Culture & Society in the 12th century

130 sourced entries, 1100 CE to 1199 CE, oldest first. Also see Culture & Society across every century or everything else in the 12th century.

• 1100November 11 – King Henry I of England marries Matilda of Scotland, the daughter of King Malcolm III and a direct descendant of the Saxon king Edmund Ironside.source
• 1100The city of Cusco (modern Peru) is founded (approximate date).source
• 1101A vast compilation of Liao, Korean, and Song Buddhist writings is completed (approximate date).source
• 1103August 5 – Matilda of Scotland, queen of England as wife of Henry I, gives birth to their first son William Adelin at Winchester. They already have a daughter, Princess Matilda.source
• 1103Li Jie, Chinese government minister, publishes his Yingzao Fashi technical treatise on Chinese architecture, during the reign of Emperor Hui Zong of the Song Dynasty.source
• 1104The Venetian Arsenal is founded in Venice.source
• 1105Cellach Ua Sinaig inherits the position of Abbot of Armagh (the seventh in a series of members of the Ua Sinaig family, who had held the position without taking holy orders, and several of whom had been married).Irelandsource
• 1106Magnus Erlendsson becomes Earl of Orkney (until 1115).source
• 1107Emperor Hui Zong writes his Treatise on Tea, the most detailed description of the Song sophisticated style of tea ceremony.source
• 1108A substantial amount of Luimneach (Limerick) was burned on the night of the festival of Patrick.Irelandsource
• 1109July 1 – Urraca of León becomes queen of León, Castile and Galicia after the death of her father, King Alfonso VI, making her the first European queen regnant. She marries Alfonso I.source
• 1109Anselm of Laon, French monk and theologian, becomes chancellor of the cathedral at Laon (approximate date).source
• 1110Approximate date of composition of Jayamkondar's Kalingattuparani, a Tamil epic celebrating the victory of Kulottunga Chola I over the Kalinga king Anantavarman Chodaganga in the Chola invasion of Kalinga that takes place around this year.source
• 1110The Rus' Primary Chronicle is completed. The work is considered to be a fundamental source in the history of the East Slavs.source
• 1110King Henry I has improvements made at Windsor Castle, including a chapel, so that he can use the castle as his formal residence.source
• 1111The Donglin Academy, a Chinese educational institution, is established in Wuxi during the Northern Song dynasty.source
• 1112Gallus Anonymus, Polish chronicler and historian, begins to write Gesta principum Polonorum, to Bolesław III.source
• 1113September – King Baldwin I of Jerusalem marries Adelaide del Vasto, the wealthy widow of Count Roger I of Sicily ('Bosso') in Acre. She lands in Palestine accompanied by Arab soldiers (her personal bodyguard) and travels to Jerusalem. Their marriage is bigamous, because Baldwin is legally still married to his second wife Arda of Armenia.source
• 1113A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, the only extant work by the Chinese painter Wang Ximeng, is finished.source
• 1113King Suryavarman II begins his reign as ruler of the Khmer Empire (modern Cambodia).source
• 1114January 7 – Emperor Henry V marries Matilda (or Maude), 11-year-old daughter of King Henry I of England, at Worms (modern Germany). A political conflict breaks out across the Holy Roman Empire after the marriage, triggered when Henry arrests Chancellor Adalbert and various other German princes.source
• 1114Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty sends a gift of Chinese musical instruments, for use in royal banquets to the Korean court of Goryeo, by request from King Yejong.source
• 1114First entry from Mac Carthaigh's BookIrelandsource
• 1116Aak music is introduced to the Korean court, through a large gift of 428 musical instruments as well as 572 costumes and ritual dance objects from China, by Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty.source
• 1117May 3 – Merton Priory (previously established at Huntingdon) is consecrated at a site near London. The priory becomes an important centre of learning and diplomacy in England.source
• 1118June 29 – Vikram Chola becomes regent of the Chola kingdom.source
• 1118Peter Abelard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil have a child and marry secretly in Paris. Her uncle Fulbert has Abelard castrated, and both Abelard and Héloïse enter religious orders.source
• 1118Enna mac Donnchada mac Murchada becomes King of Dublin in Ireland.source
• 1118Charles I, Count of Flanders marries Margaret of Clermont.source
• 1120Freiburg is founded by Conrad I and his elder brother, Duke Berthold III of Zähringen, as a free market town.source
• 1123March 18 – The coronation of Japan's Emperor Sutoku takes place.source
