11th century

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	10th century · 11th century · 12th century
Decades:	1000s 1010s 1020s 1030s 1040s 1050s 1060s 1070s 1080s 1090s
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century is the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian Era. In the history of European culture, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. There was a sudden decline of Byzantine power and rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes. In what is now Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by the late 11th century. In Song China and the Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science, and technology and medieval Islamic science, technology, and literature. Rivaling political factions at the Song Dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen and ministers of the empire. There was also a population explosion, doubling to the size of 100 million, and an economic revolution in China that spurred manufacture and production rates which rivaled even Great Britain's coal and iron output in the early Industrial Revolution. For Chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, they had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. The Western Chalukya Empire (the Chola's rival) also rose to power by the end of the century. In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in the Middle East over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. In Japan the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state. In the Americas the Toltec and Mixtec civilizations flourished in central America, along with the Huari Culture of South America and the Mississippian culture of North America. In Russia, there was the golden age for the principality of Kievan Rus. In Korea the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from the Liao Dynasty ( Manchuria). In Vietnam the Lý Dynasty began, while in Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political and military power.

Overview

In European history, the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the High Middle Ages, an age subsequent to the Early Middle Ages. The century began while the translatio imperii of 962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the Investiture Controversy. It saw the final Christianisation of Scandinavia and the emergence of the Peace and Truce of God movements, the Gregorian Reforms, and the Crusades which revitalised a church and a papacy that had survived tarnished by the tumultuous tenth century. In 1054, the Great Schism rent the church in two, however.

In Germany, it was marked by the ascendancy of the Holy Roman Emperors, who hit their high watermark under the Salians.

In Italy, it opened with the integration of the kingdom into the empire and the royal palace at Pavia was sacked in 1024. By the end of the century, Lombard and Byzantine rule in the Mezzogiorno had been usurped by the Normans and the power of the territorial magnates was being replaced by that of the citizens of the cities in the north.

In Britain, it saw the transformation of Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the fuller orbit of European feudal politics.

In France, it saw the nadir of the monarchy and the zenith of the great magnates, especially the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, who could thus foster such distinctive contributions of their lands as the pious warrior who conquered Britain, Italy, and the East and the impious peacelover, the troubadour, who crafted out of the European vernacular its first great literary themes. There were also the first figures of the intellectual movement known as Scholasticism, which emphasized dialectic arguments in disputes of Christian theology as well as classical philosopy.

In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last caliphs of Córdoba and ended in the successes of the Almoravids. In between was a period of Christian unification under Navarrese hegemony and success in the Reconquista against the taifa kingdoms which replaced the fallen caliphate.

In China, there was a triangular affair of continued war and peace settlements between the Song Dynasty, the Tanguts-led Western Xia in the northwest, and the Khitans of the Liao Dynasty in the northeast. Meanwhile, opposing political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of Kaifeng. The political reformers at court, called the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa), were led by Emperor Shenzong of Song and the Chancellors Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi, while the political conservatives were led by Chancellor Sima Guang and Empress Dowager Gao, regent of the young Emperor Zhezong of Song. Heated political debate and sectarian intrigue followed, while political enemies were often dismissed from the capital to govern frontier regions in the deep south where malaria was known to be very fatal to northern Chinese people (see History of the Song Dynasty). This period also represents a high point in classical Chinese science and technology, with figures such as Su Song and Shen Kuo, as well as the age where the matured form of the Chinese pagoda was accomplished in Chinese architecture.

In India, the Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as Rajaraja Chola I and Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India ( Tamil Nadu), Sri Lanka, and regions of South East Asia. They also sent raids into what is now modern-day Thailand.

In Japan, the Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the Emperor of Japan, who acted merely as a ' puppet monarch' during the Heian period.

In the Middle East, the Fatimid Empire reached its zenith only to face steep decline, much like the Byzantine Empire in the first half of the century. The Seljuks came to prominence while the Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, tangible authority in state affairs.

In Korea, the rulers of the Goryeo Kingdom were able to concentrate more central authority into their own hands than in that of the nobles, and were able to fend off two Khitan invasions with their armies.

