Chronicon
Menu
Historical Period
ENGR

Trace Italy from the Normans and the Lombard League through Venice, the friars, and the Black Death to the signorie and the eve of the Italian Wars.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

High Middle Ages & City-States · 1000-1494 AD
Comuni e Signorie

High Middle Ages & the City-States

From the Norman conquest of the south and the clash of popes and emperors to the rise of the communes, the maritime empires of Venice and Genoa, the friars and the Black Death, the age of the signorie and the Peace of Lodi, ending with the French invasion of 1494 — the centuries in which the Italian city-states became the wealthiest and most inventive polities of medieval Europe. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of Italy's high and late Middle Ages.

1071 AD
Norman South
1 / 17
In the year of Our Lord

1071 AD

Norman South
  • Military

    Norman Conquest of Bari Ends Byzantine Italy

    After a three-year siege, Robert Guiscard captures Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, completing the Norman conquest of the south.

17 milestones
Full Chronicle

High Middle Ages & the City-States

From the Norman conquest of the south and the clash of popes and emperors to the rise of the communes, the maritime empires of Venice and Genoa, the friars and the Black Death, the age of the signorie and the Peace of Lodi, ending with the French invasion of 1494 — the centuries in which the Italian city-states became the wealthiest and most inventive polities of medieval Europe. Slide across the centuries to read the major events of Italy's high and late Middle Ages.

  1. Norman South

    • Norman Conquest of Bari Ends Byzantine Italy

      After a three-year siege, Robert Guiscard captures Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, completing the Norman conquest of the south.

  2. Investiture Controversy

    • Henry IV's Walk to Canossa

      Excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII, Emperor Henry IV stands barefoot in the snow outside the castle of Matilda of Tuscany until the pope grants him absolution.

  3. Norman Sicily

    • Roger II Crowned King of Sicily

      Roger II is crowned in Palermo, uniting the Norman lands of southern Italy and Sicily into a single kingdom that becomes the most cosmopolitan court of medieval Europe.

  4. Lombard League

    • Battle of Legnano

      The communes of the Lombard League defeat Frederick Barbarossa, vindicating the right of Italian cities to self-government within the empire.

  5. Mediterranean Empire of Venice

    • Sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade

      Diverted by Doge Enrico Dandolo, the Fourth Crusade storms Constantinople; Venice receives three-eighths of the Byzantine empire and becomes a Mediterranean superpower.

  6. Mendicant Orders

    • Francis of Assisi Founds the Friars Minor

      Pope Innocent III orally approves the rule of Francesco di Bernardone, launching a movement of voluntary poverty that transforms medieval religion.

  7. Hohenstaufen Italy

    • Death of Frederick II, Stupor Mundi

      The Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II dies in Apulia, leaving his Italian kingdom to a generation of war between papacy and empire.

  8. Angevin South

    • Battle of Benevento and Angevin Conquest of Naples

      Charles of Anjou defeats and kills Manfred Hohenstaufen at Benevento, securing the Kingdom of Sicily as a French papal fief.

  9. Sicilian Vespers

    • The Sicilian Vespers

      An evening insurrection in Palermo on Easter Monday massacres the French garrison and brings the Aragonese into Sicily, splitting the Norman kingdom in two.

  10. Mercantile Italy

    • Marco Polo Returns to Venice

      Marco Polo, his father, and uncle return to Venice after twenty-four years in the Mongol empire, bringing the East within imaginative reach of the Italian merchant cities.

  11. Eve of the Trecento

    • First Roman Jubilee Proclaimed by Boniface VIII

      Pope Boniface VIII proclaims the first Holy Year, drawing perhaps two hundred thousand pilgrims to Rome — among them Dante, who sets his Divine Comedy in the Easter of 1300.

  12. The Black Death

    • The Black Death Reaches Italy

      Genoese galleys carry the plague from the Black Sea to Messina, Genoa, and Venice, unleashing a pandemic that kills perhaps half the peninsula's people.

  13. Venice and Genoa

    • The War of Chioggia

      In the climactic round of their long rivalry, Venice traps and destroys the Genoese fleet at Chioggia, confirming its supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean trade.

  14. Age of the Signorie

    • Death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti

      On the verge of uniting northern Italy under Milan, Duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti dies of plague, and his network of signorie collapses, sparing the independence of Florence.

  15. Aragonese Naples

    • Alfonso of Aragon Conquers Naples

      Alfonso V of Aragon takes Naples, reuniting the mainland south with Sicily and bringing a brilliant Renaissance court to the Italian Mezzogiorno.

  16. Balance of Power

    • Peace of Lodi and the Italic League

      Milan, Venice, Florence, Naples, and the Papacy settle their wars at Lodi and form the Italic League, inaugurating forty years of relative peace and a classic five-power balance.

  17. The Italian Wars Begin

    • Charles VIII of France Invades Italy

      A French army marches the length of the peninsula to claim Naples, shattering the Italic League's balance of power and opening the long Italian Wars.