12th Century - Political Events By Year

Political Events By Year

• 1100: On August 5, Henry I is crowned King of England.
• 1100: On December 25, Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
• 1101: In July, the Treaty of Alton is signed between Henry I of England and his older brother Robert, Duke of Normandy in which Robert agrees to recognize Henry as king of England in exchange for a yearly stipend and other concessions. The agreement temporarily ended a crisis in the succession of the Anglo-Norman kings.
• 1101–1103: David the Builder takes over Kakheti and Hereti.
• 1102: King Coloman unites Hungary and Croatia under the Hungarian Crown.
• 1103-1104: A church council is convened by King David the Builder in Urbnisi to reorganize the Georgian Orthodox Church.
• 1104: In the Battle of Ertcukhi, King David the Builder defeats an army of Seljuks.
• 1107–1111: Sigurd I of Norway becomes the first king in Europe to embark on a crusade to the Holy Land. He fought in Lisbon, on various Mediterranean isles, and helped the King of Jerusalem to take Sidon from the Muslims.
• 1108: By the Treaty of Devol, signed in September, Bohemond I of Antioch has to submit to the Byzantine Empire, becoming the vassal of Alexius I.
• 1109: On June 10, Bertrand of Toulouse captures the County of Tripoli.
• 1109: In the Battle of Nakło, Boleslaus III Wrymouth defeats the Pomeranians and re-establishes Polish access to the sea.
• 1109: On August 24, in the Battle of Hundsfeld, Boleslaus III Wrymouth defeats Emperor Henry V and stops German expansion eastward.
• 1111: On April 14, during Henry V's first expedition to Rome, he is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1113: Paramavishnulok is crowned as King Suryavarman II in Cambodia. He expanded the Khmer Empire and built the constructions of Angkor Wat during the first half of the century. He established diplomatic relations with China.
• 1115: The Georgian army occupies Rustavi in the war to free Georgia from the Muslims.
• 1116: The Byzantine army defeats the Turks at Philomelion.
• c. 1119: Foundation of the Knights Templar.
• 1120: On January 16, the Council of Nablus, a council of ecclesiastic and secular lords in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, establishes the first written laws for the kingdom.
• 1120: On November 25, William Adelin, the only legitimate son of King Henry I of England, drowns in the White Ship Disaster, leading to a succession crisis which would bring down the Norman monarchy of England.
• 1121: On August 12, in the Battle of Didgori, the greatest military victory of Georgia, King David the Builder with 40,000 Georgians, 15,000 Kipchak auxiliaries, 500 Alan mercenaries and 300 French Crusaders defeats a Seljuk-led Muslim coalition army of 400,000.
• 1121: On December 25, St. Norbert and 29 companions made their solemn vows, the beginning of the Premonstratensian Order.
• 1122: The Battle of Beroia results in the disappearance of the Pechenegs as an independent force.
• 1122: On September 23, the Concordat of Worms (Pactum Calixtinum) was drawn up between Emperor Henry V and Pope Calixtus II bringing an end to the first phase of the power struggle between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1122: After a 400-year supremacy of Arabs, King David the Builder captures Tbilisi and declares it the capital city of Georgia.
• 1123: The Jurchen dynasty forces Koryo to recognize their suzerainty.
• 1124: In April or May, David I is crowned King of the Scots.
• 1125: On June 11, in the Battle of Azaz, the Crusader states, led by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, defeat the Seljuk Turks.
• 1125: Lothair of Supplinburg, duke of Saxony, is elected Holy Roman Emperor instead of the nearest heir, Frederick of Swabia, beginning the great struggle of Guelf and Ghibelline.
• 1127: The Northern Song dynasty loses power over northern China to the Jurchens of Manchuria.
• 1128: On June 24, Portugal gains independence from the Kingdom of León at the Battle of São Mamede; (recognised by León in 1143).
• 1130–1180: 50-year drought in the American Southwest.
• 1130–1138: Papal schism, Pope Innocent II vs. Antipope Anacletus II.
• 1130: On March 26, Sigurd I of Norway dies. A golden era of 95 years comes to an end for Norway as civil wars between the members of Harald Fairhair's family line rage for the remainder of the century.
• 1130: On Christmas Day, Roger II is crowned King of Sicily, the royal title being given to him by Antipope Anacletus II.
• 1132: The Southern Song Dynasty establishes China's first permanent standing navy, although China had a long naval history prior. The main admiral's office was stationed at the port of Dinghai.
• 1132–1183: the Chinese navy increases from a mere 3,000 marine soldiers to 52,000 marine soldiers stationed in 20 different squadrons. During this time, hundreds of treadmill-operated paddle wheel craft are assembled for the navy, in order to combat the Jurchen's Jin Dynasty in the north.
