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prisoner of war, his life was saved by his nobility, and his ransom had practically to be raised by the "villains" of his domains.

The Feudal System Right of Hunting

privileges dearest to and most valued by the nobles.

Spartans lived in harsh conditions, without luxuries, to make them tough fighters. Physical training and fitness was considered to be an important part of a Spartan child’s education. Girls did not fight in wars but they took part in physical activities because Spartans believed fit and strong women would have healthy babies that would be good soldiers. Boys went to live at an army barracks at the age of 7. Government Sparta had its own system of government which was very different from the other city states. Rule was shared between two kings, the Gerousia and the Assembly. Most citizens Spartans were either Perioeci (citizens who paid taxes, served in the army and were protected by Spartan laws) or Helots (people from lands conquered and ruled by Sparta who had no rights). The Helots Spartan citizens were given land which was farmed for them by the Helots. The Helots were treated as serfs (slaves) and had to give half their crops to their Spartan master.

On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God. 

the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. The Templars took their name from the location of their headquarters, at Jerusalem's Temple Mount. For a while, the Templars had only nine members, mostly due to their rigid rules. In addition to having noble birth, the knights were required to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In 1127, new promotional efforts convinced many more noblemen to join the order, gradually increasing its size and influence.

While the individual knights were not allowed to own property, there was no such restriction on the organization as a whole, and over the years many rich Christians gave gifts of land and other valuables to support the Knights Templar. By the time the Crusades ended unsuccessfully in the early 14th century, the order had grown extremely wealthy, provoking the jealousy of both religious and secular powers. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V combined to take down the Knights Templar, arresting the grand master, Jacques de Molay, on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312, assigning their property and monetary assets to a rival order, the Knights Hospitalers. In fact, though, Philip and his English counterpart, King Edward II, claimed most of the wealth after banning the organization from their respective countries.          

In 1054 there was a split between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches prompted by arguments over the crusades. This split was called the Great Schism. The Great Western Schism occurred in in Western Christendom from 1378 - 1417. This was caused by an Italian pope called Pope Urban IV being elected and establishing the papal court in Rome. The French disagreed with this and elected a French Pope who was based in Avignon. The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of Constance and the Catholic religion was referred to as the Roman Catholic Religion.

With it's own laws, lands and taxes The Catholic church was a very powerful institution which had its own laws and lands. The Catholic Church also imposed taxes

waiting for the main body of nobles, which was to assemble at Constantinople in the summer of 1096  a horde of poor men, women, and children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the road to the Holy Land.

Without waiting for the main body of nobles, which was to assemble at Constantinople in the summer of 1096  a horde of poor men, women, and children set out, unorganized and almost unarmed, on the road to the Holy Land.

Vikings were just greedy and driven by oppertunism they took advantage of the instability of the rest of Europe to take over land and other properties.

The purpose of this chapter was to prevent King John from personally ordering the arrest and punishment of a free man without lawful judgment. According to Magna Carta, "lawful judgment" could only be made by judges ruled by "the law of the land," or by one's peers in a trial by combat.

For people today the most significant part of Magna Carta is Chapter 39: No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [property taken] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimized, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. Some have interpreted this provision to mean that Magna Carta guaranteed to free men the right to a trial by jury. However, the idea of a jury trial as we would recognize it today had not yet developed by 1215.

Other parts of Magna Carta corrected King John's abuses of power against the barons, Church officials, merchants and other "free men" who together made up about 25% of England's population. Magna Carta virtually ignored the remaining 75% of the population.

"The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history . . . It was written in Magna Carta." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1941 Inaugural addres

On June 15, 1215, in a field at Runnymede, King John affixed his seal to Magna Carta. Confronted by 40 rebellious barons, he consented to their demands in order to avert civil war.

Magna Carta was written by a group of 13th-century barons to protect their rights and property against a tyrannical king. It is concerned with many practical matters and specific grievances relevant to the feudal system under which they lived. T

had been isolated from each other for 10,000 years.

the human inhabitants of the “old” and “new” worlds developed vastly different cultures, languages, and religions; they found different ways of adapting to their different envinronments; and their bodies over hundreds of generations became resistant to the diseases of their different worlds. When the two great land masses were rejoined by European exploration, the resulting exchange of people, crops, animals, ideas, and diseases — called the “Columbian exchange” — changed both worlds forever.

Within a hundred years this small European nation had claimed the better part of two continents

The Old City of Jerusalem has within its walls holy places central to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These include the Western Wall, built by King Solomon in the tenth century BCE as a retaining wall to support the Temple Mount; the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, commenced in the fourth century CE under the Emperor Constantine; and the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, built after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Caliph Omar in the seventh century. The proximity of these sites reflects the close historical and doctrinal relationship between the three monotheistic religions.

Jews have lived in the land of Israel for nearly 4,000 years, going back to the period of the biblical patriarchs (c.1900 BCE). The story of the Jewish people, Israel, its capital, Jerusalem, and the Jewish Temple there, has been one of exile, destruction and rebirth. In its 4,000 years of history Jerusalem has been destroyed many times and many times reborn. There has always remained a Jewish presence in the land of Israel and in Jerusalem, and the Jewish people as a whole always dreamed of returning to and rebuilding it, a longing reflected in the concluding words of Israel’s national anthem, ‘Ha Tikvah’ (‘The Hope’):