Eleventh Century
1066	Massacre of Jews at Granada
1071	Seljurk Turks defeat the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert
1095	Pope Urban II preaches crusade at the Council of Clermont
1096	Attacks on Jews in Germany coincide with the commencement of the First Crusade
1098	Foundation of the Order of St Lazarus
1099	The Crusaders capture Jerusalem
Twelfth Century
1144	Blood libel: William of Norwich
1145	Bernard of Clairvaux preaches in southern France against Catharism and the followers of Henry of Lausanne Pope Eugene III calls for a Second Crusade
1147	A Christian army captures Lisbon from the Moors
1161	Henry II of England passes ordinances in an attempt to regulate London's prostitutes
1179	Third Lateran Council condemns Waldensians, Cathars and sodomy; passes canons concerning lepers, Jews and Muslims
1182	Philip II of France expels the Jews
1184	Synod of Verona orders bishops to seek out heretics and hand them over to the secular authority Pope Lucius III excommunicates Peter Valdes
1187	Saladin defeats the Christians at Hattin and recaptures Jerusalem, leading to the Third Crusade (1189-92)
1189	The coronation of Richard I of England coincides with an attack on London's Jews
1190	Massacre of Jews at York
1198	Philip II of France readmits the Jews
1199	Pope Innocent III authorises the Cistercians to engage the Cathars in disputation
Thirteenth Century
1204	The Fourth Crusade ends in the sack of Constantinople
1208	Murder of Pierre de Castelnau, papal legate
1209	Albigensian Crusade commences; sack of Béziers; expulsion of Cathars from Carcassonne Francis of Assisi founds the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans)
1212	The Christians defeat the Moors at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
1213	Crusaders under Simon de Montfort defeat King Peter of Aragon at the battle of Muret
1214	Dominic of Guzman founds the Order of Preachers (Dominicans)
1215	Fourth Lateran Council sets out due process against heretics Jews and Muslims are ordered to wear distinctive dress and not to appear in public for the last four days of Holy Week
1229	Treaty of Paris ends the Albigensian Crusade
1244	Fall of the Cathar stronghold of Montségur
1254	Louis IX of France attempts to abolish prostitution
1255	Blood libel: little Hugh of Lincoln
1264	Bolesłaus V, Duke of Greater Poland grants the Statute of Kalisz, a set of privileges for Jews
1275	English Statute of Jewry forbids usury and orders Jews to wear a yellow star
1290	Edward I expels the Jews from England
1291	Fall of Acre to the Mamluk Turks effectively ends the Crusades
Fourteenth Century
c.1300	Marguerite Porete writes the mystical work The Mirror of Simple Souls
1306	Philip IV expels the Jews from France
1307	Arrest of the Knights Templar
1308	Dante Alighieri begins writing The Divine Comedy
1309	Clement V is elected Pope but refuses to travel to Rome, commencing the Avignon Papacy
1311-12	Council of Vienne condemns the Brethren of the Free Spirit
1314	Execution of Jacques de Molay
1315	Louis X readmits Jews into France
1320-21	Shepherd's Crusade
1322	Charles IV expels the Jews from France
1324	Execution of the Cathar leader Guillaume Bélibaste
1334	Casimir III, King of Poland, reaffirms the Statute of Kalisz
c.1342	Richard Rolle writes the mystical work The Fire of Love
1347-51	The Black Death
1348-49	Massacres of Jews in many cities including Basle, Berne, Chillon, Colmar, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Mainz, Speyer, Strasbourg, Stuttgart and Zürich Pope Clement VI defends the Jews against accusations of well-poisoning and plague-spreading
1349	Pope Clement VI condemns the flagellants
1354	Ottoman Turks cross the Dardanelles at Gelibolu (Gallipoli)
1358	The peasants' revolt known as the Jacquerie breaks out in France
1359	John II readmits the Jews into France
1360	Venice establishes a municipal brothel
c.1366	Mystical marriage of Catherine of Siena
1378	The election of a Pope at Rome and another at Avignon begins the Western Schism