• 1123November 12 – In Spain, Queen Urraca of León and Castile, the self-proclaimed Imperator totius Hispaniae ("Empress of All Spain"), formally acknowledges 8-year-old Fernando Pérez de Lara as her son and an heir, after he was born out of wedlock from her relationship with Count Pedro González de Lara.source
• 1123December 12 – At Sankt Veit an der Glan, Engelbert II of the House of Sponheim becomes the new Duke of Carinthia and the Margrave of Verona (an area encompassing parts of Austria, Slovenia and Italy) upon the death of his older brother Henry IV.source
• 1123Sigurd I performs a Crusade, the Kalmare ledung, to Christianize the Swedish province of Småland. He makes a pact with King Niels of Denmark.source
• 1125March 29 – Reading School is founded in Berkshire in England.source
• 1125King Henry I of England arranges a marriage between his nephew Stephen of Blois and the 20-year-old Matilda, daughter and heiress of Eustace III, count of Boulogne. This gives Stephen control of the County of Boulogne and also lands in England that have belonged to Eustace (who dies on his return from the Holy Land).source
• 1125Albert of Aix, German historian and writer, begins his Historia Hierosolymitanae expeditionis (approximate date).source
• 1126Adelard of Bath, an English philosopher, translates Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī's arithmetic and astronomical works into Latin.source
• 1126Two previously written Chinese pharmaceutical works, one by Shen Kuo and one by Su Shi, are combined into one written work.source
• 1126Rutherglen (located in South Lanarkshire) becomes one of the first of the Royal Burghs in Scotland.source
• 1127King Henry I of England arranges the marriage of his daughter Matilda (the widow of Emperor Henry V) to the 14-year-old Geoffrey of Anjou (son of Count Fulk V). This is done to ensure an alliance between England and Anjou, and to prevent Fulk allying with Louis VI. Henry has the English nobles swear allegiance to Matilda as the rightful heir to the throne. Upon his death, her cousin Stephen of Blois crosses the channel and usurps her throne, becoming the King of England. She wages a lengthy civil war known as the Anarchy, which lasts from 1135–1154.source
• 1128June 17 – King Henry I of England marries his only legitimate daughter, dowager Empress Matilda, to the 14-year-old Geoffrey Plantagenet ("the Fair"), count of Anjou, at Le Mans.source
• 1129June 2 – Fulk V, count of Anjou, marries Melisende (daughter of King Baldwin II) the heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Fulk gives up his title which passes to his 15-year-old son, Geoffrey V (the Fair).source
• 1131September 14 – Melisende succeeds her father Baldwin II to the throne, and reigns jointly with Fulk, as King and Queen of Jerusalem. Their coronation, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is celebrated with festivities.source
• 1134May 13 – The Saint-Denis basilica, near Paris, is damaged by a fire. This will give the opportunity to the French abbot Suger to rebuild it in a new style, which will open the Gothic period of architecture.source
• 1134Abdul Qadir Jilani becomes principal of the Hanbali school in Baghdad.source
• 1134Herman III (the Great), margrave of Baden, marries Bertha of Lorraine.source
• 1134The University of Salamanca is established, in the Kingdom of León.source
• 1134The Japanese classic text Uchigikishu is written.source
• 1134Robert of Ketton and Herman of Carinthia travel throughout France, the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusader States.source
• 1135August 15 – Emperor Lothair III receives homage from Eric II, and makes him an imperial prince at the Reichstag. His diplomatic missions to Hungary and Poland result in a tribute payment. Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth is given Pomerania and Rügen as German fiefs.source
• 1135Queen Melisende of Jerusalem reconciles with her husband Fulk V, after a period of estrangement occasioned by her growing power, and rumors that she has had an affair with Hugh II (du Puiset), former count of Jaffa.source
• 1136Peter Abelard writes the Historia Calamitatum, detailing his relationship with Heloise.source
• 1138November 5 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Đại Việt at the age of two, starting a 37-year reign.source
• 1139King's School, Pontefract, in England is founded.source
• 1140Gratian, an Italian monk and canon lawyer, founds the science of Canon law with the publication of the Decretum Gratiani (approximate date).source
• 1140Spring – King Conrad III enfeoffs Henry II ("Jasomirgott"), a member of the House of Babenberg, with the County Palatine of the Rhine (belonging to the Holy Roman Empire).source
