3100 BC First dynasty in Egypt
Upper and Lower Egypt are unified into a single kingdom, inaugurating the first Egyptian dynasty

2580 BC Old Kingdom in Egypt
Egypt enters the period known as the Old Kingdom, its first era of monumental architecture

2350 BC Sargon rules
Sargon conquers the other Mesopotamian states and establishes a dynasty with a new capital at Akkad, close to modern Baghdad

2000 BC Middle Kingdom in Egypt
Mentuhotep II wins control of all Egypt, establishing the period known as the Middle Kingdom

2000 BC Thebes becomes Egyptian capital
The centre of power in Egypt moves to the interior, with the capital at Thebes rather than Memphis

1700 BC Hittites in Anatolia
The Hittites build an empire based on their stronghold at Hattusa (now Bogazkale) in Anatolia

1630 BC Hyksos in Egypt
The Hyksos, arriving from the middle east, win control of Egypt and rule for a century

1540 BC New Kingdom in Egypt
The New Kingdom begins in Egypt, bringing the most spectacular of all the dynasties

1490 BC Female pharaoh in Egypt
Hatshepsut takes power in Egypt, and is unusual in being a female pharaoh

1400 BC Shang dynasty
The Great City Shang, on a site later known as An-yang, develops as the capital of China's first dynasty

1350 BC Akhenaten builds new city
The pharaoh Akhenaten creates a new capital city on the Nile at Tell el Amarna

1324 BC Tutankhamun is buried
The young Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, dies and is buried in a suitable tomb

1279 BC Ramses II begins long reign
Ramses II, perhaps the greatest of Egypt's pharaohs, begins a reign of sixty-six years

1050 BC Zhou dynasty
The Zhou defeat the Shang, and establish a new dynasty with a capital at Ch'ang-an (now Xi'an)

1020 BC Saul king of Israel
Saul, anointed king of Israel by Samuel, establishes himself at Gibeah, just north of Jerusalem

990 BC David king of Israel
David, already king of Judah and now anointed king of Israel, brings into one realm the twelve tribes of the Israelites

990 BC David captures Jerusalem
David captures Jerusalem, which he makes his capital - bringing here the ark of the covenant

965 BC Solomon king of Israel
Solomon becomes king of Israel and presides over a period of peace and prosperity

950 BC Queen of Sheba linked with Solomon
The Queen of Sheba, who visits Solomon in Jerusalem, is legendary - but her kingdom of Saba is a historical reality

950 BC Libyan dynasty in Egypt
Libyans in the Egyptian army take control of the nation and rule as pharaohs

910 BC Ten tribes of Israel break away
Solomon's son Rehoboam is unable to prevent the ten northern tribes going their own way, under the leadership of Jeroboam

870 BC Ashurnasirpal at Nimrud
Ashurnasirpal II creates a spectacular new capital at Nimrud (and claims to have had 69,574 guests at his palace-warming party)

771 BC Eastern Zhou
The Zhou rulers, driven east from Xi'an, create a new capital at Loyang and establish the Eastern Zhou dynasty

719 BC Cushite dynasty in Egypt
The king of Cush, or Nubia, conquers down the Nile to the sea, establishing the Cushite dynasty

700 BC Two surviving tribes merge as Judah
Judah and Benjamin, together forming the kingdom of Judah, are the only two surviving tribes of Israel

700 BC Assyrians build Nineveh
Sennacherib moves the Assyrian capital to a new site at Nineveh

605 BC Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar comes to the throne of Babylon, beginning a prosperous reign of more than forty years

550 BC Cyrus creates Persian empire
Cyrus, king of the Persians, takes Ecbatana, capital city of the Medes, and establishes the first Persian empire

550 BC Etruscans in Rome
An Etruscan dynasty rules in Rome and Etruscan influence is now dominant throughout central Italy

522 BC Darius wins Persian throne
Darius I wins the Persian throne and ushers in the heyday of the Achaemenid empire

500 BC First Ethiopian kingdom
The rulers of Aksum, the first Ethiopian kingdom, claim descent from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

