Alphabetical Index to Bible Timeline – Page 11 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on April 25, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

China: Political Reforms

Wang Anshi initiated some of China’s first reform programs in the eleventh century. Some of these were continued by the Southern Song emperors well into the twelfth century. Although things did not work out well for him despite his good intentions and radical ideas, Wang Anshi’s reputation recovered. His political reforms were recorded in the Bible Timeline Poster with World History between 1100 and 1200.

Wang Anshi and His “New Policies”

Wang Anshi implemented reforms called the “New Policies” during the reign of the Emperor Shenzong (1065-1085) after he was promoted to the position of Chief Councillor. The reforms, however, failed after the program encountered stiff opposition from the landowners, aristocrats, and entrenched bureaucrats whose careers (and profits) he had endangered. However, it was the loan and tax reform programs that he implemented for the farmers that unraveled all his efforts. This occurred after a drought had wiped out the farmers’ production and made them unable to pay the debts they owed to the government.

Wang Anshi left the capital in disgrace, and despite his good intentions, his name was demonized for nearly a thousand years until it was hailed by communists as the first of the socialist reforms in China. He died in 1086, but a number of reform policies were revived by Emperor Zhenzong (1085-1100) when he curbed the power of Wang Anshi’s opponent and influential Song Chancellor Sima Guan. His successor and younger brother, the ill-fated Emperor Huizong, was an ardent supporter of Wang Anshi’s reforms. He implemented these initiatives during his reign between 1100 and 1126. During Huizong’s reign, however, Wang Anshi’s reform programs were nothing but slogans that were used by opportunistic politicians against their rivals. Corruption was so widespread during this period that the common people were forced to launch rebellions.

The twelfth century was a tumultuous period for China after the invasion of the Jurchen nomads, the mass migration of Song refugees from north to south China, and the establishment of the city of Lin’an (present-day Hangzhou) as the Southern Song (1127-1279) capital. The baojia system, a community-based law enforcement program, was among Wang Anshi’s reform programs which flourished during the Southern Song dynasty until China was folded into the Mongols’ Yuan Dynasty in the late thirteenth century.

References:
Picture by Public Domain, Link
Fairbank, John King, and Merle Goodman. China: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992.
Grousset, Rene虂. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
Ropp, Paul S. China in World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Posted on April 24, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Latin Empire, Establishment of

The Fourth Crusade of 1203 ended in the large-scale destruction of Constantinople. After some detours in the cities of Venice, Zadar, and Constantinople, not a single Crusader arrived in Jerusalem to reconquer it. After they deposed the Greek ruling family, the Crusaders then declared Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as the new ruler of the city. The Byzantine Empire briefly disappeared after the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204 where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History.

The Latin Empire

After they had destroyed Constantinople in April 1204, the Crusaders elected Baldwin, Count of Flanders, as the Emperor of the new Latin Empire. In reality, what he held was far from an empire as the Venetians and the Franks divided the lands between them. The result was the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae (or Partitio Romaniae), and the Byzantine lands were divided as follows:

One-quarter of the so-called Empire went to Emperor Baldwin. It included a part of Constantinople, Thrace, and northwestern part of Asia Minor.

Three-eighths of the land was given to the Franks under Marquis Boniface of Montferrat (Thessalonica). The territories were given to the marquis after he was passed over for the role of the emperor during the election.

Three-eighths of the land was given to the Republic of Venice. It included a part of Constantinople, as well as the islands between Venice and the Dardanelles.

Latin_empire — “Location of Latin Empire”

Many parts of the empire were not even in their hands, so the deal was effective in paper only. The presence of Alexius (the usurper), Mourtzouphlos, and the kings that surrounded the Byzantine empire also made the Crusader rulers’ job difficult. In 1205, many of the Crusader soldiers went home which left the ex-emperors free to come back if they wanted. To safeguard their hold on the empire, Baldwin captured Mourtzouphlos and ordered his execution. Meanwhile, Marquis Boniface also captured the former usurper Alexius. But this did not mean that their thrones were safe.

Three other men rose to challenge the Crusaders’ claim to the empire. The first was Alexius I of Trebizond who came from the powerful Komnenus family. His son-in-law, Theodore I Laskaris, also declared himself the first independent Emperor of Nicaea. Michael I Komnenos Doukas, a cousin of Alexius, declared himself the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus as well.

A hostile neighbor, King Kaloyan of Bulgaria (nicknamed Ionnitsa), also threatened the Latin Empire. He conquered the city of Adrianople in 1205 and captured Emperor Baldwin when he and his knights rushed in to take the city back. Baldwin died in Kaloyan’s prison, and the Latin Empire passed on to his brother Henry. It seemed that the odds were in the Latin Empire’s favor once again as Henry proved to be a competent ruler. He toppled the rulers of the rogue states one by one, but his reign was cut short when he died in 1216.

The Latin Empire passed on to another member of Henry’s family when he died. It took many years before Constantinople recovered from the destruction it suffered. The recovery was also hampered because of the incompetence of the rulers who succeeded the emperor. The rule of the Latin Emperors ended in 1261 when the last emperor fled Constantinople for his homeland in Western Francia.

References:
Picture By Varana – own work; base map from Natural Earth, CC BY-SA 3.0, 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 April 21, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Turks 1118, Successful Combat Against the

The Seljuk Turks were a force to be reckoned for much of the tenth and twelfth century. But the Europeans learned that they were not as invincible when they scored three successful combats against the Turks in AD 1118 (this event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time). These victories included:

* The Georgian King David IV the Builder’s capture of the Kingdom of Lori from the Seljuk Turks
* Joscelin I of Edessa successful capture of the town of Azaz (in present-day Syria)
* The capture of Sardis (present-day Manisa Province, Turkey) by the Byzantine general Philocales
* Georgia Recaptured

Located between the coasts of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, the tiny Kingdom of Georgia was a battleground for foreign powers. It was united for the first time when Bagrat III became the first king of Georgia in 1008. However, his descendants still had to contend with the Seljuk Turks when they poured out of Central Asia and into Asia Minor and the Levant.

