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| 1205-1230. He was the younger son of King Béla III of Hungary, who invested him with the government of the Principality of Halych. However, the boyars of Halych rebelled against his rule and expelled the Hungarian troops. Following their father's death, Andrew continuously conspired against his brother, King Emeric of Hungary who had to grant him the government of Croatia and Dalmatia. When his brother and his infant son died, Andrew ascended the throne and started to grant royal domains to his partisans. He participated in the Fifth Crusade but he could not achieve any major military success. He was obliged to issue the Golden Bull confirming the privileges of the noblemen of Hungary and later he was also obliged to confirm the special privileges of the clergy. During his long reign, the central power and royal authority potentially weakened. |
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| The Angevins, also known as the House of Anjou, were a noble family founded in the early years of the Carolingian Empire. They first emerged as part of the minor feudal nobility, in what would soon be known as the Kingdom of France during the 10th century. After Geoffrey III, Count of Anjou inherited Anjou from his mother in 1060, the family began to grow in prominence, soon acquiring Maine. After going on crusade and becoming close to the Knights Templar, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was received through marriage by Fulk of Jerusalem in 1131. The senior line of the family branched off to become the House of Plantagenet in 1154, going on to rule the Kingdom of England, Lordship of Ireland, Principality of Wales and various other holdings in the vast Angevin Empire. |
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| Árpád (c. 845 – c. 907 or 907) was the second Grand Prince of the Magyars (Hungarians) (c. 895 – c. 907 or 907). Under his rule the Magyar people settled in the Carpathian basin. The dynasty descending from him ruled the Magyar tribes and later the Kingdom of Hungary until 1301. |
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| The Árpáds or Arpads (Hungarian: Árpádok, Croatian: Arpadovići, Serbian: Арпадовци/Arpadovci, Slovak: Arpádovci, Turkish: Arpatlar) was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian (Magyar) tribes (9th-10th centuries) and of the Kingdom of Hungary (1000-1038 or 1044–1301). The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895. |
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| was ruler of a Bulgar tribe in the second half of the 7th century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 680/681. He is the most famous Bulgar ruler. The accuracy of the Turkic title khan commonly applied to him and his successors is a subject of some dispute. |
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| was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from Germany to the Ural River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his rule, he was one of the most fearsome enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. He invaded the Balkans twice and marched through Gaul (modern France) as far as Orléans before being defeated at the Battle of Châlons. He refrained from attacking either Constantinople or Rome. |
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| Battle of Tannenburg (Grunwald) |
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| was fought on July 15, 1410, during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila (Władysław Jagiełło) and Grand Duke Vytautas (Witold), decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led by Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen. Most of the Teutonic Knights' leadership were killed or taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege on their fortress in Marienburg (Malbork) and suffered only minimal territorial losses at the Peace of Thorn (1411) (Toruń). Territorial disputes continued until the Peace of Melno was concluded in 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and an economic downturn in their lands. The battle shifted the balance of power in Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant political and military force in the region. |
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| was a battle fought in 1389 on St Vitus' Day, June 15,[8] between the Serbian principality led by Lazar Hrebeljanović and the invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Murad I.[9][10] The battle took place in the Kosovo Field, about 5 kilometers northwest of modern-day Pristina. Reliable historical accounts of the battle are scarce; however, a critical comparison with historically contemporaneous battles (such as the Battle of Angora or Nikopolis) enables reliable reconstruction.[11] The battle was an Ottoman victory, with heavy losses on both sides. Ottoman Sultan Murad killed leaving Bayezid as new sultan |
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was a battle between the Mongol Empire and the combined defending forces of European fighters that took place at Legnickie Pole (Wahlstatt) near the city of Legnica (German: Liegnitz) in Silesia on 9 April 1241.