400 BC Magadha dominant in India
The kingdom of Magadha, with its capital at Rajgir (near modern Patna), emerges as the dominant power in north India

356 BC Philip rules Macedonia
Philip II sets about making Macedon the most powerful state in Greece

356 BC Alexander is born in Pella
Alexander the Great is born in Pella, the capital of his father Philip II, at the heart of the expanding Macedonian kingdom

323 BC Alexander dies in Babylon
Alexander, still only 33, dies in Babylon following a banquet

from 323 BC Alexander's legacy - the Hellenistic age
The spread of Greek rule by Alexander introduces the Hellenistic age, which will last for three centuries

323 BC Ptolemy rules in Egypt
In the carve up of Alexander the Great's empire, Ptolemy wins Egypt and founds the Ptolemaic dynasty – with himself as the pharaoh Ptolemy I

322 BC Alexander's corpse in Alexandria
Alexander's corpse, hijacked by Ptolemy, becomes a sacred relic in Alexandria

321 BC Chandragupta Maurya rules
Chandragupta Maurya seizes the throne of Magadha, in India, and establishes the Mauryan dynasty

312 BC Seleucia founded on Tigris
Seleucia is founded as a new capital on the Tigris, eclipsing Babylon and recycling much of the older city as building material

299 BC New city at Antioch
Seleucus founds Antioch as a Greek city on the trade route between Mesopotamia and Europe

272 BC Asoka creates first Indian empire
Asoka, a devotee of Buddhism, wins the Mauryan throne and establishes India's first empire

221 BC Zhou dynasty ends
After 800 years the Zhou dynasty is brought to an end by the ruler of the Qin kingdom

221 BC Short-lived Qin dynasty
The ruthless Qin dynasty establishes control over the whole of central China

213 BC Books burnt in China
In the Qin dictatorship, all Confucian books are burnt (except those of any practical use) and 460 Confucian scholars are executed

207 BC Nam-Viet gets Chinese king
A delegate from imperial China establishes the kingdom of Nam-Viet with himself as king

206 BC Emperor buried with terracotta army
The Qin emperor, Shi Huangdi, is buried at Xi'an with a vast army of terracotta soldiers

206 BC Han dynasty
The Han, the first of the great Chinese dynasties, is established

100 BC Parthians build Ctesiphon
The Parthians develop the site of Ctesiphon, on the east bank of the Tigris opposite Seleucia

57 BC Three kingdoms in Korea
Silla becomes the first of the three kingdoms of Korea, followed by Koguryo in 37 BC and Paekche in 18 BC

51 BC Cleopatra rules
In the Ptolemaic tradition, Cleopatra marries her brother Ptolemy XIII and at the age of eighteen is joint ruler of Egypt

49 BC Caesar crosses Rubicon
Julius Caesar crosses the river Rubicon (the southern boundary of Gaul) with his army – and in doing so launches a civil war

48 BC Caesar defeats Pompey
Julius Caesar defeats his rival Pompey at Pharsalus, in Greece, and makes himself master of the Roman world

48 BC Caesar dallies with Cleopatra
Julius Caesar, now fifty-two, meets the 21-year-old Cleopatra in Alexandria and they become lovers

47 BC Cleopatra says her child is Caesar's
Cleopatra gives birth to a son and calls him Ptolemy XV Caesar (later known by the nickname Caesarion)

44 BC Octavian is Caesar's heir
Octavian, an 18-year-old student in Apollonia, hears that he has been named by his uncle, Julius Caesar, as his successor and heir

37 BC Herod rules Palestine
Herod, appointed king of Judaea by the senate in Rome, establishes his rule over Palestine

30 BC Asp in Cleopatra's bosom
Cleopatra commits suicide, applying a poisonous asp to her breast,

27 BC Octavian becomes Augustus Caesar
Octavian is given the life-long title of Augustus by the senate in Rome, becoming in effect the first Roman emperor

