Kat Cendana – Page 11 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on November 20, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ottomans Make Wallachia a Tributary

After conquering Thrace and Bulgaria, the Turks turned north and crossed the Danube into Wallachia. It had become independent of neighboring Hungary some years before and was ruled by its own governor Mircea cel Batran. After years of war with the Turks, the Ottomans finally made Wallachia a tributary in 1417. This is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History at 1416.

Mircea the Elder and the Struggle of Wallachia

The region of Wallachia in present-day Romania was first settled by a group of people called the Vlachs. During the early 1200s, the neighboring Hungarian rulers extended their influence deeper into Wallachia and the coast of the Black Sea. The voivode (governor) Radu Negru (Radu the Black) founded Wallachia in 1290. It was a tributary of Hungary during its early years.

Ottomans_Make_Wallachia_a_Tributary — “Hungarian rulers extended their influence deeper into Wallachia and the coast of the Black Sea.”

Wallachia became independent of Hungary under voivode Basarab I around 1330. Mircea the Elder (cel Batran) then became Wallachia’s voivode in 1386. Because of Mircea, Wallachian and Hungarian relations improved. Ten years later, Mircea joined forces with the Hungarians and the French against the Ottomans in the ill-fated Battle of Nicopolis. Mircea survived, and he returned to Wallachia in safety. Upon his return, he found that he had become unpopular among his people because of the disaster in the Battle of Nicopolis.

The Wallachians under Mircea continued the fight against the Ottomans between 1397 and 1400. Bayezid, the Turkish sultan who led the Turks to victory in the Battle of Nicopolis, was captured by Timur in 1402. Some of his sons were also captured but were later set free except for a prince named Musa. A civil war then flared among Bayezid’s sons after their father died in captivity. Timur had set Musa free in 1403, and he immediately came back to Anatolia. Musa also joined the civil war, and he later sought an alliance with Mircea when he fled to Wallachia.

Mehmed, one of Bayezid’s sons, eventually won against his brothers and started his reign in 1413. The Ottoman Empire has just emerged from a civil war, so it was far from stable at that time. Still, Mehmed managed to seize Wallachia and Mircea was forced to submit to him as a tributary. Mircea died in 1418. His son, Vlad II Dracul, became the voivode of Wallachia in 1436 but was forced to flee to the Ottomans after he was deposed by his rivals. During his reign, Wallachia continued to be a tributary of the powerful Ottoman Empire. As a vassal of the Ottomans, Vlad also needed to send his sons Radu and Vlad III (later known as the Impaler) to the Turkish court as hostages.

References:
Picture By Alexander Vovchenko – http://500px.com/photo/61284774, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2011.

Posted on November 18, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Europe, Turkish Domain in

The Byzantine Empire experienced a disastrous civil war and an equally destructive earthquake during the mid-1300s. These two events contributed to the fall of Thrace to the Ottomans and gave them the first Turkish domain in Europe between 1354 and 1357 where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History. The Ottoman Empire steadily advanced into Europe in the years that followed. Its borders swept past the Balkans and even reached beyond Budapest in Hungary at its height in the fifteenth century.

New Emperor, Old Problems

On the 10th of December 1354, the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos left his throne in disgrace to live a quiet life as a monk. The Turks led by Orhan’s son, Suleyman Pasha, had occupied a great part of the Gallipoli Peninsula after a major earthquake shattered its cities. The displaced Greeks asked the emperor for help, but John VI knew any appeal to Orhan would be useless. He abdicated instead and left the throne to his rebellious co-emperor John V Palaiologos.

Before the earthquake, John V had waged a civil war against his co-emperor in a bid to wrest the throne away from him. He finally got what he wanted in 1354 after John VI’s abdication. There was no victory for John V as the “empire” he received was poor, powerless, and swarmed by Turks who were eager to migrate westward. In his desperation, the new emperor sent a letter to Pope Innocent VI requesting soldiers and warships. In exchange for the Pope’s help, he promised to convert to Catholicism and to dissolve the Orthodox Church. He also sent his son Manuel to the Pope in Avignon as an insurance.

Pope Innocent VI could do something about John V’s desire to convert to Catholicism. There was, however, little that he could do about the emperor’s need for soldiers. The Pope requested some soldiers to the rulers of Genoa, Venice, and Cyprus but none of his letters were answered.

Meanwhile, Suleyman Pasha had asked for more Turkish soldiers and civilians to come over and occupy Thrace. They drove out Arab nomads from a place called Karasi and resettled them in Rumelia (Bulgaria and Turkish Thrace). It was said that these new residents arrived every day on the shores of Thrace in 1357.

The year 1357 was not a good one for the Ottoman bey. His son Khalil was kidnapped by Phocaean pirates, while his favorite son Suleyman Pasha also died in the same year. These events pushed Orhan to come to terms with John V, and temporarily stop the resettlement of and expansion in Thrace. Prince Khalil was rescued in 1358. John V immediately arranged his engagement to his daughter, Irene. Unfortunately, this plan was bound to fail as Khalil died the following year. The fierce Prince Murad soon replaced his brother as commander of the Turkish army in Thrace.

