1142 CE

Emperor Sutoku abdicates the throne after a 19-year reign and becomes a monk. He is succeeded by his 3-year-old brother Konoe, who accedes as the 76th emperor of Japan. Treaty of Shaoxing: The northern Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty sign a peace treaty, this ending the Jurchen campaigns against the Song Dynasty in China. Stephen lays siege to Oxford Castle, trapping Matilda and her supporters inside the city. Just before Christmas she manages to escape across the snow and ice of the frozen Thames River – dressed in white (to get past Stephen's pickets), and safely reaches Abingdon. The next day Oxford Castle surrenders to Stephen, Matilda rides with an escort to Wallingford Castle, where she seeks refuge.

In the 1140s, the 12th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 5 – Emperor Sutoku abdicates the throne after a 19-year reign and becomes a monk. He is succeeded by his 3-year-old brother Konoe, who accedes as the 76th emperor of Japan.source
  • May – Conrad III makes a peace agreement with the 13-year-old Henry the Lion at Frankfurt. He is appointed as duke of Saxony, which territories are deprived from his father, the late Duke Henry the Proud.source
  • August 31 - Suggested date of the founding of the Iroquois Confederacy.source
  • October 11 – Treaty of Shaoxing: The northern Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty sign a peace treaty, this ending the Jurchen campaigns against the Song Dynasty in China.source

Conflict & Security

  • December – Stephen lays siege to Oxford Castle, trapping Matilda and her supporters inside the city. Just before Christmas she manages to escape across the snow and ice of the frozen Thames River – dressed in white (to get past Stephen's pickets), and safely reaches Abingdon. The next day Oxford Castle surrenders to Stephen, Matilda rides with an escort to Wallingford Castle, where she seeks refuge.source
  • Spring – Emperor John II Komnenos and his sons lead a Byzantine expeditionary force across Anatolia to Antalya. He drives back the Seljuks and Turcomans – who again are trying to invade Phrygia. John strengthens the frontier defences in northern Syria and sends an embassy to Germany – to seek an alliance against King Roger II of Sicily. To seal the alliance, the emissaries request that King Conrad III send a princess of his family to be married to the emperor's son, Manuel. Instead, Conrad selects his sister-in-law, Bertha of Sulzbach, and sends her to the Byzantine Empire escorted by Emicho, bishop of Würzburg.source
  • Duke Władysław II the Exile attempts to subject his younger (half)-brothers to re-unite Poland. He is supported by the alliances with the Kievan Rus' and the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • Raymond II, count of Tripoli, grants property in the county (such as the massive castle Krak des Chevaliers) to the Knights Hospitaller. After acquiring the site, they begin building new fortifications.source
  • King Louis VII the Younger of France becomes involved in a civil war with Theobald II ("the Great"), count of Champagne, by permitting his cousin Ralph I of Vermandois (seneschal of France) to repudiate his wife, Theobald's sister Eleanor of Champagne, and to marry Petronilla of Aquitaine, who was the sister of King Louis VII’s wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.source
  • Siege of Lisbon (1142): King Afonso I of Portugal attempts to besiege Lisbon with the aid of a group of Anglo-Norman crusaders.source
  • Autumn – Imad al-Din Zengi, Seljuk governor (atabeg) of Mosul, continues his campaign against the Kurds in southeastern Anatolia (since 1141). Byzantine forces under John II fail to take Antioch.source
  • Sigurd II, a Norwegian pretender, is joined in his efforts to overthrow the 7-year-old King Inge Haraldsson of Norway by Inge's older half-brother Eystein II, who becomes co-ruler. He receives one third of the late Harald's kingdom.source
  • A Norman raid against the city of Tripoli fails.source

Religion & Belief

  • Late Summer – John II establishes a supply base for his further campaigns at Antalya. While waiting for reinforcements, his eldest son Alexios and appointed heir, falls ill and dies. His other two sons, Andronikos and Isaac are tasked to escort the body, but during the voyage Andronikos also dies. John continues his campaign against the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia – to re-conquer the fortresses that the Danishmends have taken. He appears by forced marches at Turbessel in mid-September. Meanwhile, Isaac brings the corpses of his two brothers back to Constantinople, where they are entombed in the Pantokrator Monastery.source
  • Foundation of the first Cistercian house in Ireland at Mellifont, on land given by the King of Airgíalla. Abbey completed in 1157. The Cistercians were brought into Ireland by Saint MalachyIrelandsource

Crime & Justice

  • Autumn – The 9-year-old Henry of Anjou, a son of Empress Matilda, lands on the south coast of England with his uncle, Earl Robert of Gloucester and several knights. Henry travels to Bristol, centre of Angevin opposition to King Stephen, where he is educated by Master Matthew. Meanwhile, Robert captures Lulworth Castle, Rufus Castle ("Bow and Arrow Castle") on the Isle of Portland and Wareham Castle.source

Climate & Environment

  • Abd al-Mu'min, ruler of the Almohad Caliphate, is unable to feed his population during a famine. He recognize the de facto protectorate of Roger II to support the commercial center of Mahdia.source

Culture & Society

  • Summer – Conrad III enters Bohemia to reinstate his brother-in-law Vladislaus II as duke, whose half-sister Gertrude of Babenberg he is married. Conrad lays siege to the Prague Castle.source

Births

  • Fujiwara no Takanobu, Japanese portrait painter (died 1205)source
  • Moinuddin Chishti, Persian preacher and philosopher (died 1236)source
  • Hugh III of Burgundy, French nobleman (approximate date)source
  • William the Lion, king of Scotland (approximate date)source
  • Taklung Thangpa Tashi Pal, Tibetan Buddhist leader (died 1210)source
  • Al-Mustadi, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (died 1180)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Clementia of Aquitaine, French noblewoman (born 1060)source
  • January 16 – Eilika of Saxony, German noblewoman (born 1080)source
  • January 28 – Despite having saved the southern Song Dynasty from attempts by the northern Jin Dynasty to conquer it, Chinese general Yue Fei is executed by the Song government.source
  • January 28 – Yue Fei, Chinese military leader and poet (born 1103)source
  • April 21 – Peter Abelard, French scholastic philosopher (born 1079)source
  • June 25 – William of Montevergine, Italian abbot (born 1085)source
  • June 28 – Guigues IV of Albon ("le Dauphin"), French noblemansource
  • July 27 – Berthold of Garsten, German priest and abbot (born 1060)source
  • August 2 – Alexios Komnenos, Byzantine co-emperor (born 1106)source
  • September 10 – Sancho de Larrosa, Spanish bishopsource
  • Orderic Vitalis, English monk and chronicler (born 1075)source
  • Arslan Shah I, Seljuk ruler of the Kerman Sultanatesource
  • Andronikos Komnenos, Byzantine prince (born 1108)source
  • Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi, Persian scholar and historian (born 1067)source
  • Conchobar Ua Briain, a ruler of the kingdoms of Munster and Dublin.Irelandsource