4 Augustus adopts Tiberius as successor
After the death of two of his grandsons, the emperor Augustus formally adopts his stepson Tiberius as his successor

4 Germanicus to be heir to Tiberius
Augustus Caesar insists on Tiberius adopting as his successor Germanicus, a talented young member of the imperial family

5 Germanicus marries granddaughter of Augustus
Germanicus, designated eventual heir to the throne, marries Agrippina, granddaughter of the ruling emperor

10 Pax Romana
The period of stability achieved during the reign of Augustus Caesar has been given the name Pax Romana ('Roman peace')

14 Life rough after Augustus
The death of Augustus introduces half a century of chaos, as the members of his family compete ruthlessly for power

14 Tiberius becomes emperor
Tiberius succeeds his stepfather Augustus Caesar as the Roman emperor

19 Germanicus dies campaigning in Syria
Germanicus, nephew and heir of the emperor Tiberius, dies when far away with the army in Syria

23 Eastern Han
The Han dynasty recovers control, after a 15-year interlude, and moves the capital to Loyang - starting the Eastern Han period

37 Caligula is emperor
Within the tangled and tormented web of the Roman imperial family, Gaius Caesar - nicknamed Caligula - inherits the throne

41 Claudius is emperor
Claudius, after the assassination of his nephew Caligula, is selected as emperor by the praetorian guards

41 Herod Agrippa in Palestine
Herod Agrippa, a grandson of Herod the Great, restores a brief calm to Palestine

54 Nero is emperor
The 16-year-old Nero is proclaimed emperor by the praetorian guards after the death of Claudius, supposedly poisoned by toadstools

64 Fire and fiddling in Rome
A great fire in Rome is popularly believed to have been started by Nero, whom legend also accuses of fiddling while the city burns

69 Year of the four emperors
A rebellion in Spain prompts such chaos that Rome has four emperors within a year, after the suicide of Nero in 68

69 Vespasian proclaimed emperor
Vespasian, proclaimed emperor by his troops in Alexandria, is the survivor among this year's four emperors

79 Titus is emperor
Titus becomes emperor on the death of his father, Vespasian, and begins a brief two-year reign of lavish public generosity

81 Domitian becomes emperor
Dying after a reign of only two years, Titus is succeeded on the imperial throne by his brother, Domitian

98 Trajan is emperor
Trajan, succeeding to the imperial throne in AD 98, is sufficiently confident to spend a year in Germany before returning to Rome

117 Hadrian is emperor
Hadrian, governing Syria when he is declared emperor, is confident enough to delay almost a year before returning to Rome

120 Kanishka rules in Peshawar
Kanishka rules the Kushan empire of Afghanistan and northern India from his capital at Peshawar

138 Hadrian selects Antoninus Pius
The emperor Hadrian, with no children of his own, appoints a respected senator, Antoninus Pius, to succeed him

161 Marcus Aurelius is emperor
Marcus Aurelius, for long the designated heir, becomes emperor on the death of Antoninus Pius

208 Ardashir is Persian king
Ardashir is crowned king of Fars - a first step towards his founding of the Sassanian dynasty in Persia

221 Han dynasty ends
The Han dynasty is brought to an end, after more than four centuries, by decades of peasant unrest

284 Diocletian is emperor
Diocletian, commanding an army near the Bosphorus in Thracia, is proclaimed emperor by his troops

305 Diocletian retires
Diocletian resigns from his position as Augustus because of ill health, and retires to Dalmatia

306 Constantine proclaimed emperor in York
Constantine's father, recently appoinnted Augustus in the west, dies at York and the young man is proclaimed Augustus in his place by the legions in Britain

312 Constantine wins with Christian emblem
Constantine, preparing for battle against a rival at the Milvian Bridge, orders his men to wear a Christian symbol, the Chi-Rho, on their shields

313 Constantine favours Christians
Constantine meets his co-emperor Licinius in Milan, and persuades him to follow a policy of encouraging the Christians

