1120 CE
Reconquista: Battle of Cutanda: The combined forces of Aragon and Navarre under King Alfonso the Battler crush the Almoravid army near Calamocha. Alfonso recaptures the fortified towns of Calatayud and Daroca. September (the eighth month of the Chinese calendar) – Wanyan Xiyin, a Jurchen nobleman and minister, completes the design of the first version of the Jurchen script. The White Ship sinks in the English Channel off Barfleur. Henry I's only legitimate son, William Adelin, is among 300 (many of them Anglo-Norman nobility) who drown.
In the 1120s, the 12th century.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
Conflict & Security
- June 17 – Reconquista: Battle of Cutanda: The combined forces of Aragon and Navarre under King Alfonso the Battler crush the Almoravid army near Calamocha. Alfonso recaptures the fortified towns of Calatayud and Daroca.source
- Fang La, a Chinese rebel leader, leads an uprising against the Song dynasty in Qixian Village (modern-day Zhejiang) in southeast China. He raises an army and captures Hangzhou.source
- Siege of Sozopolis: Byzantine forces under Emperor John II Komnenos conquer Sozopolis in Pisidia, from the Sultanate of Rum. The Seljuk garrison is defeated while they are trapped between the Byzantine cavalry and the army (which is besieging the fortress).source
Exploration & Expansion
- The Almoravid fleet under Admirals Abu Abd Allah ibn Maymum of Almería and Isa ibn Maymum of Sevilla attacks the coastline of the Christian Kingdom of Galicia.source
- Summer – Baldwin II leads an expedition to Antioch to defend the northern Crusader states. He signs a 1-year truce with Ilghazi, Artuqid ruler of Mardin, securing the possession of Kafartab and other fortresses in Syria.source
Religion & Belief
- January 16 – Council of Nablus: King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Patriarch Warmund convenes an assembly at Nablus, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. The prelates and noblemen who attend the meeting confirm the clergy's right to collect the tithe and to bear arms "in the cause of defense".source
- August–September (the eighth month of the Chinese calendar) – Wanyan Xiyin, a Jurchen nobleman and minister, completes the design of the first version of the Jurchen script.source
- Baldwin II grants the Knights Templar under Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.source
- Bishop Urban begins the construction on Llandaff Cathedral in Wales.source
- Order of Premonstratensians founded by Norbert of Xanten at Prémontré in Picardy.source
Economy & Finance
Science & Discovery
- Walcher of Malvern, an English astronomer and mathematician, creates a system of measurement for the Earth using degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude.source
Health & Medicine
- The flourishing south Chinese coastal city of Quanzhou claims a population of 500,000 citizens, including the hinterland.source
Crime & Justice
- King Henry I gives a portion of the Stoneleigh estate (located in Warwickshire) to Geoffrey de Clinton, his chamberlain and treasurer. He builds a motte and bailey castle and forms a lake to provide better defences.source
Disasters & Accidents
- November 25 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel off Barfleur. Henry I's only legitimate son, William Adelin, is among 300 (many of them Anglo-Norman nobility) who drown.source
Culture & Society
- Freiburg is founded by Conrad I and his elder brother, Duke Berthold III of Zähringen, as a free market town.source
Births
- Gonçalo Mendes de Sousa, Portuguesesource
- Frederick II of Berg, archbishop of Cologne (died 1158)source
- Ioveta of Bethany, princess and daughter of Baldwin IIsource
- Fujiwara no Yorinaga, Japanese statesman (died 1156)source
- Urban III, pope of the Catholic Church (died 1187)source
- Rainald of Dassel, archbishop of Cologne (died 1167)source
- Gunhilda of Dunbar, Scottish Noblewoman (died 1166)source
- William I ("the Wicked"), king of Sicily (died 1166)source
- Alfonso of Capua, Italo-Norman nobleman (died 1144)source
- Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, Arab-Jewish translatorsource
- Roger de Mowbray, English nobleman (died 1188)source
- Arnold I of Vaucourt, archbishop of Trier (died 1183)source
- Louis VII (le Jeune), king of France (died 1180)source
- Philip of Milly, French nobleman and knight (died 1171)source
Deaths
- September 3 – Blessed Gerard, founder of the Knights Hospitallersource
- September 24 – Welf II ("the Fat"), duke of Bavaria (born 1072)source
- November 25 – Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester (born 1094)source
- November 25 – William Adelin, duke and son of Henry I (born 1103)source
- November 25 – Matilda FitzRoy, countess and daughter of Henry Isource
- November 25 – Ralph of Pont-Echanfray, Norman knight (born 1070)source
- Ingegerd, queen of Denmark and Sweden (born 1046)source
- Adelaide, countess of Vermandois and Valois (or 1124)source
- Fujiwara no Sadazane, Japanese calligrapher (born 1076)source
- Eudo Dapifer (or FitzHerbert), Norman noblemansource
- Raymond Pilet d'Alès, French nobleman (born 1075)source
- Afridun I (the Martyr), ruler (shah) of Shirvan (born 1046)source
- Fujiwara no Atsutaka, Japanese nobleman and poetsource
- Eachmarcach Mac Uidhrin, chief of Cinel-FearadhaighIrelandsource
- Branan, son of Gillachrist, chief of Corcachlann.Irelandsource