1381	Peasants' Revolt in England
1382	The Blackfriars Council condemns twenty-four propositions of John Wyclif
c.1385	Walter Hilton writes the mystical work The Ladder of Perfection
1389	The Ottoman Turks defeat the Serbians at the battle of Kosovo
c.1390	An anonymous author writes the mystical work The Cloud of Unknowing
1394	Charles VI expels the Jews from France
c.1394	Julian of Norwich writes her Book of Shewings
1395	Trial of John Rykener
1396	The Ottoman Turks defeat a Christian army at the battle of Nicopolis Frankfurt opens a municipal brothel
Fifteenth Century
1401	The English Parliament passes a statute authorising the burning of heretics; William Sawtre is the first Lollard martyr
c.1403	Bethlem hospital in London begins to keep psychiatric patients
1403	Florence opens a municipal brothel
1405	Christine of Pisan writes The Book of the City of Ladies
1409	The Council of Pisa elects a third pope
1414	Sir John Oldcastle's revolt The Council of Constance convenes
1415	The Council of Constance burns Jan Hus at the stake for heresy
1417	The Council of Constance deposes the three existing popes and elects Martin V, ending the Western Schism Sir John Oldcastle is caught and burnt as a Lollard heretic
c.1418	Thomas à Kempis writes The Imitation of Christ
1419-31	The Hussite Wars in Bohemia
1421	Siena opens a municipal brothel
1423	Venice builds the Lazzaretto Vecchio
1428-31	Around eighty people are prosecuted for Lollardy in East Anglia and Kent; there are eight executions
1429	Joan of Arc relieves Orléans and defeats the English at the battle of Patay
1431	Execution of Joan of Arc
1433	Munich opens a municipal brothel
1434	Portuguese round Cape Bojador and begin to explore sub-Saharan Africa The Utraquists defeat the Taborites at the battle of Lipany
1435	Pope Eugenius IV condemns the enslavement of the Canary Islanders by the Portuguese
1436	An independent Hussite Church is established in Bohemia
1438	Margery Kempe completes her autobiography
1440	Execution of Gilles de Rais, child serial-killer Thirty-four people in Surrey and Hampshire abjure Lollardy; one is executed
1441	Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, convicted of treasonable necromancy
1452	Pope Nicholas V authorises Alfonso V of Portugal to enslave 'Saracens and pagans'
1453	The Ottoman Turks under Mehmed II capture Constantinople
1454	Anti-Jewish rioting in Silesia follows the preaching of John of Capistrano
1462-64	Around thirty people are prosecuted for Lollardy in the Diocese of Lincoln; two are executed (one as a relapsed heretic in 1474)
1465-69	Paolo Uccello paints the sequence of the Miracle of the Desecrated Host on the Guild of Corpus Domini predella at Urbino
1469	Strasbourg opens a municipal brothel
c.1470	Venice builds the Lazzaretto Nuovo
1471	Marsilio Ficino publishes his Latin translation of the Hermetica, a set of Hellenic wisdom texts
1475	Blood libel: Simon of Trento
1478	The Spanish Inquisition is established
1480	The Turks briefly occupy Otranto (on the Italian mainland)
1486	Eight Coventry Lollards are forced to abjure. Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger publish The Hammer of Witches
1491	Thirteen people abjure Lollardy in Newbury, Berkshire
1492	Christopher Columbus 'discovers' the Americas Granada falls to Ferdinand and Isabella, completing the Reconquista The Alhambra decree: the expulsion of Jews from Spain
1493	Ulrich Molitor publishes Of Witches and Women Diviners Expulsion of Jews from Sicily
1494	Thirty people are accused of Lollardy in Scotland The first cases of syphilis are identified, in Naples
1495	Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon expels the Jews from Lithuania
1496-1506	Sporadic persecution of Lollards in London and the Thames Valley; all abjure but one relapses in 1508 and is burnt
1497	Forced conversion of Portuguese Jews
1498	Execution of Girolamo Savonarola for heresy
Sixteenth Century
1500	Pedro Alvares Cabral 'discovers' Brazil
1502	Forced conversion of Castilian Moors
