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"Introduction: Between the mid-11th and late-15th centuries, an historically specific configuration of material and ideational factors gave rise to a constellation of religious wars that have come to be known as "the crusades". This constellation included Church-organized wars in the Holy Land, Iberia and along the Baltic frontier as well as within Latin Christendom itself.[1] The Crusades to the Holy Land were "wars of liberation" initially launched by the Church to restore Jerusalem to Christian rule. Following the First Crusade and the establishment of the crusader principalities (the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem - collectively known as Outremer), these expeditions were conducted primarily to defend the Holy Places against Muslim attempts at reconquest or, following its loss in 1187 and again in 1244, to recover Jerusalem for Latin Christendom. While authorized by, and fought on behalf of, the Church these wars were prosecuted by princes, nobles and knights from every corner of Latin Christendom as well as by so-called "para-crusaders" (milites ad terminum), and members of military orders such as the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights.[2] They were fought primarily against a range of Muslim powers, although the Fourth Crusade ended up being waged largely against adherents to the Greek Orthodox rite. Although the idea of launching additional expeditions to liberate Jerusalem persisted for a considerable time, the Crusades to the Holy Land effectively came to an end with the fall of the last Christian stronghold in Palestine - Acre - in 1291.[3]"

"Conflict History [conflicthistory.com], developed by TecToys, summarizes all major human conflicts onto a single world map - from the historical wars way before the birth of Christ, until the drone attacks in Pakistan that are still happening today. The whole interactive map is build upon data retrieved from Google and Freebase open data services."

The open source tool turns the vast history of the universe -- 13.8 billion years of information -- into an interactive, visual timeline. Features enable users to zoom in and out as they explore curated content about, for example, the history of life on Earth, extinction of the dinosaurs, or causes of World War I. Users also can author and share their own timelines about specific events or eras.

The 14th century was an era of catastrophes. Some of them man-made, such as the Hundred Years' War, the Avignon Papacy, and the Great Schism. These were caused by human beings, and we shall consider them a bit later. There were two more or less natural disasters either of which one would think would have been sufficient to throw medieval Europe into a real "Dark Ages": the Great Famine and the Black Death. Each caused millions of deaths, and each in its way demonstrated in dramatic fashion the existence of new vulnerabilities in Western European society. Together they subjected the population of medieval Europe to tremendous strains, leading many people to challenge old institutions and doubt traditional values, and, by so doing, these calamities altered the path of European development in many areas.

hese two were born into upper-class feudal families (Peter in Brittany in 1079, and Bernard in Champagne in 1090), and grew up in a period when, after the inconclusive ending of the so-called "Investiture Contest", both Empire and Papacy were facing severe problems-one plagued by endemic civil war, and the other by faction-fighting in Rome and the threat of rising Norman power in southern Italy. 

For the next three weeks, the crusaders feverishly constructed ladders, catapults, battering rams, and siege towers: wheeled, wooden towers filled with men that could then be pushed up against the walls of the defending city, releasing its soldiers against the parapets. Perhaps the most devastating of the wooden war machines constructed by the crusaders though, was the trebuchet.

The most spectacular of all the 14th century peasants was the English Peasants' War. In 1381, the English peasants revolted, angered over legislation like the Statute of Labourers, which tied them to the land and imposed new taxes. One of these taxes, the poll tax, was particularly troublesome. A whole or head tax is a tax levied on individual simply because he exists. In 1380, the English government issued a new poll tax, the third in just four years. Meanwhile, landlords were constantly increasing rents on their land, lay and to which the peasants was now tied by the Statute of Labourers.

"Published on Jun 2, 2014 http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and... What was the difference between the fortress of a great magnate and the palace of a king? A lack of differentiation dogged the medieval monarchy. Yet royal buildings were deliberately distinct from their aristocratic imitators. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and... Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,500 lectures free to access or download from the website. Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Category Education License Standard YouTube License "

"Medieval libraries in England were assembled in many places and for different purposes. Monastic libraries supported both theological education and the advancement of learning, and provided the seeds for later university libraries. Cathedrals and their schools likewise collected books and encouraged their reading. Royal libraries gathered both practical and artistic books, with illuminated manuscripts given and received as signs of wealth and power. However, our knowledge of these libraries can be described as limited at best. The majority of manuscripts have been lost over time, their greatest enemies being fire, war or insurrection, theft and neglect. So what can we know about the manuscripts contained in these medieval libraries? And how and where were these manuscripts produced?"