References:
Picture By Henri Segur – Own work, Public Domain, Link
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Setton, Kenneth M., Harry W. Hazard, and Norman P. Zacour, eds. A History of the Crusades: The Impact of the Crusades on Europe. Vol. VI. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Shepard, Jonathan. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C. 500-1492. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on November 16, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ottomans Take Gallipoli

By the time of Sultan Osman’s death, the Ottomans had conquered most of the cities on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. Osman was succeeded by his son Orhan, and he continued his father’s expansionist policies. He led the Ottomans in conquering the last Greek holdouts on the coast of the Sea of Marmara during his reign as Bey. But an earthquake on the Aegean Sea destroyed the Gallipoli Peninsula (along with much of Thrace) in 1354. The Ottomans later took advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of the earthquake by taking Gallipoli. This is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during 1253.

The Unstoppable Conquerors

In the early fourteenth century, Osman led the Turks westward and conquered territories in the coast of the Sea of Marmara. His son, Orhan, continued this task when his father died in 1326. In the years that followed, Orhan gained an ally in the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos after he gave his daughter in marriage to the Turkish Bey. However, the alliance did not stop the Turkish Bey in his conquest spree. The Turks captured the city of Nicaea in 1331, and the city of Nicomedia soon fell to them after a long siege in 1337.

Ottoman_Gallipoli — “Satellite image of the Gallipoli peninsula and surrounding area”

Civil War and the Occupation of Thrace

John VI Kantakouzenos had agreed to make the son of Emperor Andronikos III, John V, as his co-emperor. John V was angry that he had to settle as a junior emperor, so in 1352, he and his troops attacked the Thracian city of Adrianople. The city was ruled by John VI’s son Matthew who immediately asked his father for additional men to defend the city. Since Orhan was the emperor’s son-in-law, John VI turned to him for help. The Ottoman Bey agreed to send his troops (led by his son Suleyman Pasha) to help Matthew against John V in Thrace.

John V, meanwhile, had asked the Serbian king Stefan Dušan for help. Stefan gave him as much as 4,000 men to bolster his own troops, and they met in battle outside of Adrianople. John V and his Serbian soldiers, however, were defeated by the Ottomans led by Suleyman Pasha. The Ottomans then captured John V, and he was exiled by his co-emperor to a far-off island.

An Earthquake and the Fall of Gallipoli

The troubles of John VI seemed never-ending as the Turks also raided the villages around Adrianople. They then occupied the fortress of Tzympe on the north coast of the Gallipoli Peninsula. The devil’s bargain between the emperor and the bey worsened when a massive earthquake shook the Aegean Sea in 1354. Almost all the cities in Thrace crumbled during the earthquake, and the city of Gallipoli itself was not spared.

Thousands of people died when the earthquake struck. The Greek survivors needed to go elsewhere for shelter. Suleyman Pasha took advantage of the bleak situation by ordering his own people to travel to the affected cities. The Turks then rebuilt the houses and announced that the cities were theirs. Some Turks also travelled to the surrounding villages and claimed them as Turkish lands. The Greeks appealed to their Emperor John VI who, in turn, pleaded with Orhan. The bey did not take action, so the elderly John VI finally left the Byzantine throne on the 10th of December 1354. Meanwhile, the Turks had occupied most of Thrace which drove out many of the former Greek inhabitants.

References:
Picture by: Public Domain, Link
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Setton, Kenneth M., Harry W. Hazard, and Norman P. Zacour, eds. A History of the Crusades: The Impact of the Crusades on Europe. Vol. VI. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Shepard, Jonathan. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C. 500-1492. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Uyar, Mesut, and Edward J. Erickson. A Military History of the Ottomans: From Osman to Atatürk. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International/ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Posted on November 14, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — 1 Comment

Crusade, Seventh

Another war loomed on the horizon less than twenty years after Frederick II of Germany’s unconventional Sixth Crusade. Jerusalem once again fell into Muslim hands in 1244. European monarchs were urged to go back to the Holy Land for a reconquest. Propelled by religious fervor, King Louis IX of France launched the Seventh Crusade in 1248. The new Crusaders were well-prepared and well-supplied (unlike most of the previous ones) so that the mission went well at first. But just like the earlier ones, the Seventh Crusade ended in failure. It also dampened the Europeans’ enthusiasm to join the Crusades. The Seventh Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1270.

Jerusalem Recaptured by the Ayyubids

Frederick II received the city of Jerusalem and some parts of the Holy Land after securing the Treaty of Jaffa with the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil in 1229. He declared himself the king of the city but left it when he heard that Pope Gregory IX attacked the island of Sicily (then a part of the Holy Roman Empire). He assigned two Frankish noblemen to rule the city while he was away from Jerusalem, but he never came back to the Holy Land as long as he lived.