1503	Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon readmits the Jews into Lithuania
1506	Massacre of 'New Christians' at Lisbon
1509	Johann Pfefferkorn, a converted Jew, convinces the Emperor Maximilian to begin confiscating Jewish books
1510	Publication of the anonymous Book of Vagrants
1510-11	More than fifty people from London and Kent and prosecuted for Lollardy; five are burnt as heretics
1511	The Hebrew Philologist Johann Reuchlin defends Jewish literature against Johann Pfefferkorn Around sixty Lollards from the Chilterns/Thames Valley area are forced to abjure; four are burnt as heretics
1511-12	More than forty-five people from Coventry abjure Lollardy; one is burnt
1512	Birth of the 'Ravenna monster' in Bologna
1513	The Dominican prior Jacob von Hochstraten hauls Johann Reuchlin before the Inquisition
1516	Jewish ghetto established in Venice
1517	May Day riot against foreigners in London Martin Luther produces his Ninety-five Theses, starting the Protestant Reformation
1520	Seven Coventry Lollards are convicted of heresy and burnt at the stake Matteo of Bassi founds the Capuchin Order of Friars
1521	Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther; there is a public book-burning of Luther's works in London Ottoman Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent capture Belgrade
1521-22	Around fifty Lollards from the Chilterns/Thames Valley area are forced to abjure; four are burnt as heretics
1522	The Ottoman Turks capture Rhodes The Affair of the Sausages steers Zürich in a reformed direction under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli Birth of the 'monk-calf' in Freiburg Erasmus writes a colloquy satirising those who had opposed the (recently deceased) Johann Reuchlin
1523	Martin Luther publishes That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew Juan Luis Vives writes On the Education of a Christian Woman
1524	The great fire of Troyes Erasmus writes colloquies satirising exorcists, alchemists and Franciscan friars; he calls the latter, 'well to-do beggars'
1524-25	German Peasants' Revolt
1526	The Ottoman Turks defeat the Hungarians at the battle of Mohács Forced conversion of Aragonese Moors William Tyndale's New Testament in English is publicly burnt as heretical
1527	Swiss Anabaptists produce the Schleitheim Confession
1528	Patrick Hamilton is burnt as a heretic at St Andrews: Scotland's first Protestant martyr
1529	The Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully besiege Vienna Several princes and Imperial Free Cities present their Protestation at the Imperial Diet at Speyer Basel becomes Protestant under the leadership of Johannes Oecolampadius
1530	The Lutheran princes present the Augsburg Confession to the Imperial Diet at Augsburg Thomas Hitton is burnt at the stake as a heretic at Maidstone: England's first Protestant martyr
1531	Foundation of the Schmalkaldic League of German Protestants
1531-33	Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa writes Three Books Concerning Occult Philosophy
1533	Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome and asserts himself as 'Supreme Head of the Church'
1534	Execution of Elizabeth Barton for treason Ignatius Loyola founds the Jesuits Affair of the Placards in Paris; John Calvin flees to Basel
1534-35	Münster Rebellion
1535	Execution of William Tyndale
1536	Portuguese Inquisition established Pilgrimage of Grace in England John Calvin writes the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion The French and Ottomans agree an alliance against the Holy Roman Empire
1536-1540	Dissolution of the monasteries in England
1537	Pope Paul III forbids the enslavement of Amerindians
1538	The Franciscan John Forrest is burnt as a heretic
1540	Henry VIII of England executes three prominent Protestants for heresy and three Catholics for treason on the same day
1542	The English Parliament passes a short-lived act making witchcraft a felony
1543	Martin Luther publishes On the Jews and their Lies
