1133 CE

Battle of Fraga: The Castellan troops led by King Alfonso I (the Battler) defeat the Almoravid army, thanks to a timely intervention of a Norman Crusader army from Tarragona, led by Robert Bordet. Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, launches a raid against Almoravid-held territories in Al-Andalus (modern Spain), and pillages the country all the way to Cádiz. Spring – A German expeditionary force, led by King Lothair III, marches into northern Italy, and arrives at Rome, after a 6-month journey across the Alps. Accompanied by Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot and Doctor of the Church, Lothair is crowned by Pope Innocent II as Holy Roman Emperor at the Church of the Lateran, on June 4. He receives as papal fiefs the vast estates of Matilda, former margravine of Tuscany, which he secures for his daughter Gertrude of Süpplingenburg and her husband, Duke Henry X (the Proud) of Bavaria.

In the 1130s, the 12th century.

Conflict & Security

  • July 17 – Battle of Fraga: The Castellan troops led by King Alfonso I (the Battler) defeat the Almoravid army, thanks to a timely intervention of a Norman Crusader army from Tarragona, led by Robert Bordet.source
  • Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, launches a raid against Almoravid-held territories in Al-Andalus (modern Spain), and pillages the country all the way to Cádiz.source

Religion & Belief

  • Antipope Anacletus II forces Innocent II out of Rome following the departure of Lothair III. Innocent flees and takes a ship to Pisa.source
  • Rijnsburg Abbey is founded by Petronilla of Lorraine, countess and regent of Holland.source
  • Construction of the chapter house at Durham Cathedral which is completed in 1140.source
  • Spring – A German expeditionary force, led by King Lothair III, marches into northern Italy, and arrives at Rome, after a 6-month journey across the Alps. Accompanied by Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot and Doctor of the Church, Lothair is crowned by Pope Innocent II as Holy Roman Emperor at the Church of the Lateran, on June 4. He receives as papal fiefs the vast estates of Matilda, former margravine of Tuscany, which he secures for his daughter Gertrude of Süpplingenburg and her husband, Duke Henry X (the Proud) of Bavaria.source
  • The first convent on Iceland, the Þingeyraklaustur, is inaugurated at a monastery of the Order of Saint Benedict (located in Þingeyrar).source
  • Geoffrey of Monmouth, an English cleric, writes the chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae.source

Health & Medicine

  • A major epidemic affecting cattle occurred, called maelgarbh (“cow mortality”), described as unprecedented since an earlier great mortality of cattle.Irelandsource

Crime & Justice

Births

  • February 23 – Al-Zafir, Fatimid caliph (died 1154)source
  • March 5 – Henry II (Curtmantle), king of England (died 1189)source
  • May 13 – Hōnen, Japanese religious reformer (died 1212)source
  • Zhang Shi, Chinese Confucian scholar (died 1181)source
  • Sigurd II (or Sigurd Munn), king of Norway (died 1155)source
  • Thorlak Thorhallsson, Icelandic bishop (died 1193)source
  • Stephen IV, king of Hungary and Croatia (died 1165)source
  • Ralph de Sudeley, English nobleman (died 1192)source
  • Urraca of Castile, queen of Navarre (died 1179)source
  • Andronikos Doukas Angelos, Byzantine aristocratsource
  • Blanche of Navarre, Queen of Castile (d.1156)source
  • Jean de Gisors, Norman nobleman (died 1220)source
  • Faidiva of Toulouse, countess of Savoy (died 1154)source
  • Andronikos Kontostephanos, Byzantine aristocratsource

Deaths

  • February 19 – Irene Doukaina, Byzantine empress (born 1066)source
  • May 1 – Manegold von Mammern, German abbotsource
  • December 4 – Bernard degli Uberti, Italian bishopsource
  • December 18 – Hildebert, French hagiographer (born 1055)source
  • December 21 – Guigues III (the Old), French noblemansource
  • þorlákur Runólfsson, Icelandic bishop (born 1086)source
  • William of Zardana (or Saône), French noblemansource
  • Gregory of Catino, Italian monk and historian (born 1060)source
  • Dirmicius of Regensburg, Irish monk and abbotsource
  • Flaithbheartach Ua Flaithbheartaigh, killed by the son of Lochlainn Ua Lochlainn.Irelandsource