|
ca. 420 |
Augustine, bishop of Hippo, writes On Marriage and Concupiscence, in which he outlines his views on the sins of contraception. |
|
476 |
The Germanic king of the Ostrogoths, Odoacer, deposes the last emperor of Rome and creates a kingdom inside Italy. |
|
495 |
The Frankish king Clovis converts to Roman Catholic Christianity and influences the peoples around him toward conversion as well. |
|
ca. 547 |
Death of Benedict of Nursia, whose rule for monks and nuns influenced religious life in the Middle Ages and still does today. |
|
566 |
Brunhilda, a Visigothic princess, marries Sigebert, King of Austrasia. |
|
597 |
Death of Fredegund, regent of Neustria and ruthless politician. |
|
ca. 600 |
Baudonivia writes the life of Saint Radegund, a Frankish queen turned saint. |
|
800 |
Charlemagne, the king of the Franks, is crowned emperor of the Frankish empire. |
|
841–843 |
Dhuoda dictates a book for her son William. |
|
900s |
Life of Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, the first female playwright in European history. |
|
900s–1000s |
Anglo-Saxon women record their wills and indicate their choices for bequests of their personal property. |
|
ca. 1091 |
Death of Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Spanish Muslim poet. |
|
ca. 1100 |
Constance, a nun in Angers, France, corresponds with Bishop Baudry of Bourgueil. |
|
1100s |
Possible lifetime of Trota, a midwife and author of at least one medical manuscript in Salerno, Italy. |
|
Life of Qasmuna bint Isma’il ibn Bagdalah, a Jewish poet who wrote in Arabic. |
|
|
Life of Clemence of Barking, a nun who may have criticized a king in her translation of a saint’s life. |
|
|
Life of Marie de France, author of several Arthurian romances. |
|
|
1100s–1200s |
Female poets known as the trobairitz write poetry to their lovers and to one another in southern France. |
|
1155 |
Death of Christina of Markyate, who famously fled from her fiancé in order to live her life as an anchoress. |
|
1164 |
Death of Héloïse d’Argenteuil, whose romance and marriage to her tutor Peter Abelard became a famous love story. |
|
1179 |
Death of Hildegard von Bingen, a mystic, physician, composer, and political writer. |
|
1195 |
Death of Herrad of Hohenburg, the author of an important book on theology written for the nuns she supervised. |
|
1200s |
Nuns from the monastery of Helfta become some of Europe’s leading mystical figures. |
|
1204 |
Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of England and patron of many poets and writers. |
|
1215 |
Death of Esclarmonde, countess of Foix, Cathar perfect and proud heretic. |
|
Pope Innocent III forbids priests from presiding over an ordeal, eventually causing the ordeal to fall out of use. |
|
|
1220–1229 |
The Albigensian Crusade is launched to root out the Cathar heresy from southern France and to bring the area back under the king’s control. |
|
1253 |
Death of Clare of Assisi, close companion of St. Francis of Assisi and founder of the monastic order called the Poor Clares. |
|
1281 |
Death of Guglielma, daughter of the king of Bohemia and founder of her own religion. |
|
1298 |
A church order from Pope Boniface VIII titled “Periculoso” (“dangerous”) requires all Catholic nuns to live under enclosure. |
|
1310 |
Marguerite Porete, a mystic and author, is executed by burning. |
|
1322 |
Trial of Jacoba Felicie for practicing medicine in Paris. |
|
1324 |
Trial of Alice Kyteler for witchcraft, the first example of a witch trial. |
|
1347–1351 |
Outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, killing between one-third and one-half Europe’s population. |
|
1371 |
French knight Geoffrey IV de la Tour Landry writes a book for his daughters that contains moral advice. |
|
1380 |
Death of Catherine Benincasa of Siena, important mystic and extensive letter writer. |
|
1392–1394 |
An unknown author writes Le Ménagier de Paris, or a book of advice and recipes for a fifteen-year-old wife. |
|
1400s |
Women of the Paston family of Norfolk, United Kingdom, exchange letters with each other and the people around them. The letters were discovered in 1735 in the basement of their manor. |
|
1416 |
Death of mystic and anchoress Julian of Norwich. |
|
1430 |
Death of poet and writer Christine de Pisan. |
|
1431 |
Execution by burning of the French peasant saint Joan of Arc. |
|
ca. 1439 |
Death of Margery Kempe, pilgrim, traveler, and mystic. |
|
1440 |
Death of Bartolomea Riccoboni, nun and writer of a chronicle tracing Italian politics in the early fifteenth century. |
|
1445 |
Foundation of the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, the first municipal orphanage for abandoned children. |
|
1470 |
Death of Helene Kottanner, who almost single-handedly bestowed the crown of Hungary on King Ladislaus V by completing a secret mission. |
|
1486 |
aPublication of the Malleus Maleficarum, the most misogynistic and most important anti-witchcraft text of the period. |