The monastery on the island of Noirmoutier just to the south of the River Loire's mouth was attacked.

The abbey church at St. Albans was attacked and damaged by Vikings.

Eadred destroys the monastery at Ripon.

Through the Winter months Aethelred provided the Vikings with lodgings and £16,000 in cash to stop the raids on his land. Aethelred was also the sponsor at the baptism of Olaf Trygvasson. Olaf was given instruction from the Aelfheah Bishop of Winchester.

The Vikings captured Canterbury and obtained a payment of £48,000. In a drunken rage the Vikings murdered Aelfheah, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Aelfheah was the man that had baptised Olaf Trygvasson in the Winter of 994. Outraged by the actions of his fellow men Thorkell the Tall defected to the side of Aethelred along with 45 Viking ships to help defend England from further Viking attacks.

A force of Welsh and Irish men led by Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, a Welsh prince attacked and burnt the building.

Malcolm, the Scottish king attacked towns in the north of England.

As part of a revolt against the new Norman invaders, Hereward the Wake sacked the abbey at Peterborough.

Ripon monastery destroyed by Normans.

William the Conqueror visited South Wales and St. David's. He met Rhys ap Tewdwr, the ruler of the area and allowed him to remain in control of the region for a yearly sum of money.

At the Council of Piacenza a delegation visited Pope Urban II led by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus to raise the problems he was having fighting the Muslims in the East. Pope Urban removed the excommunication that had been placed on the Emperor by Pope Gregory and promised to help.

On the last day of the Council or Clemont Pope Urban II preached about the oppression being inflicted on the Christians in the Middle East by the Muslim Seljuks. Christian churches were being destroyed and Christians attacked. The Pope called for the Christians in the West to help.

Following Pope Urban's speech at Clermont Peter the Hermit, a simple man with a powerful ability to move people by his words, started preaching for Christians to help their fellow Christians in the East. He started to gain a large number of followers eager to go to Jerusalem with promises of absolution and freedom from a life of hunger and depravation. His followers were poor, not prepared for the journey and not armed.

At Constantinople the Emperor Alexius welcomed Peter's army but there were too many people and no provision had been made for them. There was a general lack of discipline that resulted in repeated attacks and thefts from surrounding villages. Alexius warned Peter to wait for better trained troops to arrive before moving on but the pressure of the army was so great on Constantinople that they were forced to move before help could arrive.

A Papal Bull issued by Pope Paschal II (a formal proclamation issued by the pope) recognised and named the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem as an independent religious order.

Monks of the Savigny order were attacked by the Scots under the control of David I, and were forced to return to Furness Abbey.

The first formal Papal Bull of Crusade or 'Bulla cruciata' calling on France to restore the Holy Land to Christendom was issued by Pope Eugenius III, together with 'Quantum praedecessors' which was reissued on the 1st of March 1146.

St. Bernard's sermon at Vézelay so moved Eleanor of Aquitaine that she vowed to go on Crusade.

At the Diet of Speyer; the emperor Conrad III took the cross and secured the election of his son Henry as his successor in Germany. He was persuaded to take part in the crusade by the the Abbot of Clairvaux, St. Bernard.

The crusaders left Regensburg to march across land to Constantinople.

King Louis VII of France and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine began their Crusade. They declared Abbot Suger regent of France,

A plan to conquer Ireland was approved by Pope Adrian IV in a Papal Bull (a formal proclamation issued by the Pope) called Laudabiliter.

When King Henry II heard that Thomas Becket had returned to England and was threatening to excommunicate his opponents, his outrage was such that four knights overhearing the King travelled to England and killed Becket inside Canterbury Cathedral.

The Christian Army of Jerusalem was beaten by Turkish forces at the Battle of Hattin. Guy of Lusignan was King of Jerusalem at this time. All Knights Templars and Hospitallers who survived the battle were executed afterwards. The Archbishop of Tyre, a man called Josias, was dispatched from the city to Europe to inform the Pope and European leaders of the disaster that had taken place and to ask for help.

Jerusalem fell to the Muslims and the al-Asqu mosque was returned to Islam. The Muslims allowed four Christian Priests to hold services in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This was in contrast to the first Crusaders who since they first captured the city in 1099 had treated Jerusalem as theirs alone. The Muslim leader was Al-Malik al-Nasir Salad ed-Din Yusuf also known as Saladin.

King Richard took the Cross. Before going on a Crusade a vow was taken and the person was given a piece of cloth in the shape of a cross to be sown onto the surcoat. To go on a Crusade meant a person was granted a plenary indulgence which freed them from the terrors of purgatory and hell if they killed the enemy and gave them the promise of eternal life in heaven.

The Order of the Teutonic Knights established at Acre.

The Order of the Teutonic Knights is approved by Pope Innocent III.

The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was originally intended to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim control, but the goals of the crusade were controversially changed by Venice in order to gain new territories and ended in the sack of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. It demonstrated how crusading motives could be manipulated for political and financial gain rather than religious purposes.

Peter of Castelnau, the papal legate, was murdered by heretics belonging to the Albigensains. The Albigensains were an extreme religious group based in the south of France. The Pope wanted them to cease their opposition to the Church. The murder led to the start of the Albegensian Crusade that would destroy the heretics.

The Albignsian stronghold of Beziers was besieged and when it was captured all the people within it were massacred.

