· Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia
Shapur II the Great was the ninth King of the Persian Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379 and son of Hormizd II.[3] During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I (241–272). His name is sometimes given in English as "Shahpour" or "Sapor".[4]

Early childhood
When King Hormizd II (302–309) died, Persian nobles killed his eldest son, blinded the second, and imprisoned the third (Hormizd, who afterwards escaped to the Roman Empire).] The throne was reserved for the unborn child of one of the wives of Hormizd II. It is said that Shapur II may have been the only king in history to be crowned in utero: the crown was placed upon his mother's belly. This child, named Shapur, was therefore born king; the government was conducted by his mother and the magnates.

Simeon (also Symeon) I the Great (Bulgarian: Симеон I Велики, transliterated Simeon I Veliki[2] [simɛˈɔn ˈpɤ̞rvi vɛˈliki]) ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927,[3] during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever,[4] making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern Europe.[5] His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.[6]
During Simeon's rule, Bulgaria spread over a territory between the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black Sea,[7][8] and the new Bulgarian capital Preslav was said to rival Constantinople.[8][9] The newly independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church became the first new patriarchate besides the Pentarchy, and Bulgarian Glagolitic translations of Christian texts spread all over the Slavic world of the time.[10] Halfway through his reign, Simeon assumed the title of Emperor (Tsar),[11] having prior to that been styled Prince (Knyaz).[12]

Biography

Background and early life

Simeon was born in 864 or 865, as the third son of Knyaz Boris I[12] of Krum's dynasty.[13] As Boris was the ruler who Christianized Bulgaria in 865, Simeon was a Christian all his life.[12][14] Because his eldest brother Vladimir was designated heir to the Bulgarian throne, Boris intended Simeon to become a high-ranking cleric,[15] possibly Bulgarian archbishop, and sent him to the leading University of Constantinople to receive theological education when he was thirteen or fourteen.[14] He took the Hebrew name Simeon[16] as a novice in a monastery in Constantinople.[14] During the decade (ca. 878–888) he spent in the Byzantine capital, he received excellent education and studied the rhetoric of Demosthenes and Aristotle.[17] He also learned fluent Greek, to the extent that he was referred to as "the half-Greek" in Byzantine chronicles.[18] He is speculated to have been tutored by Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople,[19] but this is not supported by any source.[14]

Around 888, Simeon returned to Bulgaria and settled at the newly established royal monastery of Preslav "at the mouth of the Tiča",[21] where, under the guidance of Naum of Preslav, he engaged in active translation of important religious works from Greek to Old Church Slavonic (Old Bulgarian), aided by other students from Constantinople.[14] Meanwhile, Vladimir had succeeded Boris, who had retreated to a monastery, as ruler of Bulgaria. Vladimir attempted to reintroduce paganism in the empire and possibly signed an anti-Byzantine pact with Arnulf of Carinthia,[22] forcing Boris to re-enter political life. Boris had Vladimir imprisoned and blinded, and then appointed Simeon as the new ruler.[23][24] This was done at an assembly in Preslav which also proclaimed Bulgarian as the only language of state and church[25] and moved the Bulgarian capital from Pliska to Preslav, to better cement the recent conversion.[26] It is not known why Boris did not place his second son, Gavril, on the throne, but instead preferred Simeon.

مجهول

Stephen III of Moldavia (1433–1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)
Stephen III of Moldavia (also known as Stefan the Great, Romanian: Ștefan cel Mare, pronounced [mare] or Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt, "Stefan the Great and Holy"; 1433, Borzești – July 2, 1504) was Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504 and the most prominent representative of the House of Mușat.
During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, which all sought to subdue the land. Stephen achieved fame in Europe for his long resistance against the Ottomans. He was victorious in 46 of his 48 battles, and was one of the first to gain a decisive victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui, after which PopeSixtus IV deemed him verus christianae fidei athleta (true Champion of Christian Faith). He was a man of religion and displayed his piety when he paid the debt of Mount Athos to the Porte, ensuring the continuity of Athos as an autonomous monastical community.

