1100 AD – 494 AH

1100

The Kingdom of Jerusalem – Carved out of the coastline from antiquities Antioch, Tripoli, Beirut, Acre, Joppa and Ascalon. The kingdom was tenuous at best. Held together with pacts, treaties and promises which were frequently broken.

Baldwin I King of Jerusalem – Baldwin, brother of Godfrey, Lord of Jerusalem takes the title of First King of Jerusalem.

King Henry I – King Henry the First, Richard the Lionheart’s great grandfather, King of England until 1135. The first generation of Norman lords to be born on English soil. Entombed in Reading Abbey, London, England.

Chansons de Roland and Digenes Akrites committed to writing.

1101

Al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah
Death of Fatimid Caliph al-Musta’li. Accession of al-Amir Bi-Ahkamillah.

Vatican City incorporated into Church and State.

Lombard Crusade defeated at Amasya.

Crusade of William IX of Aquitaine defeated at Heraclea.

1103

Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV – Legislation by Henry the Fourth declares a peace with the Jews, allowing those forcibly baptized in the First Crusade to return to Judaism. However, declaring Jews ‘pacified’ meaning they can no longer bear arms.

1104

Battle of Harran – The city of Acre is taken by the Christians under King Baldwin. Muslim victory at Harran, checks the Frankish eastward advance.

1105

Mehmed of Great Seljuk – Death of Seljuk Sultan Barkiyaruq. Ascension of Mehmed of Great Seljuk.

The Thoroughbreds – Crusaders returning home to England from the Holy land bring back the finest of Arabian stallions to breed with their Irish and English mares. Eventually the descendants of three of those stallions, Byerly Turk, Darley Arabian, and Godolphin Barb, from the Mideast and North Africa become the only ones allowed to compete in Thoroughbred Racing.

1106

Duke Robert Curthose – Henry the First’s older brother Duke of Normandy Robert Curthose returns to fight for his right to wear the crown. Primogeniture was not established on the English shores and Henry was firmly in control and in possession of the treasury. Henry I conquers Normandy from his brother Robert Curthose at the Battle of Tinchebrai; Robert remains captive for life.

Holy Roman Emperor Henry the V – Succession in Germany of Holy Roman Emperor of Henry the Fifth after the forced abdication and death of his father, Henry the Fourth.

Death of Al Motavid Yusuf bin Tashfin

Defeat of Bohemond of Taranto against Isaac Comnenus of Byzantium.

1107

Sultan Kilij Arslan – Death of Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan. Sucession of Malik Shah of Rum.

Pope Paschal II – Crusade against Byzantine Empire proclaimed by Pope Paschal the Second in favour of Bohemond, lord of Antioch.

Sigurd of Norway – Crusade of Sigurd of Norway until 1110.

King Henry I of England – King Henry the First agrees not to invest bishops, save with the lands of their sees, but insists upon their homage and his continuing influence in elections.

King Alexander of Scotland – Alexander becomes the king of Scotland.

1108

King Louis VI – Louis the Sixth, le Gros (the Fat), is crowned King of France. Reigns until 1137.

Curious battle near Tel Bashir: two Islamo-Frankish coalitions confront one another.

1109

Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, the great theologian, produced the “ontological proof” of the existence of God,. dies and the see is vacant for five years.

The Bishop of Winchester builds a great inn, Winchester House, near Southwark Bridge. His prison, the Clink, would become a nickname for prisons.

Anglo-French war. 1109 – 1113

Tripoli falls to the Christians.

1110

Beirut – Christians capture Beirut and Saida.

1111

Holy Roman Emperor Henry V – Henry the Fifth is crowned emperor in Rome and forcibly extracts a concession of his right to invest bishops from Pope Paschal the Second.

Ibn al-Khashab, the qadi of Aleppo, organizes a riot against the caliph of Baghdad to demand intervention against the Frankish occupation.

The Plague hits England.

Trading rights in Constantinople given to Pisans.

1112

Synod of Vienne excommunicates Germanic Emperor Henry the Fifth.

The inhabitants of Laon proclaim a commune and murder their bishop.

