Timeline 1145-1160 (Interference)

1146-1150
1145-1147

SE Asia: The Khmer ruler Suryavarman II annexes the Champa kingdom, which refused to help in the invasion of Annam; soon the Chams rebel and regain their independence.

1146

Western Europe: Unification of Leòn and Gallastria under John II Ramiro of the Gallastrian Mabinardo dynasty.

Western Europe, North Africa: A 20,000 strong Crusader army of Greater Norman, Aquitanian, Septimanian and Spanish warriors descends Spain and is later ferried by the navies of Pisa, Marseille, Barcelona and Valencia to Mauretania (*OTL Morocco). The northern coastal cities are quickly taken, their inhabitants often exterminated at swordpoint or in mass burnings at the stake :eek: as heretics. As the Maurian Catholic party rises against Gadirote (*Cathar) domination, the tribal Maurians of the Rawel (*OTL Rif) mountains inflict heavy casualties upon the anti-Cathar Crusaders. The aged Stephen of Gadir, the Maurian “heresiarch” and king, retires to the Atlas mountains as the Crusaders desolate coastal Mauretania; a new harsh epoch of guerrilla begins. Inside the very Crusader army many peasant soldiers from Aquitaine and Septimania reveal themselves Cathars, passing to the Gadirotes :D.

Central-Eastern Europe: King Wladislaw II of Poland is exiled by his brothers and replace by Boleslaw IV the Curly.

Middle East: Zengi of Mosul and Aleppo is murdered by an eunuch of Frankish origin, Yaranqash; the news is greeted with enthusiasm by the Crusaders, whose remaining forces manage to recapture a desolate Edessa. Zengi's domains are divided between his sons, Saif ad-Din Ghazi I inheriting Mosul and the northern Iraqi holdings, Nur ad-Din northern Syria and overlordship over Damascus.

Central Asia: Malik Qutbuddin, the exiled ruler of Ghor (a province of central Afghanistan), is poisoned :mad: by his host, the Ghaznavid sultan Bahram Shah. Qutbuddin brothers, who had forced him to flee, now take the offense as an excuse to wage war on their Ghaznavid overlords.

1146-1151

Northern Europe: Erik II Lam, king of Denmark, abdicates and retires to die as a monk. A civil war explodes between the distant cousins Sven III (son of the late Erik II) and Knut/Canute V (a grandson of the late king Niels through Magnus the Strong), who control respectively the islands and Jutland. A third claimant to the throne, young Valdemar I, the last son of the late Knut Lavard, controls southern Jutland/Schleswig

1147 Northern Europe: Danish “Crusaders” raid western Pomerania (Mecklenburg); Albert the Bear with his Bohemian allies grinds Greater Wendia into destruction, burning its main center, Branibor/Brandenburg. Conrad von Hohenstaufen, younger brother of duke Frederick of Saxony (*OTL Barbarossa), inherits the duchy of Swabia from their father Frederick II.

Southern Europe: Seeing civil war ripping apart both Germany and Lombardy, their traditional candidates for overlordship, the Romancians (*inhabitants of OTL eastern Switzerland plus Valtellina and Vorarlberg) declare independence, their lands divided between the bishopric of Coira in the south and the powerful Abbey of St. Gall (*OTL St. Gallen) in the north. Amedeo II of Lombardy dies, leving the throne to his third son, Arrigo/Enrico I, who is obviously ;) refused coronation in Milan. The new king imposes a blockade of the Lombard city, while his rival cousin Umberto, son of Guidone of Turin, Susa and Ivrea, vainly tries to counter his moves from Piedmont.

Byzantine Empire: Helped by the powerful Pisan navy, the Normans of southern Italy sack Thebes, Corinth and Euboea; the Pisans conquer Rhodes, the Normans the Ionian islands, wresting also Corfu from Venice. They also try to set up again Belisarius Diogenes as rival emperor, but the Peloponnesian ruler, afraid of being deprived of his lands by the Venetian-Byzantine alliance, refuses.

