In this video I will describe people and events from the 12th century, 1101-1200.
For each quarter-century, I will note famous births & deaths, and significant events
in politics, religion, and culture. Here we go. In the first quarter of the 12th century,
1101-1125, the Englishmen clergymen Thomas a Becket and John of Salisbury were born,
as was the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarosa. St. Anselm of Canterbury died, and so did the
Arabian philosopher Al-Ghazali and the Chinese poet Su Dongpo.
In politics, Henry V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1111, and was excommunicated the following year.
The Almohad Caliphate began expanding across North Africa.
In religion, the First Crusade took the city of Acre in 1104. The order of Knights
Hospitaller were founded, and so was the Abbey at Clairvaux, with St Bernard as the first abbot.
The First Lateran Council suppressed simony and the marriage of priests.
In culture, one of the first onion-domed churches was built,
St Nicholas at Novgorod, and the University of Bologna was founded.
In the second quarter of the 12th century, 1126-1150, the philosophers Averroes and
Moses Maimonodes were born. Peter Abelard and the Persian poet Omar Khayam died.
The Second Lateran Council ended the schism of 1130. One of its rulings commanded bishops
and priests not to cause scandal by wearing ostentatious clothes, but to dress modestly.
The Second Crusade was launched in 1145, ending in failure two years later.
Construction began on the west façade of Chartres Cathedral.
And Abelard’s description of his love affair with Heloise was published.
Around this time we see paper being manufactured in Muslim Spain.
In the third quarter of the century, 1151-1175, Genghis Khan was born, and St Bernard of
Clairvaux and St Thomas a Beckett died. The Toltec Empire in Mexico ended,
and Henry II took the English throne as the first Plantaganet king.
Thomas a Becket became Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury. After fleeing to France
in 1164, he returned to England and was murdered in 1170. He was canonized three years later.
at Canterbury for Becket’s murder. The Carmelite order was founded.
The Chinese began to use explosives in warfare, chess and horse racing appeared in England,
construction began in Paris on Notre Dame Cathedral, and Oxford University was founded.
It was also the Golden Age of Buddhist art in Burma.
The final quarter of the 12th century, 1176-1200,
saw the births of Francis of Assisi, the scientist/philosopher Albertus Magnus,
and the Persian poet Saadi. Also the deaths of the Sultan Saladin,
King Richard the Lion-Heart, and the Chinese poet Chu-Hsi.
In warfare, Saladin first conquered Syria, then Jerusalem in 1187.
Richard became king of England in 1189, fought in the Third Crusade, and was captured and ransomed.
He was killed during a siege in France in 1199. In 1191, the Zen monk Eisai returned home from a
trip to China with black tea seeds, beginning the large scale cultivation of tea in Japan.
Cambridge University was founded, and around this time in Germany,
“The Song of the Nibelungs” was composed. By the end of the century we see the first
glass windows in private homes in England, and in Europe the first windmills with vertical sails.
That’s my summary of people and events of the 12th century. Thanks for watching today; goodbye.