The Ayyubid ruler, al-Kamil, died in 1238, so his son As-Salih Ayyub and his brother As-Salih Ismail now fought to become the new ruler of the Ayyubid lands. While the two men were at war with each other, the Treaty of Jaffa secured by Frederick II in 1229 also expired. As-Salih Ayyub used the end of the treaty and prepared to establish his rule on his father’s domain. He hired Khwarezmian mercenaries to bolster his Egyptian troops and attacked Jerusalem on the 11th of August, 1244.

Louis IX: The Crusader King

News of Jerusalem’s fall to the Ayyubid ruler reached Europe soon after. The pope once again called for a new Crusade, but unlike before, he did not need to work too hard for someone to answer the call. His enthusiastic volunteer was King Louis IX of France. The young king was known for his devotion to Christianity and he was later canonized as a saint. He fell into a coma in 1244, and people were afraid that he might die. The king miraculously recovered from his illness just as the people were beginning to lose hope.

After his recovery, he announced that he would go on a Crusade to the Holy Land. His mother and regent, Queen Blanche of Castille, was displeased with his decision. Louis refused to change his mind, so there was nothing that she could do. Thanks to her competent rule, Louis could afford to leave as he was the only European monarch whose hold on the throne was secure.

He prepared for the voyage and war for the next three years. He imposed a special Crusade tax on the church and used the money to buy warships from the Genoese. He also convinced many French noblemen to join him. As much as 1,500 knights and their entourage signed up so that around 25,000 men joined the Seventh Crusade. French soldiers made up the bulk of the Crusaders, but some Englishmen, Scots, Norwegians, and Germans also joined them. The king also sent enough food and other provisions ahead to Cyprus even before the whole army set sail.

Detour in Cyprus

The Crusaders led by King Louis IX left Europe in summer of 1248. His queen, Margaret of Provence, came with him, while his brothers Robert of Artois and Charles of Naples joined them. The Earl of Salisbury, the Count of Marche, and the French chronicler Jean de Joinville also joined them. They arrived in Cyprus in September of 1248 and stayed there for the rest of the year. They could not agree whether they should attack Syria or Egypt first. Others wanted to spend winter in Cyprus as the Mediterranean was dangerous during that time of the year. Those who wanted to stay temporarily in Cyprus won. They sailed to Egypt in spring of 1249.

crusade_seventh — “Louis IX being taken prisoner”

The Crusade in Egypt

They sailed south into Egypt and arrived in the city of Damietta on the 5th of June 1249. The new Crusaders initially won several battles against the Egyptians. The Ayyubid soldiers lost their confidence when they heard of Sultan as-Salih’s death. Now that the Sultan was dead, the defenders of Damietta had no choice but to retreat into the city of Mansoura. In the city, they waited for the announcement as-Salih’s successor.

The Crusaders occupied Damietta, but they did not linger there for long. They pursued of the Egyptians further up the Nile in November and arrived in Mansoura in February 1250. Louis IX’s brother, Robert of Artois, led his soldiers in the siege of Mansoura, but he was killed along with his men. Robert’s death was a big blow to Louis’ Crusaders, and it was the start of the mission’s downfall.

Al-Muazzam Turanshah, as-Salih’s successor, later arrived in Mansoura from Hasankeyf (in Anatolia) to lead Egypt’s defence against the Crusaders. He ordered his men to block the Nile so that the Crusaders would not be able to retreat to Damietta. With nowhere else to go, Louis and the Crusaders had no choice but to surrender. He was imprisoned by Turanshah, and his wife (who stayed behind in Damietta) had to ransom him so he would be freed.

The remaining Crusaders, along with Louis and Margaret, sailed off to Acre after they were set free. Louis fortified the walls of Acre and other cities in the Holy Land while he was there. He left for France in 1254.

References:
Picture By Gustave Doré – http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/croisades/big_images/_images.htm, Public Domain, Link
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Perry, Frederick. Saint Louis (Louis IX. of France): The Most Christian King. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1901.
Shaw, Margaret R. B., Geoffroi De Villehardouin, and Jean Joinville. Chronicles of the Crusades. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963.

Posted on November 12, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Latin Empire, End of the

The Latin Empire that was established after the Sack of Constantinople in 1204 went into a steady decline in the years that followed. It was divided into several groups to start with, and rival empires also rose to weaken it further. The rulers who succeeded Emperor Henry were hounded with bad luck or were weak in the first place. Finally, the last Latin Emperor Baldwin II was driven out of Constantinople. This signalled the end of the Latin Empire in 1261, which is where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History. Although he tried, he was not meant to return to Constantinople to get his throne back. Baldwin II died in Italy in 1273.

