Bauer - The history of the Renaissance world : from the rediscovery of Aristotle to the conquest of Constantinople

The History of the

RENAISSANCE WORLD

From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

SUSAN WISE BAUER

W W Norton & Company

New York London

For Daniel

Contents

England and the Holy Roman Empire

The Lands of the Crusades

England and France during the Anarchy

The Kingdoms of China and Southeast Asia

Aleppo and the Crusader Kingdoms

Kingdom of Louis VII

Conquests of Zengi and Nur ad-Din

The Spanish Peninsula, 1144

Peter Abelards France

The Song and Jin at Peace

Japan under the Cloistered Emperors

Goryeo

Anjou, Normandy, and England

The Empire of Frederick Barbarossa

The Kingdoms of Spain

The Almohad Empire

Many Nations of Africa

The Conquests of Nur ad-Din

The Island of Sri Lanka

The Disintegration of the Chola

The Ghurid Advance

The Kingdoms of France and England

The World of Manuel I

Byzantium and Venice

England, Ireland, and Western Francia

The Conquests of Saladin

Gisors

The Kamakura Shogunate

The World of the Third Crusade

The Kingdom of Jerusalem

The Conquest of Constantinople

Central America

South America

The Advance of the Mongols

Johns Losses and Philips Gains

Sosso and Mali

The Successors of Byzantium

The Nizari

Delhi under Iltumish

The Albigensian Crusade

The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

The World of the Magna Carta

The World of the Inquisition

The Mongol Empire

The Battle of Kalka

The Pandya Renaissance

The Fifth Crusade

The Baltic Crusade

Zagwe, Kanem, and Mapungubwe

The Four Kingdoms of Southeast Asia

The Invasions of Henry III

The Spanish Peninsula, 1248

Mongol Conquests in the East

Mongol Conquests in the West

Fredericks War in Italy

Balbans Wars

The Seventh Crusade

The Four Khanates

The Bahri Sultanate

The Pastoureaux

The Battle of Evesham

The Kingdom of Sicily

The Empire of Nicaea

After the Almohads

The Triumph of the Bahri Sultanate

The Yuan Dynasty

The Sicilian Vespers

Wars in Scotland and Wales

The Mongol Invasion of Delhi

The Empire, Divided

The Ottoman Invasion

Serbia under Stefan Dushan

The Rajput Kingdoms

The Battle of Bannockburn

Flood and Famine

The Collapse of the Il-khanate

The Height of Mali

Edward III and the Valois

The Southern and Northern Courts

New Sultanates in India

Lands Claimed by Louis of Bavaria

The Aztecs

The Start of the Hundred Years War

The Spread of the Plague

French Defeats

The Rise of the Ming

Conflict in Southeast Asia

The Ottoman Empire

Bahmani Expansion

Poland under Casimir the Great

The Advance of Timur-Leng

Battle of the Terek River

Joseon and Japan

War in Italy

Richard II and Charles VI

The Hausa Kingdoms

The Battle of Aljubarrota

Ottoman Victories

The Scandinavian Kingdoms

Hussite Wars

The Battle of Agincourt

Timur against the Ottomans

The Sea Voyages of the Yongle Emperor

The Ming and the Oirat

The Empire of Sigismund

Portuguese Explorations

The Dauphin against the English

The Wars of Murad II

The Golden Horn

Central towers of Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Angkor Wat bas-relief sculpture

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

Ink Plum Blossoms, by Wang Yansou of the Song dynasty

Family line of Konoe and Sutoku

Detail from the Heiji Scroll: Burning of the Sanjo palace

The Giants Tank

Nazca lines: Spider

Nazca lines: Dancing hands

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

Ruins of the mountain fortress of Alamut

Kublai Khan

The Papal Palace at Avignon

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

Mansa Musa of Mali on the Catalan Atlas

Genealogy of Philip VI and Edward III

Citadel of Gulbarga

Genealogy of Margaret and Eric

M Y GRATITUDE to the team at W. W. Norton for all theyve done to support not only this volume but the two that came before it. I cant 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, shes 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 its going; and to Diane Wheeler, for living in this world.

My family hasnt 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.

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.

His chances were better there than anywhere else in Europe. The southern half of the peninsula had been in Arab hands for centuries, and the ruling dynasties of Muslim Spain had brought with them thousands of classical texts, translated into Arabic but long lost to the vernacular languages of the West. The libraries of the city of Toledo, in the center of the peninsula, housed scores of these valuable volumesand Toledo had now been recaptured by one of the Christian kingdoms of the north, meaning that Western scholars could visit it in relative safety.