The army of the First Crusade arrives at the Holy City of Jerusalem
Route of the Crusaders:
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Siege of Jerusalem 1099, First Crusade, Part 3
Christian warriors from around Europe converge on the Holy Land to fight the First Crusade. Despite many challenges the campaign starts well at the siege of Nicaea and then continues to Antioch
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Siege of Jerusalem 1099, First Crusade, Part 2
Build-up to the First Crusade from the perspective of the Byzantine Empire, the Turks in Asia Minor and the Levant, the area about to be invaded
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Siege of Jerusalem, 1099, First Crusade, Part 1
Build-up to the First Crusade. The Investiture Controversy between Emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII, the growing influence of the Normans under Robert Guiscard, and the reasons behind the call for crusade by Pope Urban II
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Fall of Toledo 1085, Part 4
The capture of Toledo, the capital of the old Visigothic kingdom, by Alfonso VI The Brave from the Muslims. Also the final days of El Cid
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Fall of Toledo 1085, Part 3
King Ferdinand I of Leon and Castile and his sons Sancho and Alfonso, as depicted in the epic Hollywood film El Cid (see picture). Plus, the conflict between Aragon and Zaragoza, the arrival of crusaders from across the Pyrenees, and the Siege of Barbastro.
The Christian Kings of Spain
The Mulsim Taifa Kings
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Fall of Toledo 1085, Part 2
The golden age of Muslim Spain, the military dictatorship of Almanzor (pictured), the collapse of the caliphate into petty kingdoms (taifas), Sancho III El Mayor of Navarre, and the rise of Castile and Aragon
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Fall of Toledo, 1085, Part 1
The History of early medieval Spain from the Islamic conquest in 711 to the establishment of the magnificent Caliphate of Cordoba, and the first successful Christian resistance which will ultimately lead to the reconquest, or ‘Reconquista’, of the Iberian peninsula (See the maps page for maps of medieval Spain)
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Battle of Manikert, 1071
In 1071 the Byzantine Empire, weakened by the mismanagement of a series of weak emperors, suffered a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks, newly arrived in the region.
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