Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the Great, was king of France from 987-996. He was the first of the Capetians, the royal house that ruled France until 1328. After the death of the Carolingian king of France, the nobles and prelates elected him king...

Pope Sylvester II, born Gerbert d'Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and Pope. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab/Greco-Roman arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy, reintroducing to Europe the abacus and armillary sphere, which...

Tancred of Hauteville was an eleventh-century Norman petty lord about whom little is known. His historical importance comes entirely from the accomplishments of his sons and later descendants. He was a minor noble near Coutances in the Cote...

William I usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. The descendant of Viking raiders, he had been Duke of Normandy since 1035...

Shlomo Yitzchaki, today generally known by the acronym Rashi, was a medieval French rabbi and author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud and commentary on the Tanakh. Acclaimed for his ability to present the basic meaning of the tex...

Raymond IV of Toulouse sometimes called Raymond of St Gilles was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne, and Margrave of Provence and one of the leaders of the First Crusade. He was a son of Pons of Toulouse and Almodis de La Marche. He receiv...

Peter the Hermit, French religious leader. In 1095 he was a very successful preacher of the First Crusade, and he led one of its bands. In 1096 he reached Constantinople with his undisciplined followers; when they arrived in Asia Minor, Pet...

Bohemond I, Prince of Taranto and Prince of Antioch, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade. The Crusade had no outright military leader, but instead was ruled by a committee of nobles. Bohemond was one of the most important of these l...

Baldwin I of Jerusalem, was one of the leaders of the First Crusade, who became the first Count of Edessa and then the second ruler and first titled King of Jerusalem. He was the brother of Godfrey of Bouillon, who was the first ruler of th...

Godfrey of Bouillon was a leader of the First Crusade. He was either the eldest or the second son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne, and Ida, daughter of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine. He was designated by his uncle, Godfrey the Hunchb...

Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106. He was called Beauclerc for his s...

Peter Abelard (Latin: Petrus Abaelardus or Abailardus; French: Pierre Abélard) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian and preeminent logician. His love for, and affair with, Héloïse d'Argenteuil have become legendary. The...

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order. "The voice of conscience, the dominating figure in the Catholic Church from 1125 to 1153", his authority helped to end the sch...

Empress Matilda, also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood. Will...

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages, a member of the Ramnulfid dynasty of rulers in southwestern France. She became Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right while...