The Beginning of the End

The Latin Emperor Henry died without an heir, so the Empire was given to his brother-in-law, Peter II of Courtenay. The new king lived in Western Francia at that time, so he let his wife Yolanda travel to Constantinople ahead of him to rule as his regent. He left Francia in 1217, but he disappeared while passing through the Despotate of Epirus (led by Theodore Komnenos Doukas). Because of the mysterious disappearance of the emperor, Yolanda was forced to rule Constantinople until her own death in 1219.

latin_empire_ends — “Capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.”

A couple of years passed before her son, Robert I, accepted the position of Latin Emperor. He was a weak ruler, and by 1225, John III Vatatzes of Nicaea had reduced the Latin Empire into nothing more than the city of Constantinople. When he died, Robert left Constantinople to his younger brother, Baldwin II, who was a young boy at that time. The Regency was assigned to John of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, who ruled from 1229 to 1237.

When Baldwin II came of age, Constantinople had become so poor that he was forced to pawn or sell off some of the remaining treasures in the palace. In 1261, the Byzantine general Alexios Stratigopoulos and his troops entered Constantinople. Baldwin II fled Constantinople and returned to Western Francia which ended the reign of the Latin emperors. He lived until 1273 but never recovered Constantinople.

References:
Picture By Palma Le Jeune (1544–1620) – Lebédel, Claude (2006) Les croisades, origines et consequences, Ouest-France ISBN: 978-2-7373-4136-6., Public Domain, Link
Jacoby, David. The New Cambridge Medieval History C. 1198-1300. Edited by David Abulafia. Vol. V. Cambridge: University Press, 1995.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
Roberts, J. M., and Odd Arne. Westad. The History of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Posted on November 10, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Alexius I Komnenos

Alexius I Komnenos reigned as the Byzantine emperor from 1081 until AD 1118, which is where he is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History. Throughout his reign, the former general and scion of a powerful Byzantine family had to contend with the formidable Seljuk Empire during the First Crusade. He had to be content with a greatly reduced empire when the European noblemen refused to return the former Byzantine cities that they had captured from the Seljuks. Alexius, however, brought a sense of stability to his domain during his 37-year reign.

Early Life and Military Career

Alexius I Komnenos was the son of the powerful Domestic of the Schools, John Komnenos, by his wife, Anna Dalassena. He was born around 1048 or 1058. He descended from an influential Byzantine family. His uncle Isaac I Komnenos served as an emperor from 1057 to 1059. A mention of Alexius I Komnenos is incomplete without the mention of his brilliant daughter, the biographer and physician Anna Komnene. She chronicled much of her father’s life and the challenges he faced in her book ‘The Alexiad.’ According to his daughter, Alexius started his service for the Byzantine Empire at a very young age during the reign of Emperor Romanos Diogenes and Emperor Michael Doukas.

Alexius proved himself as a promising warrior at the age of fourteen when he accompanied Romanos Diogenes to the war against the Persians. However, he was sent home after the death of his older brother. Alexius was promoted as a young lieutenant during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Michael Doukas. He promptly defeated the Norman rebel leader Roussell de Bailleul in 1078. He was appointed as a military commander under Nikephoros III Botaneiates when he defeated the rebels Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder and Nikephoros Basilakes.

alexios_i_komnenos — “Portrait of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos”

Rebellion Against Nikephoros III Botaneiates and Accession as Byzantine Emperor

Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates was hard-pressed on all sides during the last year of his reign. The Byzantine Empire had lost territories in Southern Italy to the land-hungry Normans, and a great part of the eastern side of Anatolia was now under Seljuk rule through its vassal, the Sultan of Rum. A rebellion was also brewing in his own palace after he made the mistake of removing the previous emperor’s son, Constantine Doukas, in line for succession as emperor and broke off his engagement to Robert Guiscard’s daughter. Maria of Alania, Constantine’s mother, was angered by the emperor’s deposition of her son. She started a plot to depose her husband with the help of the powerful Doukas family and Alexius’ mother Anna Dalassena.

The plot was successful, and Nikephoros was forced to abdicate in 1081 in favor of Alexius I Komnenos who kept his promise of keeping Maria of Alania’s son Constantine as his co-emperor. Maria of Alania planned to marry Alexius to keep her place as Byzantine empress, but this was intercepted by Alexius’ mother Anna Dalassena who had arranged the emperor’s marriage to Irene Doukaina (from the Doukas family). The young Constantine remained as Alexius’ co-emperor despite his marriage to another woman. He compensated by arranging the prince’s engagement to his own daughter, Anna Komnena. In 1087, however, Alexius’s son, John II Komnenos was born, and to Maria’s dismay, the emperor was forced to break off the engagement of his daughter to Constantine. Maria of Alania retired to a monastery soon after this, and the sickly Constantine died in 1095 which cleared the way for John II Komnenos’ succession.

The First Crusade

Alexius overcame the Norman, Pecheneg, and Tzacha threats to his empire during the early years of his reign. However, the greatest threat to the Byzantine territories were the formidable Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks had conquered most of Western Asia in the mid-eleventh century. Alexius knew that it would be impossible to stop them unless he sought the help of a powerful ally. He first requested the help of Pope Urban II by offering to unite the Greek and Latin churches. The negotiations failed when the pope insisted on the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church.