Stefan the Great was a member of the ruling House of Mușat. His father Bogdan II had ruled Moldavia for two years (1449 to 1451) before being killed in a stealthy raid led by Stephen's uncle, Petru Aron. Bogdan II was attending a wedding of one of his boyars - who apparently was in collusion with Petru Aron - and the surprise was complete. Stephen barely escaped with his life, but his father was captured and beheaded on the spot by his stepbrother Petru Aron. Between 1451 and 1457, Moldavia was in turmoil from the civil war between Petru Aron and Alexăndrel - a nephew of Alexander the Good.
Following the outbreak of the conflict, Stephen took refuge in Transylvania, seeking the protection of military commander John Hunyadi. After that, he moved to the court of his first cousin Vlad III Dracul and, in 1457, managed to receive 6,000 horsemen as military assistance, putting them to use in a victorious battle against Petru Aron at Doljești, near Roman. Following another lost battle at Orbic, Aron fled to Poland, while Stefan was crowned Prince. Two years later, he led an incursion into Poland in search of Aron, but was met with resistance. Instead, a treaty was signed between Moldavia and Poland, through which Stephen recognized KingKazimierz IV Jagiellon as his suzerain, while Aron was banned from entering Moldavia.

Menaced by powerful neighbours, he successfully repelled an invasion by the Hungarian KingMatthias Corvinus, defeating him in the Battle of Baia (in 1467), crushed an invading Tatar force at Lipnic and invaded Wallachia in 1471 (the latter had by then succumbed to Ottoman power and had become its vassal). When the Ottoman SultanMehmed II launched a retaliatory attack on Moldavia, Stephen defeated the invaders at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475, a victory which temporarily halted the Turkish advance. Stephen was defeated at Războieni (Battle of Valea Albă) the next year, but the Ottomans had to retreat after they failed to take any significant castle (see siege of Cetatea Neamțului) as a plague started to spread in the Ottoman army. Stephen's search for European assistance against the Turks met with little success, even though he had "cut off the pagan's right hand" - as he put it in a letter.
Stefan helped to oust Vlad Țepeș's brother, Radu the Handsome who had converted to Islam and later became the Ottoman commander of Wallachia, he then installed Laiotă Basarab the Old on the throne in the hope of bringing Wallachia back into the Christian camp. This proved to be illusory, as Laiotă quickly turned his back on Stephen, deeming that Ottoman protection would better help him consolidate his rule. With Stephen's support, Laiotă was removed from the throne in 1482 by Vlad Călugărul, brother to Vlad Tepes, and for the remainder of the 15th century Wallachia remained relatively stable under his rule.
After 1484, when he lost the fortresses of Chilia Nouǎ and Cetatea Albǎ to an Ottoman blitz invasion, Stephen had to face not only new Turkish onslaughts which he defeated again on November 16, 1485 at Catlabuga Lake and at Șcheia on the Siret River in March 1486, but also the Polish designs on Moldavian independence. Finally on 20 August 1503[1] he concluded a treaty with Sultan Beyazid II that preserved Moldavia's self rule, at the cost of an annual tribute to the Turks.
From the 16th century on, the Principality of Moldavia would spend three hundred years as an Ottoman vassal. In his late years, he dealt successfully with a Polish invasion, defeating the Poles at the Battle of the Cosmin Forest.

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan the Mighty (Serbian: pronounced c. 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia (from 8 September 1331) and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks (from 16 April 1346) until his death on 20 December 1355. Dušan managed to conquer a large part of Southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs in his time. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire in Dušan's Code, one of, if not the most important work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an Archbishopric to a Patriarchate, finished the construction of the Visoki Dečani-monastery (UNESCO item), and founded the Saint Archangels Monastery, among others. Under his rule Serbia reached its territorial, economical, political and cultural peak.
His death in 1355 is seen as the end of resistance towards the advancing Ottoman Empire, and the subsequent fall of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the region.[1] His Crown is presently kept at the Cetinje Monastery, in Montenegro.