It was not until the reign of King David IV the Builder in 1089 that the Georgians started to fight back against the Seljuks. They reclaimed one by one, the lands once conquered by the Turks. In 1118, King David IV recovered the kingdom of Lori (Tashir-Dzoraget) from the Seljuk Turks. He also resettled thousands of allied Kipchak warriors to keep the land from being invaded once again by the Seljuks.

Joscelin I of Edessa Captured the Town of Azaz

The Frankish nobleman Joscelin of Courtenay arrived in the Levant in 1101 and his cousin, Count Baldwin II of Edessa, gave him the fortress of Turbessel (Tell Bashir) as his tiny domain. Their relationship broke down in 1113, and Joscelin was driven out of Turbessel in the same year. He fled to Jerusalem where he was granted the title of Prince of Galilee. He later helped capture Aleppo’s satellite town of Azaz from its Seljuk atabeg in 1118.

Philocales Captured Sardis

Just like the Kingdom of Georgia, the former Lydian capital of Sardis changed hands many times as years passed because of its strategic location. It was conquered by the Seljuk Turks some time in the eleventh century and was under the Sultanate of Rum’s (a Seljuk vassal) domination during the early part of the twelfth century. The Byzantine general Philocales wrested the city of Sardis from the Turks in 1118.

References:
Picture By Édouard Odier (1800-1887) – Unknown, Public Domain, Link
Napier, Gordon. The Pocket A – Z of the Knights Templar: A Guide to Their History and Legacy. Stroud: Spellmount, 2014. Print.
“See of Sardis.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 09, 2016. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_of_Sardis.
West, Barbara A. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. New York: Facts On File, 2009. Print.

Posted on April 20, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Sixth

If the past five Crusades were violent and the results were often disappointing, then the Sixth Crusade was downright strange. It was pulled off with great timing and without bloodshed by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II between 1228 and 1229. He received Jerusalem after signing a treaty with the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil, but neither Muslims nor Christians were happy with the turn of events. He returned to Europe in the same year, but not before he earned the ridicule of the people of the Holy Land and Europe. The Fifth Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1248 AD.

Frederick’s Crusade

Although it was not as violent as the previous ones, the Fifth Crusade also ended in disappointment and humiliation. One of those who shouldered the blame was the papal legate Pelagius because he convinced the Crusaders to attack Cairo even though they were not prepared. Pope Honorius III’s popularity also took a beating when the Fifth Crusade ended. But then he shifted the blame to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II after he failed to follow through on his promise to go to the Holy Land and lead the Crusader army.

Two years after the end of the Fifth Crusade, Frederick once again promised Pope Honorius that he would lead an army to recover Jerusalem. He set the year of his voyage in 1225, but he postponed it once again when it was time for him to leave. He promised that he would go in 1227 after the exasperated Pope finally threatened him with excommunication.

Meanwhile, Frederick agreed to marry Isabelle II (Yolande of Brienne), the teenage queen of Jerusalem. This union was also backed by Pope Honorius III and the bride’s father King John in hopes that it would force Frederick to commit himself to the Crusade. Since Isabelle was still young, her father became her regent, and he hoped that Frederick would give him the troops he needed to take back Jerusalem. It did not happen as Frederick wanted the title of the King of Jerusalem himself.

John was angry with Frederick, but there was nothing that he could do. Pope Honorius died in March of 1227 so that the German emperor once again postponed the voyage until August of that year. When August came, he conveniently fell ill after boarding the ship, and they returned to Italy after just three days at sea. No one believed that Frederick was sick. Many thought it was just another reason for him to postpone the Crusade. Pope Gregory IX, Honorius’ successor, was angry and impatient. He immediately excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, and the two became bitter enemies afterwards. They hated each other so much that the Pope even labelled Frederick as the Antichrist. Meanwhile, Frederick also did not have one good word to say about the Pope.

In the Holy Land

Isabelle II, Frederick’s wife, died after giving birth to their son Conrad in spring of 1228. Eager to claim Jerusalem for his son (or for his own), Frederick finally took the voyage to the Holy Land with a small number of knights. The Sixth Crusade started when his ship docked in the Holy Land in September of the same year. Pope Gregory was unhappy with Frederick’s initiative since he had been excommunicated before. The Pope issued a second excommunication since Frederick left Europe without the Church’s blessing.

Crusad_sixth — “Kingdom of Jerusalem after treaty from 1229”

As expected, Frederick showed that craftiness and a great sense of timing worked in his favor in the Holy Land. He made an alliance with the Ayyubid Sultan al-Kamil who, at that time, was struggling with his brother and ruler of Syria al-Mu’azzam Isa. The Syrians under Al-Mu’azzam Isa had rebelled against al-Kamil, so he was eager to put it down with the help of Frederick and his German troops. In exchange, al-Kamil would hand over Jerusalem to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick.

But Al-Mu’azzam Isa had already died when Frederick arrived in Acre. Sultan al-Kamil did not need Frederick’s help anymore, but he was not also looking forward to a new war with him. Instead, he honored their earlier treaty and simply gave Jerusalem to Frederick. But the Sultan made it clear that he wanted the Muslim inhabitants of the city to stay even though Jerusalem was back in Christian hands. He also told Frederick not to rebuild the walls of the city. A ten-year peace between them sweetened the deal.

Frederick took back Jerusalem without bloodshed—something that past Crusader Kings did not accomplish. But this strategy did not sit well with the Pope as he had excommunicated the emperor twice. The Muslims and Christians of the Holy Land were also displeased with this.

Their opinions did not matter for Frederick as he and his troops marched in victory in Jerusalem in 1229. He also crowned himself the King of Jerusalem instead of his son Conrad. The Patriarch of the holy city, however, did not support him as he had been excommunicated by the Pope. He never stayed in the city for long. He appointed two Frankish noblemen as his representatives in the city and left it in the same year to face Pope Gregory who, by then, had invaded Sicily.

