Medieval Europe timeline

Byzantine Empire

395 to 1453 CE. about 1,058 years. capital Constantinople. Balkans and Greece, Europe.

The eastern Roman Empire, centred on Constantinople, where Greek gradually replaced Latin for official use. Justinian briefly retook much of Italy, and the city withstood Arab sieges until the Ottomans took it in 1453.

Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse

418 to 507 CE. about 89 years. capital Toulouse. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Rome settled the Visigoths in Aquitaine as federates in 418. They spread over southern Gaul and Spain until Clovis defeated them at Vouille in 507, where Alaric II was killed.

Merovingian Kingdom

481 to 751 CE. about 270 years. capital Paris, Soissons, Metz. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Clovis united the Franks, became a Catholic and conquered most of Gaul. Real power passed to the mayors of the palace, and Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king in 751.

Ostrogothic Kingdom

493 to 553 CE. about 60 years. capital Ravenna. Italy, Europe.

Theodoric the Great ruled Italy from Ravenna with Roman officials such as Boethius, whom he later executed in 524. Justinian's armies invaded in 535 and destroyed the kingdom by 553.

Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo

507 to 711 CE. about 204 years. capital Toledo. Iberia, Europe.

After losing most of Gaul in 507 the Visigoths ruled Hispania, later from Toledo. Reccared I renounced Arianism in 589, and Isidore of Seville compiled his Etymologiae. Umayyad armies conquered most of the kingdom from 711.

Kingdom of Wessex

c. 519 to 927 CE. about 408 years. capital Winchester (chief city; court mobile). British Isles, Europe.

The West Saxon kingdom. Alfred the Great beat the Danes at Edington in 878, and his grandson Aethelstan united England in 927.

Kingdom of Mercia

c. 527 to 918 CE. about 391 years. capital Tamworth. British Isles, Europe.

The Midland kingdom that dominated England south of the Humber under kings such as Penda and Offa, who is credited with building Offa's Dyke. After the Viking invasions it was absorbed by Wessex in 918.

Avar Khaganate

c. 567 to 822 CE. about 255 years. Central Europe, Europe.

Steppe nomads who settled in the Carpathian basin, ruled the local Slavs and besieged Constantinople in 626. Charlemagne's armies plundered their Ring in the 790s, and they vanish from the record after 822.

Lombard Kingdom

568 to 774 CE. about 206 years. capital Pavia. Italy, Europe.

The Lombards under Alboin invaded Italy in 568 and ruled the north and centre from Pavia. After the Lombard king Desiderius warred on lands claimed by Pope Adrian I, Charlemagne conquered the kingdom in 774.

Khazar Khaganate

c. 650 to 969 CE. about 319 years. capital Balanjar, then Samandar, then Atil. Russia and the Steppe, Europe.

A Turkic khaganate between the Volga, the Don and the Caucasus that fought the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates in the 7th and 8th centuries. Its ruling elite converted to Judaism in the 8th century. Sviatoslav of Kiev took its capital Atil by 969.

First Bulgarian Empire

681 to 1018 CE. about 337 years. capital Pliska, later Preslav and Ohrid. Balkans and Greece, Europe.

Turkic-speaking Bulgars under Asparuh won Byzantine recognition in 681 and gradually adopted the Slavic language of their subjects. Boris I adopted Christianity in 864, and Bulgaria became a centre of Slavic letters. Basil II conquered it by 1018.

Republic of Venice

c. 697 to 1797 CE. about 1,100 years. capital Venice. Italy, Europe.

Ruled by an elected doge from, by tradition, 697, Venice built a trading empire in the Adriatic and Aegean and steered the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople. Napoleon ended it in 1797.

Carolingian Empire

751 to 843 CE. about 92 years. capital Aachen. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Pepin the Short's dynasty. His son Charlemagne conquered Saxony, Lombardy and Bavaria and was crowned emperor in Rome in 800. His grandsons divided the empire at Verdun in 843.

Emirate of Cordoba

756 to 929 CE. about 173 years. capital Cordoba. Iberia, Europe.

Abd al-Rahman I, an Umayyad prince who escaped the Abbasid massacre, set up an independent emirate and began the Great Mosque of Cordoba.

Papal States

756 to 1870 CE. about 1,114 years. capital Rome. Italy, Europe.