A combined force of Poles, Czechs and Germans under the command of the Polish duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by feudal nobility and a few knights from military orders sent by the Pope, attempted to halt the Mongol invasion of Europe. The battle came two days before the Mongol victory over the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohi. |
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| Battle of Lechfeld (Augsburg) |
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| The Battle of Lechfeld (10 August 955), often seen as the defining event for holding off the incursions of the Hungarians into Western Europe, was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders, the harka (military leader) Bulcsú and the chieftains Lél (Lehel) and Súr. Located south of Augsburg, the Lechfeld is the flood plain that lies along the Lech River. |
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was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács, Hungary. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
The Ottoman victory led to the partition of Hungary for several centuries between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Principality of Transylvania. The death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellon dynasty in Hungary, whose dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs via the marriage of Louis' sister. |
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| took place on November 10, 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. In this battle the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad II defeated the Polish and Hungarian armies under Władysław III of Poland and János Hunyadi. It was the final battle of the Crusade of Varna |
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| was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi (or Golden Horde), the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Chinggis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde (or Kipchak Khanate), which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies of Poland and Hungary. "Batu" or "Bat" literally means "firm" in the Mongolian language. After the deaths of Chinggis Khan's sons, he became the most respected prince called agha (elder brother) in the Mongol Empire. |
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| was the practice by which the Ottoman Empire conscripted boys from Christian families, who were taken from their families and by force converted to Islam,[1] trained and enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. |
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| gnostic sect, belief in two sons of God. One Michael, Christ, and the another Satanil, Satan. Highly anarchist, lived together with communities led by selected 12 |
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Bolesław I was a remarkable politician, strategist and statesman. He was able to turn Poland into one of the largest and most powerful monarchies in eastern Europe. Bolesław conducted successful military campaigns to the west, south and east. He consolidated the Polish lands and conquered territories outside of modern borders of Poland such as Slovakia, Moravia, Red Ruthenia, Meissen and Lusatia as well as Bohemia. He was a powerful mediator in Central European affairs.
He was an ally of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III who may have crowned him rex, although opinions vary on that point. Following the death of Otto III in 1002, Bolesław I conducted a series of successful wars against the Empire and Otto III's cousin and heir Henry II ending with the Peace of Bautzen in 1018. In the summer of 1018, in one of his most famous expeditions, Bolesław I captured Kiev, where, according to legend, he notched his sword when hitting Kiev's Golden Gate. Later, a sword known as szczerbiec, meaning notched sword, would become the ceremonial sword used in the coronation ceremony of Polish kings.
Bolesław I also managed to establish a Polish church structure with a Metropolitan See at Gniezno, independent of German Archbishopric of Magdeburg, which laid claims to the Polish area. During the famous Congress of Gniezno he was able to officially free himself of tribute to Germany and finally, in his most momentous act, he had himself crowned King, the first Polish ruler to do so.
He was an able administrator, establishing the so-called "prince's law", building numerous forts, churches, monasteries and bridges. Bolesław I established the first Polish monetary system, of grzywna divided into 240 denarii,[1] and minted his own coin. He is widely considered one of the most talented and accomplished of the Piast rulers. |
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| was the ruler of First Bulgarian Empire 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather. Converted to Christianity |
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were a heterogenous mix of people speaking a variety of languages, following a variety of faiths, and leading a variety of lifestyles. They are generally, and somewhat unsatisfactorily, classified as semi-nomadic Turkic speakers, who dominated the Pontic steppe and the North Caucasus from the 7th to the 10th century[1]. The name "Khazar"[2] seems to be tied to a Turkic verb form meaning "wandering".[3]
In the 7th century, the Khazars founded an independent Khaganate in the Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea. Although the Khazars were initially Tengri shamanists, many converted to the Abrahamic faiths through interaction with the Byzantine Empire and successive Islamic caliphates; during the 8th or 9th century, the Khaganate adopted Judaism as the state religion. At their height, the Khazars and their tributaries controlled much of what is today southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the Northern Caucasus (Circassia, Dagestan), parts of Georgia, the Crimea, and Northeastern Turkey.