In 1314, the initial heir Stephen Uroš III (Dušan's father) quarreled with his father Stephen Uroš II Milutin, who ended up sending Uroš III to Constantinople, to have him blinded. Uroš III was never totally blinded, however. After 1317, Uroš III wrote to Danilo, the Bishop of Hum, asking him to intervene with his father. Danilo then wrote to Archbishop Nicodemus of Serbia, who spoke with Milutin and persuaded him to recall his son.[2] In 1320 Uroš III was permitted to return to Serbia, and was given the appanage of 'Budimlje' (modern Berane). His half-brother and heir to the crown, Stephen Constantine had the title King of Zeta. Uroš II became ill and died on October 29, 1321, and Constantine was crowned King.
Civil war erupted when Constantine refused to submit to Uroš III, who then invaded Zeta, and in the ensuing battle, Constantine was killed. After the victory, on January 6, 1322, the Serbian Archbishop Nicodemus crowned Uroš King and Dušan Young King.[3] As Dušan was intended heir, he would govern Zeta, as Constantine and his predecessors had done.[4] In the meantime, Uroš III's cousin Stephen Vladislav II mobilized local support from Rudnik, Stephen Dragutin's former appanage.[4] Vladislav called himself King, and was supported by the Hungarians, consolidating control over his lands and preparing for battle with Uroš III.[4] As the case was with their fathers, Serbia was divided by two independent rulers; in 1322 and 1323 Ragusan merchants freely visited both lands.[4]
In 1323, war broke out between the cousins. In the fall Vladislav still held Rudnik, but by the end of 1323, it was being held by Uroš' forces; Vladislav appeared to have fled north.[4] Vladislav was defeated in battle in late 1324, and fled to Hungary,[5] leaving the Serbian throne to Uroš III as undisputed King of All Serbian and Maritime lands".

Uroš IV Dušan was the eldest son of King Uroš III of Dečani and Theodora Smilets, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. He was born in ca. 1308, in Serbia, but with his fathers exile in 1314, the family lives in Constantinople until 1320, when his father is pardoned and allowed to return. In Constantinople he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and became acquainted with the Byzantine Empire. He was, on the whole, more a soldier than a diplomat; in his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles; in 1329 he defeated the BosnianbanStephen II Kotromanić, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael III Shishman in the Battle of Velbazhd. Uroš III appointed his nephew Ivan Stephen (through Anna Neda) at the throne of Bulgaria in August 1330.
Right after the battle of Velbazhd, Uroš III had the chance to attack the Byzantines, but he chose not to, resulting in the alienation of many nobles,[9] who sought to expand to the south.[10] By January or February 1331, Dušan was quarreling with his father,[9] perhaps pressured by the nobility.[10] According to contemporary pro-Dušan sources, evil advisors turned Uroš III against his son; he decided to seize and exclude Dušan of his inheritance. Uroš III sent an army into Zeta against his son, the army ravaged Skadar, but Dušan had crossed the Bojana. A brief period of anarchy in parts of Serbia took place, before the father and son concluded peace in April 1331.[9] Three months later, Uroš III ordered Dušan to meet him. Dušan feared for his life and his advisors persuaded him to resist, so Dušan marched from Skadar to Nerodimlje, where he besieged his father.[9] Uroš III fled, and Dušan captured the treasury and family. He then pursuited his father, catching up with him at Petrić. On 21 August 1331, Uroš III surrendered, and on the advice or insistence of Dušan's advisors, he was imprisoned.[9] Dušan is crowned King of All Serbian and Maritime lands in the first week of September.[10]
The civil war had prevented Serbia from aiding Ivan Stephen and Anna Neda in Bulgaria, who were deposed in March 1331, taking refuge in the mountains. Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria feared for the danger of Serbia as the situation there had settled, and immediately sought peace with Dušan.[10] As Dušan wanted to move against richer Byzantium, the two concluded peace and an alliance in December 1331, accepting Ivan Alexander as ruler. It was sealed with the marriage of Dušan and Helena, the sister of Ivan Alexander.[10] Bulgaria became a vassal of the Serbian Empire.[citation needed]

Some raids into Macedonia were made in late 1331, but the major attack on Byzantium was delayed, Dušan had to suppress revolts in Zeta in 1332.[11] Dušan's ingratitude to his former aids (the Zetan nobility were possibly neglected their promised reward and greater influence) may have been the cause of the rebellion, which was suppressed in the course of 1332.[11]
In the first years of his reign, Dušan started to fight against the Byzantine Empire (1334), and warfare continued with interruptions of various duration until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these clashes were mostly defensive. Dušan's armies were defeated by Louis the Great's 80,000 strong royal armies in Mačva, therefore Dušan had lost the control over his former territories: vojvodine of Macsó (Mačva) and the principality of Travunia in 1349. After this setback, he focused his attention on the internal affairs of his country, writing, in 1349, the first statute book of the Serbs.[12]
Dušan was successful against Louis' vassals; he defeated the armies of the Croatian ban and the forces of southern Hungarian voivodes. He was at peace with the Bulgarians, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between regent Anna of Savoy for the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict, but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves.
Dušan's systematic offensive began in 1342 and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans as far as Kavala, except for the Peloponnesus and Thessaloniki, which he could not conquer because he had too small of a fleet. There has been speculation that Dušan's ultimate goal was no less than to conquer Constantinople and replace the declining Byzantine Empire with a united Orthodox Greco-Serbian Empire under his control.[13][14] In May 1344, his commander Preljub was stopped at Stephaniana by a Turkic force of 3,100.[15] The battle was won by the Turks, but it was not able to thwart the Serbian conquest of Macedonia.[16][17]
In 1343, he added "of Romans (Greeks)" to his self-styled title "King of Serbia, Albania and the coast".[18] In 1345 he began calling himself tsar, equivalent of Emperor, this is attested in charters to two athonite monasteries, one from November and one from January 1346, and around Christmas 1345 at a council meeting in Serres,which was conquered on Sept 25th 1345, he proclaimed himself "Tsar of the Serbs and Romans" (Romans is equivalent to Greeks in Serbian documents).[18]

