1095
Year 1095 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
- March - Emperor Alexios I Komnenos send envoys to Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza and appeals to the Christian states of Western Europe for military aid against the Seljuk Turks. Urban responds favourably, hoping to heal the Great Schism of 40 years earlier, and to reunite the Catholic Church under papal primacy by helping the Eastern churches.
- Summer - The nomadic Cumans cross the River Danube and invade Thrace, to support the pretender Constantine Diogenes. The Cumans occupy the province of Paristrion. Emperor Alexios I places Byzantine detachments to guard the passes over the Balkan Mountains, but they are bypassed.
Europe
- The Second County of Portugal is established by Count Henry of Burgundy. The Almoravids start pushing back the forces of King Alfonso VI to the positions they occupied a decade earlier. This offensive begins with the re-conquest of Lisbon, which had been given away to Castile in 1091.
- July - Coloman begins to establish himself as ruler of Hungary, following the death of his uncle, King Ladislaus I.
- August 18 - Olaf I of Denmark dies after a 9-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother Eric I as king of Denmark.
England
- January - After attacking four Norwegian merchant ships lying in the River Tyne, Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, is called for by King William II of England to explain his actions. Instead, Mowbray rises up in rebellion against William along with other Norman nobles. William leads an army and besieges Bamburgh Castle; de Mowbray is captured after fleeing the stronghold.
Fatimid Empire
- The rebellion of Nizar is squashed by al-Afdal. Nizar is immured and his death results in a schism of Ismaili Shia. While Shiites in Egypt, Yemen and parts of Syria remain loyal to the new caliph, Al-Musta'li, the Persian and many other Eastern Shiites under Hasan-i Sabbah break away in the newly formed Nizari Ismaili state.
By topic
Religion
- November 18 - The Council of Clermont begins. The synod is called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land.
- November 27 - Urban II preaches the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont; Peter the Hermit begins to preach throughout France.
- November 28 - Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse, to lead the First Crusade.
- The Ismaili Shia split into the Musta'li and Nizari branch.
- Valence Cathedral is consecrated in Valence.