St Bruno and six companions retire to Chartreuse, in the French Alps, and establish the Carthusian order

Benedictine monks, wishing to return to the early ideals of the order, form a community at Cîteaux which becomes the Cistercian order

The chansons de geste, performed by professional minstrels in castles and manors, celebrate the exploits of Charlemagne and his paladins

Peter Abelard teaches philosophy at Notre Dame until an affair with one of his pupils, Héloïse, brings his career to a dramatic end

St Bernard establishes a new monastery at Clairvaux, from which he presides over the rapid expansion of the Cistercian order

The troubadours of Provence develop a new form of love poetry in French, introducing courtly love

A popular French poem, the Chanson de Roland, turns a minor disaster in one of Charlemagne's campaigns into a tale of epic heroism

The full flowering of the Romanesque style is seen in the nave of the abbey church at Vézelay, in France

The new abbey church of St Denis is consecrated near Paris, introducing the style of architecture later known as Gothic

A new form of pious devotion is seen in Chartres, with people painfully dragging wagons of stone to enlarge the cathedral

The second crusade is led east by two kings, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany

In feudal France and Germany Charlemagne is by now venerated as a saint

The biblical kings and queens in the west porch of Chartres cathedral are a striking early example of Gothic sculpture

Henry II, coming to the throne of England, is king or feudal overlord of an unbroken swathe of territory from the Tweed to the Pyrenees

Chrétien de Troyes and other French authors turn the stories of Arthur and his knights into a romance of courtly love

Thomas Becket, having offended the king by his firm stand as archbishop of Canterbury, flees to a monastery near Paris

The first known mystery play, the Mystery of Adam, takes place outside a church somewhere in France

Thomas Becket, in France, suspends the English bishops who have participated in the coronation of the 'Young King'

After an apparent reconciliation with Henry II, Thomas Becket leaves France and returns to Canterbury

The heresy of the Cathars (meaning 'pure' ones) is now so well established in southern France that they have bishops of their own

The French king, Philip II, takes Normandy from the English, and follows this success by taking Anjou a year later

The murder of the pope's legate to Toulouse provokes the Albigensian crusade, which aims to wipe out the Catharist heresy

Nearly 200 windows make Chartres cathedral the most magnificent display of early stained glass

Gregory IX sends Dominican friars to root out the remains of the Catharist heresy in France, thus launching the Inquisition

Construction begins in Paris on the Sainte Chapelle, designed to house relics acquired by Louis IX, the king of France