Peter II the Catholic was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213. He was born in Huesca, the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. In 1205 he acknowledged the feudal supremacy of the papacy and was crown...

Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis for men and women not able to live the lives of itinerant p...

Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, variously rendered in English as John of Pian de Carpine, John of Plano Carpini or Joannes de Plano, was a medieval Italian diplomat, archbishop and explorer and one of the first Europeans to enter the court of...

Ögedei Khan, also Ogotai or Oktay, was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was the Great Khan when the Mo...

The Siege of Jerusalem took place from September 20 to October 2, 1187. It resulted in the recapture of Jerusalem by Saladin and the near total collapse of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. This provoked the Third Crusade by providing it w...

Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the...

The Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem, is a German Roman Catholic religious order. It was formed to aid Catholics on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals to care for the sick and inju...

Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican friar who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful coexistence of science and religion. He is considered to b...

Frederick II of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was a pretender to the title of King of the Romans from 1212 and unopposed holder of that monarchy from 1215. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, and of Burgundy. He was Holy Roman Emperor fr...

Pope Clement IV, was elected Pope February 5, 1265, in a conclave held at Perugia that took four months, while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France (1226–70), to carry on the...

The Nibelungenlied (Middle High German: Der Nibelunge liet or Der Nibelunge nôt), translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. T...

The Siege of Constantinople (1204) destroyed parts of the capital of the Byzantine Empire as it was captured by Crusaders. After the capture the Latin Empire was founded and Baldwin of Flanders was crowned Emperor Baldwin I of Constantinopl...

Güyük was the third Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. He was the eldest son of Ögedei Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and reigned from 1246 to 1248. Genghis Khan's sons and grandsons were haunted by alcoholism, a vice that Genghis himself ha...

The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire in world history and for some time was the most feared in Eurasia. It was the product of Mongol unification and Mongol invasions, which began with Temujin being proclaimed ruler in 1206, e...

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, Germany and a greatly-venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. She then became one of the first members...