• 1140Summer – King Stephen appoints Geoffrey de Mandeville as Earl of Essex for his support during the civil war against Matilda (Stephen's cousin).source
• 1141February 13 – Géza II is crowned King of Hungary and Croatia at age 11, succeeding his father.source
• 1142Summer – 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
• 1143Robert of Ketton makes the first European translation of the Qur'an for Peter the Venerable, Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete, into Latin.source
• 1147May – July – A German expeditionary force (some 20,000 men) under King Conrad III leaves Regensburg and passes into Hungary. The German nobility is headed by Conrad's nephew and heir, Frederick I, duke of Swabia. On July 20, Conrad crosses into the Byzantine Empire, and reaches Sofia – where Michael Palaiologos (a nephew of Emperor Manuel I) gives Conrad an official welcome and provides the Crusaders with food.source
• 1148April–May – Louis VII and the French crusaders remain in Antioch, but there are rumours of an incestuous affair between Eleanor of Aquitaine and Raymond of Poitiers. Louis, alarmed for his honour, departs with his army to Jerusalem in late May. Meanwhile, Conrad III with his chief nobleman are welcomed by Queen Melisende and her 18-year-old son, co-ruler Baldwin III at Jerusalem.source
• 1148September 8 – Conrad III sails from Acre to Thessaloniki and forms an alliance with Manuel I against King Roger II of Sicily. During his visit Henry II, Duke of Austria ('Jasomirgott') marries Manuel's niece, Theodora Komnene.source
• 1148Anna Komnene writes the Alexiad, a biography of her father, the late Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.source
• 1149March – The 16-year-old Henry of Anjou, eldest son of Queen Matilda, lands in England in a second attempt to take the English throne from Stephen. He travels up via Salisbury and Gloucester north to Carlisle (Scotland).source
• 1149May 22 – Henry of Anjou is knighted at Carlisle by King David I. Henry acknowledges the Scottish king's right to Northumberland.source
• 1150The University of Paris (known as the Sorbonne) is founded. The first doctorate degree is awarded in Paris.source
• 1152March 21 – King Louis VII repudiates his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine and has it annulled on grounds of misconduct and consanguinity – returning her lands and titles. Within 6 weeks, Eleanor re-marries Henry of Anjou, who had claimed the counties of Anjou and Maine, and the province of Touraine upon the death of his father Geoffrey Plantagenet (the Fair), the previous year. With the addition of Eleanor's lands, he now controls territory stretching unbroken, from Cherbourg to Bayonne.source
• 1152The town of Gorodets, located on the banks of the Volga River, is founded by Yuri Dolgorukiy, Grand Prince of Kiev.source
• 1153Raynald of Châtillon, a French nobleman, marries Constance of Antioch (after given permission by Baldwin III) and becomes Prince of Antioch.source
• 1153Devorgilla (married to Tiernan O'Rourke) eloped with Dermot McMurrough (the King of Leinster) to Ferns, an act which brought about a feud and McMurrough's eventual exile from Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1154December 19 – The 21-year-old Henry II is crowned as sole ruler of England along with his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.source
• 1154Peter de Bermingham has a charter to hold a market in Birmingham, origin of the Bull Ring.source
• 1155New Year's Day is changed from January 1 to March 25.source
• 1156June 9 – Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) marries Beatrice I, daughter of Reginald III, adding the County of Burgundy to the Holy Roman Empire.source
• 1156Yuri Dolgorukiy, Grand Prince of Kiev, founds and fortifies the town of Moscow and erects a wooden Kremlin within the settlement (approximate date).source
• 1157June 11 – Albert the Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first Margrave.source
• 1158The University of Bologna is granted its first privileges by Frederick I.source
• 115812-year-old William Marshal is sent from England to the Château de Tancarville in Normandy to be brought up in the household of William de Tancarville, a cousin of William's mother. He begins his training as a knight; this also includes academic studies, practical lessons in chivalry and courtly life, and warfare and combat (using wooden swords and spears).source
• 1158Summer – King Henry II of England travels to France to meet King Louis VII and propose a marriage between his three-year-old son Henry and Louis' daughter Margaret (less than a year old). She is shipped to England, as the future wife and queen. The Vexin region is promised to Margaret as dowry and is put under the care of the Knights Templar, until her future husband is old enough to take control of it.source