314 Constantine summons council at Arles
Warming to his new Christian role, Constantine summons more than 300 bishops to Arles to discuss the controversial issue of Donatus

320 Chandra Gupta extends realm
The territory of the Gupta dynasty is extended by Chandra Gupta, to include most of the great plain of the Ganges

325 Constantine's council at Nicaea
Constantine convenes a council of 200 bishops at Nicaea to discuss the beliefs of Arius, which are deemed to be heresy

330 Constantine's new Christian city
Constantine's new Christian city on the site of Byzantium is inaugurated, as Constantinople

337 Constantine baptized - just in time
Constantine is at last baptized a Christian in Nicomedia, just a few days before his death

350 Cushite dynasty fades in Nubia
The Cushite dynasty fades away in Nubia, after lasting for 1000 years or more

350 Yamato clan rules
The clan ruling the Yamato plain becomes so powerful that its chieftain is seen as the emperor of Japan

361 The emperor Julian goes pagan
Julian, the new emperor in Constantinople, plans to reinstate the pagan cult of the ancient Roman empire

363 Julian said to see error of ways
An apocryphal story states that Julian the Apostate, dying at Tarsus, acknowledges the victory of the Galilean, Jesus Christ

379 Theodosius is emperor
Theodosius becomes the Roman emperor and revives Constantine's close link between church and state

390 Emperor rebuked by bishop
St Ambrose asserts the authority of the church, refusing communion to the emperor Theodosius in Milan until he does penance for a massacre

400 First king of Ireland
Niall of the Nine Hostages is the first man to be called king of Ireland, though his direct control does not extend beyond Ulster

400 Yamato adapt Shinto
The Yamato clan adapt Shinto to their own purposes, and claim imperial descent from the sun

445 Huns press south across Danube
Attila murders his brother and becomes the sole ruler of the Huns, who are now pressing through Dacia and across the Danube

476 Odoacer ends western empire?
The tribal leader and mercenary Odoacer becomes king of Italy - an event often taken as defining the end of the Roman empire in the west

481 Clovis leads Franks
The 15-year-old Clovis inherits the Merovingian crown and becomes leader of the Franks - with his first capital at Tournai

487 Theodoric invades Italy
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, threatening Constantinople, is cunningly diverted by the emperor into invading Italy

493 Theodoric captures Ravenna
Theodoric wins Ravenna from Odoacer - by inviting Odoacer to a banquet and murdering him during the meal

500 Anglo-Saxon kingdom in west Sussex
According to Bede, the first widely accepted Anglo-Saxon ruler in southern Britain is Aelli, founder of the West Sussex kingdom

500 Clovis baptized at Reims
Clovis and some 3000 of his soldiers are baptized in a massive ceremony at Reims

526 Theodoric achieves greatness
By the end of his long reign Theodoric amply justifies his title 'the Great' and his place in legend as Dietrich von Bern

527 Justinian is emperor
Justinian becomes emperor in Constantinople, beginning a reign which will restore the empire to much of its former glory

540 Khosrau I builds at Ctesiphon
Khosrau I builds himself a superb new palace, of which the great vaulted Taq-e Kisra remains today at Ctesiphon

589 Sui dynasty established
After three centuries of chaos and disunion in China, a stable dynasty - the Sui - is established by Wen Ti (the Cultured Emperor)

618 T'ang dynasty
A high official of the Sui empire seizes power and establishes one of China's greatest dynasties, the T'ang

627 Byzantines recover True Cross
The Byzantine emperor Heraclius recovers the True Cross from Ctesiphon

632 Muhammad is succeeded by Abu Bakr
The death of Muhammad at Medina is followed by the election of the first caliph, Abu Bakr, a father-in-law of the prophet

634 Omar elected second caliph
Omar, another father-in-law of Muhammad, is elected as the second Muslim caliph (the word means 'sucessor to the Messenger of God')