Events

• 1001- 1008 - Japanese Lady Murasaki Shikibu writes the first novel, The Tale of Genji
• 1001 ± 40 years, Baitoushan volcano on what would be the Chinese-Korean border, erupts with a force of 6.5, the fourth largest Holocene blast.
• 1001, Mahmud of Ghazni, Muslim leader of Ghazni, begins a series of raids into Northern India; he finishes in 1027 with the destruction of Somnath.
• c. 1001, Vikings, led by Leif Eriksson, establish small settlements in and around Vinland in North America
• 1003, Robert II of France invades the Duchy of Burgundy, then ruled by Otto-William, Duke of Burgundy; the initial invasion is unsuccessful, but Robert II eventually gained the acceptance of the Church in 1016 and annexed Burgundy into his realm.
• 1004, the library and university Dar Al-Hekma is founded in Egypt under the Fatimids.
• 1005, the Treaty of Shanyuan was signed between the Chinese Song Dynasty and the Khitan Liao Dynasty.
• 1008, the Fatimid Egyptian sea captain Domiyat travels to the Buddhist pilgrimage site in Shandong, China, to seek out the Chinese Emperor Zhenzong of Song with gifts from his ruling Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, successfully reopening diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost since the collapse of the Tang Dynasty.
• 1009, Lý Thái Tổ overthrew the Anterior Lê Dynasty of Vietnam, establishing the Lý Dynasty.

• 1009– 1010, the Lombard known as Melus of Bari led an insurrection against the Byzantine Catepan of Italy, John Curcuas, as the latter was killed in battle and replaced by Basil Mesardonites, who brought Byzantine reinforcements.
• 1010, with the aid of scholars such as Song Zhun, Lu Duosun compiles a massive work of cartography in 1566 chapters, including the mapped topography of each provincial region in China down to the minute level of small towns and villages; this was an imperial compendium first issued by Emperor Taizu of Song in 971 AD.
• 1010– 1011, the Second Goryeo-Khitan War; the Korean king was forced to flee the capital temporarily, but unable to establish a foothold and fearing a counterattack, the Khitan forces withdrew.
• 1011- 1021, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), a famous Iraqi scientist working in Egypt, feigned madness in fear of angering the Egyptian caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and was kept under house arrest from 1011 to 1021. During this time, he wrote his influential Book of Optics.
• 1014, the Byzantine armies of Basil II are victorious over Samuil of Bulgaria in the Battle of Kleidion.
• 1015, in the Battle of Nesjar in Oslofjord, Norway, the forces of Olav Haraldsson fought the forces of Sveinn Hákonarson, with a victory ofr Olav.
• 1018, the First Bulgarian Empire is conquered by the Byzantine Empire
• 1018, the Byzantine armies of Basil Boioannes are victorious at the Battle of Cannae against the Lombards under Melus of Bari.
• 1018, the Third Goryeo-Khitan War; the Korean General Gang Gam-chan inflicted heavy losses to Khitan forces at the Battle of Kwiju. The Khitan withdrew and both sides signed a peace treaty.
• 1014- 1020 The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, is written by Avicenna, Persian Muslim scholar.

• 1020s, The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia, is written by Avicenna, Persian Muslim scholar.
• 1021, the ruling Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears suddenly, possibly assassinated by his own sister Sitt al-Mulk, which leads to the open persecution of the Druze by Ismaili Shia; the Druze proclaimed that Al-Hakim went into hiding (ghayba), whereupon he would return as the Mahdi savior.
• 1025, the Chola Dynasty of India uses its naval powers to conquer the South East Asian kingdom of Srivijaya, turning it into a vassal.
• 1025, ruler Rajendra Chola I moves the capital city of the empire from Thanjavur to Gangaikonda Cholapuram
• 1028, the King of Srivijaya appeals to the Song Dynasty Chinese, sending a diplomatic mission to their capital at Kaifeng.
• 1030, the Battle of Stiklestad (Norway): Olav Haraldsson loses to his pagan vassals and is killed in the battle. He is later canonized and becomes the patron saint of Norway and Rex perpetuum Norvegiae ('the eternal king of Norway').
• 1035, Canute the Great dies, and his kingdom of present-day Norway, England, and Denmark was split amongst three rivals to his throne.
• 1035, William Iron Arm ventures to the Mezzogiorno
• 1037, Ferdinand I of León conquered the Kingdom of Galicia.
• 1040, Duncan I of Scotland slain in battle. Macbeth succeeds him.