1148 Northern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe: After enforcing the Treaty of Pilsen, Bohemia is master of Central Europe. The marches of Meissen and Austria and the brand new one of Brandenburg (formerly Greater Wendia, now under Albert the Bear von Ballenstedt) are made into semi-independent vassals of Bohemia, while Lusatia is annexed to Bohemia as a dependent duchy. Western Pomerania/Mecklemburg remains in the hands of the mostly heathen Slavic Obodrite tribe, led by their Christian duke Nicholas I of the Niklotowicz dynasty. Margrave Henry Jasomirgott of Austria is stripped of the Palatinate which is bestowed upon Welf VI of Memmingen from the Welf family, former regent of Bavaria for his young nephew Henry and current nominal margrave of Bernmark (*mainland Veneto).

Western Europe: Marquis Ferdinand II and his mother-in-law, Grand Duchess Manella of Castile, defend Toledo against a Gallastrian besieging force, which is routed. North Africa: A Norman-Pisan army, officially hedead for Mauretania (*OTL Morocco) to fight the Gadirote Cathars, is instead hijacked :rolleyes: to Ifrigia (*later Punia, OTL Tunisia), where an independentist revolt against the Western emperor of Sicily, John IV Ghiffiotto, has exploded. The Norman army supports the birth of an independent kingdom of Ifrigia under the rebel leader Peter IV, duke of Thermeli (*OTL Hammamet), whose imprisonment and escape had started the revolt. A Genoese fleet led astray by a storm while trasporting anti-Cathar Crusaders “discovers” the Canary islands (already known to the Romans, but almost forgotten in the Middle Ages and only seldom touched by European or Maurian sailors) meeting their fierce non-seafaring inhabitants, the Guanches. Despite being often tall and blond, they are found to speak a language distantly related to Maurian (*OTL Moroccan) Berber.

1148-1156

Western Europe: The king of Brittany, Conan III the Great, dies after disinheriting his only male son, Hoël III count of Nantes, for reasons of illegitimacy. Brittany should go to Eudes of Porhoët, Conan's son-in-law, but Hoël asserts his own rights to the throne. When he dies childless after escaping from an uprising, the throne of Brittany finally passes to Eudes, founder of the Rohan dynasty.

1149

Western Europe: The new duke of Valencia, Llorente I the Hardy, crushes in battle at Teruel the army of his brother-in-law, Enzacòn/Aintza Jaun (lord) of Sobrarbre, the Navarrese pretender to the ducal throne and a grandson of Sancho III the Great, despite the pretender's force was bolstered by a thousand Norman knights from France.

Southern Europe: The King of Lombardy Arrigo I, the Communal militias from Cremona, Lodi and Como and the counts of Seprio raze Milan to the ground:eek: :eek: :eek:, save for the churches, after its surrender by hunger following the two-year-long siege. The king formally prohibits to dwell in the town and its immediate surroundings except for clerics and their peasant serfs, and the Milanese archbishopric is transferred in nearby Monza with most of the vanquished populace. The consuls and former consuls of the Milanese Comune (the so-called Forty Martyrs of Lombardy) are later beheaded as felons amidst the ruins of the destroyed city. Pope Dominic I (St.Bernard of Clairvaux), shocked by such violence against good Christians, excommunicates the king.

North Africa: The Pisan fleet forces the capitulation of Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) to the Norman-Ifrigian army: Peter I is enthroned as king of Ifrigia by the Primate of Africa, Gregory VI of Byzastes, with Papal approval (under Lesser Norman duress). The Pisans then conquer St. James of Ikhuzi (*OTL Algiers) from its Genoese overlords.

Byzantine Empire: The Byzantines, helped by Venice, expel the Normans and Pisans from the Ionian islands and the Aegean Sea; Venice recovers Corfu.

