EMPEROR JUSTINIAN

BYZANTINE EMPIRE
​(r. 527-565A.D.)
  • Byzantine emperor who reconquered much of the Italian territory previously ruled by Rome
  • initiated an ambitious building program, including Hagia Sofia
  • established a new legal code, the Code of Justinian
  • empire and he personally suffered from a plague now called the Plague of Justinian

CLOVIS I

FRANCE
(r.481–509A.D.)
  • king of the Franks who unified Gaul (France) and established his capital at Paris establishing the Frankish monarchy
  • first Germanic king to convert to Catholicism

CHARLEMAGNE

FRANCE/GERMANY
Franks (768–817A.D.) HRE (800–817A.D.)
  • Frankish king who built an empire in Europe greater than any known since ancient Rome and introduced the feudalism system to Europe
  • saw forced religious conversion as a way to strengthen his kingdom while increasing the membership of the church
  • crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 strengthening church/state relationship in western Europe
  • had monasteries open schools to educate future monks and government officials

WILLAM THE CONQUEROR
(DUKE OF NORMANDY)

NORMANY/ENGLAND
Duke(r.1035–1087) King(r.1035–1087)
  • invaded England from Normandy in 1066 during the Norman invasion leading to victory at the Battle of Hastings
  • became 1st Norman king of England
  • extended the feudal system to England establishing a centralized monarchy

ST. BENEDICT 

ITALY
​(480–547A.D.)
  • founded a community of monks for which he wrote a set of rules called monasticism that came to be the standard in the Catholic Church and used by other groups

CHARLES "THE HAMMER" MARTEL

FRANCE
(718–741A.D.)
  • leader of the Franks who defeated the Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours

LEIF ERIKSON

ICELAND
(970–1020A.D.)
  • ​Viking explorer and first European to reach the New World
  • attempted to established a settlement called Vineland near Newfoundland around 1000A.D.

KING JOHN I

ENGLAND
(1199–1216)
  • signed the Magna Carta
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