References:
Picture By Muir’s Historical Atlas (1911), at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbookmap.html, Public Domain, Link
Abulafia, David. Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Edbury, Peter. 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.

Posted on April 19, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Fifth

The mess that was the Fourth Crusade ended in violence and humiliation, so Pope Innocent was eager to launch a new one. The plans for a Fifth Crusade started in 1213. It was begun in 1215 during the Fourth Council of the Lateran. The first batch of Crusaders landed in the Holy Land two years later, but the war later shifted to the Egyptian city of Damietta. Inadequate preparations and poor leadership led to the massive and embarrassing failure of the Fifth Crusade in 1221. It is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History around that time.

New Players for an Old Goal

When news of Constantinople’s destruction at the hands of the Crusaders reached him in 1204, Pope Innocent III was horrified. More than that, he was angry and embarrassed as the Fourth Crusade was his project. The Crusaders of 1204 never reached Jerusalem which was their original goal. Their only achievement (if it was indeed one) was the establishment of the unstable Latin Empire of Constantinople.

So it was only natural for Pope Innocent III to desire the redemption of the idea of the Crusades after the bloody mess of 1204. As early as 1213 and at the height of the Crusade against the Albigensian heretics, he laid out the plans for the Fifth Crusade. Two years later, he summoned hundreds of bishops, archbishops, and abbots to discuss the Fifth Crusade at the Fourth Council of the Lateran (November 1215). They were also joined by some European noblemen.

Pope Innocent III did his best to prevent the repeat of the Fourth Crusade. In the Council, he insisted that all Crusaders should fulfill their vows and forbade them from leaving the war without a good reason. To ensure the success of the coming war, he commanded them to refrain from trading weapons or materials with Muslims. He also allowed priests to pardon the sins the Crusaders confessed before they left.

Unfortunately, Pope Innocent III was not meant to see the fruits of his labor as he died in 1216. Pope Honorius III succeeded him, and he took over the project by requiring cardinals to give a part of their incomes to fund the Crusade. The Fifth Crusade started officially in 1217 when Rhineland, Frisian, and English knights travelled down to France and Spain. They made their way into Portugal where they helped the locals capture a Muslim fortress and then sailed off to the city of Acre in the Holy Land.

They arrived in Acre in spring of 1218. They joined the troops of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold of Austria who arrived in 1217. Together, they besieged the fortress built by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil (brother of Saladin), but nothing came of it. King Andrew felt that he had already fulfilled his vow, so he returned to Hungary in 1218. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II also promised to join the Fifth Crusade, but he only sent his soldiers to the Holy Land as his uncles threatened his hold on the German throne.

The Detour in Egypt

In 1218, King John of Jerusalem decided to weaken the Ayyubid rulers first by attacking Egypt. Their target was the city of Damietta on the banks of the Nile River, and it was ruled by Sultan al-Adil’s son, al-Kamil. The choice seemed like a big mistake as Damietta was heavily fortified and protected by a large chain to prevent ships from sailing too near the city. The Crusaders’ only hope was to block the ships that brought food to the people inside it. They later destroyed the chain that protected Damietta and scaled its tower, but they failed to enter the city itself. Many became discouraged with the lack of developments with the siege, and some made plans to go home. But their chances improved when additional Crusaders arrived to swell their ranks. Sultan al-Adil also died in 1218 so that the city was left in chaos.

An Egyptian nobleman took advantage of the Sultan’s death and rebelled against al-Adil’s heir, al-Kamil. The new sultan was forced to leave Damietta because of the rebellion. The Crusaders responded by blocking the ships that brought in the people’s food. The city’s defenders held out, but many of the people starved to death.

Al-Kamil finally put down the rebellion, and he came back to Damietta to lead its defence. Francis of Assisi also arrived to preach to the Crusaders, and he was later invited by al-Kamil to his court to preach. The sultan listened to him and treated him with politeness, but did not convert to Christianity. Disappointed, Francis returned to the Crusaders and remained with them until they finally conquered Damietta in November of 1218. Their victory was an empty one as most of the city’s inhabitants had died of starvation from the blockade. Francis of Assisi was horrified at what he saw, and he persuaded the Crusaders to refrain from more bloodshed.

Another Failure

The Crusaders spent the year 1219 in Damietta, but their situation did not improve. Francis was forced to leave Egypt. He travelled to the Holy Land before he returned to Europe. In 1221, a papal legate named Pelagius rejected the peace Sultan al-Kamil offered. Instead, he convinced the Crusaders to attack Cairo, but this strategy was bound to fail. Al-Kamil knew Egypt, and he decided to cut off the important supply routes of the Crusaders while they travelled to Cairo. The Crusaders were already short on food, water, and other supplies, so this blockade was a big blow to their plans.

He also opened the gates of the dam so that the Nile overflowed. Unable to continue to Cairo because of the flood, the Crusaders were forced to accept the peace al-Kamil offered in 1221. Many of them went home to Europe in the same year. The dismal ending of the Fifth Crusade was blamed largely on the papal legate Pelagius. Pope Honorius took some of the blame as well, but he was also disappointed in Emperor Frederick when he failed to show up and lead the Crusaders.

References:
Picture By Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen – Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork, 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.
Moses, Paul. The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace. New York: Doubleday Religion, 2009.
Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

Posted on April 18, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, The Fourth

The Fourth Crusade that was launched in 1203 (as listed on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History) ranked as one of the messiest and most violent of all the Crusades. None of the Crusaders who left Europe ever reached the Holy Land nor the seat of power of the Ayyubids which was Egypt. Strapped for cash, the Crusaders only succeeded in occupying the city of Zadar after an agreement with the Venetians. In 1204, they sacked Constantinople, removed its Greek rulers, and established the Latin Empire. The failure of the Fourth Crusade angered Pope Innocent III who denounced them for the destruction of Constantinople.