Middle East: Nur ad-Din, the strong son of Zengi, crushes the Antiochene Crusaders and the Assassins of Syria at the siege of Inab, where prince Tancredi of Antioch and the Assassin leader, Alì ibn Wafa, are killed; then Nur ad-Din ceremonially rides to the shores of the Mediterranean in sign of victory. In Antioch a regency under the Norse-Byzantine princess Theodora, daughter of the late duke Sigurd of Pamphilia, manages to defend the city. Atabeg Unur of Damascus raids Palestine up to the walls of Jerusalem but is repulsed, then dies on his return in the Syrian capital.

1149-1151

Central Asia: The Shansabani rulers of Ghor (central Afghanistan), a group of brothers, raze Ghazni and wrest Kabul from the Ghaznavids, ousting them (and the Sunni Waliate) from the country. They also take Herat from the Seljuk sultan Sanjar of Khorassan, founding the Afghan Ghorid kingdom.

1150 Southern Europe: Arrigo I the City-Razer, king of Lombardy, allies with emperor William III of Greater Normandy to avoid an invasion of Lombardy by Burgundian forces through the lands of his rival, Umberto of Susa-Ivrea-Turin. He also gains the relieve from Papal excommunication by restoring the possessions of the Milanese archbishopric and allowing the archbishop to stay in St. Ambrose cathedral with his following. Venice quashes a Norman-sponsored revolt in western Histria.

Byzantine Empire: The Pisans plunder and torch Attalia, the main Byzantine port of southern Anatolia

North Africa: The anti-Cathar Crusade in Mauretania (*OTL Morocco) founders after the unsuccessful battle of Gasfr Sifna (*not existing OTL).

Middle East: Nur ad-Din of Syria conquers the Crusader fortress of Turbessel but is repulsed under the walls of Edessa. Later on count Wido of Tarantasia, ruler of Edessa dies without heirs leaving his endangered domain to the Knights Templar, now the real masters of Christian Syria

SE Asia: The Khmer ruler Suryavarman II dies during a campaign against Annam and his empire of Kambuja weakens amidst succession struggles.

ca. 1150 

Northern, Western, Southern Europe: Throughout Catholic Europe nobility begins to close to lesser social strata and to become a blood caste. Northern Europe: Marked decline of royal authority in Germany under the ineffective rule of Ludwig VI of Thuringia. Amidst the ensuing confusion, a migration of people from Saxony, Thuringia and the Frisian lands begins towards the Slavic lands of the western Baltic and especially Brandeburg, whose margrave Albert the Bear welcomes immigrants and continues his forced Christianization of nearby Wends/Polabians. Bohemia, Brandenburg's overlord, shows little interest in the matter.

Southern Europe: Quick decay of the Canossa kingdom, rapidly falling apart in Communal revolts and succession struggles between the various branches of the ruling family. As Bari declines under Norman direct domination, the free Comune of Ancona becomes the most powerful Adriatic rival of Venice. The Normans are de facto masters of wide areas of the theoretically Papal kingdom of Italy/Spoleto. Duklja/Zeta (later Melanoria, *OTL Montenegro) binds herself tightly to Byzantium by dynastical marriages to counter the menaces from Hungary, Raška/Kosovo and the Normans of southern Italy.

Central-Eastern Europe: Dynastical chaos is rampant in Kievan Rus', where the various pricipalities fight one another as the Kipchak/Cumans raid almost unopposed from the Dniester to the Volga. The center of Russian power slowly moves away from Kiev towards new centers in White Ruthenia/Belarus, at Novgorod and in the north-eastern principality of Vladimir-Suzdal'.

Byzantine Empire: In the Byzantine Empire the pronoia system, a kind of local feudalism, takes root.

Black Africa: A secession war rocks the kingdom of Kanem (Chad): some Animist clans resisting Islamization are defeated and migrate west to bolster the nearby kingdom of Bornu.

Middle East: Jaffa gains wide reputation as a cross-cultural centre for studies, active in the recovery and analysis of ancient classical texts (*think of OTL's Toledo).

Central Asia: The Karakhitai Empire vassalizes the Kimaks and the Kirghizes/Khakassians of southern Siberia. Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity and even Judaism flourish again in Central Asia under the Karakhitai religious toleration; Samarkand again becomes a cosmopolitan city.

