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The 1190s

403 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 12th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1190 CE57 entries

  • March 16 – A massacre and mass-suicide of the Jews in York, results in the deaths of 150–500 Jews in Clifford's Tower.
  • June 10 – Frederick I drowns while crossing (or bathing in) the Göksu River near Selucia (modern-day Silifke) in Armenian Cilicia. The German Crusaders are demoralized and exhausted by the summer heat, Frederick VI takes over the command of his father, carrying with him the emperor's body preserved in a barrel of vinegar. Some of the German nobles decide to return home with their followers; Frederick continues with his army (some 5,000 men) and eventually reaches Antioch, on June 21.
  • July 4 – King Richard I (the Lion Heart) and Philip II (Augustus), meet at Vézelay and agree to divide the spoils of the Crusade equally between themselves. They march to the coast and then make their way across the Mediterranean, taking different routes. Richard travels with an expeditionary force (some 17,000 men) via Marseille and Philip travels with a smaller contingent (some 15,000 men) via Genoa. Richard has some 100 ships at his disposal, several of which are from Norman ports, others from Shoreham and Southampton.

1191 CE63 entries

  • May 12 – Richard I marries the 19-year-old Berengaria of Navarre, daughter of King Sancho VI (the Wise), in the Chapel of St. George at Limassol. On the same day, she is crowned Queen of England, by John, bishop of Évreux in the presence of the archbishop of Bordeaux and many other clergy. After this, hearing that the daughter of Isaac Komnenos has taken refuge in Kyrenia Castle, Richard goes there with his army and receives her submission. On the orders of Richard, she is entrusted to the care of Joan and Berengaria. By the end of May, Richard, with his ships, sails around the island seizing all the Cypriot towns and ports on the coast.
  • August 25–26 – Richard I leads a fast-moving advance-guard and establishes a strong position at the fortress near Merle before Saladin arrives. He then hurries back to support the rearguard, to regain contact with the Crusader forces. Richard reorganizes his marching column. The elite Templar and Hospitaller knights hold the van and rearguard, while Richard and a central mass of knights are screened on their landward left side by dense ranks of well-armoured infantry, whose panoply makes them almost immune to Muslim missile attacks.
  • November 13 – Battle of Tarain: Sultan Muhammad of Ghor invades northern India, but is defeated by Rajput forces under Prithviraja III, ruler of Ajmer and Delhi. Prithviraj marches against the Ghurid army (some 100,000 men) with infantry, cavalry, and an elephant force. He repulses the Ghurid invasion near Taraori (some 70 miles of Delhi), Muhammad escapes the battlefield.

1192 CE29 entries

  • April 28 – Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, is assassinated in Tyre, only days after his title to the throne is confirmed by election. The killing is carried out by Hashshashin, later the basis of folk etymology for the English word "assassin."
  • August 5 – Battle of Jaffa: Richard I of England defeats the forces of Saladin and ends hostilities, paving the way for a truce.
  • August 21 – Minamoto no Yoritomo is granted the title of shōgun, thereby officially establishing the first shogunate in the history of Japan.

1193 CE38 entries

  • March 4 – Saladin (the Lion) dies of a fever at Damascus. The lands of the Ayyubid Dynasty of Syria and Egypt are split among his relatives. During his reign, he briefly unites the Muslim world, and drives the Crusaders out of Jerusalem to a narrow strip of coast. At the time of his death, Saladin has seventeen sons and one little daughter. Al-Afdal succeeds his father as ruler (emir) of Damascus, and inherits the headship of the Ayyubid family. His younger brother, the 22-year-old Al-Aziz, proclaims himself as independent sultan of Egypt. Al-Zahir receives Aleppo (with lands in northern Syria), and Turan-Shah receives Yemen. The other dominions and fiefs in the Oultrejordain (also called Lordship of Montréal) are divided between his sons and the two remaining brothers of Saladin.
  • May – The Pisan colony at Tyre plots to seize the city, and hand it over to Guy of Lusignan – the ruler of Cyprus. King Henry I of Jerusalem arrests the ringleaders, and orders that the colony be reduced to only 30 people. The Pisans retaliate, by raiding the coastal villages between Tyre and Acre.
  • Ghurid forces under Qutb al-Din Aibak capture Delhi. General Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji sacks and burns the ancient city of Nalanda, India's greatest Buddhist seat of learning, and the university of Vikramashila.