Between 965 and 969, their sovereignty was broken by Sviatoslav I of Kiev, and they became a subject people of Kievan Rus'. Gradually displaced by the Rus, the Kipchaks, and later the conquering Mongol Golden Horde, the Khazars largely disappeared as a culturally distinct people. |
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| Saints Cyril and Methodius |
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| They became missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Great Moravia and Pannonia. Through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title "Apostles to the Slavs". They are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe the Old Church Slavonic language.[11] After their deaths, their pupils continued their missionary work among other Slavs. |
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| was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was Crimean Tatar: Qırım Yurtu, قريم يورتى (Ottoman Turkish and Arabic :خانية القرم). This khanate was by far the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde |
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| are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia, and an estimated 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world.[1][22] Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have since migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in The United States, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Australia, Canada, Serbia, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their culture, which throughout the ages, has been variously influenced by different cultural circles. The strongest influences came from Central Europe and the Mediterranean, where, at the same time, Croats gave their contribution. The Croats are predominantly Catholic and their language is Croatian. |
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were a Turkic[2][4] nomadic people who inhabited a shifting area north of the Black Sea known as Cumania along the Volga River. They eventually settled to the west of the Black Sea, influencing the politics of Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Moldavia, and Wallachia. Cuman is a separate name to Kipchak; the two nations were not the same, but different - they joined politically to create a confederation known as the Cuman-Kipchak confederation [5] The Cuman language is attested in some medieval documents and is the best-known of the early Turkic languages.[6]
The Cumans were nomadic warriors of the Eurasian steppe who exerted an enduring impact on the medieval Balkans. The basic instrument of Cuman political success was military force, which none of the warring Balkan factions could resist. As a consequence, groups of the Cumans settled and mingled with the local population in various regions of the Balkans. A Cuman origin for the founders of three successive Bulgarian dynasties (Asenids, Terterids, and Shishmanids), and the Wallachian dynasty (Basarabids) has been proposed.[5] However, in the case of the Basarab and Asenid dynasties, Medieval documents refer to them as a Vlach (Romanian) dynasties[7][8][9] They also played an active role in Byzantium, Hungary, and Serbia, with Cuman immigrants being integrated into each country's elite. .
The Cumans were called Folban and Vallani by Germans, Kun (Qoun) by the Hungarians and Polovtsy by the Russians. It is rather confusing to know who historians from the past referred to when the name Kipchak was used - they either referred to the Kumans only, the Kipchaks only or both; this is due to the two nations joining and living together (and possibly exchanging weaponry, culture and with possible fusion of languages). This confederation and them living together might have made it tricky at times for historians to write exclusively about either nation. |
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is one of the major rivers in Europe (fourth by length) that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea. Even though Dnepr considered to be as the Russian version of the name, the Russian language also does call the river as Dnipro such in the song Hey, Dnipro, Dnipro.
Its total length is 2,285 kilometres (1,420 mi), of which 485 km (301 mi) lie within Russia, 595 km (370 mi) within Belarus, and 1,095 km (680 mi) within Ukraine. Its basin covers 504,000 square kilometres (195,000 sq mi), of which 289,000 km2 (112,000 sq mi) are within Ukraine. In antiquity, it was known to the Greeks as the Borysthenes. |
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| East Central European universities |
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| Elias Levi, also called Hadji Liacho |
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| Rabbi from Bridge on the Drina...known for good judgement and humor. invovled in discussions of what to do when Drina floods |
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Estates of the realm were the broad divisions of a hierarchically conceived society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages and in Early Modern Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary, and often further divided into burghers (also known as bourgeoisie) and peasants; in some regions, there also was a population outside the estates. An estate was usually inherited and based on occupation, similar to a caste.
Legislative bodies or advisory bodies to a monarch were traditionally grouped along lines of these estates, with the monarch above all three estates. Meetings of the estates of the realm became early legislative and judicial parliaments (see The States). Monarchs often sought to legitimize their power by requiring oaths of fealty from the estates. |
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| Character from bridge on the Drina commits suicide by jumping off, trying to escape loveless marriage. |
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| As Germans began establishing towns throughout northern Europe as early as the 10th century, they often received town privileges granting them autonomy from local secular or religious rulers. Such privileges often included the right to self-governance, economic autonomy, criminal courts, and militia. Town laws were more or less entirely copied from neighboring towns, such as the Westphalian towns of Soest, Dortmund, Minden, and Münster. As Germans began settling eastward, the colonists modelled their town laws on the pre-existing 12th century laws of Cologne, Lübeck in the north (Lübeck law), Magdeburg roughly in the center (Magdeburg rights), and either Nuremberg or Vienna in the south (South German law). |
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| khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus. Also known as the Ulus of Jochi[4] or the Kipchak Khanate (not to be confused with the earlier Kipchak khanate prior to its conquest by the Mongols). The territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the right banks of the Danube River, extending east deep into Siberia. On the south, the Golden Horde's lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the territories of the Mongol dynasty known as the Ilkhanate. |