When Alexius felt that the Seljuk threat had completely overwhelmed the Byzantines, he requested once again for Pope Urban to send some troops to reinforce his own. Alexius’ letter reached Urban when he was on tour in France. The pope agreed to help, but added a religious undertone to the emperor’s simple request for reinforcements in his sermon in the French city of Clermont. The result was not what Alexius had envisioned after hundreds of leaderless troops poured into Byzantine territory in the Balkans. The emperor was forced to send these dangerous men into the Asian side to prevent them from camping too near the city of Constantinople. Upon reaching the Asian side, the Byzantine’s supposed allies promptly attacked a city held by the Sultan of Rum. These men were then killed by Seljuk troops. Alexius had to order his own troops to rescue some of the misguided soldiers.

Alexius breathed a sigh of relief when more disciplined troops under European noblemen arrived in 1096. Before the official start of the Crusade, the Emperor compelled them to swear an oath that they would return any city they conquered to the Byzantines. Several of the European noblemen who joined the Crusade never took it seriously as they were also hungry for land and wealth. Despite the challenges the Crusaders faced, the First Crusade was a success. Jerusalem was back in Christian hands by AD 1099. The European noblemen, however, occupied the territories they conquered as their own. Many were never returned to Byzantine hands (much to Alexius’ dismay). He scored a major victory against the Seljuks in 1116 and 1117 but died in 1118 after a long illness.

References:
Picture By Alexios1komnenos.jpg: Unknownderivative work: Constantine ✍ – Alexios1komnenos.jpg, Public Domain, Link
Anna Comnena (Komnene). The Alexiad. Edited and translated by Elizabeth A. Dawes. London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul, 1928.
Kazhdan, A. P., Alice-Mary Maffry Talbot, Anthony Cutler, Timothy E. Gregory, and Nancy Patterson Sﾌ憩vcﾌ憩nko, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Shepard, Jonathan, ed. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire C. 500-1492. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Treadgold, Warren. A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1997. Print.

Posted on November 8, 2017October 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — 3 Comments

Christianity Introduced in China

Christianity was introduced to China during 627 AD as recorded on the Bible Timeline. The following article explains how this event occurred.

Nestorian Christianity

Taught by the Persian monk and former Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius in the fourth century, the doctrine of Nestorianism had long experienced persecution after it was considered a heresy in 431 AD. Nestorianism taught that Christ had two separate natures: one that was distinctly human (Man) and the other one distinctly divine (Logos). Nestorius considered the Virgin Mary the Christotokos or “bearer of Christ”, but not the Theotokos or “God-bearer” which was the position the Patriarchs in Constantinople supported.

It was first opposed by Cyril of Alexandria and the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD which resulted in the condemnation of Nestorianism as heretical. As additional punishment, the council removed Nestorius from his position as Patriarch and exiled him in Upper Egypt where he died in 451 AD. However, Nestorius’ exile and the anathematization of his theological position did not deter his followers from spreading his ideas throughout Mesopotamia, Persia, and India. Because of the Nestorian missionaries, Christianity eventually made its way to China in the early 7th century.

Alopen and the Nestorian Stele

A massive stele (carved stone monument) was discovered by some workers in China’s former capital of Xi’an in 1625 AD. The limestone stele weighed two tons, stood ten feet high, and measured one meter wide with Chinese text inscribed on the front, as well as a tortoise-shaped carving at the bottom that functioned as its pedestal. The presence of another script inscribed with the Chinese text made the stele an object of mystery. Foreign scholars who later examined it realized the script was Syriac. How did it get there and what was its relationship to Christianity?

chrisitan_china — “Epitaph of a Nestorian, unearthed at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia”

The stele was a remnant of China’s very brief relationship with Christianity which started nearly 1,000 years after the inscribed stone’s discovery. It was carved and erected in 781 AD during Christianity’s peak in China with inscriptions that celebrated the arrival of the new religion in the empire. The names of the Assyrian missionaries who served during that time were also inscribed on the stele. One inscription that stood out was the name of Alopen (named Olopun in some texts), a 7th century Persian Nestorian monk and missionary who first entered China in 635 AD. The Syriac-speaking monk was probably an envoy from Khotan near China’s western frontier or perhaps he came directly from Persia (specifically Bukhara in Sogdia) after the Tang army defeated the Western Turks and allowed Middle Eastern merchants to pass east into China.

When news of the arrival of a prominent Persian envoy/missionary reached him, the Tang Dynasty Emperor Taizong sent his own minister of the state to come and escort Alopen to his court in Xi’an. He was a tolerant emperor who allowed Alopen to preach to his people. Christianity was soon accepted by many people in the empire (Taizong also allowed other religions, such as Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, to flourish during his reign). The emperor became so pleased with Alopen that he ordered a Nestorian monastery to be built in the Persian and the Central Asian quarter (I-ning) of Xi’an with 21 monks in residence. Christianity was further elevated during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, and Alopen was promoted as a Spiritual Lord of the court by an Imperial Decree. Many Christian monasteries were built all over China during the reign of early Tang Dynasty emperors.