• 1135–1154: The Anarchy is a period of civil war in England.
• 1136: Suger begins rebuilding the abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, which is regarded as the first major Gothic building.
• 1137: On July 22, the future King Louis VII of France marries Eleanor, the Duchess of Aquitaine.
• 1138: On October 11, the 1138 Aleppo earthquake devastates much of northern Syria.
• 1139: in April, the Second Lateran Council ends the papal schism.
• 1139: On July 5, in the Treaty of Mignano, Pope Innocent II confirms Roger II as King of Sicily, Duke of Apulia, and Prince of Capua and invests him with his titles.
• 1139: On July 26, the Portuguese defeat the Almoravids led by Ali ibn Yusuf in the Battle of Ourique; Prince Afonso Henriques is acclaimed King of Portugal by his soldiers.
• 1140–1150: Collapse of the Ancestral Puebloan culture at Chaco Canyon
• 1141 - The Treaty of Shaoxing ends the conflicts between the Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty, legally establishing the boundaries of the two countries and forcing the Song Dynasty to renounce all claims to its former territories north of the Huai River. The treaty reduces the Southern Song into a quasi-tributary state of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty.
• 1143: Afonso Henriques is proclaimed King of Portugal by the cortes.
• 1143 - The Treaty of Zamora recognizes Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León. Portugal also recognizes the suzerainty of the pope.
• 1144: On December 24, Edessa falls to the Atabeg Zengi.
• 1145–1148: The Second Crusade is launched in response to the fall of the County of Edessa.
• 1147: On October 25, the four-month long Siege of Lisbon successfully brings the city under definitive Portuguese control, expelling the Moorish overlords.
• 1147: A new Berber dynasty, the Almohads, led by Emir Abd al-Mu'min, takes North Africa from the Almoravides and soon invades the Iberian Peninsula. The Almohads began as a religious movement to rid Islam of impurities.
• 1147: The Wendish Crusade against the Polabian Slavs (or "Wends") in what is now northern and eastern Germany.
• 1150: Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona marries Petronilla, the Queen of Aragon.
• 1151 - The Treaty of Tudilén (or Treaty of Tudején) is signed by Alfonso VII of León and Raymond Berengar IV, Count of Barcelona, recognising the Aragonese conquests south of the Júcar and the right to expand in and annex the Kingdom of Murcia.
• 1153 - The Treaty of Wallingford (Treaty of Winchester, Treaty of Westminster), effectively ends the civil war caused by a dispute between Empress Matilda and her cousin King Stephen of England over the English crown, in which Stephen recognises Matilda's son Henry of Anjou as his heir.
• 1153 - The First Treaty of Constance is signed between Emperor Frederick I and Pope Eugene III, by the terms of which, the emperor is to prevent any action by Manuel I Comnenus to reestablish the Byzantine Empire on Italian soil and to assist the pope against his enemies in revolt in Rome.
• 1154: the Moroccan-born Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi publishes his Geography.
• 1154: On December 19, Henry II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
• 1155: Pope Adrian IV grants overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England in the bull Laudabiliter.
• 1156 – On June 18, the Treaty of Benevento is entered into by Pope Adrian IV and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. After years of turbulent relations, the popes finally settled down to a peace with the Hauteville kings. The kingship of William I is recognised over all Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, as well as Capua. The tribute to the pope of 600 schifati agreed upon by Roger II in 1139 at Mignano was affirmed and another 400 schifati was added for the new lands.
• 1158 - The Treaty of Sahagún ends a state of war between Castile and León.
• 1161: the Song Dynasty Chinese navy, employing gunpowder bombs launched from trebuchets, defeats the enormous Jin Dynasty navy in the East China Sea in the Battle of Tangdao and on the Yangtze River in the Battle of Caishi.
• 1161: Kilij Arslan II, Sultan of Rum, makes peace with the Byzantine Empire, recognizing the emperor's primacy.

• 1161: In the siege of Ani, Georgian troops take over control of city, only to have it sold for the second time to the Shaddadids, a Kurdish dynasty.
• 1162: Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, is born as Temüjin.
• 1163: The Norwegian Law of Succession takes effect.
• 1168: King Valdemar I of Denmark conquers Arkona on the Island of Rügen, the strongest pagan fortress and temple in northern Europe.
• 1169: On May 1, the Norman invasion of Ireland begins. Richard fitzGilbert de Clare ('Strongbow') makes an alliance with the exiled Irish chief, Dermot MacMurrough, to help him recover his kingdom of Leinster.
• 1170 - The Treaty of Sahagún is signed by Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso II of Aragon. Based on the terms of the accord, Alfonso VIII agrees to give Alfonso II three hostages in order to be used as tribute payments owed by Ibn Mardanīš of Valencia and Murcia.