A mysterious Crusade supposed to have consisted of children from Germany and possibly France. How young the children were who took part is not known and they may not have been children at all. The Crusaders did not get very far and many of those that took part never came back. They were either killed or sold into slavery.

Again Egypt was the destination of this Crusade called for by the Pope and organised by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Although Frederick promised to join the Crusade he failed to do so. The Cruaders mainly consisted of Knights from northern Europe. They laid siege to Damietta, a port on the Egyption coast, and captured it. The journey from Damietta to attack Cairo had to be abandoned due to floods and attacks. The Crusaders had to surrender and Damietta was handed back to the Muslims. The Crusade was over and Frederick II was blamed for its failure.

The Sixth Crusade was won with diplomacy by Frederick II, who had married the heiress of Jerusalem in 1225. He went to the East to claim his right to the throne, and taking advantage of internal disputes between the Sultan's family members, concluded the Treaty of Jaffa, which gave Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth back to the Christians.

The Crusade of Theobald of Champagne and the King of Navarre was a French expedition that did little, except obtain concessions from Damascus in Galilee, and Ascalon from Egypt. Richard of Cornwall, the brother of King Henry III, arrived after Theobald had left, but managed to strengthen both concessions in Galilee, and the fortifications at Ascalon.

With the fall of Jerusalem and the crushing defeat of the Christian armies at Gaza, Louis IX of France took the cross and prepared for a Crusade. It took him four years to set sail.

After the Christians were defeated at Gaza in 1244, King Louis IX of France took the cross. He only managed to set sail for Cyprus some four years later, landing at Damietta in June of 1249, Louis had to wait until the Nile floods had reduced before continuing for Cairo. Held up and cut off from Damietta, the French King's camp was struck with disease and most of his men were killed or captured. Louis was taken prisoner and had to pay a ransom to be freed.

Pope Alexander IV agreed to absolve King Henry III from the Provisions of Oxford.

Prince Edward took the cross in preparation for a Crusade from Ottobuono Fieschi, the papal legate. Ottobuono Fieschi had been sent to help both Henry and Edward sort out troubles at home and was an important factor in the country's rule from 1265 to 1268.

Prince Edward, his wife Eleanor, his cousin Henry (son of the King of the Romans) and many knights left for the Holy Land to join the Eighth Crsuade.

King Louis IX of France once again set out on Crusade, not to the east but towards Tunis. Charles, the brother of Louis, influenced the direction as Charles had plans in the East. At Cathage in July, the plague broke out and in August Louis died.

Two cardinals, Peter Gomez and Bertrand of Montfavence, were sent by Pope Benedict XII to Europe to try and prevent King Edward III of England and Philipe VI of France going to war.

King Edward III of England established the Order of the Garter, the first English order of knighthood. It was based on the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur. The name of the order is supposed to have originated when Edward III picked up a garter that had been lost on the dance floor during a banquet. Edward tied the garter around his own leg telling all present not to pass judgement. The garter may have belonged to the beautiful Joan of Kent. Joan was later to marry Edward's son, the Black Prince.

Westminster Abbey was closed for several months after a murder took place in the Choir. The Abbey was not reopened for services until it was reconsecrated. Two knights called Schakell and Hawle had taken a Spanish Count prisoner whilst fighting with the Black Prince. As usual a ransom was required for the release of the Count. The Count was allowed to return to Spain to organise the ransom leaving his son as a hostage to ensure the ransom was paid. At this time John of Gaunt was in the process of acquiring the crown of Castile and the saga with the Count's son was an embarrassment. When the two knights refused to release their prisoner they were arrested and sent to the Tower of London. They managed to escape from the Tower and fled to Westminster Abbey and sanctuary, but this was ignored by a group of soldiers led by the Constable of the Tower, Alan Boxhall. Schakell was captured but Hawle and a monk were murdered in the Choir. Several of those involved were excommunicated meaning that they could not be buried after their deaths.

Richard Scrope colluded with the Earl of Northumberland to overthrow Henry IV. Scrope was the Archbishop of York.

The Archbishop's revolt was crushed with the aid of the Nevilles and the king had him executed.

Alien priories were those in England who were dependant on usually French mother houses. During the Hundred Years War these priories were seen as a security risk. They also were a means of transferring much needed English money to France. A law was passed confiscating these priories. Many were transferred over to other religious orders.

A meeting of the Lollards was stormed by the King's troops and many were arrested and subsequently put to death. Their leader, Sir John Oldcastle, managed to escape capture.

The marriage between Edward of Lancaster, the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, to Anne Neville, the daughter of Richard Neville the Kingmaker was a marriage to cement the agreement that Richard and Margaret would support each other and try to get Henry VI back on the English throne. The marriage took place in France at the Chateau d'Amboise where Margaret and Edward were exiled.

After a lengthy siege failed to take the well defended castle at St. Andrews, Mary of Guise asked the French for help. The castle at St. Andrews was captured and the Protestant leaders and John Knox were taken into custody.

The army Charles had put together was no match for the Scottish army under the command of Leslie and so the King signed the Treaty of Berwick. While the Scots returned home happy that they could deal with their own church affairs, Charles had no intensions of abiding by the terms of the treaty and used the treaty as a means of gaining time to plan his next move. This ended the first Bishops' War.

Parliamentarian troops broke into Canterbury Cathedral and damaged the interior including the organ and choir.