On April 16, 1346 (Easter), he convoked a huge assembly at Skopje, attended by the Serbian Archbishop Joanikije II, the Archbishop of OchridNikolaj I, the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and various religious leaders of Mount Athos.[19] The assembly and clerics agreed on, and then ceremonially performed the raising of the autocephalous Serbian Archbishopric to the status of Patriarchate.[18] The Archbishop from now on is titled Patriarch of Serbia, although one document called him Patriarch of Serbs and Greeks, with the seat at the monastery of Peć.[18] The new Patriarch Joanikije II now solemnly crowned Dušan as "Emperor and autocrat of Serbs and Romans" (Greek Bασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτoκράτωρ Σερβίας καὶ Pωμανίας).[18] Dušan had his son crowned King of Serbs and Greeks, giving him nominal rule over the Serbian lands, and although Dušan was governing the whole state, he had special responsibility for the "Roman", i.e. Greek lands.[18]
A further increase in the Byzantinization of the Serbian court followed, particularly in court ceremonial and titles.[18] As Emperor, Dušan could grant titles only possible as an Emperor.[20] In the years that followed, Dušan's half-brother Symeon Uroš and brother-in-law Jovan Asen became despotes. Jovan Oliver already had the despot title, granted to him by Andronikos III. His brother-in-law Dejan Dragaš and Branko is granted the title of sebastocrator. The military commanders (voivodes) Preljub and Vojihna receive the title of caesar.[20] The raising of the Serbian Patriarch resulted in the same spirit, bishoprics became metropolitans, as for example the Metropolitanate of Skopje.[20]
The Patriarchate took over sovereignty on Mt. Athos and the Greek archbishoprics under the rule of the Constantinople Patriarchate (The Ohrid Archbishopric remained autocephalous). For those acts he was excommunicated by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1350.[20]

Taksin (Royal Institute: Somdet Phra Chao Taksin Maharat; Thai: สมเด็จพระเจ้าตากสินมหาราชlisten(help·info) or The King of the Thonburi Kingdom; Thai: สมเด็จพระเจ้ากรุงธนบุรี,Somdet Phra Chao KrungThonburi;Chinese: 鄭昭; pinyin: Zhèng Zhāo; Teochew: Dênchao; Vietnamese: Trịnh Quốc Anh) ; (April 17, 1734 – April 7, 1782) was the only King of the Thonburi Kingdom. He is greatly revered by the Thai people for his leadership in liberating Siam from Burmese occupation after the Second Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, and the subsequent unification of Siam after it fell under various warlords. He established the city Thonburi as the new capital, as the city Ayutthaya had been almost completely destroyed by the invaders. His reign was characterized by numerous wars, fought to repel new Burmese invasions and to subjugate the northern Thai kingdom of Lanna, the Laotian principalities, and a threatening Cambodia. He was succeeded by the Chakri dynasty and the Rattanakosin Kingdom under his long time friend King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
Although warfare took up most of King Taksin's time, he paid a great deal of attention to politics, administration, economy, and the welfare of the country. He promoted trade and fostered relations with foreign countries including China, Britain, and the Netherlands. He had roads built and canals dug. Apart from restoring and renovating temples, the king attempted to revive literature, and various branches of the arts such as drama, painting, architecture and handicrafts. He also issued regulations for the collection and arrangement of various texts to promote education and religious studies. In recognition for what he did for the Thais, he was later awarded the title of Maharaj (The Great).