Victorious Muslim resistance at Tyre.

1113

Knights Hospitaller – Knights of the Order of the Hospital of St John given papal privilege by Pope Paschal the Second.

Peter Abelard opens his school in Paris.

1114

Holy Roman Empress Matilda – Richard the Lionheart’s grandmother, Matilda, daughter of English King Henry the First marries Germanic Holy Roman Emperor, Henry the Fifth. Betrothed at 8 years old, she is now 11.

Reconquista begins. Catalan Crusade against Islamic Balearic Islands. Spaniards resist their Muslim overlords and begin to fight to regain ground after four hundred years of Moor occupation.

Founding of Chichester Cathedral.

1115

King Stephen of Hungary – Stephen becomes King of Hungary.

Bernard of Clairvaux – Founding of Clairvaux with Bernard as first abbot.

Sultan of Baghdad – Alliance of Muslim and Frankish princes of Syria against an army dispatched by the Sultan of Baghdad.

Florence becomes free republic.

1116

Henry the Monk – At Le Mans Henry the Monk attracted spirited crowds by calling on wealthy women to throw off their jewelry and by inviting young men to take prostitutes as wives.

1118

April 14 – King Baldwin II – cousin of Baldwin the First, Baldwin the Second is crowned King of Jerusalem.

The Knights Templar – King Baldwin gives his royal blessing to a new order of monks. Formed to protect pilgrims in the newly acquired Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonis were the ‘Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon’ making their headquarters in the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Under the monastic rule of St. Benedict they took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Thomas Becket – is born to middle class Norman parents in London. His father, wealthy merchant arranges for Thomas to be educated at Merton Priory before attending schools in Paris, Bologna and Auxerre to study law. Byzantine Emperor John Comnenus rules until his death in 1143.

Aragonese reconquest of Saragossa. Council of Toulouse plans Christian attack on Saragossa.

Pope Gelasius the Second ascends but dies the following year.

1119

Pope Calixtus II – Burgundian noble becomes Pope Calixtus the Second who confirms the same remission of sins to wars against the Muslims of Spain as those offered to crusaders in the Holy Land. By 1123 the three essential elements constituting a crusade were established for the Spanish theatre. The vow, the symbol of the Cross and the rewards of penitential remissions. Dies 1124.

Knights Templar formed under the guidance of Bernard of Clairvaux.

Ilghazi, ruler of Aleppo, crushes the Franj at Sarmada. ‘The Field of Blood’.

Roger of Antioch – The combined armies of Aleppo and Damascus defeat Roger of Antioch at Ager Sanguinus.

King Louis XI – “I am not disheartened, I have become hardened by frequent misfortunes” – Louis the Sixth of France.

Peace between King Henry the First of England and Louis the Sixth of France.

Charles the Good becomes Count of Flanders.

Count Fulk of Anjou
In rapid succession Count Fulk of Anjou marries the heiress of Le Mans and Maine incorporating territory north of his county of Anjou and capturing Tours to the south adding the Touraine and principally the stronghold castle of Chinon. France’s fortress made famous by the Maid of Orleans, Jeanne d’ Arc. Count Fulk is offered the crown to the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. He accepts, becoming King Fulk of Jerusalem establishing Angevin blood in the royal line. This bloodline would flow through Fulk’s great-grandson, Richard the Lionheart. Anjou, Maine and Touraine were passed on to his eldest son, now Count Geoffrey Plantagenet.

Bologna University founded.

1120

January – Prince William Audelin
King Henry the First presents his son and heir William to the nobles and barons of Normandy. The prince would not live to see the year out. In November, King Henry the First’s son, William Audelin, drowns while trying to save his friends during the shipwreck of the ‘White Ship’ off Harfleur leaving the succession to the throne of England open to dispute between his sister Matilda and cousin Stephen of Blois.

Raymond Count of Poitiers, Eleanor of Aquitaine’s uncle, called to the court of Henry the First after his sons perish in the White Ship disaster.

William Clito – The Angevin allied themselves with William Clito, who lost his bid for the English throne and dies in 1128.

