758 Yiddish
lead to more sophisticated efforts to calculate the year
and when Christ was born and died. This was an attempt
to clarify the CALENDAR. Some also thought that the real
date for the end of the world might actually be 1033 or
1,000 years after the Crucifixion. There was a genuine
impulse to reform many aspects of society and the church
about this time. For example, this was the era of the
beginning of the PEACE ANDTRUCE OFGODmovement to
reduce violence in society, especially against the property
of the church. The practice of PILGRIMAGEbecame much
more popular. Around 1000 emperor OTTOIII had linked
a secular and religious crisis with his program of imperial
reform and renewal. Perhaps the year 1000 might be bet-
ter linked with religious, social, and political revival than
with supposed terror of Christians who expected the
imminent end of the world.
See alsoANTICHRIST;APOCALYPSE AND APOCALYPTIC
LITERATURE;SYLVESTERII, POPE.
Further reading: Henri Focillon, The Year 1000,
trans. Fred D. Wieck (New York: F. Ungar, 1969); Michael
Frassetto, ed., The Year 1000: Religious and Social
Response to the Turning of the First Millennium(New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); John Man, Atlas of the Year
1000 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999).
Yiddish (Yidish-daytsh, Judeo-German) Yiddish was
the VERNACULARlanguage written in the Hebrew alpha-
bet of the ASHKENAZIJEWSand called taytsh, ivritaytsh.
It was close to German but consciously different from
the Christian ways of speaking. Scholars date the origin
of Yiddish to the ninth and 10th centuries, when Jews
from northern FRANCEand ITA LYsettled in Lorraine and
central Germany at Mainz, Worms, and Speyer. Yiddish
gradually developed out of interaction among elements
of Romance speech, Hebrew, Aramaean, and dialects of
Middle High German. It became better defined after the
crises of the massacres and migrations around the
beginning of the First CRUSADEin 1096. Slavic elements
were added in the 16th century as some Jews moved
into Eastern Europe. This vernacular was used in paral-
lel with Hebrew in official documents, PRAYERS, transla-
tions of literary texts, complex Talmudic arguments,
medical treatises, and glosses on biblical texts in the
later Middle Ages.
Further reading:Solomon Liptzin, A History of Yid-
dish Literature (Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David,
1985); Max Weinreich, History of the Yiddish Language,
trans. Shlomo Noble (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1980).
Yolanda of Brienne (Isabel, Isabella II) (ca. 1212–
1228)heiress to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, wife of Emperor
Frederick II
Given the name Isabella, but more usually known as
Yolanda, she was heiress to the Kingdom of JERUSALEM
through her mother, Maria of Montferrat (d. 1212). Her
father, John of Brienne (ca. 1148–1237), acted as regent
during her minority. In August 1225 she was married by
proxy to the widower emperor FREDERICKII. Promoted
by Pope Honorius III (r. 1216–27), this match offered the
prospect of a revived Kingdom of Jerusalem to Frederick
so that he would much more quickly to go on CRUSADE.
After being crowned queen of Jerusalem and married in
ACRE, the 12- or 13-year-old Yolanda or Isabella traveled
to Brindisi, where the marriage was solemnized on
November 9, 1225. It was perceived as confirming Fred-
erick’s pledge to undertake a crusade.
Frederick immediately offended and dispossessed
her father and guardian, John of Brienne, by assuming
the rights and title of king consort. Frederick may or
may not have neglected her for her older cousin, but in
April 1228 Yolanda bore a son, Conrad (1228–54). She
died a few days later on May 1, leaving her infant as the
enfant king of Jerusalem. Frederick was probably
unfairly blamed for her death. Their son as Conrad IV of
HOHENSTAUFEN became the king of GERMANY and of
Jerusalem at his birth but never visited PALESTINEto be
crowned as king of Jerusalem; nor was his son, Conradin
(1252–68), ever crowned. With Conradin’s death fight-
ing CHARLESI OFANJOU in 1268, the line of descent
through Yolanda ended.
Further reading: David Abulafia, Frederick II: A
Medieval Emperor (London: Allen Lane The Penguin
Press, 1988); Georgina Masson, Frederick II of Hohen-
staufen: A Life(London: Secker & Warburg, 1957).York(Eboracum, Eoforwic, Jórvík) The medieval city
of York had been founded by the Romans in about 71
C.E. and became the principal Roman military center in
northern Britain and the capital of the Roman province
of Britannia Inferior. In the fifth and sixth centuries,
after disappearing from the historical record, York or
Eoforwic emerged as the most important town in north-
ern ENGLAND. King Edwin of Northumbria’s (d. 632)
conversion to Christianity took place in the city in 627,
and the first cathedral or Minister of York was built soon
afterward. In 735 York became the seat of one of the only
two archbishoprics in medieval England, supposedly
second only to CANTERBURY.
At the end of the eighth century, the prosperity and
intellectual accomplishments of York were shattered
by Viking invasions. From 866 York or Jórvíkwas the
capital of Danish and Norwegian kings. Viking York
remained a dynamic commercial center throughout
this period of prolonged political turbulence. After the
Norman Conquest in 1066, York rebelled, was damaged,
and then controlled by two new Norman CASTLES. It
became the center of the largest county in the country.
By the early 13th century, the citizenry of York had suc-
ceeded in establishing considerable self-government