Pepin the Short gave Pope Stephen II lands in central Italy in 756. The popes ruled as temporal princes until Italian troops took Rome in 1870.

Great Moravia

c. 833 to 907 CE. about 74 years. capital Veligrad (probably Mikulcice). Central Europe, Europe.

Mojmir I and Svatopluk built a Slavic realm across Moravia, Slovakia and Bohemia. Cyril and Methodius brought the Slavonic liturgy here in 863. Magyar attacks destroyed it around 907.

East Francia

843 to 962 CE. about 119 years. capital Regensburg, Frankfurt. Central Europe, Europe.

The eastern share of the Carolingian empire under the Treaty of Verdun. When the Carolingian line died out in 911, Conrad of Franconia and then the Saxon dukes became kings, and Otto I crushed the Magyars at Lechfeld in 955.

West Francia

843 to 987 CE. about 144 years. capital Laon. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The western Carolingian kingdom, whose kings could not stop the Viking raids that led to the Norse settlement of Normandy from 911. The election of Hugh Capet in 987 ended Carolingian rule.

Kingdom of Scotland

c. 843 to 1707 CE. about 864 years. capital Scone, then Dunfermline, then Edinburgh. British Isles, Europe.

Traditionally founded in 843, when Kenneth MacAlpin became king of the Picts. Gaelic, Old English, Norse and French were spoken there before Scots came to dominate. Robert I won at Bannockburn in 1314, and the kingdom united with England in 1707.

Kingdom of Norway

c. 872 to 1397 CE. about 525 years. capital Trondheim, later Bergen and Oslo. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Harald Fairhair united the western coast after the battle of Hafrsfjord, traditionally dated 872 but probably fought in the 880s. At its 13th-century peak Norway ruled Iceland, Greenland and the northern isles, then entered union with Denmark in 1380.

Kievan Rus

882 to 1240 CE. about 358 years. capital Kiev. Russia and the Steppe, Europe.

According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangian prince Oleg took Kiev in 882 and imposed tribute on the East Slav tribes. Vladimir I adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988. The state split into rival principalities and fell to the Mongols in 1240.

Kingdom of England (Anglo-Saxon)

927 to 1066 CE. about 139 years. capital Winchester. British Isles, Europe.

Aethelstan's realm, united in 927, whose shires became the basis of the later counties. Danish kings ruled it from 1016 to 1042, and William of Normandy took it at Hastings in 1066.

Caliphate of Cordoba

929 to 1031 CE. about 102 years. capital Cordoba, Madinat al-Zahra. Iberia, Europe.

Abd al-Rahman III proclaimed himself caliph in 929 and built the palace city of Madinat al-Zahra. Cordoba, probably over 100,000 people, was Europe's largest city alongside Constantinople before civil war broke the state into taifas.

Kingdom of Castile

c. 931 to 1230 CE. about 299 years. Iberia, Europe.

A frontier county of Leon that won autonomy under Fernan Gonzalez in 931 and became a kingdom in 1065. Alfonso VI took Toledo in 1085, and Alfonso VIII led the victory at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.

Kingdom of Denmark

c. 936 to 1397 CE. about 461 years. capital Jelling, later Roskilde. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Gorm the Old ruled from Jelling from about 936, and his son Harald Bluetooth claimed to have won all Denmark and made the Danes Christian. Valdemar II conquered northern Estonia in 1219. Roskilde served as the capital from the 11th century.

Holy Roman Empire

962 to 1806 CE. about 844 years. capital None fixed (imperial seats at Prague, later Vienna). Central Europe, Europe.

Dated from Otto I's imperial coronation in 962 (some date it from 800), a decentralised empire of German, Italian and Burgundian lands under an elected emperor. The Thirty Years' War devastated it, and Francis II dissolved it in 1806.

Kingdom of Sweden

c. 970 to 1397 CE. about 427 years. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Eric the Victorious ruled from about 970, and his son Olof Skotkonung was the first king known to rule both Swedes and Geats and the first Christian king of central Sweden. Birger Jarl founded Stockholm in 1252.

Kingdom of France (Capetian)

987 to 1328 CE. about 341 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Hugh Capet's descendants built royal power outward from Paris. Philip II conquered Normandy and Anjou, and Louis IX spent heavily on crusades. The direct line died out in 1328.

