Henry II ruled as King of England (1154–1189), Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western Fra...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Louis IX, commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He inherited the throne at age 12. His mother served as regent until 1234, helping to subdue rebellious barons and Albigensian heretics (Cathari). Louis led a Cru...

Villard de Honnecourt was a 13th-century artist from Picardy in northern France. He is known to history only through a surviving portfolio or "sketchbook" containing about 250 drawings and designs of a wide variety of subjects. The so-ca...

Charles I, commonly called Charles of Anjou, was the King of Sicily by conquest from 1266 (though he had received it as a papal grant in 1262), though he was expelled from the island in the aftermath of the Sicilian Vespers of 1282. Thereaf...

In the two centuries of their known existence the Knights Templar served under twenty-three Grand Masters. It is Jacques DeMolay the twenty-third and last Grand Master however, whom is best know. In 1305, Philip the Fair, King of France,...

Pope John XXII, born Jacques Duèze (or d'Euse), was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the son of a shoemaker in Cahors. He studied medicine in Montpellier and law in Paris. The two-year gap (sede vacante) between the death of Pope Clement V in...

Clement settled in Avignon France in 1309. Until this time all Popes had resided in Rome. Avignon would be the home of the Popes until 1378, with but one brief exception. This period at Avignon is often referred to as the "Avignon Captivity...

Philip IV the Fair was King of France from 1285 until his death. A member of the Capetian dynasty, Philip was born at the Palace of Fontainebleau at Seine-et-Marne, the son of King Philip III and Isabella of Aragon. Philip was nicknamed the...

Philip VI, called the Fortunate and of Valois, was the first King of France from the House of Valois. He reigned from 1328 until his death. Philip's reign was dominated by the consequences of a succession dispute. When King Charles IV th...