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Contents: political eventsscience |
Hungary's Ladislas I conquers Croatia and Dalmatia, where he introduces Catholicism, founds the bishopric of Zagreb (Agram), persecutes the heathen, but dies suddenly July 29 at age 55 just as he is about to join the Crusade. Ladislas is succeeded by his 25-year-old nephew Coloman (Kálmán), son of a Greek concubine by his late brother Géza, who tried to have the young man become a monk; Coloman refused, escaped to Poland, and now returns to Hungary, seizing the throne from his legitimately-born half brother Almos (who will plot against him until Coloman has him imprisoned and blinded along with Almos's infant son Béla in 1113). Coloman will reign until 1116, expanding his realm (see 1097), and collecting books as he makes himself one of the most learned monarchs of his time.
Matilda of Canossa, countess of Tuscany, and her husband, now 23, separate after 6 years of marriage in a quarrel between the Este family and the House of Attoni, with the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV supporting the Este side against his longtime enemy Matilda, now 49.
Pope Urban II preaches the need for a Crusade against "the infidel" and gains support from Peter the Hermit and others for his holy war (see 1009). Accompanied by Daimbert, archbishop of Pisa, the pope travels to France and points out that vast areas of the Holy Land are available to knights (many of whom are landless younger sons) who will join the Crusade. The pope has received an appeal from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus for aid against the Seljuk Turks, and he proclaims the Crusade November 27 at the Synod of Clermont (see 1096). He excommunicates France's Philippe I for adultery.
Chinese astronomer-mathematician Shen Kua dies at Ching-k'ou at age 64 (approximate), having made the first reference to magnetic compasses in his 1086 book Dream Pool Essays (Meng ch'i pi t'an), as well as giving the first description of movable type. A former waterworks director, Shen Kua wrote that magicians could find directions by rubbing a needle on a lodestone and hanging the magnetized needle by a thread. He was banished from office following the defeat of troops under his command by Qi Dan (Khitan) tribesmen (the battle by some accounts cost the lives of some 60,000 Chinese). The compass needle, he said, would usually point south but sometimes would point north (see transportation, 1150). Shen had written essays containing valuable observations on astronomy, cartography, mathematics, medicine, and optics.
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