12th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages.

See also: Renaissance of the 12th century

Events

1102, King Coloman unites Hungary and Croatia under the Hungarian Crown
c.1119, Foundation of the Knights Templar
1127, The Song dynasty loses power over Northern China.
1128, Portugal gains independence from the kingdom of León (recognised by León in 1143).
1130–1180, Fifty-year drought in the American Southwest.
1140–1150, Collapse of the Ancestral Puebloan culture at Chaco Canyon
1136, Suger begins rebuilding abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, which is regarded as the first major Gothic building.
1145–1148, The Second Crusade is launched in response to the fall of the County of Edessa.
1169, start of the conquest of Ireland. Richard fitzGilbert de Clare ('Strongbow') makes an alliance with the exiled Irish chief, Dermot MacMurrough, to help him recover his kingdom of Leinster.
1170, Thomas Becket is murdered.
1185, Founding of the cathedral school (Katedralskolan) in Lund, Sweden. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe as a whole.
1189–1192, The Third crusade was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin.
1193, Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, is destroyed.
1198, Frederick II is crowned King of Sicily at the age of 3 (also known as Frederick I of Sicily).
c. 1200, The Toltec Empire collapses.
Renaissance of the 12th century in Europe.
The Kamakura Shogunate deprives the Emperor of Japan of political power.
Gothic Architecture begins in France
Conflict between the Khmer Empire and Champa. Angkor Wat is built under the Hindu king Suryavarman II. At the end of the century the Buddhist Jayavarman VII becomes ruler.
Pope Adrian IV grants overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England.
The medieval Serbian state formed by Stefan Nemanja and continued by the Nemanjić dynasty.
Pierre Abelard teaches.

Significant people

Genghis Khan, Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
Bhaskara, towering figure in several disparate fields of mathematics
Pierre Abélard, one of the first scholastic philosophers; author of "Historia calamitatum mearum", a description of his love affair with Héloïse.
Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics.
Manuel I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor who allied with the Crusaders.
Saladin, ruler of Egypt and Syria who resisted the Crusaders.
Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar.
Philip Augustus, French king.
Friedrich Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor
Richard I of England
Richard of St. Victor, theologian.
Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal.
Maimonides, leading Jewish philosopher.
Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.
Minamoto no Yoritomo, first shogun of Japan.
Omar Khayyám, Persian poet and astronomer
Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of France and later the Kingdom of England.
Hildegard of Bingen, first Western musical composer known by name.
Suryavarman II Khmer king
Jayavarman VII Khmer king

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

Beginning of the Gothic architecture style in France.
Building of Angkor Wat in Khmer empire.
First European universities founded.
Christian humanism becomes a self-conscious philosophical tendency in Europe.
Earliest record of a miracle play, in Dunstable, England.
Beginning of trouvère music and poetry in France.
ars antiqua
Earliest account of a mariner's compass, by Alexander Neckam is "De utensilibus".
First fire and plague insurance (in Iceland).
First authenticated influenza epidemics.
Start of Middle English

Decades and years

12th century | Centuries

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Events

Significant people

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

Decades and years