1209: Francis of Assisi founds the Franciscan Order. Cathar massacre at Béziers & Carcassonne
1215: King John signs Magna Carta
1218-1224: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Invasions
1223: The Signoria of Venice is formed
1226: Francis of Assisi dies ae 44 (b. 1182)
1240: at a tournament near Düsseldorf, sixty knights are killed
1245-46: First known work of Thomas Aquinas (De fallaciis ad quosdam nobiles artistas)
1247: death of Robin Hood
1261-1263: Aquinas' Summa contra Gentiles
1265: Aquinas begins Summa Theologica
1274: Thomas Aquinas dies ae 48 (b. 1225)
1291: Siege of Acre
1296: the memoirs of Marco Polo
1307: The arrest of the Knights Templar
1308: Dante Alighieri begins working on The Divine Comedy
1312: The Knights Templar are disbanded
1320: Dante completes The Divine Comedy
1321: Dante dies ae 56 (b. 1265)
1336: Petrarch climbed Mont Ventoux (26 April)
1337: Edward III of England claimes the French throne and begins The Hundred Years War 💯 • Giotto dies ae 70 (b. 1267)
1341: Petrarch crowned poet laureate of Rome (8 April)
1345: Petrarch discovers a collection of Cicero's letters
1346: The Batlle of Crécy 💯
1348: The Black Death plague
1356: Battle of Poitiers 💯
1368: Catherine of Siena has a mystical experience
1374: Petrarch dies 19 July aged 69
1376: Catherine of Siena is sent by Florence as an ambassdore to the Papal States based in Avignon, and while in Avignon Catherine convinces Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome; death of Edward the Black Prince
1377: The Avignon Papacy (begun 1309) comes to an end when Gregory XI moves the papal court back to Rome
1381: Peasants' Revolt in England
1398: King Richard II sentences Henry Bollingbrook to exile for 10 years, interupting the planned duel against Thomas Mowbray
1399: Henry Bolingbrook's father John of Gaunt dies, and Richard II disherits Henry. Henry rebels and returns to England in summer 1399 to overthrow Richard and become King Henry IV (depicted in Shakespeare's Richard II)
1403: The Battle of Shrewbury: Prince Henry gets an arrow in the face in defeat of Henry Hotspur Percy (Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1)
1413: Henry V ascends to the English throne after the death of Henry IV
1415: The Battle of Agincourt (Shakespeare's Henry V). England occupies north France. 💯
1420: through the Treaty of Troyes Henry V becomes regent of France and marries Princess Catherine, daughter of French King Charles VI. The son of Charles VI, the Dauphin Charles VII, was disinherited, as Henry V was to gain the French throne at the death of Charles VI 💯
1422: Henry V dies (ae 35) and his nine month old son Henry VI becomes King. England enters a Regency under John of Lancaster
1425: Joan of Arc's first vision of the angel Michael
1429: Joan of Arc ends the siege of Orleans 💯
1430: There is a library with a thousand books in Florence
1431: Execution of Joan of Arc; Henry VI crowned in England
1433: Cosimo de Medici is imprisoned in the Palazzo Vecchio before being exiled to Venice for a year
1453: Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans; end of Byzantine Easter Roman Empire; Henry VI has a mental breakdown and become catatonic & Richard of York becomes Lord Protector
1455: Henry VI regains his sanity and clashes with Lord Protector York, who captures Henry VI (begining of War of the Roses 🌹)
1458: Gutenberg's Bible
1459: Poggio Bracciolini dies (b.1380)
1460: Lord Protector Richard Duke of York dies in the Battle of Wakefield
1461: Richard of York's son Edward is crowned King of England (War of the Roses 🌹)
1470-71: Henry VI is restored as King of England for a year before Edward IV resumes the throne 🌹
1478: Pazzi conspiracy: attempted assisnation of Lorenzo de Medici during Easter High Mass at Florence Cathedral
1483: Edward IV dies and is succeded by his twelve year old son Edward V. Edward V and his younger brother Richard disapear in the Tower of London and Richard III takes the crown. 🌹
1485: Battle of Bosworth; Henry Tudor defeats Richard III and ascends the throne as Henry VII
1490: Savonarola's first Bonfire of the Vanities
1492: Columbus
1494: King Charles VIII of France invades Italy to claim the Kingdom of Naples
1498: Execution of Savonarola (23 May); Michelangelo's Pieta; Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper
1501: Over a thousand printing shops now in Europe; Prince Arthur (ae 14) marries Catherine of Aragon (ae 16)
1502: Prince Arthur dies, making his younger brother Henry heir to the English throne
1504: Michelangelo's David
1506: Da Vinci's Mona Lisa
1509: Henry VII dies (ae 52) and Henry VIII (ae 17) crowned; Henry marries his brother's widow Catherine (ae 23).