The future ruler was born on April 17, 1734 in Ayutthaya. His father, Hai-Hong (Thai:ไหฮอง; Chinese: 鄭鏞), who worked as a tax-collector,[2] was a TeochewChinese immigrant from Chenghai County.[3] His mother, Lady Nok-lang (Thai:นกเอี้ยง), was Thai (and was later awarded the feudal title of Somdet Krom Phra Phithak Thephamat).[4] Impressed by the boy, Chao Phraya Chakri (Mhud), who was the Samuhanayok (สมุหนายก Prime Minister) in King Boromakot's reign, adopted him and gave him the Thai name Sin (สิน,) meaning money or treasure.[5] When he was 7, he was assigned to a monk named Tongdee to begin his education in a Buddhistmonastery called Wat Kosawat (Thai: วัดโกษาวาส) (later Wat Choeng Thar (Thai: วัดเชิงท่า)).[6] After seven years of education he was sent by his stepfather to serve as a royal page, he studied Chinese, Annamese, and Indian languages with diligence and soon he was able to converse in them with fluency.[7] When Sin and his friend, Tong-Duang, were Buddhist novices they met a Chinese fortune-teller who told them that they both had lucky lines in the palms of their hands and would both become kings. Neither took it seriously, but Tong-Duang was later the successor of King Taksin, Rama I.
After taking the vows of a Buddhist monk for about 3 years, Sin joined the service of King Ekatat and was first deputy governor and later governor of the Tak,[9] which gained him his name Phraya Tak, the governor of Tak, which was exposed to danger from Burma, though his official noble title was "Phraya Tak".
In 1764, the Burmese army attacked the southern region of Thailand. Led by Muang Maha Noratha, the Burmese army was victorious and marched on to Phetchaburi. Here, the Burmese were confronted by Thai soldiers led by two generals, Kosadhibodhi and Phraya Tak. The Thai army beat the Burmese back to Singkhorn Pass.
In 1765, when the Burmese attacked Ayutthaya, Phraya Tak defended the capital, for which he was given the title "Phraya Vajiraprakarn" of Kamphaeng Phet. But he did not have a chance to govern Kamphaeng Phet because war broke out again. He was immediately called back to Ayutthaya to protect the city. For more than a year, Thai and Burmese soldiers fought fierce battles during the siege of Ayutthaya. It was during this time that Phraya Vajiraprakarn experienced many setbacks which led him to doubt the value of his endeavours.

Timur (Persian: تیمور‎ Timūr, Chagatai: Temür "iron", Turkish: Demir "iron"; 8 April 1336 – 18 February 1405), historically known as Tamerlane[1] in (from Persian: تيمور لنگ‎, Timūr-e Lang, "Timur the Lame"), was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty (1370–1405) in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until 1857.
Timur was in his lifetime a controversial figure, and remains so today. He sought to restore the Mongol Empire, [yet his heaviest blow was against the Islamized Tatar Golden Horde. He was more at home in an urban environment than on the steppe. He styled himself a ghazi while conducting wars that severely affected some Muslim states, in particular the Sultanate of Delhi. A great patron of the arts, his campaigns also caused vast destruction.

Timur was born in Transoxiana, in the City of Kesh (an area now better known as Shahrisabz, "the green city"), some 50 miles south of Samarkand in modern Uzbekistan, then part of the Chagatai Khanate. His father, Taraqai, was a small-scale landowner and belonged to the Barlas tribe. The Barlas was a Turko-Mongol tribe[10] which was originally a Mongol tribe[11] and was Turkified[12] and/or became Turkic-speaking[13] or intermingling with the Turkic peoples.[14] According to Gérard Chaliand, Timur was a Muslim Turk[15] but he saw himself as Genghis Khan's heir.[15] Though not a Chinggisid, he clearly sought to evoke the legacy of Genghis Khan's conquests during his lifetime.[16]
Timur was a Muslim, but while his chief official religious counsellor & advisor was the Hanafite scholar 'Abdu 'l-Jabbar Khwarazmi, his particular persuasion is not known. In Tirmidh, he had come under the influence of his spiritual mentor Sayyid Barakah, a Shiite leader from Balkh who is buried alongside Timur in Gur-e Amir. Despite his Hanafi background, Timur was known to hold Ali and the Shia Imams in high regard and has been noted by various scholars for his "pro-Alid" stance. Despite this, Timur was noted for attacking Shi’is on Sunni grounds and therefore his own religious inclinations remain unclear.[20]