Stephen of Blois – Stephen of Blois marries Matilda of Boulogne, a descendant of Charlemagne and related to the kings of Jerusalem.

1121

Synod of Soissons – condemns Peter Abelard’s teachings on the Trinity.

The German princes meet at Wurzburg to work out a compromise between the Pope Gregory VIII and Emperor Henry the Fifth.

1122

Eleanor of Aquitaine – Eleanor’s maternal grandmother was the wife of Aimery de Rochefoucauld, Vicount of Chatellerault before William the Duke of Aquitaine and in 1115 swept her off her feet and carried her off to his palace at Poitiers where he kept her in the Maubergeonne Tower.

Dangerosa was her name and even though the Duke was married to Phillipa at the time he refused to part with Dangerosa. Her daughter from the Vicount of Chatellerault, Aenor, married the Duke of Aquitaine’s son, William, in 1121.

Concordat of Worms signed by Pope Calixtus the Second and German Emperor Henry the Fifth ends civil war in Germany and temporarily resolves the Investiture Controversy. Henry may invest German bishops with the lands of their sees, receive their homage, and be present at their elections; in return he renounces his right to invest.

Robert of Caen – King Henry the First of England creates the earldom of Gloucester for his illegitimate son Robert of Caen.

The Byzantines exterminate Patzinak Turks.

1123

First Lateran Council – The three essential elements constituting a crusade – the vow, the symbol of the Cross and rewards of penitential remissions – were established for the Spanish theatre. The First Lateran Council also suppresses simony and marriage of priests.

Baldwin II – Baldwin the Second is held by Seljuk Turks led by Balak of Mardin.

Umar Khayyam – Death of Umar Khayyam, Persian poet and mystic.

Byzantine Emperor John defeats Serbs.

Founding of St. Bartholomew’s hospital, London.

1124

King David of Scotland – On the death of King Alexander, David becomes king of Scotland.

Holy Roman Emperor, Henry the Fifth, allied with his father-in-law Henry the First of England in a failed attack on the French kingdom of Louis the Sixth, ‘le Gros’. A majority of French magnates rally to King Louis’ side. They attack each other periodically throughout the twelfth century.

Byzantine Emperor John the Second defeats the Hungarians.

William of Malmesbury: ‘On the Antiquity of the Church of Glastonbury’ an historical record.

Pope Honorius reigns until 1130.

First Scottish coinage struck.

Rochester Cathedral completed.

The Franj take Tyre; they now occupy the entire Western coast of the Holy Land – except for Ascalon.

1125

May – Holy Roman Emperor Henry V at the age of 39, Henry the Fifth dies leaving behind his wife Empress Matilda of England without issue. Henry, born 1086, of the Salian Dynasty, King at 12 and Emperor at 20 years of age.

King Lothar of Saxony succeeds Henry the Fifth as King of the Germans.

Count Thierry of Alsace
Count Charles the Good is murdered. William Clito, son of Robert Curthose is championed by Louis the Sixth for the County of Flanders. Clito dies within the year and Thierry of Alsace becomes Count of Flanders.

Count Theobald IV of Blois
Theobald the Fourth of Blois unites Blois and Champagne. Now Louis and Paris is threatened from east and west.

Ibn al-Khashab
Ibn al-Khashab is murdered by the Assassin sect.

Almohades conquer Morocco.

Flying buttresses used to reinforce nave at Cluny.

1126

Ibn Rushid (Averroes)
Birth of philosopher / scientist Ibn Rushid in Cordoba, Al-Andalus. Also known as Averroes.

Holy Roman Empress Matilda is recalled to Anjou against her wishes.

Henry the Proud. King Lothar makes his son-in-law Henry the Proud, Duke of Bavaria, and in 1137 Duke of Saxony.

Artesian Well – Artois, its Latin name, Artesium, bounded by Flanders and Picardie in Northern France, the Artesian well was sunk at Lillers in 1126 where the phenomenon was first observed. A combination study of geology and hydraulics (aquifers).

Venetian commercial privileges in Byzantium Empire renewed.