However, the Tang Dynasty’s glorious era would slowly and violently come to an end after the An Lushan rebellion between 755 and 763 AD. Christianity continued to flourish in China for more than 150 years after Alopen’s arrival. It suffered a reversal of fortunes during the reign of Emperor Wuzong. He started the persecution of the followers of “foreign” religions (Buddhism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism) and only allowed the practice of native religions, such as Confucianism and Taoism, to flourish under his rule. The emperor’s intolerance sent Nestorian Christianity from its more than 200-year golden age in China to a complete decline by 845 AD.

References:
Picture By Baomi – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40343931
“Alopen.”: A: By Person: Stories: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity. Accessed September 07, 2016. http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/a/alopen.php.
By Imperial Decree, Alopen Was Promoted to Be Great Spiritual Lord, Protector of the Empire, I.e. Metropolitan of Chang-an. No Doubt the Nestorian Monument Greatly Exaggerated the Importance of Nestorianism in T’ang China. “Nestorian Christianity in the Tang Dynasty.” Accessed September 07, 2016. http://www.orthodox.cn/localchurch/jingjiao/nest1.htm.
Kurian, George Thomas., and James D. Smith, eds. The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2010.
“Nestorian Tablet: Eulogizing the Propagation of the Illustrious Religion in China, with a Preface, Composed by a Priest of the Syriac Church, 781 A.D.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed September 07, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/781nestorian.asp.
“The Nestorians in China & The Far East.” The Nestorians in China & The Far East. Accessed September 07, 2016. http://www.nestorian.org/the_nestorians_in_china_-_the_far_east.html.

Posted on November 6, 2017October 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ottomans Take Epirus

The city of Epirus was one of the oldest cities in Greece. It was the home of Pyrrhus, the renowned Greek general who lent his name to the phrase “Pyrrhic victory.” The Romans later conquered it and gave it to the Eastern Empire during the division. The Ottomans took some cities of Epirus from the Greeks starting in 1430 and ruled them afterwards. It is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History around that time.

Epirus

Epirus is located in the northwestern part of modern-day Greece. It was an ancient and powerful region where groups of Greek-speaking people called the Molossians, Chaonians, and Thesprotians lived. It was the home of the Greek general Pyrrhus who became famous after he led his troops in attacking and defeating the Romans. Rome conquered Epirus in 167 BC, and it became a Byzantine territory when the Roman Empire was split into two in AD 285.

Epirus continued to be a Byzantine territory until the arrival of the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The Byzantine Empire briefly disappeared, while independent states appeared which included the Despotate of Epirus. The despotate held the city of Thessaloniki (Salonika) until 1246 until it became a Byzantine territory once again in 1336.

The Arrival of the Ottomans in Epirus

The Ottoman sultan Murad II was the son of Mehmed I and the grandson of Bayezid. Murad II became Sultan after his father’s death in 1421. He immediately started the Ottomans’ First Siege of Constantinople in 1422. The siege of Constantinople did not succeed, so he turned east and conquered other Turkish beyliks (states) in Anatolia. He defeated the Venetians in the Siege of Thessalonica in 1430, and turned west to conquer the city of Ioannina in Epirus that same year.

Murad II briefly retired in 1444 after the death of his eldest son. The Turkish throne passed to his young son, Mehmed II, but the boy was unpopular among the janissaries (elite soldiers). To avert the rebellion of the janissaries, Murad II returned to rule once again two years after his retirement. He won the second Battle of Kosovo in 1448 and capped off his last years on the Turkish throne by conquering the Epirote city of Arta in 1449. After his brief break from the throne, Mehmed II returned to rule after his father’s death in 1451. The Ottomans continued to rule Epirus until 1913 when it was returned to Greece after the First Balkan War.

References:
Picture By Catalaon – Own work, Public Domain, Link
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
Fleet, Kate. The New Cambridge History of Islam: The Western Islamic World, Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries. Edited by Maribel Fierro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Mikaberidze, Alexander. Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2011.

Posted on November 4, 2017October 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Edict of Nantes Revoked 1685

On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV had the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced it with the repressive Edict of Fontainebleau. This royal decree made the persecution of Huguenots a state policy and started the decline of Protestantism in France. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.

The Edict of Nantes 1598

The Edict of Nantes granted multiple freedoms to the Protestants of France.

The Edict of Nantes was a royal decree signed by King Henry IV on April 13, 1598. The aim of the decree was to unite the kingdom which had been wracked by the Wars of Religions since 1562. It granted the Huguenots the freedom of conscience, as well as the freedom to worship in Protestant towns except in Paris or in areas near the city.