In about 1360 Timur gained prominence as a military leader whose troops were mostly Turkic tribesmen of the region. He took part in campaigns in Transoxiana with the Khan of Chagatai, a fellow descendant of Genghis Khan. His career for the next ten or eleven years may be thus briefly summarized from the Memoirs. Allying himself both in cause and by family connection with Kurgan, the dethroner and destroyer of Volga Bulgaria, he was to invade Khorasan at the head of a thousand horsemen. This was the second military expedition which he led, and its success led to further operations, among them the subjugation of Khorezm and Urganj.
After the murder of Kurgan the disputes which arose among the many claimants to sovereign power were halted by the invasion of the energetic Jagataite Tughlugh Temur of Kashgar, another descendant of Genghis Khan. Timur was dispatched on a mission to the invader's camp, the result of which was his own appointment to the head of his own tribe, the Barlas, in place of its former leader, Hajji Beg.
The exigencies of Timur's quasi-sovereign position compelled him to have recourse to his formidable patron, whose reappearance on the banks of the Syr Darya created a consternation not easily allayed. The Barlas were taken from Timur and entrusted to a son of Tughluk, along with the rest of Mawarannahr; but he was defeated in battle by the bold warrior he had replaced at the head of a numerically far inferior force.

Tughlugh's death facilitated the work of reconquest, and a few years of perseverance and energy sufficed for its accomplishment, as well as for the addition of a vast extent of territory. It was in this period that Timur reduced the Chagatai khans to the position of figureheads, who were deferred to in theory but in reality ignored, while Timur ruled in their name. During this period Timur and his brother-in-law Husayn, at first fellow fugitives and wanderers in joint adventures full of interest and romance, became rivals and antagonists. At the close of 1369 Husayn was assassinated and Timur, having been formally proclaimed sovereign at Balkh, mounted the throne at Samarkand, the capital of his dominions. This event was recorded by Marlowe in his famous work Tamburlaine the Great:[22]
Then shall my native city, Samarqand...
Be famous through the furthest continents,
For there my palace-royal shall be placed,
Whose shining turrets shall dismay the heavens,
And cast the fame of lion's tower to hell.
A legendary account of Timur's rise to leadership, recorded among the Tatar descendants of the Qıpchaq Khanate in Tobol, goes as follows:
One day Aksak Temür[23] spoke thusly:
"Khan Züdei (in China) rules over the city. We now number fifty to sixty men, so let us elect a leader." So they drove a stake into the ground and said: "We shall run thither and he who among us is the first to reach the stake, may he become our leader". So they ran and Aksak Timur (since he was lame) lagged behind, but before the others reached the stake he threw his cap onto it. Those who arrived first said: "We are the leaders". (But) Aksak Timur said: "My head came in first, I am the leader". In the meanwhile an old man arrived and said: "The leadership should belong to Aksak Timur; your feet have arrived but, before then, his head reached the goal". So they made Aksak Timur their prince.[24][25]
It is notable that Timur never claimed for himself the title of khan, styling himself amir and acting in the name of the Chagatai ruler of Transoxania. Timur was a military genius, but was sometimes lacking in political sense. He tended not to leave a government apparatus behind in lands he conquered and was often faced with the need to reconquer such lands after inevitable rebellions had taken place.

Theobald the Great (French: Thibaut de Blois) (1090–1152) was Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV from 1102 and was Count of Champagne and of Brie as Theobald II from 1125.
He held Auxerre, Maligny, Ervy, Troyes, and Châteauvillain as fiefs from Eudes II, Duke of Burgundy. He was the son of Stephen II, Count of Blois
والده
Stephen II Henry (in French, Étienne Henri, in Medieval French, Estienne Henri) (c. 1045 – 19 May 1102
and Adela of Normandy, and the elder brother of King Stephen of England. Although he was the second son, Theobald was appointed above his older brother William. Several historians have painted William as mentally deficient, but this has never been substantiated. That said, we know that his mother found him stubbornly resistant to control and unfit for wide ranging comital duties. Theobald had no such problems.
Theobald accompanied his mother throughout their realm on hundreds of occasions and, after her retirement to Marcigney in 1125, he administered the family properties with great skill. Adela died in her beloved convent in 1136, the year after her son Stephen was crowned king of England. [1]
King Louis VII of France became involved in a war with Theobald by permitting Count Raoul I of Vermandois and seneschal of France, to repudiate his wife Eléonore of Blois, Theobald's sister, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, sister of the queen of France. The war, which lasted two years (1142–1144), was marked by the occupation of Champagne by the royal army and the capture of Vitry-le-François, where many persons perished in the deliberate burning of the church by Louis. French teacher Pierre Abélard, who became famous for his love affair with and subsequent marriage to his student Héloïse, sought asylum in Champagne during Theobald II's reign. Abelard died at Cluny Abbey in Burgundy, a monastery supported by the Thebaudians for many centuries.
In 1123 he married Matilda of Carinthia, daughter of Engelbert, Duke of Carinthia.

