Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1060s

1066 and all that. 

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1. The New Book of Tang, a ten-volume set intended to improve on what we call The Old Book of Tang, was finished in 1060. You can buy it for $50.67 on Amazon, albeit not in a first edition. What do you suppose it was about?

2. The city that we call Tartu these days was, in 1060, the leading settlement of Ugandi (not to be confused with Uganda). In 1061, it was raided and burned by a Finnic tribe called the Chudes. This is part of the early history of what small country?

　
3. Eight Deer Jaguar Claw, probably the most powerful leader in the history of the Mixtec people, was born in 1063. There’s a list of 94 cities that were conquered under his reign, and he married often and well to form alliances with aristocratic families. Hoping to make sure no one else had a good claim to his empire, he had all of his brothers-in-law killed. Alas, he missed one, who caught up with him and killed him in a ritual sacrifice in 1115.

Eight Deer Jaguar Claw, right, with an associate.

 In what modern country did all this happen?

4. “The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–1065… was led by Archbishop Siegfried of Mainz, Bishop William of Utrecht, Bishop Otto of Ratisbon, and Bishop Gunther of Bamberg. There were between seven and twelve thousand pilgrims on the journey. The pilgrimage passed through Hungary, Bulgaria, Patzinakia, and Constantinople…. The pilgrims were treated harshly wherever they went, and were ushered off into Anatolia once they reached Constantinople. Their troubles increased when they reached Latakia; there they met other pilgrims who warned them of the dangers to the south….”

Where were these people trying to go?

5. In 1065, García II became King of Galicia. He was also sovereign over the area to the south of Galicia, and claimed kingship there as well. He was therefore the first person with the title of King of what country? Hint: it still exists, but hasn’t had a monarch since 1910.

6. Pisa was often at loggerheads with a competing maritime city-state about 150 kilometers up the coast to the northwest. “In 1066, hostilities broke out between the sea-faring population of the two cities and continued intermittently for almost twenty years.” According to Pisan writers of the time, what other city was definitely the aggressor in this long conflict?

7. In 1066, Harald Hardrada was killed by King Harold Godwinson of England at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Harald Hardrada was the king of what country?

8. In 1067, the rapidly expanding Seljuk empire attacked Caesarea, in Cappadocia. Where the heck is that?

Beautiful Cappadocia!

9. It’s complicated, of course, but 1069 is a date sometimes given for the start of Nam tiến, a southward expansion at the expense of Campa and other neighbors that would continue for more than 700 years. What country did the expanding?

From the point of view of Campa, it was
more of a "northern incursion."

10. In the Harrowing of the North, a winter campaign of 1069-1070, a monarch shored up his shaky claim to the throne by terrorizing an uncooperative region of his recently acquired kingdom. The Harrowing was a “campaign of general destruction of homes, stock and crops as well as the means of food production. Men, women and children were slaughtered and many thousands are said to have died due to the famine that followed.” Who was in charge of this stern piece of state-building?

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Last Week: the 1050s

1. The medieval computer is an astrolabe.
2. The Phonix Hall in Uji is in Japan.
3. Tughril was the leader of the incredible expanding Seljuks.
4. Antigo Cuscatlán sounds kind of Aztec/Mayaish, and is in El Salvador.
5. The 1054 bungling of Cardinal Humbert's mission is a big watershed in the schism of Christianity.
6. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was the only homegrown King of Wales.
7. Anawrahta and the Pagan Empire were the basis of modern Burma.
8. Bishop Ísleifur Gissurarson and the island of excellent historical records: Iceland.
9. In nomine Domini created the position of cardinal and established the modern rules of papal election.
10. King Peter Krešimir IV was perhaps the greatest king that Croatia has known.  So far.

That's Pfly and Unwise Owl with the win, gS49 nipping at their heels, and everyone else feeling insecure about their understanding of the High Middle Ages.