1512: Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling completed
Machiavelli writes The Prince
1516: Thomas More's Utopia
1517: Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses
1519: death of Leonardo da Vinci ae 67 (b. 1452)
1524-28: Henry VIII begins to believe his inability to have a son with Catherine is because he married his brother's wife, a sin proscribed in the Old Testament. By summer of 1527, they are seperated and early in 1528 they are divorced.
1527: Machiavelli dies (b. 1469)
1533: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn after she became pregrant. They had been co-habiting already for two years. Anne proclaimed Queen, Elizabeth I born in September.
1534-36: England formally breaks with Rome.
1536: Anne Boleyn executed; Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour • William Tyndale executed for translating the Bible into English
1537: Jane Seymour gives birth to Edward VI but dies from complications of the birth twelve days later
1540: Henry VIII briefly marries Anne of Cleves before having the marriage annuled so he could marry Catherine Howard • Ignatius Loyola founds the Jesuits
1542: Catherine Howard is beheaded after being accused of having an adulturous relationship
1543: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr
1547: Henry VIII dies, ae 55. Edward VI (ae 9)ascends to the throne, and England begins a Regency.
1553: Edward VI dies (ae 15) and the crown briefly passes to Lady Jane Grey before settling on Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine
1558: Mary I dies (ae 42) and the crown passes to Elizabeth I (ae 25), the daughter of Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth I reigns for the next 45 years
1564: death of Michelangelo ae 88 (b. 1475)
1580s: Shakespeare (b. 1564) would have begun working in the theatre
1582: The English Catholic Rheims Bible is published
1587: Mary Queen of Scots executed (ae 45)
1588: The Spanish Armada
1603: Death of Elizabeth I; James VI of Scotland (the son of Mary Queen of Scots, who was the niece of Henry VIII) ascends to English throne as James I
1605: Gunpowder plot foiled
1609: Doctor John Dee dies ae 81 (b. 1527); Galileo builds his first telescope
1610: Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius; observes the mountains of the Moon and Jupiter's moons; death of Caravaggio ae 38 (b. 1571)
1611: King James Bible published
1611-1614: Shakespeare's last plays
1614-17: Rosicrucian pamphlets published
1616: Shakespeare dies ae 52 (b. 1564)
1618: Beginning of Thirty Years War in Germany
1620: Francis Bacon's New Organon & Saturation
1621-1626: Thomas Hobbes works with Francis Bacon
1625: James I dies (ae 58) and Charles I ascends to the English throne
1626: Francis Bacon dies ae 65 (b. 1561)
1633: Galileo sentenced by the Inquisition
1637: Decartes' grid system published
1641: Decartes Mediations
1643: Louis XIV ascends to the throne of France and will reign for 72 years (until 1715)
1648: End of the Thirty Years War
1649: Charles I executed (ae 48)
1651: Hobbes' Leviathan
1653-58: Oliver Cromwell is Lord Protector
1665: the plague in London
1666: The Great Fire in London (Sept)
1667: 1st edition of Milton's Paradise Lost
1668: Isaac Newton builds his reflecting telescope
1669: Death of Rembrandt (b. 1606)
1674: 2nd edition of Milton's Paradise Lost
1679: Thomas Hobbes dies (4 Dec) ae 91 (b. 1588)
1687: Newton's Principia (1st ed)
1689: Locke: Essay on Understanding & Two Treateses on Gov
1692: Salem witch trials
1692-94: famine kills 2 million in France
1702: Queen Anne crowned
1707: The Act of Union creates Great Britain
1710: New St. Paul's Cathedral in London completed
1714: George I crowned
1715: Louis XIV dies (ae 77); Louis XV ascends
1721: Montesquieu's Persian Letters published.
1727: George II crowned
1733: Voltaire's English Letters published.
1747: Voltaire's Zadig published.
1750: Death of Johann Sebastien Bach in Leipzig
1751: Diderot & d'Alebert's Encyclopédie
1755: The Lisbon Earthquake
1756: Volatire's Poem on the Lisbon Earthquake published.
1759: Voltaire's Candide published.
1761: George III crowned
1765: Voltaire's expanded edition of Philosophocal Dictionary published.
1776: The Thirteen American colonies declare independence
1778: Death of Voltaire ae 84 (b. 1694)
1789: The French Revolution