1194 CE51 entries

  • March 10 – Sultan Toghrul III is defeated and killed in battle with Ala ad-Din Tekish, near Rey in Persia – ending the Seljuq dynasty of Hamedan. The Seljuk Empire passes to the Khwarazmian dynasty.
  • May 15 – Michael the Syrian reconsecrates the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery, which he reconstructed after its destruction by a fire. The monastery stays a center of the Syriac Orthodox Church until the end of the thirteenth century.
  • July 10 – A fire devastates Chartres Cathedral. Only the crypt, the towers, and the new facade survives. Funds are collected from nobles, as well as small donations from ordinary people, to start the rebuilding.

1195 CE15 entries

  • June 1 – Battle of Shamkor: Georgians defeat the Ildenizids of Azerbaijan.
  • July 18 – Battle of Alarcos: Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur decisively defeats Castilian King Alfonso VIII.
  • The Abbasid Caliph, Al-Nasir, takes military action against the Ayyubid Sultan, Al-Aziz Uthman, who controls Egypt and Syria. The Caliph mobilizes his forces and marches into Mesopotamia, directly challenging Ayyubid authority in the region of Iraq.

1196 CE32 entries

  • April 25 – King Alfonso II of Aragon ("the Chaste") dies after a 32-year reign at Perpignan. He leaves a will that divides his realm (Aragon loses Provence) and is succeeded by his 21-year-old son Peter II (the Catholic).
  • December – Emperor Alexios III Angelos is threatened by Emperor Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who demands 5,000 pounds of gold or the Byzantines will face an invasion, this due to a convoluted system of dynastic claims of Henry gaining control of Alexios' daughter Irene Doukaina. The amount is negotiated down to 1,600 pounds of gold – with Alexios plundering the imperial tombs within the Church of the Holy Apostles – as well as levying a heavy and unpopular tax, known as the Alamanikon (or German Tax).
  • Ch'oe Ch'ung-hŏn, a Korean general, massacres his rivals and restores unity. After a coup d'état, he takes full power and becomes prime-minister of the Korean state Goryeo (until 1219).

1197 CE40 entries

  • April 28 – Rhys ap Gruffydd, a Welsh prince, dies and is succeeded by his eldest son Gruffydd ap Rhys II. With the help of Gwenwynwyn, his brother Maelgwn ap Rhys invades southern Wales.
  • September 10 – Henry II, Count of Champagne, king of Jerusalem, dies from falling out a first-floor window at his palace in Acre. His widow, Isabella I, becomes regent while the kingdom is thrown into consternation.
  • September 22 – About 16,000 German crusaders reach Acre, starting the crusade of 1197. Emperor Henry VI, who planned to join the forces later on, was forced to stay behind in Sicily due to illness. On September 28 he dies at Messina. Meanwhile, the crusaders manage to reconquer Sidon and Beirut but return to Germany after receiving the news of the emperor's death.

1198 CE37 entries

  • January 8 – Pope Celestine III dies at Rome, after a pontificate of nearly 7 years. He is succeeded by Innocent III, as the 176th pope of the Catholic Church. Shortly after he lays an interdict on Laon, in an attempt to create independent beliefs there. This will be followed by interdicts against France in 1199, and Normandy in 1203.
  • March 8 – Philip of Swabia, son of the late Emperor Frederick I, is elected "King of Germany" by his supporters at Mühlhausen in Thuringia. Archbishop Adolf of Cologne elects Otto of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion, as Philip's rival. Otto IV is crowned as King of the Romans in Aachen by supporters of the House of Welf. Philip's coronation does not take place until September 8, at Mainz.
  • December 11 – Averroes (or Ibn Rushd), Arab polymath and physician, dies. He is the author of more than 100 books, for which he is known in the western world as The Commentator and Father of Rationalism.

1199 CE41 entries

  • February 9 – Minamoto no Yoritomo, Japanese shogun, dies at Kamakura after a 7-year reign in which he has established the Kamakura Shogunate (see 1192). He is succeeded by his 16-year-old son Minamoto no Yoriie, his grandfather Hōjō Tokimasa proclaims himself regent for Yoriie (until 1202).
  • 6 April – on the death of his brother, Richard I of England, Prince John, Lord of Ireland, becomes King of England, thus bringing Ireland under the direct rule of the English Crown.
  • May 26 – John returns to London and chooses people to help him to rule the kingdom. He appoints Archbishop Hubert Walter as his advisor and chancellor. Geoffrey Fitz Peter is chosen as Chief Justiciar and William (the Marshal) becomes Marshal of John's household. On May 27, John is crowned as king of England at Westminster Abbey.