SE Asia: The first historical Banjar kingdom of southern Kalimantan/Borneo, Negaradipa, is founded.



1151-1155
1150-1155

India: Religious insurgence of the Lingayat Hindu sect, led by the preacher and social reformer Basava, against the Chalukya king Taila III. The sect, a monotheistic and egalitarian offshoot of Saivism (the cult of Shiva) strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism (*only in TTL), gains credit at the Chalukya court.

1150-1156 Northern Europe: Erik IX Jedvardsson, a lord in Uppland, is made rival king of Sweden against king Sverker I, and acquires the throne when Sverker is murdered by another pretender, Magnus Henriksson

1151

Northern Europe: Knut/Canute V is expelled from his holdings in Jutland by Sven III and takes refuge in Saxony.

Southern Europe: Ancona has to accept a Norman garrison after a failed naval Byzantine-Venetian assault.

1151-1220

India, Middle East: The Long Schism divides the Waliate (*Sunni “Papacy”). After the brutal destruction of Ghazni and the subsequent death of the aged Wali Salah ad-Din II Shahid (the Martyr) at the hands of the Shansabani Ghorids – turned to Caliphism (*the main rival of Waliism in the Sunni sphere, maintaining the unity of both spiritual and temporal authoral in one Caliph) – no less than three rival Wali courts are set up by descendants of the murdered Salah ad-Din (*the Walis are NOT presumed to abstain from marrying:D ), one in Merv (Khorassan) under the protection of the local Seljuk sultan, Sanjar; another in Multan at the reestablished Ghaznavid court in Punjab, and the third and in time most widely recognized in Mecca under Hashemite protection.

1152 British isles: A kingdom of East Breifne rises in war-torn Ireland, seceding from Breifne under Godfrey of the O’Reilly clan.

Western Europe: Valencian forces besiege Saragossa but take a beating at the hands of the Navarrese army. King Afonso III the Great of Portugal, in his last great victory, defeats and captures duke Odegiso II of Transierra (*OTL Extremadura, Spain) at the fortress of Arrogadana (*OTL Badajoz); the defeated ruler is later freed to return to his capital in Mérida as a Portuguese vassal.

Southern Europe: Berchtold IV von Zähringen is made duke of Alamannia (*OTL northern Switzerland) as a vassal under loose Burgundian control.

North Africa: Genoa conquers Jarthousa (*OTL Bizert, Tunisia) but her fleet is crushed by Pisa at the naval battle of Sardubia (*OTL Marbella, Spain). The Pisans succesfully close the Atlantic to Genoese shipping; Pisa is undisputed master of the Western Mediterranean. Norman-Ifrigian forces vassalize the most powerful Numidian principality, Constantina: it's the final blow to the Foedus Africae, which ceases to exist.

Byzantine Empire: In the southeast, basileus John II is forced to concede renewed freedom to Armenia Minor in exchange for an annual tribute. Caucasus: Daghestan secedes from Azerbaijan under Muzaffar, a scion of the former Hashimi rulers of Derbent.

1153

Northern Europe: A handful of Hesperian (*American) natives, captured by Icelandic traders, end up in Lübeck, where they are referred to as “Indians” and soon die of European diseases.

Southern Europe: The sea-trading Comune of Savona, pressed hard by the Aleramic feudatories from lower Piedmont, is forced into a vassal alliance with Genoa. Hungarians and Serbs from Raška/Kosovo besiege and raze Byzantine-held Naissos/Niš.

Central Asia: Great revolt of the nomad Oghuz Turks in western Central Asia: the local sultan, Sanjar, is captured, his governors slain, Seljuk power over Khorezm and Khorassan shattered. India: Conversion to Islam (in the Zaydi Shiite confession prevailing in the southern Arabic peninsula) of the Maldives, where a Muslim sultanate is established

1153-1154

Southern Europe: Pope Dominic I (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) dies, his last years marked by sincere efforts to establish peace between Christian princes. He is succeeded by the Norman-sponsored Anastasius IV (Corrado della Suburra, a Roman), then, on his death after a year, by Adrian IV, the Englishman Nicholas Breakspear

1154 Northern Europe: Knut/Canute V and Valdemar I, helped by the duke of Saxony Frederick von Hohenstaufen (*OTL Barbarossa), ally against Sven III and oust him from Denmark; the defeated ruler takes refuge in western Pomerania. A Swedish expedition enforces Christianization in SW coastal Finland.

