Be humble, mute, and helpful. If you know latin, work on learning the current dialect/script -- you'll have a shot at declaring yourself a "wise man from the east" and go for the job of physician. I would be careful with the Prester John references, your mileage may vary. As one commenter pointed out, you should be able to make aspirin from willow bark and penicillin from mold. These two alone, plus hygiene, should make you a miracle-worker. Be prepared to saw a lot of limbs off. You could also be the first to use opiates in medicine, which could alleviate a lot of suffering in that time.
After 1100 or so, the crusades are well under way. Most of the nobles will be coming and going to the various crusades. They started in the Levant and ended up being next door as crusades were eventually preached against heretics. As physician, try to attach to the church -- they're on the ascent. Perhaps with some luck you can get noticed by the pope and end up with a (relatively) cushy job in Rome.
Don't do the man-at-arms thing. You'll suck at it. Don't try for any kind of social revolution -- people were pretty tolerant during that time, but by 1200 the church was getting very sensitive about outliers. You don't want to show up on their radar. Stay away from southern France -- the Cathars were nice folks but trouble is on the way for them.
If I had the choice of picking a city (besides the Rome-physician thing), I'd go for Genova, Pisa, or Venice. Great cities with fast growth and more of an open culture. They made out like bandits transporting nobles and supplies during the crusades.
As to the "man-at-arms thing": if you could bring with you to the past a suitcase or so of initial supplies, what would be the best investment in the long term to become a unopposable warlord (or just an arms dealer with a technological monopoly?) Just "a bunch of guns" wouldn't help once you had given them away, and even specifications wouldn't help because no one could engineer to the required tolerances at the time. I'd think the best investment would be body armor, walkee-talkie radios, and surveillance equipment, personally.
The big question is how to stop worrying about the need to personally fetch water and make clothes, and how to start worrying about implementing your overall plans. That is, how to get enough production going where you wouldn't be screwed when the solar cells powering your electronics (you didn't seriously consider bringing batteries, did you?) wear out.
My basic plan would be: Convince a small village I'm God and chose them to build my kingdom, improve their farming and sanitation enough to produce some labor surpluses, and then work my way up the tech tree.
The basic sketch of that would involve fireworks, a single assault rifle, and a low-power device storing lots of specifications.
If I wanted to fight (or assist) in a limited war, I'd go for a solar-powered backpack, night-vision goggles and radios (x5), water purification, gold (for money), antibiotics, and a taser.
The trick, as a sibling commenter pointed out, is that you could easily spend 99% of your time getting water, finding food, learning to communicate, etc. You have to find a way to move beyond that point -- and that's a non-trivial barrier.
Be humble, mute, and helpful. If you know latin, work on learning the current dialect/script -- you'll have a shot at declaring yourself a "wise man from the east" and go for the job of physician. I would be careful with the Prester John references, your mileage may vary. As one commenter pointed out, you should be able to make aspirin from willow bark and penicillin from mold. These two alone, plus hygiene, should make you a miracle-worker. Be prepared to saw a lot of limbs off. You could also be the first to use opiates in medicine, which could alleviate a lot of suffering in that time.
After 1100 or so, the crusades are well under way. Most of the nobles will be coming and going to the various crusades. They started in the Levant and ended up being next door as crusades were eventually preached against heretics. As physician, try to attach to the church -- they're on the ascent. Perhaps with some luck you can get noticed by the pope and end up with a (relatively) cushy job in Rome.
Don't do the man-at-arms thing. You'll suck at it. Don't try for any kind of social revolution -- people were pretty tolerant during that time, but by 1200 the church was getting very sensitive about outliers. You don't want to show up on their radar. Stay away from southern France -- the Cathars were nice folks but trouble is on the way for them.
If I had the choice of picking a city (besides the Rome-physician thing), I'd go for Genova, Pisa, or Venice. Great cities with fast growth and more of an open culture. They made out like bandits transporting nobles and supplies during the crusades.