1127

Empress Matilda – Henry the First publicly names Matilda his heir to the English throne and continental lands and compelled oaths of allegiance from English barons.

King Roger of Sicily – Roger the second becomes the first ‘King of the Two Sicilies’, ruling the island of Sicily as well as much of the southern Italian mainland.

Bernard of Clairvaux – Bernard establishes the Cistercian Order at the abbey of Clairvaux and is eventually respected as a ‘Second Pope’ and’Doctor of the Church’.

Conrad of Staufen is elected anti-king against Lothar the Third of Germany. Revolts ensue to 1135.

1128

Knights Templar consecrated as “soldiers of Christ” by Pope Honorius the Second. Their Order subject only to the papacy.

King Alfonso of Portugal – Alfonso becomes the King of Portugal.

Zangi, Ruler of Damascus – Zangi, the ruler of Damascus. Failure of Frank thrust at Damascus.

Edinburgh’s Abbey of Holyrood founded by King David of Scotland.

1129

Empress Matilda – widow of Germanic Emperor Henry the Fifth, marries Geoffrey the Handsome, Count of Anjou. Richard the Lionheart’s grandfather.

1130

Antipope Anacletus II – Anacletus the Second, a distinguished scholar and diplomat is canonically more acceptable than Innocent the Second but fails to get secular backing because he is the son of a rich converted Jew, founder of the influential Pierleani family.

King Roger II of Sicily – On Christmas Day, Roger the Second is crowned King of Sicily in Palermo. He encourages art and learning.

Pope Innocent the Third, elected by papal curia, ascends to the throne of St Peter.

1131

Fulk of Anjou, King of Jerusalem – Husband of Baldwin the Second’s daughter Melisende. Father of 18 year old Geoffrey of Anjou. Paternal grandfather of Henry the second. Reigns as King of Jerusalem – 1131 – 1143.

The Plantagenets – Empress Matilda marries Count Fulk’s son and heir, Count Geoffrey of Anjou. The Anglo-Normans were against it and Matilda was reluctant. She was 29 and he was 18 years old.

Omar Khayyam – Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam dies leaving his most popular literary work, the Rubaiyat, to be translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald.

1132

St Denis – Work begins on the first church in the New Style, at the Abbey of St Denis near Paris, under the guidance of Abbot Suger, and the patronage of King Louis the Sixth. The Gothic style featured ribbed vaults to support the roof, high-pointed arches, flying buttresses that allowed the walls to be thinner and large windows often filled with stained glass portrayals of the apostles and saints. The misnomer Gothic was coined centuries later to describe the barbaric style ‘of the Goths’.

1133

King Fulk of Jerusalem appoints Raymond Count of Poitiers ruler of the ancient city of Antioch – The third most important city of the Roman Empire after Rome and Constantinople was massively fortified and boasted four hundred towers.

Raymond, Prince of Antioch – Raymond of Poitiers, Eleanor’s father’s younger brother called to the court of Henry the First after his sons and heirs drowned when the “White Ship” sank in 1120. King Fulk of Jerusalem appoints Raymond, at 34, ruler of the ancient city of Antioch.

King Lothar III – Lothar the Third crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent the Second.

Henry Fitz Empress – March 4, birth of Henry, to Geoffrey of Anjou (20) and the Empress Matilda (31) in Le Mans. Brothers born Geoffrey in June 1134 and William in August 1136 repectivery.

1134

Albert the Bear – Holy Roman Emperor Lothar invests Albert the Bear with the Nordmark.

Western facade of Chartres Cathedral built.

1135

King Henry I – December 1,Death of King Henry the First. English Monarch.

King Stephen of Blois – “Nineteen long winters when God and his Angels slept.” 12th Century Chronicler.

English monarch King Henry the First dies, succeeded by his nephew Stephen of Blois, grandson of William the Conqueror. Stephen takes control of England and Normandy after the death of his uncle, leading to civil war fought against supporters of Henry the First’s daughter the Empress Matilda, of Norman/Anglo-Saxon blood, widow of German Emperor Henry the Fifth. Stephen is crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey on December 26, leading to nineteen years of civil war.