British Isles, Western Europe: Emperor William III of Greater Normandy (*France plus England) dies at Winchester; he is succeeded by his first son, Henry II the Courteous.

Western Europe: The Besoncés dynasty, a branch of the Burgundian Anscarids, gains the throne of Castile with Ferdinand II upon the extinction of the related Galìndez family with the death of the childless Grand Duchess Manella.

Southern Europe: King Arrigo I the City-Razer destroys the towns of Tortona and Asti, then together with Montferrat forces defeats his Piedmontese rival, Umberto of Susa-Torino-Ivrea, at the second battle of Pollenzo. King Roger II of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy) dies, succeeded by William I. The Venetians conquer the strategic coastal forts of Otranto and Leuca (Puglia). Bosnia becomes a semi-independent banovina (duchy) under ineffective Hungarian overlordship, its inhabitants having remained staunch Bogomils.

Caucasus: The Danishmendiyya Turks of sultan Yaghi-Basan and their Azerbaijani allies of atabeg Ildeguz trounce an Iberian/Georgian-Alan army at the battle of Karakilisa (*OTL Vanadzor/Kirovakan). The usurper David V of Iberia/Georgia finds glorious death on the battlefield, his father Demetre I is restored on the throne. Middle East: Nur ad-Din, son of Zengi, reunifies inner Syria by conquering Damascus and ending Burid rule there.

1154-1156

North Africa: A mixed Byzantine-Sicilian army lands in Ifrigia (*later Punia, OTL Tunisia) trying to reassert “Roman” power, but after initial victories is finally crushed at Ziqqwana (*OTL Zaghouan) by Norman-Ifrigian forces. Genoa manages to extend his control of Ifrigian ports by conquering and holding Monastir and Tafrura (*OTL Sfax)

1154-1158

Northern Europe: Last major rebellion of the western Obodrites, who burn Lübeck but are ultimately defeated by the duke of Saxony, Frederick von Hohenstaufen (*OTL Barbarossa).

Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: Major rebellion of the Vlachs and Bulgarians against Byzantium, quashed with ferocity by the imperial army and the Vardariotes (*Turkish warriors settled in Macedonia by John II)

1155

British isles: Pope Adrian IV, the Englishman Nicholas Breakspeare, “entrusts” war-torn Ireland to the new emperor of Greater Normandy, Henry II the Corteous; the island however remains in the hands of the warring clans and local kings. King Owain II of Wales exiles his brother and co-ruler Cadwaladr, who had married Alice, a half-sister of the late Norman ruler William III; in the meantime Deheubarth (SW Wales) rebels against Norman suzerainty.

Southern Europe: A Burgundian army led by count Amadeus II of Savoy invades Lombardy allying with Umberto of Piedmont. Pavia, the Lombard capital, is abandoned by king Arrigo I, plundered and burnt, as the exiled Milanese revolt in Monza. But the invaders are trounced by the joint forces of Arrigo and of marquis William V of Montferrat in the great battle of Vidigulfo near Pavia; Amadeus of Savoy is captured and ends his life in a Lombard dungeon, Monza is subject to a merciless sack and hundreds more of Milanese exiles are slain. Hungary and Raška/Kosovo fall apart, fighting each other and easing Byzantine counterattack.