Theodoric the Great (Gothic: Þiudareiks; Latin: Flāvius Theodericus; Greek: Θευδέριχος, Theuderikhos; Old English: Þēodrīc; Old Norse: Þjōðrēkr, Þīðrēkr; 454 – August 30, 526) was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526),[1] ruler of Italy (493–526), regent of the Visigoths (511–526), and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire. His Gothic name Þiudareiks translates into "people-king" or "ruler of the people".[2]
A son of King Theodemir, an Amali nobleman, Theodoric was born in Pannonia, after his people had defeated the Huns at the Battle of Nedao. Growing up as a hostage in Constantinople, Theodoric received a privileged education, and succeeded his father as leader of the Pannonian Ostrogoths in 471 AD. Settling his people in lower Moesia, Theodoric came in conflict with Thracian Ostrogoths led by Theodoric Strabo, whom he eventually supplanted, uniting the peoples in 484.
Subsequently, Eastern Roman EmperorZeno gave him the title of Patrician and the office of Magister militum (master of the soldiers), and even appointed him as Roman Consul. Trying to achieve further aims, Theodoric frequently ravaged the provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, eventually threatening Constantinople itself. In 488, Emperor Zeno ordered Theodoric to overthrow the German usurper Odoacer, who had established himself as King of Italy. After a victorious three-year long war, Theodoric killed Odoacer with his own hands, settled his people in Italy, around 100,000 to 200,000, and founded a Kingdom based in Ravenna. Although promoting separation between the ArianOstrogoths and the Roman population, Theodoric stressed the importance of racial harmony. Seeking to restore the glory of Ancient Rome, he ruled Italy in its most peaceful and prosperous period since Valentinian, until his death in 526. Memories of his reign made him a hero of Germanic legend as Dietrich von Bern.

The man who would later rule under the name of Theodoric was born in 454 AD, on the banks of the Neusiedler See near Carnuntum. This was just a year after the Ostrogoths had thrown off nearly a century of domination by the Huns. The son of the King Theodemir and Ereleuva, Theodoric went to Constantinople as a young boy, as a hostage to secure the Ostrogoths' compliance with a treaty Theodemir had concluded with the Byzantine Emperor Leo (ruled 457–474).
والده
Theodoric (454–526) and Amalafrida. When Theodemir died in 475, Theodoric
He lived at the court of Constantinople for many years and learned a great deal about Roman government and military tactics, which served him well when he became the Gothic ruler of a mixed but largely Romanized "barbarian people". Treated with favor by the Emperors Leo I and Zeno (ruled 474–475 and 476–491), he became magister militum (Master of Soldiers) in 483, and one year later he became consul. Afterwards, he returned to live among the Ostrogoths when he was 31 years old and became their king in 488.

At the time, the Ostrogoths were settled in Byzantine territory as foederati (allies) of the Romans, but were becoming restless and increasingly difficult for Zeno to manage. Not long after Theodoric became king, the two men worked out an arrangement beneficial to both sides. The Ostrogoths needed a place to live, and Zeno was having serious problems with Odoacer, the King of Italy who had overthrown the Western Roman Empire in 476. Ostensibly a viceroy for Zeno, Odoacer was menacing Byzantine territory and not respecting the rights of Roman citizens in Italy. At Zeno's encouragement, Theodoric invaded Odoacer's kingdom.
Theodoric came with his army to Italy in 488, where he won the battles of Isonzo and Verona in 489 and at the Adda in 490. In 493 he took Ravenna. On February 2, 493, Theodoric and Odoacer signed a treaty that assured both parties would rule over Italy. A banquet was organised in order to celebrate this treaty. It was at this banquet that Theodoric, after making a toast, killed Odoacer with his own hands.

