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1020 CE

This year falls in the High and Late Middle Ages (c. 1000–1500 CE). Trade grows across Eurasia, and in the thirteenth century the Mongols build the largest connected land empire in history. The Black Death kills a large share of the people of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from the 1340s, and the era closes with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the first European voyages to the Americas.

Within fifteen years

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · EnglandWilliam the Conquerorc. 1028–1087Duke of Normandy who became king of England in 1066, born about 1028 and dead in 1087. His victory at Hastings on 14 October 1066 ended Anglo Saxon England and joined it to the Norman world. The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded every manor in the kingdom for taxation.

Philosopher · High and Late Middle Ages · ItalyAnselm of Canterbury1033–1109Italian born monk who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 and gave scholastic theology its motto, faith seeking understanding. His Proslogion argues for God's existence from the bare idea of God. He lived 1033 to 1109.