1545	Massacre of Waldensians at Mérindol
1545-63	Council of Trent (three sessions)
1546	Execution of Étienne Dolet for atheism Henry VIII of England closes the Stews
1546-47	War of the Schmalkaldic League; ends with the decisive battle of Mühlberg
1547	As part of the dissolution of chantries, Edward VI of England closes a number of almshouses
1549	Prayer Book Rebellion in Cornwall and Devon
1550	Execution of Joan Bocher for heresy
c.1550	The Portuguese begin to use African slaves to work sugar plantations in Brazil
1551	Barbary Corsairs enslave the entire population of Gozo in the Mediterranean
1553	Execution of Michael Servetus in Geneva for heresy Edward VI of England grants Bridewell Palace as a poorhouse
1554	Barbary corsairs raid southern Italy capturing thousands of slaves
1555	Peace of Augsburg attempts the coexistence of Protestants and Catholics in the Empire Jewish ghetto established in Rome
1555-58	Mary I of England executes nearly 300 Protestants for heresy including Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer (the Oxford martyrs)
1558	John Knox publishes First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women The Heptameron, a collection of short stories by Marguerite of Navarre, is published posthumously
1560	Charles IX of France issues an edict abolishing brothels in Paris
1562	Massacre of Huguenots at Vassy ignites the French Wars of Religion Sir Ralph Holinshed records, 'this year in England were many monstrous births'; Parliament passes a second Witchcraft Act John Hawkins begins slaving expeditions in Africa
1563	French Huguenot and Catholic factions agree the Peace of Amboise Johann Weyer publishes The Delusion of Demons The Scottish Parliament passes a Witchcraft Act The first of a series of Elizabethan Poor Laws is enacted
1565	Malta repels a siege by the Ottoman Turks Teresa of Ávila completes her autobiography
1566	Exorcism of Nicole Obry in Laon, France Thomas Harman publishes Caveat for Common Cursitors
1568	The Dutch Revolt initiates the Eighty Years War
1568-71	Revolt of Moriscos in Granada
1569	Agnes Bowker gives birth to a cat Revolt of Catholic Northern Earls in England
1571	The Ottoman Turks capture Cyprus, but are decisively beaten at the naval battle of Lepanto
1572	St Bartholomew's Day massacre
1573	Elector Joachim II expels Jews from Brandenburg
1574	Demoniacs Rachel Pinder and Agnes Briggs are exposed as frauds
1577	Martin Frobisher brings three captured Inuits to England as curiosities
1577-78	John of the Cross is imprisoned by members of his own (Carmelite) order
1580	Jean Bodin publishes The Demon-mania of Sorcerers Michel de Montaigne publishes the first edition of Essays
1581	Execution of the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion in England for treason
1581-1593	Witch trials in Trier, Germany
1584	Reginald Scott publishes Discoverie of Witchcraft
1587	Trials of Elana/Elano de Céspedes and Miguel de Piedrola, the ‘soldier prophet’
1590	Christopher Marlowe writes The Jew of Malta
1590-92	North Berwick witch trials
1591	Execution of William 'Frantick' Hacket
1593-95	Les Croquants: peasants' revolt in south-west France
1595	Nicholas Rémy publishes Three Books of Demonolatry
1597	James VI of Scotland publishes Daemonologie
c.1598	William Shakespeare writes The Merchant of Venice
1598	Edict of Nantes
1599	Execution of Beatrice Cenci for patricide Execution of Domenico Scandella (Menocchio) for heresy The French demoniac Marthe Brossier is denounced as a fraud
Seventeenth Century
1600	Execution of Giordano Bruno for heresy
1603	Jean Grenier is convicted of being a werewolf
1603-1606	Witch trials in Fulda, Germany
c.1605	William Shakespeare writes Macbeth The Gunpowder Plot: English Catholics attempt to blow up Parliament and kill James I
1609-14	Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain
1611	Exorcism of several possessed nuns at an Ursuline convent in Aix-en-Provence; the priest Louis Gaufridi is burnt for witchcraft Emilia Lanyer publishes a collection of poems