Kingdom of Hungary

1000 to 1526 CE. about 526 years. capital Esztergom, Szekesfehervar, Buda. Central Europe, Europe.

Saint Stephen founded a Christian kingdom that joined Croatia in 1102, and Matthias Corvinus even held Vienna. The Ottomans destroyed its army at Mohacs in 1526 and split the country.

North Sea Empire

1016 to 1035 CE. about 19 years. capital Winchester. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Cnut the Great ruled England from 1016, Denmark from 1018 and Norway from 1028. The union fell apart soon after his death in 1035.

Kingdom of Poland (Piast)

1025 to 1370 CE. about 345 years. capital Gniezno, then Krakow. Central Europe, Europe.

The Piast realm split into duchies after 1138 and suffered Mongol invasions from 1240. Wladyslaw the Elbow-high restored the kingdom in 1320, and his son Casimir the Great strengthened and expanded it.

Kingdom of England (Norman and Plantagenet)

1066 to 1485 CE. about 419 years. capital London (Westminster). British Isles, Europe.

The Normans built castles and compiled the Domesday Book, and French was the language of the king and his court until the end of the 14th century. Barons forced Magna Carta on King John in 1215. The Wars of the Roses ended at Bosworth in 1485.

Republic of Genoa

c. 1099 to 1797 CE. about 698 years. capital Genoa. Italy, Europe.

A maritime republic with colonies from Crimea to Chios, and Venice's long-standing rival. In the early modern period it turned to banking and became a lasting partner of the Spanish Empire. Napoleon replaced it with the Ligurian Republic in 1797.

Republic of Florence

1115 to 1532 CE. about 417 years. capital Florence. Italy, Europe.

A wool and banking republic whose Medici rulers patronised Brunelleschi, Botticelli and Michelangelo. After a siege backed by Charles V, a new constitution of 1532 made the Medici hereditary dukes.

Kingdom of Sicily

1130 to 1282 CE. about 152 years. capital Palermo. Italy, Europe.

Roger II united the Norman conquests in Sicily and southern Italy and was crowned king in 1130. The crown passed to the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II, and the Sicilian Vespers of 1282 threw off Angevin rule on the island.

Novgorod Republic

1136 to 1478 CE. about 342 years. capital Novgorod. Russia and the Steppe, Europe.

Novgorod expelled its prince in 1136 and became a merchant republic with an elected archbishop and a veche assembly, trading furs with the Hanse. Ivan III of Moscow annexed it in 1478.

Kingdom of Portugal

1139 to 1910 CE. about 771 years. capital Coimbra, then Lisbon (from 1255). Iberia, Europe.

Portugal took Lisbon in 1147 and completed its Reconquista with the Algarve in 1249. Under the House of Aviz its explorers built a vast overseas empire. An earthquake destroyed much of Lisbon in 1755, and the revolution of 1910 ended the monarchy.

Angevin Empire

1154 to 1214 CE. about 60 years. capital Angers and Chinon (court; no official capital). British Isles, Europe.

Henry II ruled England, Normandy, Anjou and, through his wife Eleanor, Aquitaine. His son John lost Normandy in 1204 and the rest of the northern French lands after Bouvines in 1214.

Crown of Aragon

1162 to 1516 CE. about 354 years. capital Zaragoza, Barcelona. Iberia, Europe.

A union of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca that built a Mediterranean empire in Sicily, Sardinia and Naples. Ferdinand II's marriage to Isabella I of Castile joined the two crowns, which passed together to Charles I in 1516.

Second Bulgarian Empire

1185 to 1396 CE. about 211 years. capital Tarnovo. Balkans and Greece, Europe.

Founded by the brothers Peter and Asen in a revolt against Byzantium. Ivan Asen II made it the leading Balkan power. The Ottomans took Tarnovo in 1393 and Vidin in 1396.

Kingdom of Bohemia

1198 to 1918 CE. about 720 years. capital Prague. Central Europe, Europe.

Charles IV made Prague an imperial capital and founded its university in 1348. The Hussite wars followed, and defeat at White Mountain in 1620 ended the Bohemian autonomy movement under Habsburg rule.

