Heads of State
Prompted by the voices of angels, she successfully led French troops in a series of offensives, securing the coronation of King Charles VII.
Who is Joan of Arc?
This century's long conflict involving the Battles of Sluys, Crecy, Agincourt, and Orleans, may be more accurately called the 116 years' war.
What is the Hundred Years' War?
Named for William of Ockham (1285-1350), an English friar and logician, this principle states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.
What is Occam's Razor?
Beginning around 1300, various climatic, volcanic, and solar forces caused a “little” one of these, causing a two degree drop in global temperature for five hundred years.
What is a Little Ice Age?
The Canterbury Tales, written by this author, became popular at the end of the 14th century.
Who is Geoffrey Chaucer?
A Frankish warrior king who unified Christianity by educating the priestly class and brought about the Carolingian Renaissance. He was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, becoming the greatest power since Constantine.
Who is Charlamagne?
The first of several, this conflict against Islamic countries in the 11th century was endorsed by Pope Urban II.
What is the First Crusade?
His moveable-type printing press, invented around 1450, had an "extremely neat and legible" script that was "not at all difficult to follow" according to Pope Pius II.
Who is Johannes Gutenberg?
Increased rainfall and changing climatic conditions may have allowed disease reservoirs in rat populations to explode in the early 1300s. Coupled with increased global commerce, this laid the groundwork for this disease to wipe out half of the European population.
What is the Black Death?
Part of the Arthurian canon, this late 14th-century story by an anonymous author features a green chapel, a green axe, and a green sash.
What is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
Inadvertantly causing widespread inflation on his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca, Mansa Musa, ruler of this African nation, may have been the richest man in history.
What is Mali?
Reaching its height in the mid-1200s, this empire occupied over 9 million square miles, making it the largest land empire in history.
What is the Mongol Empire?
This 13th-century Christian theologian, author of the Summa theologiae, argued that secular thought does not diminish faith, but that each enhances the other. He is known for his "five ways" of demonstrating the existence of God.
Who is Thomas Aquinas?
With root causes in both the worker shortage caused by the Black Death and the crop shortage caused by the Little Ice Age, this 1381 struggle for an end to serfdom was ultimately unsuccessful.
What is the Peasants' Revolt?
An Old English story of a Geatish hero who defeats a monster, becomes thane, and is eventually slain by a dragon.
What is Beowulf?
Leader of the Normans in the Battle of Hastings, this duke was crowned King of England on Christmas day, 1066.
Who is William the Conqueror?
After its fall in 1453, this city became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
What is Constantinople?
Pope Sylvester II (946-1003), was responsible for the reintroduction of the abacus to Europe, and helped to popularize the spread of this numeral system.
What is the Arabic numeral system?
In 1588, unusually strong Arctic storms contributed more to the defeat of this Armada than actual fighting.
What is the Spanish Armada?
This Tuscan poem is divided into three parts: Inferno, Pergatorio, and Paradiso.
What is the Divine Comedy?
One of the most influential rulers of Korea, Sejong the Great (1397-1450), pioneered several social advances including the creation of this written language, still used today.
What is Hangul?
It was fought from 1455 to 1487 between two rival branches of the Plantagenet house: York and Lancaster.
What is the War of the Roses?
This English monk was a renowned chronicler in the late 600s, and helped popularize the anno Domini calendar system.
Who is Saint Bede?
The increase in disease and the decrease in agricultural yields during the Little Ice Age led people to look for scapegoats and supernatural explanations, quadrupling the number of these.
What are witch trials?
This heavily fictionalized story by Sir Walter Scott takes place in the late 12th century and features a character similar to Robin Hood.
What is Ivanhoe?