• 1041, Samuel Aba became King of Hungary.
• 1042, the Normans establish Melfi as the capital of southern Italy.
• 1042, Bhoja, the Indian ruler, philosopher, and polymath of Malwa, completes the reconstruction of the temple of Somnath after its destruction by Mahmud of Ghazni.
• 1041– 1048, Chinese artisan Bi Sheng invents ceramic movable type printing
• 1043, the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus engage in a naval confrontation, although a later treaty is signed between two parties that included the marriage alliance of Vsevolod I of Kiev to a princess daughter of Constantine IX Monomachos.
• 1043, the Byzantine General George Maniaces, who had served in Sicily back in 1038, was proclaimed emperor by his troops while he was catepan of Italy; he led an unsuccessful rebellion against Constantine IX Monomachos and was killed in battle in Macedonia during his march towards Constantinople.
• 1043, the Song Dynasty Chancellor of China, Fan Zhongyan, and prominent official and historian Ouyang Xiu introduce the Qingli Reforms, which would be rescinded by the court in 1045 due to partisan resistance to reforms.
• 1044, the Chinese Wujing Zongyao, written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide, is the first book to describe gunpowder formulas; it also described their use in warfare, such as blackpowder-impregnated fuses for flamethrowers. It also described an early form of the compass, a thermoremanence compass.
• 1044, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire defeats the Kingdom of Hungary in the Battle of Ménfő; Peter Urseolo captured Samuel Aba after the battle, executing him, and restoring his claim to the throne; the Kingdom of Hungary then briefly becomes a vassal to the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1045, the Zirids, a Berber dynasty of North Africa, break their allegiance with the Fatimid court of Egypt and recognize the Abbasids of Baghdad as the true caliphs.
• 1052, Fujiwara no Yorimichi converts the rural villa at Byōdō-in into a famous Japanese Buddhist temple.
• 1053, the Norman commander Humphrey of Hauteville is victorious in the Battle of Civitate against the Lombards and the papal coalition led by Rudolf of Benevento; Pope Leo IX himself is captured by the Normans.
• 1054, the Great Schism, in which the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern Orthodox churches separated from each other. Similar schisms in the past had been later repaired, but this one continues after nearly 1000 years.
• 1054, a large supernova is observed by astronomers, the remnants of which would form the Crab Nebula.
• 1054, the Battle of Atapuerca is fought between García V of Navarre and Ferdinand I of León
• 1055, the Seljuk Turks capture Baghdad, taking the Buyid Emir Al-Malik al-Rahim prisoner.
• 1056, Ferdinand I of León, King of Castile and King of León, is crowned Imperator totius Hispaniae (Emperor of All Hispania).
• 1057, Anawrahta, ruler of the Pagan Kingdom, defeated the Mon city of Thaton, thus unifying all of Myanmar.

• 1061– 1091, Norman conquest of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea
• 1065, independence of the Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal under the rule of Garcia
• 1066, in the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the last Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson defeated his brother Tostig Godwinson and Harald III of Norway.
• 1066, Edward the Confessor dies; Harold Godwinson is killed in the Battle of Hastings, while the Norman conqueror is crowned William I of England.
• 1066, the Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and many others are killed in the 1066 Granada massacre.
• 1068– 1073, the reign of Japanese Emperor Go-Sanjō brings about a brief period where central power is taken out of the hands of the Fujiwara clan.
• 1068, beginning in this year, Virarajendra Chola sends military raids into Malaysia and Indonesia.
• 1069– 1076, with the support of Emperor Shenzong of Song, Chancellor Wang Anshi of the Chinese Song Dynasty introduces the 'New Policies', including the Baojia system of societal organization and militias, low-cost loans for farmers, taxes instead of corvée labor, government monopolies on tea, salt, and wine, reforming the land survey system, and eliminating the poetry requirement in the imperial examination system to gain bureaucrats of a more practical bent.
• 1070, the death of Athirajendra Chola and the ascension of Kulothunga Chola I marks the transition between the Medieval Cholas and the Chalukya Cholas.
• 1071, Defeat of the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Manzikert by the Seljuk army of Alp Arslan, ending 3 centuries of a Byzantine military and economic Golden Age.
• 1072, the Battle of Golpejera is fought between Sancho II of Castile and Alfonso VI of Castile
• 1073, the Seljuk Turks capture Ankara from the Byzantines.
• 1075, Henry IV suppresses the rebellion of Saxony in the First Battle of Langensalza.
• 1075, the Investiture Controversy is sparked when Pope Gregory VII asserted in the Dictatus papae extended rights granted to the pope (disturbing the balance of power) and new interpretation of God's role in founding the Church itself.
• 1075, Chinese official and diplomat Shen Kuo asserts the Song Dynasty's rightful border lines by using court archives against the bold bluff of Emperor Daozong of Liao, who had asserted that Liao Dynasty territory exceeded its earlier-accepted bounds.
• 1075– 1076, a civil war in the Western Chalukya Empire of India; the Western Chalukya monarch Somesvara II plans to defeat his own ambitious brother Vikramaditya VI by allying with a traditional enemy, Kulothunga Chola I of the Chola Empire; Somesvara's forces suffered heavy defeat, and was eventually captured and imprisoned by Vikramaditya, who proclaimed himself king.

