ruler of the eastern Roman empire. Justinian was one of the great emperors and had the benefit of a great historian, Procopius to record his accomplishments. Justinian's wife was Theodora, who had been an "exotic dancer." Theodora's biggest hit was a dance in which she placed grains of wheat in various parts of her body and appeared on stage without clothes and with these geese, which ... But why don't you read Procopius yourself.
- 570(?)-632 Life of Muhammad
- 522 Hij'ra, Muhammad and his followers flee Mecca to Medina. Accepted date of the foundation of Islam, beginning date of the Muslim calendar.
- 711 Muza and Tariq invade Spain from Morocco. The Muslims defeat the Visigoths at the battle of the Guadalquivir River, during which King Roderick disappears. Visigothic Spain occupied within a very few years.
- 751 Pepin deposed the Merovingian monarch and became king of the Franks. The beginning of the Carolingian dynasty.
- 768-814 Charlemagne, King of the Franks.
- 800 Christmas Day, Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was more of a dignity than a state, and so people made fun of it for a long time. It was Voltaire who pointed out that it was not holy, it was not roman, and it was not an empire. But it did last from 800 until Napoleon abolished it in 1803.
- 800-814 Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 814-840 Louis the Pious, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 840-855 Lothair I, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 855-875 Louis, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 875-877 Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor.
Charles' councillor was John Scotus Erigena, a brilliant, but small and shabby man. It was said that Charles had expected someone more imposing and, when he first saw him, he told John Scotus that he did look as if he were "enough of a man to say boo! to a goose." John Scotus looked Charles up and down and said "Boo!" They became the best of friends, and Charles used to try to drink his counsellor under the table.
When Charles died, John got a job teaching in a grammar school. He was such a bad teacher that, one day, his young students backed him into a corner and stabbed him hundreds of times with their quill pens. Perforated to death, John Scotus Erigena became the unofficial patron saint of all bad lecturers.
- 884-887 Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor.
- 887-899 Arnulf, Holy Roman Emperor.
Medieval History Page 4
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