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| was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe from the 9th century to the early 10th century. There is some controversy as to the actual location of its core territory. According to the greater weight of scholars, its core area lay on both sides of the Morava river, the territory of today's western Slovakia and in Moravia and Bohemia (today's Czech Republic),[2] but the entity may have also extended[when?] into what are today parts of Hungary, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Germany.[3][4][5][page needed][6][page needed] According to Slovak historian Richard Marsina, Great Moravia was inhabited by the ancestors of modern Moravians and Slovaks,[7] although, there is no continuity in politics, culture, or written language between this early Slavic polity and the modern Slovak nation.[8] According to alternate theories, the core territory of Great Moravia was situated South of the Danube river, in Slavonia (today's Croatia), or in the southern parts of the Carpathian Basin. Weakened by internal struggle[20] and frequent wars with the Carolingian Empire, Great Moravia was ultimately overrun by the Hungarians, who invaded the Carpathian Basin around 896. Its remnants were divided between Poland, Hungary, Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire. Although some contemporary sources mention that Great Moravia vanished and the Moravian castles were abandoned for a century, archaeological research and toponyms suggest that there was continuity in the Slavic population in the valleys of the rivers of the Inner Western Carpathians.[21][22] Most castles and towns survived the destruction of the state,[3][23] but the identification of some castles is still debated and some scholars even claim that Great Moravia disappeared without trace. |
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was one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empires and several other countries. Originally from Switzerland, the dynasty first reigned in Austria, which they ruled for over six centuries. A series of dynastic marriages brought Burgundy, Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, and other territories into the inheritance. In the 16th century the family separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Austrian branches, who settled their mutual claims in the Oñate treaty.
As royal houses are by convention determined via the male line, technically the reigning branches of the House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century. The Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II in 1700 and was replaced by the Anjou branch of the House of Bourbon in the person of his great-nephew Philip V. The Austrian branch went extinct in 1780 with the death of Empress Maria Theresa and was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine in the person of her son Joseph II. The new successor house styled itself as House of Habsburg-Lorraine |
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| was an economic alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe in the later Middle Ages. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c.13th–17th centuries). The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid, and thus established a sort of political autonomy and in some cases created political entities of their own. |
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| are a nation and an ethnic group native to and primarily associated with Hungary, a Central European state, and its predecessor states (the Kingdom of Hungary and the People's Republic of Hungary). There are around 14 million Hungarians, of whom 10 million live in today's Hungary (as of 2001).[1] About 2.5 million Hungarians live in areas that belonged to (the Kingdom of) Hungary before the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, but are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbour countries, especially Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. Significant groups of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world (most of them in the United States and Brazil). Unlike the Hungarians living within the territory of pre-1920 Hungary, only some of the ethnic Hungarians in other areas largely preserve the Hungarian language and traditions. The Hungarians can be classified in several sub-groups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics. Hungarian ethnic subgroups with distinct identity are the Székely, the Csángó, the Palóc and the Jassic people. |
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was monarch of Poland from 1384 to her death. Her official title was 'king' rather than 'queen', reflecting that she was a sovereign in her own right and not merely a royal consort. She was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, the daughter of King Louis I of Hungary and Elizabeth of Bosnia. She is known in Polish as Jadwiga, in English and German as Hedwig, in Lithuanian as Jadvyga, in Hungarian as Hedvig, and in Latin as Hedvigis.
She is venerated by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Hedwig, where she is the patron saint of queens and a United Europe |
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Hunyadi is widely celebrated in Hungarian history[6] as its most prominent, successful and powerful generalissimo. He promoted a revision of dated military doctrine and was an outstanding and iconic military opponent of the Ottoman Empire. Hunyadi was, in a sweeping scope of European military history, the pre-eminent strategist and tactician of the 15th century in Christendom.[5] He was also a Voivode of Transylvania (1440–1456),[7] and the father of the most renowned king in Hungarian history — King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.
Hunyadi's military genius, prowess and wherewithal to prosecute preventive and aggressive crusading warfare policies welded together many Christian nationalities against the onslaught of the vastly numerically superior Ottoman Muslim forces. Hunyadi's leadership achieved a state of integrity, stalemate and détente for the Hungarian Kingdom and the many European states that lay to its periphery.
Hunyadi's aim to re-organize the military constituents of Hungary from strictly a feudal-based aristocratic levy into an efficient, professional and formidable standing army would bring reform to European military components in a 'post-Roman' European war-making society.These reforms were further developed by his successor and son King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary who took them to their ultimate culmination with the Black Army of Hungary.