• 1158The University of Bologna, the oldest continually operating university in the world, was granted its first privileges by the Emperor.Italysource
• 1160November 2 – Betrothal of 5-year-old Henry the Young King of England and 2-year-old Marguerite, daughter of Louis VII of France; she brings Norman Vexin to the English crown as a dowry.source
• 1160Spring – Emperor Manuel I Komnenos sends an embassy led by John Kontostephanos to Jerusalem, to ask King Baldwin III to nominate one of the princesses of the Crusader states, as a bride for the widowed emperor. Their two candidates are 15-year-old Maria of Antioch, and Melisende of Tripoli. Baldwin suggests Melisende, and her brother Count Raymond III sets about gathering an enormous dowry. The ambassadors are not satisfied, and delay the marriage for over a year. They hear rumours about Melisende's birth, based on her mother's (Countess Hodierna of Jerusalem) infidelity, and therefore Melisende's possible illegitimacy. In the end, the Emperor marries Maria in 1161 and Melisende eventually enters a convent.source
• 1160Approximate date – Derby School is founded by Walkelin de Derby in Derby (England); it will survive until 1989.source
• 1161December 24 – The widowed Emperor Manuel I Komnenos marries Maria of Antioch, aged 16, at Hagia Sophia.source
• 1165Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of England, spends most of the year in Anjou. Her husband, Henry II, begins an affair with "the Fair" Rosamund Clifford.source
• 1166Henry 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
• 1166Anglo-Norman soldier William Marshal is knighted while on campaign in Normandy; he will be described as "the greatest knight that ever lived".source
• 1167King Henry II prohibits English students from attending the University of Paris; many settle at the University of Oxford.source
• 1168Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, marries the 12-year-old Matilda (or Maud), daughter of King Henry II of England.source
• 1169Henry II makes an effort to end the strife between him and his wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, in order that he may dally in western Herefordshire with his mistress, Rosamund Clifford, the daughter of Walter de Clifford. He divides the succession to his kingdom among his four sons, Henry the Young King, Richard I, Geoffrey of Brittany, and John.source
• 1170Strongbow is married to Dermot MacMurrough’s daughter, Aoife.Irelandsource
• 1171Yesugei (Baghatur), Mongol chieftain, arranges a marriage between his 9-year-old son Temujin (Genghis Khan) and the daughter of the chief of a nearby clan, Börte. He is poisoned by the Tatars while returning home.source
• 1172April 17 – Henry II receives homage from the Irish princes who include Domnall Mór Ua Briain, king of Munster. He grants Hugh de Lacy the lordship of Meath (or Mide) for providing the services of 50 knights.source
• 1172April–May – Béla III returns to Hungary – where he is acclaimed king by the Hungarian nobility, after the death (possibly from poison) of his elder brother Stephen III, on March 4.source
• 1172Summer – The 14-year-old Richard (later Richard I of England) is formally recognized as duke of Aquitaine. The ceremony takes place at the church of St. Hilary in Poitiers.source
• 1172Meath is granted to Hugh de Lacy by Henry II of England.Irelandsource
• 1173Mael Sechlainn meic Domnaill Ua Mael Sechlainn becomes first Lord of Clonlonan King of MeathIrelandsource
• 1175King Henry II begins living openly with his mistress Rosamund Clifford, raising suspicions about their relationship and alienating Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.source
• 1175The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy is founded.source
• 1176Autumn – William of Montferrat (Longsword) marries the 16-year-old Princess Sibylla, sister of King Baldwin IV (the Leper).source
• 1176Unkei, a Japanese sculptor, completes his Dainichi Nyorai (Enjō-ji) statue, now a National Treasure of Japan.source
• 1176Winter – An international bardic festival at Cardigan Castle in Wales. The first recorded eisteddfod.source
• 1177January 13 – Leopold V becomes Duke of Austria.source
• 1178June 30 – Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) is crowned King of Burgundy at Arles. He will repeat the ceremony in 1186. Returning to Germany, he begins proceedings against Henry III (the Lion), duke of Saxony, who has been charged by Saxon noblemen with breaking the king's peace.source
• 1178The Leaning Tower of Pisa begins to lean, as the third level is completed (approximate date).source