644 Othman elected third caliph
After the assassination of Omar, Othman is elected as the third Muslim caliph

656 Ali defeats Aisha
Othman is assassinated, and Ali wins power as the fourth Muslim caliph - defeating Muhammad's widow Aisha at the 'battle of the camel' near Basra

661 Umayyad dynasty
Ali is assassinated and Mu'awiya becomes the fifth Muslim caliph, establishing the Umayyad dynasty

664 Northumbria chooses England's Christianity
The king of Northumbria summons a synod at Whitby to hear the arguments of Roman and Celtic Christians, then opts for Rome

670 Arabs rule from Damascus
With the entire middle east under their control, the Arabs make Damascus the capital of the Umayyad caliphate

687 Pepin unites Frankish kingdoms
With a victory at Tertry, Pepin II wins effective control over all three Frankish kingdoms

700 Turks and Khazars
The earliest two Turkish states are the confederation of Gök Türk and the empire of the Khazars

714 Civil war among Franks
The death of the Frankish 'mayor of the palace' Pepin II is followed by civil war between members of his family

724 Charles Martel wins control
The civil war among the Franks ends with complete victory for Charles Martel, an illegitimate grandson of Pepin II

741 Charles Martel dies
Charles Martel dies and leaves the Frankish kingdoms to his two sons, Carloman and Pepin III

747 Pepin III in full control
The elder son of Charles Martel retires to a monastery, leaving Pepin III in control of the entire Frankish empire

750 Pepin III is king of the Franks
With papal support Pepin III is elected king of the Franks, beginning the Carolingian dynasty (named from his father, Charles Martel)

750 Umayyads massacred by Abbasids
The Abbasids massacre the Umayyads in Damascus and establish a new caliphate

753 Pepin and Charlemagne anointed by pope
Pope Stephen II anoints Pepin III and his two sons (one of them Charlemagne) in the abbey church of St Denis

756 Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba
Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba

762 Baghdad and the caliphs
The Abbasid caliphs create Baghdad as a new capital city on the Tigris

768 Pepin III dies
On the death of Pepin III, the empire of the Franks is divided between his two sons - Charlemagne and his younger brother, Carloman

771 Charlemagne rules all Franks
On the death of his brother, Charlemagne inherits the entire kingdom of the Franks

800 Christmas surprise for Charlemagne
In St Peter's in Rome, on Christmas Day, pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor - supposedly to Charlemagne's surprise

813 Charlemagne's son is co-emperor
Charlemage has his only surviving legitimate son, Louis the Pious, crowned as his co-emperor

814 Charlemagne dies
Charlemagne dies and his son Louis the Pious inherits the whole, now greatly extended, Frankish empire

843 King of Scots accepted by Picts
Kenneth king of the Scots is accepted also as king of the Picts, providing the traditional founding event of the kingdom of Scotland

850 Mamelukes employed in Baghdad
The caliphs in Baghdad begin to employ Turkish slaves, or Mamelukes, in their armies

865 Bulgarians become Orthodox
The Bulgarian king Boris I is baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith, bringing his people within the Byzantine fold

866 Saffarids in Persia
The eastern part of the Persian empire comes under the control of the Saffarid dynasty

870 Mameluke seizes power in Egypt
Ahmad ibn Tulun, a Mameluke, seizes power in Egypt - establishing his own Tulunid dynasty

871 Alfred defeats Danes in Wessex
The young Alfred leads the English in their first significant victory over the Danes, at Ashdown

877 Imperial chancellor Fujiwara
The Fujiwara family creates for itself a new hereditary office, that of imperial chancellor, through which it effectively rules Japan

878 Rhodri rules in Wales
Rhodri Mawr, or Rhodri the Great, is widely accepted as king of almost the whole of Wales

900 Cholas in southern India
A Tamil kingdom, established by the Cholas, controls the whole of south India and will last for two centuries

900 Samanids in Bukhara
The Samanids, replacing the Saffarids, transform their capital at Bukhara into a centre of Persian culture