The Huguenots would then allow the Catholics to worship in Protestant towns without fear of harassment. Huguenots were also allowed to hold public offices, as well as elect their own representative in the Parliament. The state itself would pay the pastors with an annual grant, and allow them to maintain their own strongholds.

The Edict gave limited freedom to Protestants, but Pope Clement VIII and much of France’s Roman Catholic clergy did not rejoice when it was issued. Queen Elizabeth I, the Protestant queen of England, became furious, while Spain’s Philip II was happy with the issuance of the decree.

The Edict of Fontainebleau 1685 (Revocation of the Edict of Nantes)

The Edict of Nantes was ratified “perpetual and irrevocable,” but the irrevocable part was only valid during Henry’s lifetime. He died on May 14, 1610, and his son, Louis XIII, succeeded soon after his father’s assassination. A devout Catholic, it was not long before Louis moved to undo his father’s legacy.

Catholics were still the overwhelming majority in 17th-century France. The influential Marie de’ Medici (Louis XIII’s mother) herself was a devout Catholic, so it was no wonder that many clauses of the Edict were not enforced. Huguenot rebellions flared up once again in 1620, and tensions continued until the signing of the Peace of Ales in 1629. Cardinal Richelieu, Louis’s chief minister, disregarded some clauses of the Edict of Nantes and offered what was left to the Huguenots in exchange for amnesty.

The persecution and economic repression of the Huguenots intensified during the reign of King Louis XIV. The king forbade them from working in certain professions, while the salaries of their pastors went unpaid. The authorities also closed down Huguenot schools and churches. They were not allowed to construct new churches while existing ones were soon demolished. The Huguenots were also forbidden to move anywhere within their own homeland.

The king also sent dragoons to live in Huguenot houses and harass the families so they would be forced to convert to Catholicism. It didn’t take long for many Huguenots to give in to pressure and convert. Others, meanwhile, chose to leave France for New France, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Protestant-friendly European states than forsake their beliefs. On October 22, 1685, King Louis XIV made his anti-Huguenot stance an official state policy by having the Edict of Nantes revoked and replaced with the Edict of Fontainebleau.

Protestant churches were burned or demolished, while children born from Huguenot parents were forcibly baptized into Catholicism. Protestant men who tried to flee the kingdom to avoid forced conversions were sent to galleys as slaves. Female fugitives, on the other hand, were sent to prisons. It was illegal for Protestants to leave France, but thousands still chose to become exiles. The few Huguenots who chose to remain in France, meanwhile, were mostly confined to the rugged southeastern portion of the kingdom. Some chose to convert publicly, but remained Protestants in their own homes for fear of execution.

References:

Picture by: Henry IV – Grands Documents de l’Histoire de France, Archives Nationales, Public Domain, Link

Cathal, J. Nolan. Wars of the Age of Louis XIV, 1650-1715: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.

Long, Kathleen P. Religious Differences in France: Past and Present. Kirksville: Kirksville, Mo., 2006.

“Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685.” Internet History Sourcebooks. Accessed August 30, 2017. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1685revocation.asp.

Posted on November 2, 2017October 19, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Alexis I, Second Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty 1645

Alexis Mikhailovich (born March 9, 1629) was the eldest son of Tsar Michael I of Russia and Tsarina Eudoxia Streshneva. He inherited the throne at the age of sixteen upon his father’s death on July 13, 1645, and suffered another devastating loss five weeks later when Eudoxia herself died. Young Alexis, however, had little time to indulge his grief as Russia’s borders were threatened by Tatars and Poles. He was crowned tsar at Moscow’s Cathedral of Dormition on the 28th of September, 1645. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

Second Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty

Alexis was reputed to be athletic, energetic, and imposing. Raised in affluence, Prince Alexis received the best education possible for a man of his status. Unlike his father, this young king could hold his own and did not hesitate to use cruelty against any minister who dared oppose him.

Alexis received the epithet “Young Monk” because of his religious devotion that sometimes bordered on fanatical. When he was not holding court or hunting with his hawks, he could be found praying at church—often for hours on end.

Even a powerful tsar needed an ally, so he promoted a former tutor named Boris Morozov as his chief minister soon after his coronation. Two years later, Alexis asked his courtiers to organize a bride-show so he could choose for himself a tsarina. He chose Euphemia Vsevolozhskaya as his bride, but the wedding was called off when the young lady fainted after the too-tight crown was placed on her head. The audience thought that she was probably unhealthy or bewitched which made her unfit as a queen. She and her family were soon sent into exile.

Morozov used this incident to elevate another maiden named Maria Miloslavskaya as Alexis’s possible wife. She was the elder daughter of Ilya Miloslavsky, a close friend of Morozov. Alexis found her to his liking, and they were married on January 16, 1647. The crafty Morozov then bound himself to Alexis by marrying Maria’s younger sister Anna several days later. Morozov used his role as the Tsar’s brother-in-law and closest adviser to become one of the richest boyars in Moscow.