Crown of Castile

1230 to 1516 CE. about 286 years. Iberia, Europe.

The union of Castile and Leon under Ferdinand III, who took Cordoba and Seville. Isabella I married Ferdinand of Aragon, finished the Reconquista and backed Columbus in 1492.

State of the Teutonic Order

1230 to 1525 CE. about 295 years. capital Marienburg, later Konigsberg. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

German crusading knights conquered pagan Prussia from 1230 and ruled it as a monastic state. Defeat at Grunwald in 1410 broke their power, and Grand Master Albert secularised the state in 1525.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

c. 1236 to 1795 CE. about 559 years. capital Vilnius. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Mindaugas won supreme power in Lithuania by the mid-1230s. Gediminas built it into an empire, Vytautas brought its greatest expansion, and by 1440 it was the largest state in Europe, reaching the Black Sea. It converted in 1387 and joined Poland in the Commonwealth in 1569.

Emirate of Granada

1238 to 1492 CE. about 254 years. capital Granada. Iberia, Europe.

The last Muslim state in Iberia, ruled by the Nasrids, who built the Alhambra. Boabdil surrendered Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella on 2 January 1492.

Golden Horde

1242 to 1502 CE. about 260 years. capital Sarai. Russia and the Steppe, Europe.

Batu's Mongol khanate ruled the steppe from Sarai on the lower Volga and took tribute from the Rus princes for two centuries. Its Mongol elite adopted Islam and the Kipchak language.

Grand Principality of Moscow

1263 to 1547 CE. about 284 years. capital Moscow. Russia and the Steppe, Europe.

Founded as an appanage for Daniel, son of Alexander Nevsky, Moscow grew rich collecting the khan's tribute from other Russian princes. Ivan III tripled Russian territory, and his defeat of the Tatars in 1480 traditionally ends Tatar overlordship.

Kingdom of Naples

1282 to 1816 CE. about 534 years. capital Naples. Italy, Europe.

The mainland half of the old Sicilian kingdom, kept by the Angevins after 1282 and later ruled by Aragon, Spain, Austria and the Bourbons. It was one of the largest Italian states and, around 1600, the most populous Spanish holding outside Castile.

Ottoman Empire

1299 to 1922 CE. about 623 years. capital Bursa, Edirne, then Constantinople. Balkans and Greece, Europe.

From Anatolia the Ottomans crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354 and ruled the Balkans for five centuries, besieging Vienna in 1529 and 1683. Defeat in 1918 led to the sultanate's abolition in 1922.

Kingdom of France (Valois)

1328 to 1589 CE. about 261 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The Valois kings fought the Hundred Years' War with England, turned by Joan of Arc in 1429. They then fought the Habsburgs in Italy and faced the Wars of Religion.

Serbian Empire

1346 to 1371 CE. about 25 years. capital Skopje. Balkans and Greece, Europe.

Stefan Dusan was crowned emperor of the Serbs and Greeks in 1346 and issued a law code. The empire broke apart after the Ottomans won at the Maritsa in 1371.

Hanseatic League

c. 1356 to 1669 CE. about 313 years. capital Lubeck. Central Europe, Europe.

A network of nearly 200 mostly north German merchant towns, with Lubeck the most prominent, and trading posts from London and Bruges to Novgorod. It forced Denmark to terms at Stralsund in 1370, then slowly unravelled until 1669.

Burgundian State

1363 to 1477 CE. about 114 years. capital Dijon, later itinerant (Brussels, Ghent, Bruges). France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The Valois dukes of Burgundy gathered Burgundy, Flanders, Brabant and Holland into a state that rivalled France. Charles the Bold was killed at Nancy in 1477.

Kingdom of Poland (Jagiellonian)

1386 to 1569 CE. about 183 years. capital Krakow. Central Europe, Europe.

Queen Jadwiga married Jogaila of Lithuania in 1386, joining the two realms. Their army crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410, and Copernicus studied in Krakow.

Kalmar Union

1397 to 1523 CE. about 126 years. capital Copenhagen. Scandinavia and the Baltic, Europe.

Margaret I had her grand-nephew Eric of Pomerania crowned king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden at Kalmar in 1397. Swedish revolts ended the union when Gustav Vasa took the Swedish throne in 1523.