Holy Roman Emperor Lothar – King Conrad, Frederick of Swabia, the King of Denmark and the Duke of Poland submit to Emperor Lothar.

Pope Innocent the Second proclaims crusade against anti-pope Anacletus the Second

Jerusalem privilege extended to war against papal enemies in Italy.

Moses Maimonides, Jewish theologian, physician and philosopher born.

Foundation of the Italian line of the house of Este.

Zangi tries, unsuccessfully, to take Damascus.

Birth of Salah ah-Din.

1136

Empress Matilda asserts her right to the English throne.

Emperor Lothar invades southern Italy, conquers Apulia.

Gruffydd ap Cynan leads an uprising against the Anglo-Normans in Wales.

The Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) is written by Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welsh ecclesiastic who claimed to have based it on Welsh chronicles that he alone had seen, His tales are of Trojan and other mythical kings, notably King Arthur. His effigy is displayed at the Knights Templar Church in London.

Abelard and Heloise – Peter Abelard’s Historia Calamitatum Mearum, description of his love affair with Heloise.

1137

Louis the VII – Louis the Sixth,’the Fat’, Capet, King of France dies. Succeeded by Louis the Seventh. Louis and Eleanor marry. He is sixteen she is fifteen. They would have two girls, Marie and Alice.

Eleano
Zangi captures Fulk, king of Jerusalem, then releases him.

Rochester Cathedral burns down.

Abbot Suger became Abbot of Saint-Denis on June 11, 1122, the feast day of Saint- Denis. Suger was regent of France from 1147 to 1149 while King Louis and Eleanor were on the Second Crusade in the Holy Land.

On Sunday, July 25, Eleanor and Louis were married in the cathedral of Saint-Andre in Bordeaux. He 16 and she 15 the young couple sat enthralled and enthroned on a dias in the chancel of the cathedral wearing the golden ducal coronets of Aquitaine. The honeymoon would be spent courtesy of Eleanor’s loyal vassal Geoffrey de Rancon at the castle of Taillebourg.

August 1st 1137 Louis the Sixth dies of dysentery. His son, Louis was now Count of Poitou, Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and King of France.

Owain the Great becomes Prince of North Wales.

Death of Emperor Lothar the third.

Antioch becomes a vassal to Byzantium.

Henry the Proud.
King Lothar makes his son-in-law Henry the Proud, Duke of Saxony.

1138

King Conrad the Third elected king of Germany; first of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty.

Rivalries between supporters of the popes (Guelfs) and supporters of the German Emperors (Ghibellines) dominates politics in Italy and Germany.

Guelf duke of Bavaria and Saxony, Henry the Proud, refuses to swear allegiance to King Conrad, of the rival Ghibertine Hohenstaufen Dynasty. Civil war breaks out in Germany.

King David of Scotland invades England on behalf of Matilda and is defeated at the Battle of the Standards.

King Alfonso defeats a Muslim army at Ourique and proclaims himself King of Portugal at Oporto, thus securing Portugese independence from the Kingdom of Leon.

Moses Maimonides, Jewish physician and philosopher is born in Cordoba, Al-Andalus.

Improvements in agriculture included the introduction of the wheeled plough and the horse collar. The horse collar made it possible to efficiently transport the heavy blocks of stone for the building of stone castles and great cathedrals.

The growth of towns, the new trading centres enabled serfs to leave the land to become traders, peddlers and artisans.

Pretended Messiah appears in France and Persia.

1139

Second Lateran Council ends schism “Decretum Gratiani,” summary of English ecclesiastical law.

Pope Innocent the second bans the use of crossbows and bolts against fellow Christians.

Theobold becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

As the Empress Matilda lands in England to lay claim to the throne of England. “The Anarchy” begins between Matilda (Richard the Lionheart’s grandmother) and Stephen of Blois, Henry the First’s nephew. The Civil war raged for fourteen long years until the ascension of Richard’s father to the throne as Henry the Second, King of the English in 1154.

1140

Council of Sens, Bernard of Clairevaux condemns Peter Abelard’s teaching of dialectic over pure faith.