Morozov then earned the anger of the people when he cut the government spending on services but continued raising the salt tax. The people finally had enough, and they vented their anger on Alexis on the 1st of June, 1648. The Tsar was on his way back from a pilgrimage, but he was stopped by an angry mob as he was about to enter the city. They presented their grievances to the tsar, and he promised to investigate, but some of his guards swooped in on the crowd and arrested some of their leaders.

Another mob formed the morning after the confrontation and demanded that their leaders be released. They also demanded that Morozov and other corrupt officials be removed from their positions. The crowd then went to Morozov’s home (as well as the homes of other government officials) and started to riot. Morozov secretly fled Kremlin, but other boyars were not as lucky and were beaten by the crowd when they were caught. A senior official named Leonid Pleshcheev was beaten to death by the crowd when Alexis finally gave him up.

The tsar had no choice but to promise that he would remove Morozov from power and reform the government. He then appointed his cousin, the popular Nikita Romanov, to replace Morozov as his adviser. He also addressed the people the next day, but tearfully told them that he could not bring himself to hand his ex-tutor over to them. The people were moved, and they agreed to let the tsar send him to exile to a distant monastery instead.

The Tsar then summoned the Zemskii Sobor (Assembly of the Land) so they could come up with the reforms he promised to the crowd. Alexis and the Zemskii Sobor came up with some reforms, but those were not in the best interest of the peasants. instead was the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, a legal code with clauses that bound the peasants and slaves to serfdom.

Religious Reforms and Russian Expansion

Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich ruled Russia from 1645-1676.

Alexis then made another fatal mistake when he appointed a popular monk named Nikon (a member of his clique of holy men, the Zealots of Piety) as Patriarch of Moscow. Soon it was not the Tsar who signed his own decrees but the Patriarch himself. He turned on German migrants (mostly merchants) and confined them in their own quarters where they were free to “commit sins.” He also decreed that the sign of the cross should be made with three fingers instead of two. Those who refused to follow his instructions would then be executed.

Alexis declared war against Poland on April 23, 1654, with the encouragement of the Ukrainian Cossack warlord Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the blessing of Patriarch Nikon. The Tsar himself led his troops to Smolensk and besieged it until it fell to the Russians five months later. Nikon, meanwhile, was in charge of Moscow while Alexis and the Russian troops were busy taking some parts of Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania. This alarmed the Swedes who then sent troops to check Russia’s advance.

Complaints of Nikon’s high-handedness soon reached the Tsar and forced him to return to Moscow. A confrontation between the two men descended into a shouting match when the Tsar blamed the patriarch for the wars that they were facing. This was the start of the end for Nikon. In 1658, the Patriarch finally left Moscow and returned to a life as an ordinary monk.

Alexis became bolder in his newfound independence and began to modernize the government and the military. The Russian army, however, suffered a major defeat in 1659 at the hands of the allied Poles, Tatars, and Swedes. The Russian minister Afanasy Ordin-Nashchokin was forced to sue for peace with Sweden and consider an alliance with Poland.

Later Years

The tsar had promoted his father-in-law Ilya Miloslavsky as head of treasury, but he was unaware of his corrupt dealings while in office. Miloslavsky had debased the currency by substituting silver coins with less valuable copper ones which then resulted in a surge of prices of goods. An angry mob stormed the Kolomenskoye Palace on July 25, 1662, and demanded that the Tsar’s father-in-law be put to death. The Tsar tried to reason with the people but it did not work. He prepared to travel back to the Kremlin on horseback to deal with the matter but was forced to stop when the mob met him. The overwhelmed Tsar commanded his soldiers to protect him and they obeyed. Protesters were then arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death for angering the Tsar.

The episode deeply affected Alexis and made him more intolerant and despotic. He was still religious, and despite Nikon’s fall from grace, Alexis was determined to continue his reforms. Those who refused to fall in line were tortured, exiled, or executed. He also managed to crush the Cossack rebellions led by Stepan Razin and False Simon during his reign.

Tsarina Maria died on March 3, 1669, and this tragedy was soon followed by the death of another son, Simon. His courtiers organized another bride-show, but this was cut short by the death of the Tsar’s heir, Alexis. The bride-show resumed, and this time, Alexis chose Natalya Naryshkina as his new bride. They married on January 22, 1671, and the bride gave birth to their son, Peter, on May 30th of the following year.

The forty-seven-year-old Tsar fell ill on January 22, 1676. He was taken to bed, but his condition continued to worsen despite the skills of his doctors. Alexis, the man who ushered Russia into a period of rapid growth, died on January 29, 1676, and succeeded by his sickly son, Feodor.

References:

Picture by: Unknown – Google Art Project, Public Domain, Link

Montefiore, Simon Sebag. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. New York, Vintage Books, 2017.

Perrie, Maureen, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia. Vol. 1. The Cambridge History of Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521812276.