Europe and the Mediterranean in the 13th century
From the crusaders’ sack of Constantinople in 1204 to the fall of Acre in 1291: the later crusades, the Reconquista, Magna Carta, scholasticism, the Sicilian Vespers and the travels of Marco Polo.
16 events · 4 regions · Balkans and Anatolia, Western and Central Europe, Middle East and Egypt, East Asia
The thread brings together events in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean — a world that in the 13th century lived by the crusades, the quarrels of popes and emperors and the growth of royal power. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade turned against Christian Constantinople; in Spain the Reconquista took a decisive step at Las Navas de Tolosa; in France Capetian power grew stronger after Bouvines and the Albigensian wars, and in England the barons forced the king to seal Magna Carta.
A theme running through the thread is Europe’s relationship with the East: the crusades of Frederick II and Louis IX, the return of Constantinople to the Greeks in 1261, the birth of the Mamluk Sultanate and the fall of Acre in 1291, which ended the history of the crusader states. The Italian merchant republics linked the Mediterranean with Asia, and the travels of Marco Polo show how the Mongol Empire opened the road to China for Europeans.
The same century was the heyday of the universities and of scholasticism, whose summit was the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.
Events
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Adrianople14 April 1205 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa16 July 1212 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Bouvines27 July 1214 · Western and Central Europe
- Magna Carta15 June 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- Albigensian Crusade1209–1229 · Western and Central Europe
- Treaty of Jaffa18 February 1229 · Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of al-Mansurah8–11 February 1250 · Middle East and Egypt
- Mamluks seize power in Egypt2 May 1250 · Middle East and Egypt
- Seventh Crusade1248–1254 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274 · Western and Central Europe
- Sicilian Vespers30 March 1282 · Western and Central Europe
- Travels of Marco Polo1271–1295 · East Asia
- Fall of Acre18 May 1291 · Middle East and Egypt
Key participants
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Crusades
- Wikipedia (English): High Middle Ages
- Wikipedia (Russian): Крестовые походы
- Wikipedia (Russian): Высокое Средневековье
- Runciman S. A History of the Crusades. Vol. 3: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954.
- Заборов М. А. Крестоносцы на Востоке. — М.: Наука, 1980.
- Riley-Smith J. The Crusades: A History. — 3rd ed. — London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
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