The Fourth Crusade: Messy, Broke, and Adrift

Pope Innocent III was elected in 1198. He immediately launched a new Crusade to take back Jerusalem from Muslim hands. He sent one of his cardinals to France and the other one to Venice. The France-bound cardinal was tasked to reconcile King Philip II and King Richard the Lionheart so they would lead the new Crusade. Both kings did not want to join at first since the last Crusade did not end well for them. But the two kings eventually agreed to sign a peace treaty and prepared to return to the Holy Land. This plan, however, was put on hold when Richard was killed in 1199.

The other cardinal went to Venice, and he convinced the city’s leader to provide them with ships with which to transport the new Crusaders. Pope Innocent also did not give up on convincing the European noblemen to join the Fourth Crusade. Between 1199 and 1200, Count Theobald of Champagne, Count Louis of Blois, and Count Baldwin of Flanders answered the call to join the Crusade.

Henry VI of Germany died in 1197, and he was succeeded by his brother, Philip of Swabia, as Holy Roman Emperor. Philip had married the Byzantine princess Irene Angelina in the same year. Over at the Byzantine court, Irene’s father, Isaac II Angelos, was deposed by his own brother. His heir, the young Alexius, was also imprisoned. Alexius escaped Constantinople and travelled to the court of his brother-in-law in Swabia for shelter. Philip also had his own problems with the German noblemen, so he could not leave Germany for the Holy Land.

Soon, European noblemen and knights made their way to Venice so they could board the ships to the Holy Land. They arrived in Venice in 1202, but there were too few of them. They discovered that there were too few Crusaders in Venice, so they were strapped for cash. Since their money was not enough, the ruler of Venice, Doge Enrico Dandolo, would not allow them to board the ships they financed specifically for this mission. They could not go forward, but they could not return to their homes, too, as it would mean humiliation.

From One Bad Idea to Another

So Enrico Dandolo offered them a way out. They would attack the city of Zadar (Zara), and in exchange, the Venetians would let them board the ships to the Holy Land. The problem was that Zadar was a Christian city and it was held by the only king who promised to join the Crusade. These facts did not matter for the Crusaders, and they went ahead with the siege. The confused defenders of Zadar surrendered after a fierce siege. The Venetians allowed the Crusaders to sail to the Holy Land, but winter stood in their way. So the voyage was once again postponed, and they were forced to stay in Zadar for the time being.

In Germany, Philip was still unable to leave his kingdom to join the Crusade because his hold on the throne was threatened by his brother Otto. So the young Alexius came up with a plan: enlist the stranded Crusaders in Zadar in removing the usurper in Constantinople. Alexius promised thousands of his own men to add to the ranks of the Crusaders. He also pledged money to pay off the Crusaders’ debts to the Venetians. Some of the Crusaders wanted to accept the offer, while others wanted to go on to the Holy Land once winter was over. Another group wanted to sail off to Egypt and attack the Ayyubid rulers instead.

Crusad_fourth — “The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople “

Those who wanted to go to Constantinople and oust the emperor eventually won. They marched to Corfu to meet with Alexius, but many of those who did not agree with the plan went home. The rest of the Crusaders sailed to Constantinople and arrived in the Bosphorus with Alexius in summer of 1203. When they arrived, they were forced to besiege the city because the defenders closed the city gates on them.

The siege went on for several days until they finally broke through the city walls. The usurper (Alexius’ own uncle) fled, and Isaac II Angelos was freed from prison. He then crowned his son Alexius as his co-emperor, but Alexius knew that his hold on the crown was not secure. He offered to keep the Crusaders on his payroll so that they would stay until spring. Money was something neither he, nor his government had, so he had to impose higher taxes on his people to pay the Crusaders. The people hated Alexius for it, but he had a greater problem when the Crusaders fought among themselves. The resentful residents of Constantinople also hated them.

The Sack of Constantinople

A high-ranking military officer named Mourtzouphlos then rebelled and deposed Alexius. He proclaimed himself the new emperor and ordered the death of the previous emperor. It was clear to the Crusaders that the payment will never come at this point. Broke and humiliated, the dream of fighting in the Holy Land or in Egypt all but disappeared. The restless Crusaders had enough. They attacked Constantinople in 1204 and the beaten down Byzantine troops fought them for some days then fled. The new emperor also escaped the city after his soldiers deserted him.

The Crusaders then rampaged through Constantinople for three days and stole everything they wanted. They went on a killing and raping spree that spared not even the elderly, children, priests, and nuns. After three days, the Crusaders declared Baldwin of Flanders as the new emperor of Constantinople. The news of the rampage reached the horrified Pope Innocent III who immediately condemned the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade. The Crusaders had their taste of chaos, plunder, and bloodshed even if they never reached the Holy Land.

References:
Picture By Eugène Delacroix – The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH., Public Domain, Link
Angold, Michael. The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context. Harlow: Longman, 2003.
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 April 17, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Third

The aftershocks of the loss of Jerusalem from Christian hands in 1187 rocked Europe. News of the city’s fall reached the Europeans in 1188. A Third Crusade was launched by European nobles in 1189. This Crusade was initially led by Europe’s three most powerful kings: Henry II of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. King William II of Sicily also joined the Third Crusade and assisted the Crusaders with his navy. The real hero of the Third Crusade was King Richard the Lionheart, the rebellious son of Henry II of England. The Third Crusade which lasted from 1189 up to 1192 ended with no clear winner. The Third Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time. It ended with the Treaty of Jaffa which was signed by both Saladin and Richard in 1192.

Aftershocks

In late 1187, a ship with black sails landed on the shores of Italy. The ship carried the elderly Archbishop Joscius of Tyre who immediately appealed to King William II of Sicily and Pope Gregory VIII for help. He had brought the news that the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, Saladin, had conquered most of Holy Land. It included the city of Jerusalem which now returned to Muslim hands after many years under Christian rulers.

The news came as a shock to Pope Gregory VIII who immediately issued a papal bull called Audata Tremendi (“We have heard things that make us tremble”). He then sent Archbishop Joscius and Cardinal Henry of Albano to deliver the papal bull to the noblemen of Europe. Count Richard of Poitiers and King William II of Sicily were some of the first to respond to the call of taking back the Holy Land from Muslim hands. Next were Henry II of England and Philip II of France who agreed to set aside their border wars to launch the Third Crusade. The elderly Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa also answered the call and prepared his army to leave for Jerusalem. The three kings agreed to leave for the east on Easter of 1189.