• 1180Alexander Neckam becomes a lecturer in Paris and begins writing De Natura Rerum, one of the earliest Western European works to mention chess (approximate date).source
• 1180Baldwin IV arranges the marriage of his sister, Sibylla, to Guy of Lusignan, brother of the constable Amalric of Lusignan. Baldwin grants Guy the County of Jaffa and Ascalon as a fief.source
• 1181King Henry II removes Hugh de Lacy, lord of Meath, from his position as procurator of Ireland, possibly because of his having married the daughter of High King Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair.source
• 1182William Marshal, Norman knight and head of the household of Henry the Young King, is accused of having an affair with Henry's wife, Queen Margaret of France. Although contemporary chroniclers doubt the truth of these accusations. Henry starts the process to have his marriage annulled, William leaves the royal retinue, undergoing a period of self-imposed exile, and goes on a pilgrimage to Cologne.source
• 1183Andronikos I marries Alexios II's widow, the 11-year-old Agnes of France.source
• 1184October 29 – The 18-year-old Prince Henry, eldest surviving son of Frederick I, is engaged to Princess Constance, heiress to the Kingdom of Sicily, at Augsburg in the episcopal palace.source
• 1186January 27 – Constance of Sicily marries Henry (the future Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor).source
• 1186Approximate date of the construction of Ardfinnan CastleIrelandsource
• 1189August 29 – Ban Kulin, Bosnian ruler, writes the Charter of Ban Kulin, which becomes a symbolic "birth certificate" of Bosnian language and statehood.source
• 1189August – William Marshal marries the 17-year-old Isabel de Clare (daughter of Richard de Clare). Through this marriage, he becomes 1st Earl of Pembroke, acquiring huge estates in England, Normandy, Wales and Ireland.source
• 1189Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) writes the Expugnatio Hibernica about Henry II’s invasion of Ireland.Irelandsource
• 1190November 24 – The 18-year-old Isabella I, half-sister of Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem, marries Conrad of Montferrat at Acre making him de facto king of Jerusalem (as Conrad I). He has the support of her mother Maria Comnena and stepfather Balian of Ibelin, as well as Reginald of Sidon and other major nobles in the Crusader States.source
• 1190Emo of Friesland, a Frisian scholar and abbot, commences his study at what will become the University of Oxford.source
• 1190On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy (ar. Kitab fasl al-maqal), by Averroes, is first published.source
• 1190Speculum Virginum, a German manuscript, is published (approximate date).source
• 1193February 14 – King Richard I (the Lionheart), previously imprisoned on his return from the Third Crusade by Leopold V (the Virtuous), duke of Austria is handed over to Emperor Henry VI, and moved to Trifels Castle.source
• 1193King Philip II (Augustus) marries Ingeborg of Denmark, daughter of King Valdemar I (the Great). After the marriage, Philip changes his mind, wishes to obtain a separation, and attempts to send her back to Denmark.source
• 1193King Tancred of Sicily arranges a marriage between his son Roger III and the 12-year-old Irene Angelina, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Isaac II (Angelos). Roger suddenly dies on December 24.source
• 1194April 17 – Richard I is crowned for the second time, at Winchester, to underline his rightful position as monarch. During the coronation, he wears a golden crown and is followed by notables from the Church and State.source
• 1194December 25 – Henry VI deposes the 8-year-old William III (son of Tancred de Lecce) and is crowned king of Sicily. The next day, Constance I, who stays in the town of Iesi, gives birth to Frederick II, the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.source
• 1198John of England captures a party of 18 French knights and many men-at-arms, in the ongoing conflict against France. His brother, King Richard I (the Lionheart) introduces a new Great Seal – in an attempt to keep the war against France funded. The government proclaims that charters previously struck with the old seal are no longer valid and must be renewed with a fresh payment. The office of Lord Warden of the Stannaries is also introduced, to tax the produce of tin mines in Cornwall and Devon.source
• 1198Spring – Amalric I, ruler of Cyprus, marries Princess Isabella I, daughter of the late King Amalric I. A few days later they are crowned as King and Queen of Jerusalem at Acre. On July 1, Amalric signs a truce with Al-Adil I, sultan of Egypt and Syria, securing the Crusader possessions from Acre to as far as Antioch.source
• 11996 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.Irelandsource