• 1076, the Ghana Empire is attacked by the Almoravids, who sack the capital of Koumbi Saleh, ending the rule of king Tunka Manin
• 1076, the Chinese Song Dynasty places strict government monopolies over the production and distribution of sulfur and saltpetre, in order to curb the possibility of merchants selling gunpowder formula components to enemies such as the Tanguts and Khitans.
• 1076, the Song Chinese allied with southern Vietnamese Champa and Cambodian Chenla to conquer the Lý Dynasty, which was an unsuccessful campaign.
• 1077, the Walk to Canossa by Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1077, Chinese official Su Song is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Liao Dynasty and discovers that the Khitan calendar is more mathematically accurate than the Song calendar; Emperor Zhezong later sponsors Su Song's astronomical clock tower in order to compete with Liao astronomers.
• 1078, Oleg I of Chernigov is defeated in battle by his brother Vsevolod I of Kiev; Oleg escaped to Tmutarakan, but was imprisoned by the Khazars, sent to Constantinople as a prisoner, and then exiled to Rhodes.
• 1078, the revolt of Nikephoros III against Byzantine ruler Michael VII
• 1079, Malik Shah I reforms the Iranian Calendar

• 1080– 1081, the Chinese statesman and scientist Shen Kuo is put in command of the campaign against the Western Xia, and although he successfully halts their invasion route to Yanzhou (modern Yan'an), another officer disobeys imperial orders and the campaign is ultimately a failure because of it.
• 1084, the enormous Chinese historical work of the Zizhi Tongjian is compiled by scholars under Chancellor Sima Guang, completed in 294 volumes and included 3 million written Chinese characters
• 1085, Alfonso VI of Castile captures the Moorish Muslim city of Toledo, Spain.
• 1085, the Katedralskolan, Lund school of Sweden is established by Canute IV of Denmark
• 1086, compilation of the Domesday Book by order of William I of England; it was similar to a modern day government census, as it was used by William to thoroughly document all the landholdings within the kingdom that could be properly taxed.
• 1086, the Battle of az-Zallaqah between the Almoravids and Castilians
• 1087, a new office at the Chinese international seaport of Quanzhou is established to handle and regulate taxes and tariffs on all mercantile transactions of foreign goods coming from Africa, Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Persia, and South East Asia.
• 1087, the Italian cities of Genoa and Pisa engage in the African Mahdia campaign

