Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, also called William the Marshal (Norman French: Guillaume le maréchal), was an English (or Anglo-Norman) soldier and statesman. Stephen Langton eulogized him as the "best knight that ever lived." H...

Guy of Lusignan was a Poitevin knight, son of Hugh VIII of the prominent Lusignan dynasty. He was king of the crusader state of Jerusalem from 1186 to 1192 by right of marriage to Sibylla of Jerusalem, and of Cyprus from 1192 to 1194. Havin...

Alfonso II, called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and, as Alfons I, the Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. The eldest son of Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Queen Petronilla of Aragon, he was the f...

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the...

Tomoe Gozen was a late twelfth-century female samurai warrior (onna bugeisha), known for her bravery and strength. She is believed to have fought in and survived the Genpei War (1180–1185). She was also the concubine of Minamoto no Yoshinak...

Tamar the Great, was the Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213, who presided over the apex of the Georgian Golden Age. A member of the Bagrationi dynasty, her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized...

Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni. Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential popes in the history of the p...

Genghis Khan was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding...

Philip II, known as Philip Augustus, was King of France from 1180 to 1223, a member of the House of Capet. Philip's predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French monarch to style hi...

John reigned as King of England from April 6, 1199, until his death. He succeeded to the throne as the younger brother of King Richard I (known as "Richard the Lionheart"). John acquired the nicknames of "Lackland" and "Soft-sword." He was...

William I, Count of Holland from 1203 to 1222. He was the younger son of Floris III and Ada of Huntingdon. William was raised in Scotland. He started a revolt against his brother, Dirk VII and became count in Friesland after a reconciliatio...

Saint Dominic (Spanish: Domingo), also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo de Guzmán Garcés was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers, a Catholic religiou...

Gregory IX, Pope 1227-1241, who founded the papal Inquisition. In 1227 he excommunicated Frederick II when the emperor delayed in keeping his pledge to lead a Crusade. Gregory ordered an attack on the kingdom of Sicily in the emperor's abse...

Leonardo Pisano Bigollo or simply Fibonacci, was an Italian mathematician, considered by some "the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages." Fibonacci is best known to the modern world for the spreading of the Hindu-Arabic nu...

Baldwin I, the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, as Baldwin IX Count of Flanders and as Baldwin VI Count of Hainaut, was one of the most prominent leaders of the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the capture of Constantin...