The crusades: Did you mean...?

Depicted here is the Battle of Lyndanisse (1219 CE), in which, according to legend, the Danish flag appeared to King Valdemar II of Denmark. This appears to be a reference to the cross appearing to Constantine I before the Battle of Milvian...

Stained glass window in York Minster depicting Pope Celestine III (1191-1198 CE)

The First Crusade (1096–1099) marked the beginning of a series of military campaigns launched by Western European Christians in response to Pope Urban II's appeal at the Council of Clermont (1095). The goal was to recapture Jerusalem and...

An illustration from the 13th century CE Cantigas de Santa María showing a battle between Christian knights and Moors during the Reconquista or Iberian Crusades (12-13th century CE).

This map of the Near East in 1135 CE shows four Crusader States (marked with red crosses) in relation to other powerful kingdoms in the period between the first and second crusades.

Caliphate (“Khilafat” in Arabic) was a semi-religious political system of governance in Islam, in which the territories of the Islamic empire in the Middle East and North Africa and the people within were ruled by a supreme leader called...

The Ark of the Covenant refers to the box-like container that held the tablets of the Law received by Moses on Mount Sinai. Tradition claimed that it contained two stone tablets, carved by God, listing the first ten commandments given to...

People in the Middle Ages have acquired something of a bad reputation when it comes to cleanliness, especially the peasantry. However, despite the general lack of running water and other modern amenities, there were common expectations of...

Built in the seventh century BCE, the ancient city of Byzantium proved to be a valuable city for both the Greeks and Romans. Because it lay on the European side of the Strait of Bosporus, the Emperor Constantine understood its strategic importance...

Kievan Rus (862-1242) was a medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia (the latter named for the Rus, a Scandinavian people). The name Kievan Rus is a modern-day (19th century) designation but...