Hunyadi is often considered the bellwether of the European "post-Roman" professional "Standing Army". He is renowned as one of the greatest Medieval field commanders of all time: His victory over Mehmed II at the Siege of Belgrade in 1456 against overpowering odds is regarded as a seminal piece of European military history. |
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He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis. In 1386, he converted Lithuania to Christianity, was baptized as Władysław, married the young queen regnant Jadwiga of Poland, and was crowned Poland's king as Władysław Jagiełło.[1] His own reign in Poland started in 1399, upon death of Queen Jadwiga, and lasted a further thirty-five years and laid the foundation for the centuries-long Polish–Lithuanian union. Władysław II was the founder of the new Jagiellon dynasty that bears his name, while pagan Jogaila was an heir to the already established house of Gediminids (Gediminid dynasty) in Grand Duchy of Lithuania; his royal dynasty ruled both states until 1572,[nb 2] and became one of the most influential dynasties in the late medieval and early modern medieval Central and Eastern Europe.[2]
Jogaila was the last pagan ruler of medieval Lithuania. He held the title Didysis Kunigaikštis.[nb 3] As King of Poland, he pursued a policy of close alliances with Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights. The allied victory at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, followed by the Peace of Thorn (1411), secured the Polish and Lithuanian borders and marked the emergence of the Polish–Lithuanian alliance as a significant force in Europe. The reign of Władysław II Jagiełło extended Polish frontiers and is often considered the beginning of Poland's "Golden Age". |
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| The Slavic tribes that constitute Belarussians were the Krivichians and Drehovichians, while they mixed with Baltic tribes. The direct Slavic ancestors of Russia are the Viatychians and Slovenians, and they mixed with the |
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| was Khan of Bulgaria, from after 796, but before 803, to 814 AD. During his reign the Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle Danube to the Dnieper and from Odrin to the Tatra Mountains. |
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| is a geographic and historic region of east-central Poland. Administrative borders of the contemporary Masovian Voivodeship do not follow historical boundaries of the region. For example, a Masovian city of Łomża belongs instead to the Podlaskie Voivodeship; Skierniewice belongs to Łódź Voivodeship; while Radom, historically part of Lesser Poland, is now part of the Masovian Voivodeship. The Masovia region is spread over the Polish Masovian Plain. |
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Bridge on the Drina, built the bridge , symbollic let mothers come across river was a prominent 16th-century Ottoman statesman. Mehmed was taken away at an early age as part of the devshirmeh system of Ottoman collection of young boys to be raised to serve as a janissary.
He rose through the ranks of the Ottoman imperial system, eventually holding positions as commander of the imperial guard (1543–1546), High Admiral of the Fleet (1546–1551), Governor-General of Rumelia (1551–1555), Third Vizier (1555–1561), Second Vizier (1561–1565) and as Grand Vizier (1565–1579) (for a total of 14 years, 3 months, 17 days) under three Sultans: Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, and Murad III.[4] He was assassinated in 1579, ending a near 15-year rule as de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire. |
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Miezko I united several slavic tribes, converted them to Christianity and established the Polish state.
He accepted Christianity directly from Rome in order to resist forced conversion by the Germans and the incorporation of Poland into the Holy Roman Empire. He expanded Poland to the Baltic Sea and into Galicia. |
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| Bridge on the Drina, fat and serious |
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| is a national saint of the Czech Republic, who was drowned in the Vltava river at the behest of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans and King of Bohemia. Later accounts state that he was the confessor of the queen of Bohemia and refused to divulge the secrets of the confessional. On the basis of this account, John of Nepomuk is considered the first martyr of the Seal of the Confessional, a patron against calumnies and, because of the manner of his death, a protector from floods. |
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| is one of Russia's most historic cities[3] and the administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. Translated from Russian, its name means roughly "The Great New City" or "The Big New City". The city lies along the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen. |
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| is a city on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid in the Republic of Macedonia. It has about 42,000 inhabitants, making it the seventh largest city in the country. The city is the seat of Ohrid Municipality. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year and has been referred to as a "Jerusalem".[3][4] The city is rich in picturesque houses and monuments, and tourism is predominant. It is located southwest of Skopje, west of Resen and Bitola, close to the border with Albania |
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| Regent of Kiev, converts to Christianity, |
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| Ottokar was the second son of King Wenceslaus I of the Přemyslid dynasty, and through his mother, Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen, was related to the Hohenstaufen family, being a grandson of the German king, Philip of Swabia. According to popular oral tradition, Ottokar was profoundly shocked by his brother's death and did not involve himself in politics, becoming focused on hunting and drinking. In 1248 he was enticed by discontented nobles to lead a rebellion against his father, King Wenceslaus. During this rebellion he received the nickname "the younger King". Failed in rebellion but was reconciled with his father and became king after death |