Crusad_Third — “Ruins of Dürnstein Castle, where Richard was kept captive”

Henry II and Philip II: War Between Kings

But the preparations of 1188 were put on hold because of Henry II’s problems with his son Richard and his long-time enemy, Philip II of France. Richard had sided with Philip II, and insisted to his father that he make him the heir to the throne of England instead of his brother John. The three men negotiated, but it broke down into shouting matches and drawn swords. Nobody was injured, but Henry II fell sick afterwards. Many of his own knights sided with Philip II and Richard, including his heir John. Henry had no choice but to give up and announce Richard as the next king of England. He died in July of 1189, but not before expressing his anger and disappointment toward his sons.

Richard rose to become England’s king in 1189. He was given the title of “Lionheart” because of his bravery in battle. Since his father was dead, it was up to him to continue the preparations for the Crusade. He announced his commitment to the Crusade after his coronation. However, his fundraising methods drained England’s treasury. Philip II and Richard the Lionheart left the coast of France for the Holy Land on mid-August 1190.

The Death of Frederick Barbarossa

The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa left Europe with his German troops in spring of 1189. Hungarian, Bosnian, and Serbian soldiers joined them on the way. When they arrived in Constantinople, the appearance of a large army frightened the Byzantine king Isaac II Angelos. He was afraid that instead of taking back the Holy Land, Frederick Barbarossa might try and conquer the rest of the Byzantine lands. So the Byzantine king sent men to harass the European troops. The attack angered Frederick Barbarossa. He sent some of his men to confront Isaac II Angelos. The Byzantine king had them imprisoned which made the Holy Roman Emperor angrier. Frederick then sent a letter to the Pope and asked for his permission to wage a holy war against Constantinople so he could retaliate.

With the threat of a war he could not afford, Isaac II Angelos finally let the European troops pass into Armenia. When Frederick Barbarossa and his soldiers arrived in Cilician Armenia in 1190, he heard that the king wanted to welcome him. So he went ahead and crossed the shallow waters of the Saleph River. Unfortunately, he fell from his horse and drowned. He probably suffered a fatal heart attack, but this event put his soldiers into chaos. Some of the soldiers went back to Germany while those who continued the march to the Holy Land suffered from sickness and died on the way.

Disaster

Those who did not die continued to Acre to help Guy (Lusignan) of Jerusalem. He was one of the noblemen free by Saladin after the disastrous Battle of Hattin. Guy promised Saladin that he would not attack any of his territories. However, he broke it when the new Crusaders arrived and besieged Acre. The German soldiers who survived death on the way to Acre were not as helpful to Guy in conquering the city. Philip II and his French troops arrived in spring of 1191, but they were not of much help either. Richard the Lionheart was delayed after he was shipwrecked in Cyprus. He arrived in Acre in June of 1191 only after he had conquered the island.

The soldiers who camped outside of Acre rejoiced when they saw Richard and his fleet on the coast. The only one who seemed unhappy was Philip II who became sick during the Third Crusade. The fact that it was Richard who had conquered Cyprus and not Philip did not sit well with him either. The two kings barely talked while Richard was attacking a part of Acre, Philip was inside it negotiating with its leaders. The leaders knew that they would not hold out for much longer, so they sent a message to Saladin that they would surrender the city.

Saladin approved the surrender on the condition that the Crusaders would let the prisoners leave the city unharmed. But for some reason, Richard broke the treaty and killed thousands of prisoners. When Saladin saw this, he immediately ordered his army to prepare for war. But Philip II had already left the Holy Land for France so that Richard was left to lead the Crusader army. Back in Europe, the relationship between the two kings had soured so completely that Philip II dared to ask the Pope the permission to attack Richard’s lands in France. The Pope refused his request, so Philip asked Emperor Henry VI to capture Richard just in case he passed through Germany on his way back to England.

Stalemate and Richard’s Return to Europe

Back in the Holy Land, Richard remained unaware of Philip’s plans against him. He continued the Crusade and led the March of the Crusaders into Jaffa in 1191. Saladin, Richard, and their troops met in battle in the same year. Crusaders defeated Saladin’s army in the Battle of Arsuf. The battles and negotiations continued until the next year while both sides remained strong. Little by little, reports of Philip’s schemes in France reached Richard in the Holy Land, so he decided to wrap up the Third Crusade and return to Europe. He negotiated with Saladin and finally, they reached a truce at Ramla in 1192.

The result was the Treaty of Jaffa which they finalized in September of 1192. The conditions of the treaty included:

A three-year peace between the Crusaders and Saladin’s army.

The return of captured territories to Saladin. Christian cities and towns on the Mediterranean coast would remain under Crusader rule.

Muslims must also allow Christians to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land without fear of harassment from them.

Richard also permitted Guy to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem. What made this arrangement strange was that it was the Kingdom of Jerusalem in name only. Its capital was in Acre, and it did not even include Jerusalem itself. He also gave Cyprus for Guy to rule, and returned with his men to Europe. He did not receive a hero’s welcome in Europe as the Emperor Henry VI imprisoned Richard when he and his soldiers passed through Germany. Henry VI even asked for a hefty sum of seventy thousand marks of silver so that Richard would be freed. Richard’s mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and other English nobles hastily gathered that amount of money so the king would be freed.

Richard was ransomed and freed in 1194. He immediately attacked Philip and his own brother who sided with the king of France when Richard was in the Holy Land. Philip negotiated for a five-year peace in 1199. Richard died soon after it was finalized – An argument between Richard and a local nobleman turned into a siege after the latter refused to give up treasures he discovered in his own land. Richard and his troops besieged the nobleman’s castle, but the king was struck by an arrow while he was exploring the area. The wound became infected, and he died at the age of 42.