903 T'ang dynasty ends
The leader of a peasant uprising captures and kills the Chinese emperor, bringing to an end the T'ang dynasty

919 Henry I elected in east Frankish kingdom
Henry I is elected king of the east Frankish kingdom, consisting of four great feudal duchies - Bavaria, Swabia, Saxony and Franconia

929 Wenceslas murdered
Wenceslas, a prince of the Premsylid family, is murdered on his way into church - and becomes Bohemia's patron saint

935 Wank Kon rules Koryo
Wank Kon changes the name of his kingdom to Koryo, meaning 'high and beautiful', thus providing the rest of the world with the name Korea

950 Slavs become Orthodox
The Byzantine empire enjoys a revival, bringing the Slavs within the Greek Orthodox fold and winning victories against the Muslims

960 Song dynasty
A warlord, Zhao Kuangyin, establishes a new Chinese dynasty - the Song

960 Harald Bluetooth unites Denmark
Harald Bluetooth is baptized a Christian and unites the whole of Denmark as a single kingdom.

962 Otto I crowned in Rome
The imperial coronation of Otto I by Pope John XII in St Peter's puts in place the formal role of a Holy Roman emperor

965 Poles become Catholic
Mieszko, pagan chieftain of the Poles, marries a Christian Czech princess and brings all his people into the Roman Catholic fold

975 Hungarians become Catholic
The Hungarian king Gezá and his family are baptized as Roman Catholics, beginning a long link between Hungary and Rome

976 Brian Boru
Brian Boru becomes king of Munster and leader of the Irish campaign against the Vikings

976 Leopold is margrave of Austria
Leopold, of the Babenberg family, becomes margrave of Austria and founds a dynasty which lasts for three centuries

987 Western Frankish dynasty evolves into France
Hugh Capet, a Frankish noble elected king of west Francia, establishes the royal dynasty of France.

987 Capetian dynasty
Hugh Capet is the first in an unbroken line of twelve generations on the throne of France

987 Russians become Orthodox
Vladimir, the prince of Kiev, decides that Greek Orthodoxy is the most suitable religion for the Russian people

1000 Mapungubwe on the Limpopo
A trading centre at Mapungubwe, on the Limpopo, evolves into a state ruled by a king in a zimbabwe

1001 Pope sends crown to Hungary
Pope Sylvester II, according to tradition, sends a sacred crown for the coronation of Hungary's first king, St Stephen

1014 Brian Boru beats Vikings
Brian Boru, aged 73, achieves a major victory over the Vikings at Clontarf but is killed in his tent after the battle

1017 Canute king of England
Canute, joint king of Denmark, is accepted also as king of England after subduing the country and marrying Ethelred's widow

1020 Hawk's Castle for Habsburgs
Count Radbot builds himself a 'hawk's castle' or Habichstburg, near Zurich, from which the Habsburg dynasty takes its name

1024 Conrad II begins new line on German throne
Conrad II is elected as the German king, begining the dynasty variously known as Franconian or Salian

1030 Yaroslav puts Kiev on map
Yaroslav builds up his Russian kingdom and turns his capital, Kiev, into a spectacular Christian city

1042 Edward the Confessor king of England
Edward the Confessor, the rightful heir in the Anglo-Saxon royal line, becomes king of England

1050 Kingdom of Ife
Ife emerges as a powerful kingdom in the equatorial forest of the lower Niger

1055 Togrul Beg enters Baghdad
Togrul Beg enters Baghdad and is granted by the caliph the title of sultan, which becomes hereditary in his Seljuk dynasty

1057 Duncan's son slays Macbeth
Duncan's son, Malcolm, kills Macbeth in battle at Lumphanan - and in the following year is himself crowned at Scone

1066 Harold is promised English throne
On his death bed in Westminster, Edward the Confessor designates Harold - foremost among England's barons - as his successor

1066 Edward buried at Westminster
Edward the Confessor is buried in his new abbey church at Westminster, consecrated only the previous week