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At the height of its power, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the empire spanned three continents,[6] controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.[7] The Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces and numerous vassal states, some of which were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. The empire also temporarily gained authority over distant overseas lands through declarations of allegiance to the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph, such as the declaration by the Sultan of Aceh in 1565; or through the temporary acquisitions of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, such as Lanzarote in 1585.[8]
The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. With Constantinople as its capital city,[9][10] and vast control of lands around the eastern Mediterranean during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520 to 1566), the Ottoman Empire was, in many respects, an Islamic successor to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.[11]
The Ottoman Empire came to an end, as a regime under an imperial monarchy, on November 1, 1922.[12] It formally ended, as a de jure state, on July 24, 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne.[13] It was succeeded by the Republic of Turkey[14] which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923. |
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| were a semi-nomadic Turkic people of the Central Asian steppes speaking the Pecheneg language which belonged to the Turkic language family. Whatever the truth of this, the Pechenegs emerge in the historical records only in the 8th and 9th centuries, inhabiting the region between the lower Volga, the Don and the Ural Mountains. By the 9th and 10th centuries, they controlled much of the steppes of southwestern Eurasia and the Crimean Peninsula. Although an important factor in the region at the time, like most nomadic tribes their concept of statecraft failed to go beyond random attacks on neighbours and spells as mercenaries for other powers. |
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| was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. It began with the semi-legendary Piast Kołodziej (Piast the Wheelwright). The first historical ruler was Duke Mieszko I (10th cent.). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir the Great. Branches of the Piast dynasty continued to rule in the Duchy of Masovia and in the duchies of Silesia after 1370, until the last Silesian Piast died in 1675. The Piasts intermarried with several noble lines of Europe, and possessed numerous titles, some within the Holy Roman Empire. |
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| were a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in Bohemia (9th century–1306) and in Poland (1300–1306). |
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| The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, a Baltic people related to the Lithuanians and Latvians. In the 13th century, "Old Prussia" was conquered by German crusaders, the Teutonic Knights. In 1308 Teutonic Knights conquered the formerly Polish region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk (Danzig). Their monastic state was mostly Germanized through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south it was Polonized by settlers from Masovia. After the Second Peace of Thorn of 1466, Prussia was split into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the eastern part, since 1525 called Duchy of Prussia, a fief of the Crown of Poland up to 1657. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. |
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| Serbian ferryman, tries to destroy bridge to preserve his livilihood. |
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| was a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and then Galicia-Volhynia until the 14th and Muscovy until the 16th century. |
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| denotes the legal system of ancient Rome, and the legal developments which occurred before the sixth century AD — when the Roman–Byzantine state adopted Greek as the language of government. The development of Roman law comprises more than a thousand years of jurisprudence — from the Twelve Tables (ca. 439 BC) to the Corpus Juris Civilis (AD 528–35) ordered by Emperor Justinian I. This Roman law, the Justinian Code, was effective in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (331–1453), and also served as a basis for legal practice in continental Europe, as well as in Ethiopia, Japan, and most former colonies of European nations, including Latin America. |
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One of the earliest written sources mentioning the people called Rus in the form of Rhos dates back to year 839 AD in a Royal Frankish chronicle Annales Bertiniani, identified as a Germanic tribe called Swedes by the Frankish authorities. According to the Kievan Rus' Primary Chronicle compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus were a group of Varangians, Norsemen, who had relocated from Scandinavia, first to Northeastern Europe, then to the south where they created the medieval Kievan state.[1]
Their name survives in the designation Rospigg, a person from Roslagen, and the cognates Russians, Rusyns and Ruthenians, and who are viewed by the modern Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians as the predecessors of their own peoples. In Sweden, today Rospiggar are males living in the coastal region of the province of Uppland. |
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The majority of Serbs live in their ancestral lands in Central Europe and the Balkans (Southeastern Europe), between the Balkan and Carpathian mountains in the east, and the Adriatic sea in the west. Significant percentage of Serb people live in diaspora. The total number of ethnic Serbs or people of Serb descent, however, is difficult to measure.
Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbs are also a significant minority in other republics of the Former Yugoslavia- primarily Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Serbs are an officially recognized minority in both Romania and Hungary, as well as Albania and Slovakia.[29] There is a large Serbian diaspora in Western Europe especially in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria, as well as in France and Italy (which also contains a historical Serb community). More than a million people of Serbian origin live in German speaking countries |
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The original Tatars inhabited the north-eastern Gobi in the 5th century and, after subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, migrated southward. In the 13th century, they were subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, driving with them many stems of the Turkic Ural-Altayans towards the plains of Russia.
In Europe, they were assimilated by the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Volga Bulgars, Alans, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Finno-Ugric speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.
Siberian Tatars are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols. Later, each group adopted Turkic languages and many adopted Islam. The two ethnic descendants of the original 13th-century westward migration are Volga Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Crimean Tatars. |
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is a German Roman Catholic religious order. It was formed to aid Catholics on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals to care for the sick and injured. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, since they also served as a crusading military order during the Middle Ages. The membership was always small and whenever the need arose, volunteers or mercenaries augmented the military forces. Formed at the end of the 12th century in Acre, in the Levant, the medieval Order played an important role in Outremer, controlling the port tolls of Acre. After Christian forces were defeated in the Middle East, the Order moved to Transylvania in 1211 to help defend Hungary against the Kipchak Turks. They were expelled by force in 1225 after allegedly attempting to place themselves under Papal instead of Hungarian sovereignty.
In 1230, following the Golden Bull of Rimini, Grand Master Hermann von Salza and Duke Konrad I of Masovia launched the Prussian Crusade, a joint invasion of Prussia to Christianise the Baltic Old Prussians. The Order then created the independent Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the conquered territory, and subsequently conquered Livonia. The Kings of Poland accused the Order of holding lands rightfully theirs.
The Order lost its main purpose in Europe with the Christianisation of Lithuania. The Order became involved in campaigns against its Christian neighbours, the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Novgorod Republic (after assimilating the Livonian Order). The Teutonic Knights had a strong economic base, hired mercenaries from throughout Europe to augment their feudal levies, and became a naval power in the Baltic Sea. In 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army decisively defeated the Order and broke its military power at the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg).
In 1515, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I made a marriage alliance with Sigismund I of Poland-Lithuania. Thereafter the Empire did not support the Order against Poland. In 1525, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg resigned and converted to Lutheranism, becoming Duke of Prussia. Livonia soon followed, and also the Order's holdings in Protestant areas of Germany.
The Order kept its considerable holdings in Catholic areas of Germany until 1809, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered its dissolution and the Order lost its last secular holdings. The Order continued to exist as a charitable and ceremonial body. It was outlawed by Hitler in 1938, but re-established in 1945. Today it operates primarily with charitable aims in Central Europe.
The Knights wore white surcoats with a black cross. A cross pattée was sometimes used as their coat of arms; this image was later used for military decoration and insignia by the Kingdom of Prussia and Germany as the Iron Cross and Pour le Mérite. The motto of the Order was:"Helfen, Wehren, Heilen" ("Help, Defend, Heal |
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| is a land granted by the Ottoman sultans between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a tax revenue annual value of less than 20 000 akçes. The revenues produced from land acted as compensation for military service. A Timar holder was known as a Timariot. If the revenues produced from the timar were from 20,000 to 100,000 akçes, the timar would be called zeamet, and if they were above 100,000 akçes, the land would be called has |
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| was the grand prince of Kiev who converted to Christianity in 988. Baptized all Kievan Rus' |
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was one of the most famous rulers of medieval Lithuania. Vytautas was the ruler (1392–1430) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna (1370–1382) and the Prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), postulated king of Hussites.[1]
In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. Vytautas is a popular male given name in Lithuania. Vytautas Magnus University was named after him. Monuments in his honour were built in many towns in the independent Republic of Lithuania during the interwar period, 1918–1939. |
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| He was the son of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia from the Přemyslid dynasty. His father was raised in a Christian milieu through his own father, Borivoj I of Bohemia, who was converted by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the "apostles to the Slavs". His mother Drahomíra was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief of Havolans and was baptised at the time of her marriage. Wenceslaus' murder in September of 935 was the result of a plot involving his younger brother Boleslav I of Bohemia. He is venerated as Saint Wenceslaus and is the main patron saint of the Czech state. |
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| a bishop of Prague and a missionary, was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. Killed by Prussians for trying to chop down sacred oak trees. |
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