References:
Picture By Airin – Own work, CC BY-SA 1.0, Link
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Nicolle, David, and Christa Hook. The Third Crusade 1191: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin and the Struggle for Jerusalem. Oxford: Osprey, 2006.
Reston, James. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York: Doubleday, 2001.
Ricardus, Helen J. Nicholson, and William Stubbs. Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum Et Gesta Regis Ricardi. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 1997.

Posted on April 14, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade, Second (1147-1149)

The Second Crusade was launched by European rulers in 1147 after the fall of Edessa to Zengri two years earlier. It is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during 1140 AD. It ended in disaster in 1147, and Edessa stayed in Muslim hands in the years that followed. The Crusades in Europe against the Wendish people and the Muslims of Portugal were successful.

The Siege of Edessa

On the 28th of November 1144, Zengi, the Turkish atabeg (governor) of Mosul besieged the city of Edessa that was ruled by Joscelin I of Courtenay. The count was busy with the siege of Aleppo at that time, so the people were caught by surprise when Zengi’s troops arrived. The atabeg blocked all the passages into the city, so the people ran out of food. He had many of Edessa’s people killed when he finally entered the city. Those who survived the massacre fled from the city, but many of them were crushed to death when they tried to take refuge in a nearby citadel.

Count Joscelin tried to help his people by asking Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem, for more troops. The queen agreed to help him and sent Elinard of Bures, Philip of Milly (Nablus), and Manasses to Edessa. But they were too late as Edessa fell to Zengi on the 24th of December, 1144.

The Papal Bull

When news of the fall of Edessa reached him in 1145, Pope Eugene III immediately sent a papal bull to the king of France Louis VII. In his letter, he encouraged the king to launch a new Crusade in the Levant and take back the city of Edessa from Zengri. Louis was eager to go to the Levant, but many of his barons did not feel like it was a good idea. So to convince them, he asked Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to preach a message that endorsed the Crusade. It worked, and many of the noblemen and peasants answered the call to take back Edessa.

Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux also traveled to Germany in 1146 to convince the German emperor Conrad III to join the Crusade. Conrad III and the Germans were easier to convince than the French nobles, and his army marched to Constantinople in May 1147. Meanwhile, King Louis VII, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Pope Eugene, and their troops followed in June of the same year. Conrad and the German troops arrived in Constantinople four months later, while the French troops led by Louis arrived in October.

But the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos did not really like the presence of the European rulers and soldiers in his city. Roger II of Sicily had attacked Byzantine territories. Manuel was afraid that the European rulers would join Roger instead. He was also afraid of the undisciplined European troops that stayed in his city during winter.

A Disastrous Crusade

By spring of 1148, Conrad’s troops marched from Constantinople into the Levant. Their first mistake was to follow the route the first Crusaders took some years before instead of the route Manuel suggested. On the way south, Conrad divided his soldiers into two teams and allowed the Bishop of Freising to lead the infantrymen into another route. They had not even left Asia Minor when Conrad’s troops were defeated by the Seljuk Turks, while Otto’s soldiers were defeated later on.

The King Louis VII’s army left Constantinople some time later, but they, too, were unlucky. They travelled through the western route to the city of Attalia, many of Louis’ men died after they faced a harsh winter. Seljuk raiders also attacked them on the way south, and Louis (just like Conrad) had to continue with fewer men in the ranks. Louis and his remaining men were forced to travel to Antioch by sea instead of land.

Louis VII and his men arrived in Antioch in March of 1148. The city was ruled by Raymond of Poitiers (who also happened to be Eleanor of Aquitaine’s uncle), and he asked Louis to help him recapture the city of Edessa from Zengi. Although it was the original goal of the Second Crusade, Louis refused to help Raymond. He decided to march his men to Jerusalem instead. He also refused to help Count Raymond of Tripoli beat back the invaders of his tiny domain.

Many Europeans were unhappy with the results of Second Crusade in the Levant when news of the disaster reached them. Most of the blame fell to Bernard of Clairvaux and the pope for encouraging the Crusade. Some people blamed Manuel I Komnenos as they thought that he did not help the Crusaders. Even the success of the Crusade against the Wendish people of Europe and the Reconquista efforts in Portugal were not enough to keep the people from blaming them in their part in the disastrous Second Crusade.

References:
Picture By Jean Colombe – Adam Bishop, copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/, Public Domain, Link
“Eugene III: Summons to A Crusade, Dec 1, 1154.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed November 16, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/eugene3-2cde.asp.
Madden, Thomas F., ed. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.
Setton, Kenneth M., and Marshall W. Setton, eds. A History of the Crusades: The First Hundred Years. Vol. 1. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
“William of Tyre: The Fall of Edessa.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

Posted on April 13, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Crusade (1095–1099), First

The Eleventh Century Byzantine Empire and the Arrival of the Seljuk Turks

The First Crusade is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during 1096 AD. It began with a series of events starting with Tughril. Tughril (Togrul), the great Seljuk dynasty ruler, accomplished what the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs failed to do hundreds of years before. This was to cut a large swath of Byzantine territories in Asia Minor and claim it all for the Seljuk Empire after Emperor Constantine Monomachos ceded the area to him. Constantine died in 1055, and the throne passed to the minister Michael Gerontas. Tughril, meanwhile, turned south and drove out the powerful Buyids from Baghdad (who, at that point, held the reins of power for the puppet caliphs of the Abbasids). Michael was later ousted by the military due to his advanced age. He was replaced with a military commander named Isaac Komnenus in 1057. Komnenus died after his short stint as Byzantine emperor, and he was succeeded by a government official named Constantine Doukas who ruled until 1067. Romanos IV Diogenes ruled in 1068, but Constantine Doukas’ sons remained as Romanos IV’s co-emperors.