1612	Pendle witch trials
1613	Roermond witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands Publication in France of the anonymous Tragedy of a Moor [who is] cruel to his lord named Riviery
1620	The Bohemian (Hussite) Church comes to an end following Imperial victory at the battle of White Mountain
1621	Elizabeth Sawyer is hung for witchcraft; Wiiliam Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford immediately write The Witch of Edmonton
1624	The Parlement of Paris introduces automatic appeals for witchcraft convictions
1626-31	Witch trials in Würzburg, Germany
1628	The astrologer John Lambe is accused of witchcraft and killed by a London mob
1631	Barbary Corsairs raid the coast of Ireland
1633	Exorcism of several possessed nuns at an Ursuline convent in Loudon, France
1634	Urbain Grandier is burnt at the stake for witchcraft
1644-47	Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled 'Witchfinder General', presides over the Essex witch trials; around 300 women are hung
1646	Thomas Edwards publishes Gangraena
1647	Several nuns at a convent in Louviers, Normandy, claim to be possessed; the priest Thomas Boulle is burnt for witchcraft Masaniello's revolt against Habsburg rule of Naples
1648-57	Some 100,000 Jews are killed by Ukrainian Cossacks during the Chmielnicki Uprising
1650	George Fox is arrested for blasphemy and ridiculed as a 'quaker'
1653	Pope Innocent X condemns five propositions of Jansenism Anne Bodenham, a former servant of John Lambe, is convicted of shape-changing and witchcraft
1656	Oliver Cromwell readmits the Jews into England
1666	The great fire of London Margaret Fell publishes Women's Speaking Justified
1671	Elector William Fredereich readmits Jews into Brandenburg-Prussia
1675	Torsåker witch trials in Sweden
1675-81	Salzburg witch trials in Austria
1676	New Bethlem Hospital built at Moorlands
1676-81	The Affair of the Poisons in France: Louis XIV orders the execution of a number of aristocrats for witchcraft
1681	Louis XIV of France introduces the dragonnade: enforced billeting on Huguenots households
1682	Louis XIV of France issues an edict redefining witchcraft as poisoning, rather than diabolical maleficium The Bideford witches are hung: the last executions for witchcraft in England
1683	The Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully besiege Vienna
1685	Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
1689	English Act of Toleration
1692	Salem witch trials in Massachusetts; nineteen women are executed Trial of Theiss of Kaltenbrun, the Livonian werewolf
1693	Anne Palles beheaded and then burnt as a sorceress: the last person executed for witchcraft in Denmark
1699	Publication of the anonymous New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew
Eighteenth Century
1700	Johann Eisenmenger publishes Judaism Unmasked
1702-11	Huguenot revolt in the War of the Camisards in the Cévennes.
1704	Anna Eriksdotter is beheaded: the last person executed for witchcraft in Sweden
1709	Louis XIV of France dissolves the Jansenist Abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs
1712	Jane Wenham is convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, but recieves a pardon from Queen Anne
1726	Mother Clap's Molly House is raided
1727	Janet Horne is convicted of witchcraft; the last person to be burnt as a witch in Scotland
1728	John Gay writes The Beggars Opera
c.1732	William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress
1735	English Witchcraft Act reclassifies witchcraft as a fraud
1739	Execution of Dick Turpin
1750	Maria Pauer is beheaded: the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Austria
1764-67	Two hundred people are attacked by the Beast of Gévaudan, a suspected werewolf
1766	Maria Theresa publishes her Article on Sorcery, Witchcraft, Divination & Similar Activities
1775	Anna Maria Schwägelin is beheaded: the last person executed for witchcraft in Germany
1776	The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth bans witch trials