The History of the Renaissance World (2 page)

Maps

1.1
England and the Holy Roman Empire

2.1
The Lands of the Crusades

3.1
England and France during the Anarchy

4.1
The Kingdoms of China and Southeast Asia

5.1
Aleppo and the Crusader Kingdoms

5.2
Kingdom of Louis VII

5.3
Conquests of Zengi and Nur ad-Din

6.1
The Spanish Peninsula, 1144

7.1
Peter Abelard’s France

8.1
The Song and Jin at Peace

9.1
Japan under the Cloistered Emperors

10.1
Goryeo

11.1
Anjou, Normandy, and England

12.1
The Empire of Frederick Barbarossa

13.1
The Kingdoms of Spain

13.2
The Almohad Empire

14.1
Many Nations of Africa

15.1
The Conquests of Nur ad-Din

16.1
The Island of Sri Lanka

16.2
The Disintegration of the Chola

17.1
The Ghurid Advance

18.1
The Kingdoms of France and England

19.1
The World of Manuel I

20.1
Byzantium and Venice

21.1
England, Ireland, and Western Francia

22.1
The Conquests of Saladin

22.2
Gisors

23.1
The Kamakura Shogunate

24.1
The World of the Third Crusade

24.2
The Kingdom of Jerusalem

25.1
The Conquest of Constantinople

26.1
Central America

26.2
South America

27.1
The Advance of the Mongols

28.1
John’s Losses and Philip’s Gains

29.1
Sosso and Mali

31.1
The Successors of Byzantium

32.1
The Nizari

32.2
Delhi under Iltumish

33.1
The Albigensian Crusade

34.1
The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

35.1
The World of the Magna Carta

36.1
The World of the Inquisition

37.1
The Mongol Empire

37.2
The Battle of Kalka

38.1
The Pandya Renaissance

39.1
The Fifth Crusade

40.1
The Baltic Crusade

41.1
Zagwe, Kanem, and Mapungubwe

43.1
The Four Kingdoms of Southeast Asia

44.1
The Invasions of Henry III

44.2
The Spanish Peninsula, 1248

45.1
Mongol Conquests in the East

45.2
Mongol Conquests in the West

46.1
Frederick’s War in Italy

47.1
Balban’s Wars

48.1
The Seventh Crusade

49.1
The Four Khanates

50.1
The Bahri Sultanate

51.1
The Pastoureaux

52.1
The Battle of Evesham

52.2
The Kingdom of Sicily

53.1
The Empire of Nicaea

54.1
After the Almohads

54.2
The Triumph of the Bahri Sultanate

55.1
The Yuan Dynasty

56.1
The Sicilian Vespers

57.1
Wars in Scotland and Wales

58.1
The Mongol Invasion of Delhi

59.1
The Empire, Divided

60.1
The Ottoman Invasion

60.2
Serbia under Stefan Dushan

61.1
The Rajput Kingdoms

62.1
The Battle of Bannockburn

63.1
Flood and Famine

64.1
The Collapse of the Il-khanate

65.1
The Height of Mali

66.1
Edward III and the Valois

67.1
The Southern and Northern Courts

68.1
New Sultanates in India

69.1
Lands Claimed by Louis of Bavaria

70.1
The Aztecs

71.1
The Start of the Hundred Years’ War

72.1
The Spread of the Plague

73.1
French Defeats

74.1
The Rise of the Ming

75.1
Conflict in Southeast Asia

76.1
The Ottoman Empire

77.1
Bahmani Expansion

78.1
Poland under Casimir the Great

79.1
The Advance of Timur-Leng

79.2
Battle of the Terek River

80.1
Joseon and Japan

81.1
War in Italy

82.1
Richard II and Charles VI

83.1
The Hausa Kingdoms

84.1
The Battle of Aljubarrota

85.1
Ottoman Victories

86.1
The Scandinavian Kingdoms

87.1
Hussite Wars

88.1
The Battle of Agincourt

89.1
Timur against the Ottomans

90.1
The Sea Voyages of the Yongle Emperor

90.2
The Ming and the Oirat

91.1
The Empire of Sigismund

92.1
Portuguese Explorations

93.1
The Dauphin against the English

94.1
The Wars of Murad II

94.2
The Golden Horn

Illustrations

4.1
Central towers of Angkor Wat, Cambodia

4.2
Angkor Wat bas-relief sculpture

6.1
Early thirteenth-century Arabic manuscript, showing Aristotle teaching Turkish astronomers

8.1
Ink Plum Blossoms
, by Wang Yansou of the Song dynasty

9.1
Family line of Konoe and Sutoku

9.2
Detail from the
Heiji Scroll
: Burning of the Sanjo palace

16.1
The Giant’s Tank

26.1
Nazca lines: Spider

26.2
Nazca lines: Dancing hands

31.1
Coin of John III, showing the seated Christ on one side and John with the Virgin Mary on the other

32.1
Ruins of the mountain fortress of Alamut

55.1
Kublai Khan

59.1
The Papal Palace at Avignon

63.1
Miniature from the
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
, showing March planting

65.1
Mansa Musa of Mali on the Catalan Atlas

66.1
Genealogy of Philip VI and Edward III

77.1
Citadel of Gulbarga

86.1
Genealogy of Margaret and Eric

Acknowledgments

M
Y GRATITUDE
to the team at W. W. Norton for all they’ve done to support not only this volume but the two that came before it. I can’t name you all, but thanks in particular to Eleen Cheung, Melody Conroy, Julia Druskin, Ryan Harrington, Bill Rusin, and Nomi Victor.

Most of all, thanks to my longtime editor, Starling Lawrence, who has provided not only editorial guidance but also moral support, a listening ear, and the occasional robust admonition to quit whining and get on with the job. And I am greatly indebted to both Star and Jenny for the hospitality, good food, and much-needed strong drink.

A massive project like this is never a one-person job. Thanks also to the team at Peace Hill: Justin Moore, who knows more historical details (and random interesting factoids) than Google; Sarah Park, mapmaker extraordinaire and poet even-more-extraordinaire; Kim Norton, the most unflappable office manager in the known universe; Jackie Violet, whose job description keeps expanding but never outsizes her good humor; and Mark Hicks, who kept the farm from falling to pieces while I was wandering around in the fourteenth century.

Special thanks to Patricia Worth, an executive assistant who can arrange a flight to Prague, book a school speaking event, pick out linens for a bed-and-breakfast, and help castrate a goat, all in the same eight-hour workday. And no, she’s not looking for a new job.

Thanks to Mel Moore, Liz Barnes, and Achsa Fisher-Nuckols for still answering my emails and phone calls, even when those are long, long overdue; to Boris Fishman, for sharing my professional universe; to Greg Smith, for asking me how it’s going; and to Diane Wheeler, for living in this world.

My family hasn’t disowned me yet, despite my frequent lapses into history-induced catatonia. To Christopher, Ben, Dan, and Emily: I make
really
good cookies. Hope they make up for the number of times you have to say, “Mom?” before I emerge from the past and say, “What?” To Jay and Jessie Wise: You taught me to read. See what happened? And to Peter:
Sumus exules, vivendi quam auditores
. Still, but not always.

Preface

N
OT LONG AFTER 1140 AD
, the Italian scholar Gerard of Cremona traveled to the Spanish peninsula, hoping to find a rare copy of the thousand-year-old Greek astronomy text known as the Almagest.