Gratian compiles his collection of canon law.

Peter Valdes (1140 – 1205), living a privileged life in Lyons, vowed to pursue the via apostolica, the way of the apostles founding the Waldensians, ‘the Poor Men of Lyons’.

Alliance of Damascus and Jerusalem against Zangi.

1141

England disintegrates into civil war. Pillage and private war, ambushes, sieges and sacrilege. Empress Matilda captures King Stephen at the battle of Lincoln but reigns disastrously as queen; she is driven out by popular uprising and King Stephen is restored to the throne.

Empress Matilda’s uncle, King Fulk of Jerusalem constructs a castle with four towers on an ancient site between Joppa and Ascalon.

Jerusalem is visited by Yehuda Halevi.

1142

St George’s in the Castle. The Castle was built in Oxford for William the Conqueror by Robert d’Oilly in 1071. Brian FitzCount fortified it for Empress Matilda in 1138. Matilda is besieged by King Stephen’s forces but manages to escape by traversing the frozen River Thames.

In al-Andalus Peter the Venerable commissions the translation of the Koran from Arabic into Latin.

The civil war in Germany ends when King Conrad gives Saxony and Bavaria separate rulers.

1143

Regent Queen of Jerusalem, Melisende rules with her son, Baldwin the Third, first son of King Fulk and Melisende until Fulk exiles her.

Death of Pope Innocent the Second. Celestine the Second would fill the shoes of the fisherman until 1144; Lucius the Second until 1145 and Eugenius the Third in 1145. Four popes in three years.

Archbishop Theobald takes in Thomas Becket as a clerk.

Manuel becomes Byzantine Emperor.

1144

Count Joscelin de Courtenay loses County of Edessa. A plea goes out by Eleanor’s uncle Raymond Prince of Antioch for assistance.

Seljuk Turk Zangi of Mosul reconquers the city state of Edessa. Zangi reclaims the first of four occupied states of the Middle East.

Holy Roman Emperor Conrad the Third, German takes the cross and chooses, Frederick Barbarossa, Duke of Swabia, to fight for Christ’s sake.

Castle of Rouen surrenders in the civil war following Henry the First of England’s death in 1135. Count Geoffrey of Anjou gains control expanding the Angevin Empire by becoming Duke of Normandy.

Republican regime established in Rome under Arnold of Brescia.

Reign of Pope Lucius the Second.

The Blood Libel. Jews in Norwich, England, accused of murdering and cannibalizing a male Christian child using his body as sacrifice and his blood to perform rites for Passover. The Jews of Norwich were burned alive en masse in a great pit.

Arques Castle submits. King Louis the Seventh recognizes Count Goeffrey of Anjou as Duke of Normandy.

1145

Elected Pope Eugenius the Third, a pupil of Bernard of Clairvaux and abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Aquae Silviae, near Rome. Eugenius proclaimed the Second Crusade and recruited Bernard to preach it. In December 1145 he addressed a bull to King Louis the Seventh and the nobles of France urging participation. The King Louis of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine took the cross.

Preaching of heretic Henry the Monk in southern France.

Abd al-Mu’min’s Muwahhidun army controls Islamic al-Andalus.

1146

William Marshal. Born in 1146 William’s story recounts the turbulent times in merry old England during the reign of King Stephen. William is captured during a siege as a child by Stephen’s forces who threaten to send the young lad to the gallows if his father, John Marshal, did not concede defeat. William’s father defies Stephen and shouts “I have the hammer and the anvil to forge better than him!” and rides off. Stephen is left in a quandary between keeping his word in front of his men and hanging a six year old. He relents and William is allowed to live.

Everard des Barres, Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Retires from Templar Order in disgrace after failure of Second crusade in 1149.

Massacre of the Jews in Rhineland.

Holy Roman Emperor Conrad the Third of Germany takes the cross.

Murder of Zangi. His son Nur al-Din replaces him as ruler of Aleppo.

1147

King Louis the Seventh, Thierry, Count of Flanders and the Count of St Gilles take the cross along with Eleanor of Aquitaine.