• 1088, the renowned polymath Chinese scientist and official Shen Kuo made the world's first reference to the magnetic compass in his book Dream Pool Essays, along with encyclopedic documentation and inquiry into scientific discoveries.
• 1088, The University of Bologna is established.
• 1088, Rebellion of 1088 against William II of England lead by Odo of Bayeux.
• 1091, the Byzantine Empire under Alexios I Komnenos and his Cuman allies defeat Pechenegs at the Battle of Levounion
• 1093, Vikramaditya VI, ruler of the Western Chalukya Empire, defeats the army of Kulothunga Chola I in the Battle of Vengi.
• 1093, when the Chinese Empress Dowager Gao dies, the conservative faction that had followed Sima Guang is ousted from court, the liberal reforms of Wang Anshi reinstated, and Emperor Zhezong of Song halted all negotiations with the Tanguts of the Western Xia, resuming in armed conflict with them.
• 1093, the Kypchaks defeat princes of Kievan Rus at the Battle of the Stugna River
• 1093, Battle of Alnwick: Malcolm III of Scotland is killed by the forces of William II of England.
• 1094, the astronomical clock tower of Kaifeng, China—engineered by the official Su Song—is completed.
• 1094, El Cid, the great Spanish hero, conquers the Muslim city of Valencia
• 1094, a succession crisis following the reign of the Fatimid Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah sparks a rebellion which leads to the split of Ismaili Shia into the new Nizari religious branch.

• ca. 1095– 1099, earliest extant manuscript of the Song of Roland
• 1096, the Knights Templar are formed during the early First Crusade in order to protect European Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem.
• 1096, University of Oxford in England holds its first lectures
• 1097, the Siege of Nicaea during the First Crusade
• 1097, Diego Rodriguez, a son of El Cid, dies in the Battle of Consuegra, an Almoravid victory
• 1098, the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade
• 1098, Pope Urban II makes an appearance at the Siege of Capua
• 1098, the Dongpo Academy of Hainan, China is built in honour of the Song Dynasty Chinese official and poet Su Shi, who was exiled there for criticizing reforms of the New Policies Group.
• 1098, the birth of Hildegard of Bingen, polymath
• 1099, the Siege of Jerusalem by European Crusaders.
• 1099, after the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was made into the residential palace for the kings of Jerusalem.
• 1099, after building considerable strength, David IV of Georgia discontinues tribute payments to the Seljuk Turks.
• King Anawrahta of Myanmar made a pilgrimage to Ceylon, returning to convert his country to Theravada Buddhism.
• The Tuareg migrate to the Aïr region.
• Kanem-Bornu expands southward into modern Nigeria.
• The first of seven Hausa city-states are founded in Nigeria.
• The Hodh region of Mauritania becomes desert.

Significant people

• Abhinavagupta, Indian philosopher, logician, musician, poet, and dramatist from the Kashmir region
• Abraham bar Hiyya, Jewish philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician from Catalonia
• Abu al-Hasan 'Ali abi Sa'id 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Sadafi al-Misri, Egyptian mathematician and astronomer
• Abū ‘Alī al-Haṣan ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), optical researcher]
• Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist
• Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), Andalusian-Arab physician, fsurgeon
• Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī, Arab mathematician and astronomer from Al-Andalus
• Abu Nasr Mansur, Iraqi mathematician
• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, researched in anthropology and geodesy,
• Adalbold II of Utrecht, Dutch Bishop of Utrecht and mathematician
• Adémar de Chabannes, French monk, writer, historian, and musical composer
• Agnes, Empress, regent of the Holy Roman Empire
• Anawrahta, ruler of the Pagan Kingdom
• Anselm of Laon, French theologian
• Al-Ghazali, celebrated Muslim scholar
• Al-Karaji, Persian mathematician and engineer
• Al-Muqtadi, Abbasid Caliph
• Al-Qadir, Abbasid Caliph
• Al-Qa'im, Abbasid Caliph
• Al-Sijzi, Persian mathematician and astronomer
• Alexander II, Pope
• Alexios I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor
• Alfonso VI of Castile, ruler of Leon and Castile
• Alī ibn Ahmad al-Nasawī, Persian mathematician who commented on Greek works by Archimedes
• Alp Arslan, Seljuk ruler
• Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne
• Saint Anselm, reputed founder of scholasticism and creator of the ontological argument
• Atisha, influential Buddhist teacher to Tibet
• Bao Zheng, Chinese judge and mayor of Kaifeng
• Basil II, Byzantine Emperor
• Benedict VIII, Pope
• Benedict IX, Pope
• Berengar of Tours, French theologian
• Bernard II Tumapaler of Gascony, Duke of Gascony
• Bhoja, a philosopher king and polymath of Malwa in India
• Bilhana, a Kashmiri language poet from India
• Bohemond I of Antioch, Crusader commander from Calabria