1166 CE
King William I ("the Wicked") of Sicily dies at Palermo after a 12-year reign. He is succeeded by his 12-year-old son William II ("the Good"), whose mother, Margaret of Navarre, will be regent until he comes of age. The town of Bad Kleinkirchheim (in modern Austria) is first mentioned, in an ecclesiastical document, in which Archbishop Conrad II of Salzburg confirms the donation of a chapel, nearby Millstatt Abbey. Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, has the Brunswick Lion created at Dankwarderode Castle in Braunschweig (modern Germany). (Mentioned by Albert of Stade, a German abbot and chronicler, as the year of origin.).
In the 1160s, the 12th century.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- Henry II enacts the Assize of Clarendon, reforming English law, influential in the development of jury trial in common law countries worldwide.source
Conflict & Security
- Summer – Henry II of England invades and conquers Brittany to punish the local Breton barons. He grants the territory to his 7-year-old son Geoffrey.source
- Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos asks Venice to help pay the costs of defending Sicily, whose Norman rulers have had good relations with Venice. Doge Vitale II Michiel refuses to pay the requested subsidy. Manuel begins to cultivate relationships with the main commercial rivals of Venice: Genoa and Pisa. He grants them their own trade quarters in Constantinople, very near the Venetian settlements.source
- Mieszko III the Old proclaims a Prussian crusade against the pagans and pressures the collaboration of Frederick I. He leaves Greater Poland in the hands of his younger brother Casimir II the Just.source
- Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, High King of Ireland, arranges a truce with his neighbours, taking hostages from many families in Ulster, but, in violation of an oath for good behaviour, has Eochaid mac Con Ulad Mac Duinn Sléibe, King of Ulster, seized and blinded. In return, he is killed. Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair takes the high-kingship.Irelandsource
Religion & Belief
- July 5 – The town of Bad Kleinkirchheim (in modern Austria) is first mentioned, in an ecclesiastical document, in which Archbishop Conrad II of Salzburg confirms the donation of a chapel, nearby Millstatt Abbey.source
- Autumn – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa begins his fourth Italian campaign, hoping to secure the claim of Antipope Paschal III in Rome and the coronation of his wife Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy, as Holy Roman Empress.source
- Cartae Baronum ("Charters of the Barons"), a survey commissioned by the English Treasury requiring each baron to declare how many knights he had enfeoffed.source
Crime & Justice
Culture & Society
- Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, has the Brunswick Lion created at Dankwarderode Castle in Braunschweig (modern Germany). (Mentioned by Albert of Stade, a German abbot and chronicler, as the year of origin.)source
- Anglo-Norman soldier William Marshal is knighted while on campaign in Normandy; he will be described as "the greatest knight that ever lived".source
Births
- February 24 – Al-Mansur Abdallah, Zaidi imam (died 1217)source
- July 29 – Henry II, Count of Champagne (Henry I, King of Jerusalem) (died 1197)source
- December 24 – John, king of England (died 1216)source
- Arnold of Altena, German nobleman (died 1209)source
- Wansong Xingxiu, Chinese Buddhist monk (died 1246)source
- Shunten (Shunten-Ō), Ryukyu ruler of Okinawa (died 1237)source
- Philip d'Aubigny, Anglo-Norman knight and courtier (died 1236)source
- Ch'oe U, Korean general and dictator (died 1249)source
- Alan IV ("the Young"), viscount of Rohan, Morbihan (died 1205)source
- Odo III (or Eudes), duke of Burgundy (died 1218)source
- William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, English nobleman (died 1240)source
- Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon, French rabbi (born 1224)source
- Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Andalusian Moorish pharmacist (died 1239)source
Deaths
- February 21 – Abdul Qadir Gilani, Persian preacher (born 1078)source
- April 9 – Waleran de Beaumont, English nobleman (born 1104)source
- May 7 – William I ("the wicked"), king of Sicily (born 1120)source
- May 7 – King William I ("the Wicked") of Sicily dies at Palermo after a 12-year reign. He is succeeded by his 12-year-old son William II ("the Good"), whose mother, Margaret of Navarre, will be regent until he comes of age.source
- May 12 – Gunhilda of Dunbar, Scottish Noblewoman (born 1120)source
- August 23 – Konoe Motozane, Japanese nobleman (born 1143)source
- Gillamaire Ua Conallta, Irish poet and Chief Ollamsource
- Fujiwara no Motozane, Japanese waka poet (born 1143)source
- Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, High King of Irelandsource
- Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn, High King of Ireland, is killed. He is succeeded by Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht, who defeats Diarmaid mac Murchadha (or Dermot, another ruler in eastern Ireland) in battle. Diarmaid is exiled and goes to Normandy and the court of King Henry II of England to ask for assistance in retaking his kingdom. Henry gives him permission to find a willing army from either England or Wales. Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow") and his half-brothers Robert FitzStephen and Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan, agree to help Diarmaid mac Murchadha in return for Diarmaid's daughter's hand in marriage.source
- Grigor III Pahlavuni, Armenian catholicos of Cilicia (born 1093)source
- Ahmad Yasawi, Turkic Sufi religious leader (born 1093)source
- Rosalia, Norman-Sicilian noblewoman, hermit and saint (born 1130)source
- Athanasius VII bar Qatra, Syrian patriarch of Antiochsource