1066 Harold crowned king
On the day of Edward's burial, Harold is crowned king - almost certainly in the same abbey church at Westminster

1066 Harold loses at Hastings
Harold, hurrying south to confront the Normans after his victory at Stamford Bridge, is defeated and killed at Hastings

1066 William crowned in Westminster Abbey
William the Conqueror (William I) is crowned on Christmas Day at Westminster - giving the new abbey church two coronations and a royal funeral in its first year

1071 Turks take much of Anatolia
The campaigns of Alp Arslan, culminating in 1071, give the Seljuk Turks a lasting presence in Anatolia

1077 Penitence at Canossa
The emperor Henry IV stands as a penitent outside the pope's castle at Canossa, so as to be released from excommunication.

1085 Toledo captured by Christians
Toledo is captured from the Muslims by Alfonso VI of Castile, who continues the city's traditions of religious tolerance

1087 William II is king of England
On the death of his father, William the Conqueror, William II becomes king of England

1091 Sicily captured by Christians
Roger I, the first Norman count of Sicily, completes the conquest of the island from the Muslims

1099 Sultans of Rum
Konya, in central Turkey, becomes the capital of the Seljuk Turks, who call themselves sultans of Rum

1100 Henry I is king of England
On the death of his brother, William II, Henry I becomes king of England

1120 White Ship founders
The White Ship strikes a rock off the Cherbourg peninsula drowning William the Aetheling, heir to the English throne

1135 Stephen challenges Matilda
On the death of Henry I, his nephew Stephen moves quickly to keep Henry's daughter Matilda off the English throne

1136 Walter the steward becomes a Stewart
Walter FitzAlan takes a post as steward with the Scottish king, thus establishing the Stewart family and later dynasty

1138 Hohenstaufen dynasty
Conrad III, of the Hohenstaufen family, is elected German king - a title which remains in the family for more than a century, bringing with it that of Holy Roman emperor

1150 Khmer dynasty and Angkor Wat
The city of Angkor and the great temple of Angkor Wat are created by the Khmer dynasty in Cambodia

1152 Frederick Barbarossa king of Germany
Frederick Barbarossa becomes king of Germany and Holy Roman emperor, greatly extending the power of the empire during a long reign

1154 Henry II rules from Tweed to Pyrenees
Henry II, coming to the throne of England, is king or feudal overlord of an unbroken swathe of territory from the Tweed to the Pyrenees

1156 Vienna capital of Austria
Vienna is adopted by the Babenberg rulers as the capital city of Austria

1171 Saladin rules in Egypt
Saladin deposes the Fatimid caliph and brings Egypt back to orthodoxy, acknowledging the rule of the Sunni caliph in Baghdad

1171 Rhys is lord of south Wales
The English king, Henry II, acknowledges Rhys ap Gruffydd as the lord of south Wales

1174 William the Lion humiliated
The Scottish king, William the Lion, is captured raiding into Northumberland and is taken south with his feet tied beneath his horse

1185 Minamoto clan triumphant
The triumph of the Minamoto clan in Japan in 1185 leads to an uneasy relationship between the brothers Yoritomo and Yoshitsune

1189 Henry II succeeded by Richard I
The English king Henry II is succeeded by his third son as Richard I

1190 Richard I goes on crusade
A year after succeeding to the throne of England, Richard I sets off east as one of the leaders of the third crusade

1190 Frederick Barbarossa dies on crusade
The third crusade suffers an early disaster when its first leader, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, is drowned crossing the Calycadnus river

1192 Richard I recognized in Austrian inn
Richard I, returning from the Holy Land in disguise, is recognized in an inn near Vienna and is imprisoned until England pays a massive ransom

1197 Three-year-old inherits Sicily and Germany
The three-year old Frederick II has a claim to the thrones of both Sicily and Germany on the death of his father, the emperor Henry VI