Like Odoacer, Theodoric was ostensibly only a viceroy for the emperor in Constantinople. In reality, he was able to avoid imperial supervision, and dealings between the emperor and Theodoric were as equals. Unlike Odoacer, however, Theodoric respected the agreement he had made and allowed Roman citizens within his kingdom to be subject to Roman law and the Roman judicial system. The Goths, meanwhile, lived under their own laws and customs. In 519, when a mob had burned down the synagogues of Ravenna, Theodoric ordered the town to rebuild them at its own expense.
Theodoric the Great sought alliances with, or hegemony over, the other Germanic kingdoms in the west. He allied with the Franks by his marriage to Audofleda, sister of Clovis I, and married his own female relatives to princes or kings of the Visigoths, Vandals and Burgundian. He stopped the Vandals from raiding his territories by threatening the weak Vandal king Thrasamund with invasion, and sent a guard of 5,000 troops with his sister Amalafrida when she married Thrasamund in 500. For much of his reign, Theodoric was the de facto king of the Visigoths as well, becoming regent for the infant Visigothic king, his grandson Amalric, following the defeat of Alaric II by the Franks under Clovis in 507. The Franks were able to wrest control of Aquitaine from the Visigoths, but otherwise Theodoric was able to defeat their incursions.
Thedoric's achievements began to unravel even before his death. He had married off his daughter Amalasuntha to the Visigoth Eutharic, but Eutharic died in 522 or 523, so no lasting dynastic connection of Ostrogoths and Visigoths was established. In 522, the Catholic Burgundian king Sigismund killed his own son, Theodoric's grandson, Sergeric. Theodoric retaliated by invading the Burgundian kingdom and then annexing its southern part, probably in 523. The rest was ruled by Sigismund's Arian brother Godomar, under Gothic protection against the Franks who had captured Sigismund. This brought the territory ruled by Theodoric to its height (see map), but in 523 or 524 the new Catholic Vandal king Hilderic imprisoned Amalfrida and killed her Gothic guard. Theodoric was planning an expedition to restore his power over the Vandal kingdom when he died in 526.

Theodosius I (Latin: Flavius Theodosius Augustus;[1] 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland south of the Danube within the empire's borders. He also issued decrees that effectively made Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
He is recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church as Saint Theodosius. He defeated the usurpers Magnus Maximus and Eugenius and fostered the destruction of some prominent pagan temples: the Serapeum in Alexandria, the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, and the Vestal Virgins in Rome. After his death, Theodosius' sons Arcadius and Honorius inherited the East and West halves respectively, and the Roman Empire was never again re-united.

Theodosius was born in Cauca or Italica, Hispania,[ to senior military officer Theodosius the Elder. He accompanied his father to Britannia to help quell the Great Conspiracy in 368. He was military commander (dux) of Moesia, a Roman province on the lower Danube, in 374. However, shortly thereafter, and at about the same time as the sudden disgrace and execution of his father, Theodosius retired to Spain. The reason for his retirement, and the relationship (if any) between it and his father's death is unclear. It is possible that he was dismissed from his command by the emperor Valentinian I after the loss of two of Theodosius' legions to the Sarmatians in late 374.
The death of Valentinian I in 375 created political pandemonium. Fearing further persecution on account of his family ties, Theodosius abruptly retired to his family estates in the province of Gallaecia (present day Galicia, Spain) where he adapted to the life of a provincial aristocrat.
From 364 to 375, the Roman Empire was governed by two co-emperors, the brothers Valentinian I and Valens; when Valentinian died in 375, his sons, Valentinian II and Gratian, succeeded him as rulers of the Western Roman Empire. In 378, after Valens was killed in the Battle of Adrianople, Gratian invited Theodosius to take command of the Illyrian army. As Valens had no successor, Gratian's appointment of Theodosius amounted to a de facto invitation for Theodosius to become co-Augustus for the East. Gratian was killed in a rebellion in 383, Theodosius then appointed his elder son, Arcadius, his co-ruler for the East. After the death in 392 of Valentinian II, whom Theodosius had supported against a variety of usurpations, Theodosius ruled as sole Emperor, appointing his younger son Honorius Augustus as his co-ruler for the West (Milan, on 23 January 393) and by defeating the usurper Eugenius on 6 September 394, at the Battle of the Frigidus (Vipava river, modern Slovenia) he restored peace.

By his first wife, the probably Spanish Aelia Flaccilla Augusta, he had two sons, Arcadius and Honorius and a daughter, Aelia Pulcheria; Arcadius was his heir in the East and Honorius in the West. Both Aelia Flaccilla and Pulcheria died in 385.
His second wife (but never declared Augusta) was Galla, daughter of the emperor Valentinian I and his second wife Justina. Theodosius and Galla had a son Gratian, born in 388 who died young and a daughter Aelia Galla Placidia (392–450). Placidia was the only child who survived to adulthood and later became an Empress.