• 1170: On December 29, Thomas Becket is murdered.
• 1171: Saladin deposes the last Fatimid Caliph Al-'Āḍid, initiating the Ayyubid dynasty.
• 1171: On November 11, Henry II of England lands in Ireland to assert his claim as Lord of Ireland.
• 1174: On July 12, William I of Scotland is captured by the English in the Battle of Alnwick. He accepts the feudal lordship of the English crown and does ceremonial allegiance at York.
• 1175: Hōnen Shōnin (Genkū) founds the Jōdo shū (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism.
• 1175 - The Treaty of Windsor is signed by King Henry II of England and the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair.
• 1176: On May 29, Frederick Barbarossa's forces were defeated in the Battle of Legnano by the Lombard League which resulted in the emperor's acknowledgement of the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States and Alexander acknowledging the emperor's overlordship of the imperial Church.
• 1176: On September 17, The Battle of Myriokephalon (Myriocephalum; Turkish: Miryakefalon Savaşı) is fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in Phrygia. It was a serious reversal for the Byzantine forces and was to be the final, unsuccessful, effort by the Byzantines to recover the interior of Anatolia from the Seljuk Turks.
• 1177 - The Treaty or Peace of Venice is signed by the Papacy and its allies and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily also takes part in negotiations and the treaty thereby determines the political course of all Italy for the next several years.
• 1178: Chinese writer Zhou Qufei, a Guangzhou customs officer, writes of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants.
• 1179 - The Treaty of Cazola (Cazorla) is signed by Alfonso II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile, dividing Andalusia into separate zones of conquest for the two kingdoms, so that the work of the Reconquista would not be stymied by internecine feuding.
• 1180–1185: the Genpei War in Japan.
• 1182: revolt of the people of Constantinople against the Latins, whom they massacre, proclaiming Andronicus I Comnenus co-emperor.
• 1183: On January 25, the final Peace of Constance between Frederick Barbarossa, the pope, and the Lombard towns is signed, confirming the Peace of Venice of 1177.
• 1183: On September 24, Andronicus I Comnenus has his nephew Alexius II Comnenus strangled.
• 1184: On March 24, Queen Tamar, King of Georgia, accedes to the throne as sole ruler after reigning with her father, George III, for six years.
• 1185: Andronicus I Comnenus is deposed and, on September 12, executed as a result of the Norman massacre of the Greeks of Thessalonika.
• 1185: The cathedral school (Katedralskolan) in Lund, Sweden, is founded. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe.
• 1185: Beginning in this year the Kamakura shogunate deprives the emperor of Japan of political power.

• 1186: On January 27, the future Emperor Henry VI marries Constance of Sicily, the heiress to the Sicilian throne.
• 1187: On July 4, in the Battle of Hattin, Saladin defeats the king of Jerusalem.
• 1187: In August, the Swedish royal and commercial center Sigtuna is attacked by Baltic-Finnish raiders from Couronia and Estonia.
• 1189: On September 3, Richard is crowned King of England in Westminster.
• 1189–1192: The Third Crusade is an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin.
• 1190: On June 10, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa drowns in the River Salef, leaving the Crusader army under the command of the rivals Philip II of France and Richard I of England, which ultimately led to the dissolution of the army.
• 1191: On September 7, Saladin is defeated by Richard I of England at the Battle of Arsuf.
• 1192: In April, Conrad of Montferrat is elected King of Jerusalem as Conrad I, then assassinated a few days later (April 28), before the coronation, by two Hashshashin.
• 1192: In the Battle of Jaffa, King Richard the Lionheart defeats Saladin.
• 1192 – In June, the Treaty of Ramla is signed by Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. Under the terms of the agreement, Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control. However, the city would be open to Christian pilgrimages. The Latin Kingdom is reduced to a geopolitical coastal strip that extended from Tyre to Jaffa.
• 1192: Minamoto Yoritomo is appointed Sei-i Taishōgun, "barbarian-subduing great general, shōgun for short, the first military dictator to bear this title.
• 1193: Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, is destroyed.
• 1193: Prithvi raj Chauhan, the first Muslim empire is established in India by Mohammad Ghori by defeating Prithviraj Chauhan
• 1193: the first known merchant guild.
• 1195: On June 16, the struggle of Shamqori. Georgian forces annihilate the army of Abu Baqar.
• 1198: The brethren of the Crusader hospital in Acre are raised to a military order of knights, the Teutonic Knights, formally known as the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem.
• 1199: Pope Innocent III writes to Kaloyan, inviting him to unite the Bulgarian Church with the Roman Catholic Church.
• c. 1200: The Toltec Empire collapses.