The Battle of Manzikert (1071)

While the Byzantine crown passed from one hand to another, the Seljuk Sultanate passed easily to Tughril’s nephew died in 1063. This nephew, the ambitious and brilliant Alp Arslan, planned to wrest more of the Byzantine territories in Asia Minor for the Seljuks. Romanos knew that the Seljuks were a serious threat, so he gathered his troops and started a campaign in 1071 to the eastern frontier to drive them out of Asia Minor for good. He was initially successful in driving the Seljuk troops out of eastern Anatolia, but Alp Arslan was only preparing to ambush the Byzantine troops in the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

The result of Romanos’ miscalculation was a massive loss of life on the side of the Byzantines. He was captured by Alp Arslan during the battle, but strangely, he was later set free. Romanos was as good as dead when he started the journey home to Constantinople as the blame for the disastrous results of the Battle of Manzikert fell on his shoulders. The Doukas family commanded some of their trusted men to intercept Romanos on his way and had him captured. He was later sent to the Monastery of Transfiguration in the Sea of Marmara after he was blinded as punishment for the defeat.

crusade_first — “The crusader states after the First Crusade”

The First Crusade

Things were not working out very well for the Byzantines after the adventurer Robert Guiscard of Normandy wrested the last of their holdings in Italy in the late eleventh century. They were also wracked with infighting and saddled with the emperor Michael VII whose passion for literature clashed with his responsibilities in the Byzantine government. The exasperated John Doukas (Michael’s own uncle) rebelled against him, but it did not succeed when general Alexios Komnenus rallied Seljuk mercenaries and some Byzantine troops against John. Michael resigned in 1078, and the Byzantine crown passed on from one man to another until the formidable Alexios I Komnenus held it between I081 until 1118.

Alp Arslan, meanwhile, had died and was succeeded by his son Malik Shah as sultan. The Seljuks under his command had turned west and conquered the city of Jerusalem from the Fatimids in 1077 after a bloody massacre of Jews and Fatimid Arabs. Malik Shah died in 1092, and his death left the Seljuk Empire divided between his competing sons and brother (meanwhile the eastern portion of Asia Minor was held by the Seljuk vassal, the Sultanate of Rum).

Alex Komnenus wanted to get rid of the Seljuk threat once and for all when he saw that they were in chaos over the succession. However, he did not have enough troops to go up against the Byzantine’s most formidable enemy just yet. So he sent a message through envoys to Pope Urban II and asked him to send his own troops as reinforcements against the Seljuks. Alex Komnenus’ message reached Pope Urban II while he was traveling through Western Francia. He altered Alex’s simple request for reinforcements and weaved religious sentiments into it. In Clermont (Western Francia), he preached and encouraged the people to help the beleaguered Byzantine empire but added that they also needed to pitch into the liberation of the Jerusalem—something that Alex Komnenus did not request.

The Frankish noblemen, knights, and peasants snapped up the chance to wage war against the Seljuk “infidels” in the Levant after Pope Urban promised them the protection of their land while they were away on a holy pilgrimage (for the nobles) and forgiveness for their sins. The pope promised that paradise awaited them as a reward for their courage, and the first to answer the call to engage in the “holy” war was Godfrey, the Duke of Lorraine. His brothers Eustace and Baldwin came along with him, while others, such as Duke Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond of Otranto (son of Robert Guiscard), and Robert, Duke of Normandy, also volunteered. They brought with them their own troops, and they assembled in Constantinople in later 1096. Count Stephen of Blois and Hugh of Vermandois also joined the list of nobles who started to Constantinople.

After an inauspicious start, Walter the Penniless and his small troops were the first to arrive in Constantinople. They were followed closely by other nobles, knights, and troops until their number swelled to around 100,000 by 1097. The army that gathered in Constantinople were propelled to fight for different reasons which included:

Religious fervor and the promise of remission of sins upon death in the “holy pilgrimage” to Jerusalem.
The reward of additional money and land for the most pragmatic noblemen and knights.

Alex Komnenus did not expect a large number of additional men that swelled his troops, and apparently, he did not know how to properly deal with the European noblemen who came with these troops. Some of the troops who answered the call were led by a preacher named Peter the Hermit and his ragtag soldiers were later christened the “People’s Crusade.” Alexius asked them to move to the Asian side of the empire as he was worried that they would cause trouble if they stayed near Constantinople. His anxiety was confirmed when the soldiers left their camp in Asia and raided the nearby city of Nicaea which was then held by the Sultan of Rum.

The sultan of Rum sent his own soldiers to counter this leaderless bunch and promptly had them massacred. The survivors of the “People’s Crusade” had to be rescued by Alexius’ own Byzantine army. The emperor learned his lesson when various nobles arrived with their own armies between 1096 and 1097. He had them swear that they would return any territory they recovered during the crusade, but the prominent leader Raymond of Toulouse refused and swore to simply honor him instead. The crusader army first conquered the city of Nicaea from the Sultanate of Rum, and then headed south and wrested the cities of Sardis, Ephesus, Smyrna, and Philadelphia on the way to Jerusalem.

The Siege of Antioch

The army, led by Bohemond, Raymond of Toulouse, and Godfrey, stopped short of the city of Antioch (in present-day Turkey) when they saw the mighty ramparts of the city. They started the siege on October 21 of 1097, but famine and the difficulty of besieging an impregnable city frayed on the Crusaders’ resolve. Some of those who joined them abandoned the siege of Antioch, while those who veered off to other cities (such as Baldwin in Edessa and Stephen of Blois in some Mediterranean city) were better off.

They were encouraged when a ship that was commanded by the English nobleman Edgar Atheling docked and brought them fresh provisions. Edgar himself joined them as one of the crusade leaders and helped them block the provisions coming into Antioch. The crafty Bohemond also sealed a deal with a Turkish soldier inside the city of Antioch by promising him riches if he would open the gates and let the Crusader army into the city. The soldier agreed to the devil’s bargain and let them in, but what ensued was total destruction as the restless crusader army killed many of the citizens of Antioch and spared no one from the massacre.

Three days later, the situation took a turn for the worse when the Seljuk sultan dispatched a large army from Baghdad to rescue Antioch. The besiegers were now the besieged, and the Crusaders shut themselves inside the city when they saw the large Seljuk army that came after them. The rotting corpses left on the streets and the lack of provisions disheartened them, but it was lifted when the “Holy Lance” was discovered by a soldier named Peter Bartholomew. The lance, most likely, was an invention of the crafty Bohemond. The crusader army was encouraged to charge out of Antioch and beat back the Seljuk army.