1147 to 1149 – Second Crusade. The German army under Conrad the Third sets out to reclaim Edessa which has been captured by the Seljuk Turks. The effort ends after disastrous campaigns in Anatolia and Syria. Of the French force of 15,000 and German force of 20,000 men. 17,000 would be lost before the combined forces limped into Antioch.

Capture of Islamic Lisbon by English and northern crusaders in October. Lisbon becomes Portugal’s capital city.

The Muwahhidun take Marrakesh and oust the Murabitun from North Africa.

Eleanor of Aquitaine and her paternal uncle, Prince Raymond meet in Antioch.

Bernard of Clairvaux’s Cistercian order replaces the Cluniac monks in England.

Count Geoffrey Plantagenet concedes the key fortress of Gisors in the long disputed Vexin region between Paris and Rouen to King Louis of France.

English crusaders on their way to the Holy Land on the Second Crusade disembark on the west coast of Iberia visiting Santiago de Compostela and assisting King Alfonzo carve out Portugal from the Moors’ Spanish possessions.

German and Danish kings carry out the ‘Wendish Crusade‘, a series of conquests of Holstein, Mecklenburg and Pomerania, massacring, forcibly Christianizing or expelling their pagan Prussian inhabitantsTo 1185.

1148

King Louis, Eleanor and Frederick Barbarossa arrive in Jerusalem on June 24.

Bull Divina dispositione encourages crusades in Spain.

Siege of Damascus. Debacle at Damascus for a new crusader expedition led by Conrad, Emperor of Germany, and King Louis and Eleanor of France with support from Baldwin the Third of Jerusalem. The Second Crusade ends in disgrace with an unsuccessful siege of Damascus after only four days.

Empress Matilda leaves England for the last time.

1149

Baldwin the Third, King of Jerusalem, dies.

Queen Melisande of Jerusalem entertains King Louis and Queen Eleanor of France at the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

The Franks learn to make paper from straw the Arabian way. The practical application of paper would replace writing on parchment (animal skins).

Whit Sunday. Henry Plantagenet is knighted by King David of Scotland at Carlisle. Henry receives the ducal crown from his father who had only recently conquered Normandy for himself. At sixteen Henry confronts King Stephen in England. His rash bravado is repelled.

King Louis the Seventh is dismayed by the prospect of Normandy uniting with England once again.

Bernard de Tremelai – 1149 – 1153 – Templars lay claim to Tortosa fortress.

Prince Raymond, Prince of Antioch, captured and beheaded by Nur ed Din. His head, boiled and cleaned, is encased in silver and sent to the caliph of Baghdad as a trophy.

Spanish Reconquesta. James the Great dies in 44 AD at the hands of Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem. Becomes patron saint of the Reconquesta. St James the Great rests in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

1150

Count Joscelin of Edessa captured, blinded and imprisoned for nine years.

Count Raymond of Tripoli assassinated.

The cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori, dedicated to St John the Baptist, Florence’s patron saint, was built between 1059 and 1150. The Baptistry is an example of Tuscan Romanesque architecture. The Arte del Calimala, the wool merchants’ guild was responsible for maintaining and beautifying the building. Until recently, it was the place that all citizens of Florence were baptized.

The emir Mujir al-Din of Damascus forms an alliance with King Baldwin the third to protect themselves and each other from the aggressive Nur ed- Din.

Tortosa fortress in Tripoli becomes Knights Templar under Grand Master Tremelai.

Fatimid rulers fortify the city of Ascalon with fifty three towers.

The gift of the Vexin by Count Geoffrey of Anjou to King Louis of France in return for recognition of the title ‘Duke of Normandy’ for his son, Henry Plantagenet.

The River Thames freezes for three months.

Chess is introduced into England.

France’s first French university established, which will later become the Sorbonne, in Paris.

Eric the Saint becomes King of Sweden till 1160.

Adelard of Bath dies.

Promulation of Usatches (customs) of Catalina.

Byzantine forces attempt to recapture Italy.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is completed

Photo: Ryan Jorgenson