1199 John is king of England
On the death of his brother, Richard I, John becomes king of England

1206 Temujin becomes Genghis Khan
Temujin, elected chief of all the Mongol tribes, takes the name Genghis Khan

1216 Henry III is king of England
On the death of his father, King John, Henry III becomes king of England

1220 Frederick II is Holy Roman emperor
Frederick II is crowned Holy Roman emperor by a somewhat reluctant pope, Honorius III

1220 Llewellyn is called prince of Wales
Llewellyn ap Iorwerth acquires such authority over other Welsh chieftains that he is informally referred to as the prince of Wales

1222 Golden Bull in Hungary
Andrew II accepts the Golden Bull, a charter of liberties demanded by the nobles of Hungary

1225 Henry III reissues Magna Carta
Magna Carta is reissued slightly modified when Henry III comes of age; in the version which becomes enshrined in English law

1230 Ogedai Khan
Ogadai, son of Genghis Khan, turns his father's headquarters at Karakorum into a capital city

1232 Berber kingdom of Granada
The kingdom of Granada is established with a Berber noble, Muhammad I, as the first king

1240 Kingdom of Mali
A warlord, Sundiata, conquers Ghana and establishes the kingdom of Mali

1240 Haakon IV rules Norway
Haakon IV is the first ruler to build up a strong Norway, some two centuries after the region becomes a single kingdom

1240 Alexander wins on the ice
Alexander, a Russian prince, defeats a Swedish army on the frozen river Neva, thus winning his name Alexander Nevksy

1248 Sweden united by Birger Jarl
Birger Jarl establishes a dynasty which brings all Sweden under a single rule

1250 Mamelukes rule again in Egypt
The last sultan of Saladin's dynasty is murdered by slaves in the palace guard, and Mameluke rule is reintroduced in Egypt

1252 Alexander Nevsky grand prince of Vladimir
Alexander Nevsky, appointed grand prince of Vladimir in 1252, thrives by collaborating with the Mongols of the Golden Horde

1254 Hohenstaufen dynasty ends
The death of the last Hohenstaufen ruler, Conrad IV, leaves a vacancy on the German throne which is not filled for nineteen years

1258 Provisions of Oxford
Henry III accepts severe curtailment of his powers in the Provisions of Oxford, but then asks the pope to absolve him from his oath

1260 Otakar wins at Kressenbrunn
The Bohemian prince Otakar II, ruler also of Austria, extends his territories after defeating the Hungarians at Kressenbrunn

1260 Baybars wins at Ayn Jalut
At Ayn Jalut, near Nazareth, the Egyptian Mamelukes defeat the Mongol army of Hulagu - the first military setback for the Mongols

1262 Norway annexes Iceland
The Norwegian king, Haakon IV, annexes Iceland as his personal fief, bringing to an end the commonwealth established in AD 930

1263 Pope offers Sicily to French prince
Pope Urban IV offers Sicily to a French prince, Charles of Anjou, who marches south in 1266 to fight for the kingdom

1264 Kublai becomes great khan
Kublai defeats his brother Ariq Böge and thus establishes his position as Great Khan of the Mongols

1267 English acknowledge prince of Wales
In a treaty agreed at Shrewsbury, the English king Henry III acknowledges Llewellyn ap Gruffydd as the prince of Wales

1270 Assassins destroyed by Mamelukes
The Assassins are systematically destroyed by Baybars, the Mameluke sultan of Egypt

1271 Yuan dynasty
The Mongol leader Kublai Khan chooses a name for his new dynasty in China, calling it Ta Yuan ('Great Origin')

1272 Edward I is king of England
Edward I is in Sicily when he becomes king of England, on the death of his father, Henry III

1273 A Habsburg is elected German king
The period without a German king, known as the Great Interregnum, ends with the election of a Habsburg prince, Rudolf I

1278 Habsburgs gain Austria
At Dürnkrut Rudolf I defeats and kills Otakar II, his rival for Austria - thus bringing the Austrian territories into the Habsburg domain