The Parting of Ways and the Siege of Jerusalem

Although Bohemond swore to Alexius that he would return any land they recovered, he never really took it seriously, and he started to occupy Antioch as his own land in Asia. Raymond of Toulouse disagreed with Bohemond over this, and he left Antioch with Robert of Normandy and Tancred of Hauteville (Bohemond’s nephew). They continued to Jerusalem with Godfrey and their troops, and Bohemond was now free to claim Antioch as his own. Raymond and his troops reached Jerusalem in 1099 and started the siege on the 3rd of June of the same year. The attack they launched against Jerusalem was so fierce, and the crusader troops so determined to take the city that it took only thirty days to complete the siege.

What followed, however, was an equally fierce massacre of Jerusalem’s inhabitants that even later Christian and Muslims chroniclers of the siege were horrified. The Fatimids of Egypt sent an army to regain Jerusalem, but the Crusaders easily drove them back when they arrived. Edessa, Antioch, and Jerusalem were now firmly in Christian hands. However, it was far from what Alexius Komnenus expected as those territories stayed under the Crusaders’ rule. By the end of the first crusade, Raymond of Toulouse served as Jerusalem’s Duke, while Bohemond ruled the Principality of Antioch, and Baldwin ruled the city of Edessa.

Godfrey later died in 1100, and Baldwin started to rule Jerusalem as King starting in 1100 up to 1118. The Crusaders went on to capture the coastal cities of Beirut and Sidon in the following years, but this time, they were aided by the Italians from Genoa and Pisa.

References:
Picture By MapMaster – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Bradbury, Jim. The Routledge Companion to Medieval Warfare. London: Routledge, 2004.
Comnena, Anna. “Medieval Sourcebook: The Alexiad: On the Crusades.” Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Accessed October 19, 2016. http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/comnena-cde.asp.
Luscombe, David and Jonathan Riley-Smith, eds. The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Madden, Thomas F. Crusades: The Illustrated History. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004.

Posted on April 12, 2017March 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Greek and Roman Church, Total Separation of

The total separation of the Greek and Roman churches occurred in AD 1054 where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History. This was after Humbert, the Cardinal of Silva Candida, excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople in his own turf, the Hagia Sophia. Patriarch Michael answered this excommunication with his own condemnation of Cardinal Humbert. This event marked the separation of the path of the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

East-West Schism of 1054

The separation of the Greek and Roman churches did not even start in the middle of the eleventh century. However, the breakdown of the relationship between the two churches started many years before with the Photian Schism and other such incidents. The friction between the two churches only intensified starting in the late tenth century when the German Ottonian rulers intervened directly in the papal elections. This was an act which cemented the alliance between the Roman Church and the northern Europeans. This did not sit well with the rulers of the church in Constantinople as they still considered the Germans as “barbarians” and not Romans.

The German clergy contributed some innovations to the church which the Byzantine patriarchs opposed. Including the supposedly unauthorized introduction of the Filioque into the original creed chanted in Rome during the coronation of the Ottonian Emperor Henry II and the use of azymes (unleavened bread) in the Eucharist. Additional issues, such as the wearing of beards of the Greek patriarchs (Latin priests needed to shave) and the celibacy of Roman Church priests (Greek patriarchs were allowed to marry) were also bones of contention for both sides.

greek_and_roman_church_serparation — “The Eucharist has been a key theme in the depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art”

In 1048, the German Bishop Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg was elected as Pope Leo IX and Michael I Cerularius was appointed as Patriarch of Constantinople. Both were controversial figures, with Pope Leo fully backed by the Holy Roman Emperor and zealous with the reforms he wanted to implement, while the powerful and ambitious Patriarch Michael was just as rigid and zealous in keeping Constantinople independent from the German-backed papacy.

The issue worsened when the Norman warriors invaded southern Italy and started to grab, one by one, the Byzantine territories. The Normans had converted to Roman Christianity earlier. They imposed the Latin rites to the former Byzantine territories they conquered. When the Patriarch Michael heard about this, he retaliated by closing down Latin rite churches in Constantinople and compelling the affected clergy to follow Greek rites or risk being excommunicated. Michael also ordered Leo, Archbishop of Ochrid, to compose a letter which condemned some of the Latin practices, such as celibacy and the use of unleavened bread.

Pope Leo IX decided to send Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida (along with two other papal legates) to Constantinople in 1054 with two missives. The first letter contained Leo’s disapproval of the condemnation composed by Leo of Ochrid against the Roman Church. The second contained the pope’s acceptance of the Byzantine alliance against the Romans (it also included a not-so-subtle put-down on the Patriarch’s authority). The situation worsened when both parties attacked each other during a discussion and refused to give in. Pope Leo died on April 19, 1054. The office remained vacant for a year until the election of Pope Victory II.

Patriarch Michael continued his defiance, and on the 15th of July, 1054. The papal legates led by Cardinal Humbert entered the Hagia Sophia while a daily service was being celebrated. They condemned the Greek church in front of the attendees and denounced the patriarch. After this public condemnation, Humbert handed over a papal bull of excommunication on the altar, stormed out of Hagia Sophia, and the legates shook the dust off their feet. Insulted, the patriarch also issued his own anathematization of the Roman Church which marked the separation of the Greek from its Latin counterpart.

References:
Picture By Vicente Juan Masip – [2], Public Domain, Link
Bury, John Bagnell, J.R. Tanner, C.W. Previte-Orton, and Z.N. Brooke, eds. The Cambridge Medieval History: The Eastern Roman Empire. Vol. IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1923.
Noble, Thomas F. X., Julia M. H. Smith, and Roberta A. Baranowski, eds. The Cambridge History of Christianity: Early Medieval Christianities, c. 600–c. 1100. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2008.
Streeter, Tom. The Church and Western Culture: An Introduction to Church History. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.