North Africa: The Pisans ally with the Banu Hilal sultan Amr II ibn Shaddad al-Naluti to wrest Tripoli of Libya from the Genoese. They receive wide rights of commerce in the reconquered town, a flourishing market for gold, spices and slaves from Black Africa. Byzantine Empire: Byzantine forces crush the Hungarians at Skupiokastritsa (*OTL Skopje) and the Vlacho-Bulgarian insurgents at Hemochorion (*somewhere in OTL Stara Planina, Balkans proper). Genoa gains trade privileges in the Byzantine Empire in exchange for a pledge to help the basileus rebuild his navy.

1156-1160
1155-1157

Northern Europe: Co-king Inge I of Norway, a crippled invalid, has his brother Sigurd II murdered and civil war ravages the country. The third rival co-ruler, Eystein II, fights back, but dies two year later leaving Inge the sole ruler of a deeply divided country.

British isles: The Norman imperial armies and Cadwaladr's followers mark sweeping victories in southern Wales and devastate the country, but after a sound defeat at Mona/Anglesey and a promising victory at Moeleicoel (*OTL Coleshill), they are eventually mauled in battle at Basingwerk, where the Greater Norman emperor, Henry II the Courteous, is wounded and captured. The captive ruler then signs the Peace of Bangor, recognizing the full independence of Wales under Owain II and of Deheubarth under Cadwaladr, and makes a pledge never more to invade Wales nor to help Cadwaladr should he again try to retake the Welsh throne.

1156

Northern Europe: The English-born bishop Henry of Uppsala is martyred in Finland while preaching and consolidating Swedish power in the service of king Eric IX.

Southern Europe: King Arrigo of Lombardy ravages Piedmont, burning Ivrea and razing Chieri, but is repulsed when he tries to assault Turin; the Alpine passes remain firmly in the hands of the Guidoni clan and their Burgundian patrons. Emperor John IV of Sicily dies, succeeded by his son, Matthias I the Pilgrim, a respected veteran of the Second Crusade. Central-Eatern Europe: Mstislav II Izyaslavich, son of prince Izyaslav II of Kiev, defeats Jurij Dolgorukij at Volodymyr-Volynsky but cannot reenter his capital. Middle East, Byzantine Empire: Raynald the Wolf, a scion of the same Châtillon family that produced Pope Urban II, and now powerful regent in Antioch after marrying the widowed princess Theodora, allies to the Pisans to raid Byzantine Pamphilia, claiming his wife's rights.

1156-1157

Central Asia: The Seljuk sultan of Khorassan, Sanjar, escapes from prisony aming the Oghuz Turkmen and regains a throne in Isfahan, but dies a little later, marking the final eclipse of Seljuk power in Central Asia. In Persia/Iran splintered Seljuk states survive alongside Turkmen, Kurdish or indigenous principalities.

1156-1159

Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: Unsuccessful Lesser (Italian) Norman invasion of Albania and northern Greece: after initial success exploiting Byzantine weakness due to the Vlacho-Bulgarian insurgency, the Italo-Normans are beaten and forced to surrender, as the Venetian navy blockades the coasts. The humiliation of the vanquished Normans at the... hands :rolleyes: of the Vardariotes (*Byzantine Turkish guard settled in Macedonia), a replay of the Caudine Forks:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:, will remain in history and fan Western hate for Byzantium.

1156-1160

Far East: The H?gen (1156) and Heiji (1159-1160) Rebellions, fought over the disputed imperial succession to the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa (*”cloistered” emperors turned to Buddhist monks retain however great power and prestige) and to gain power in the Fujiwara regent clan, establish the rising role of the samurai warrior caste in Japan, represented by the powerful Taira and Minamoto clans. The Tairas gain the upper hand and impose the first samurai-led government of Japan's history.

1157

Northern Europe: A Saxon army helps Sven III make a comeback in Denmark, and the subsequent conflict ends in the tripartition of the kingdom, with Sven in possession of Scania, Knut/Canute V in Zealand (the islands) and Valdemar in control of Jutland. When later on a “reconciliation” :rolleyes: banquet is held in Roskilde at Sven's invitation as a trap for his rivals, Knut/Canute is killed:mad:, while Valdemar escapes, afterwards defeating and killing Sven :D at Grathe Hede, and reunifiying Denmark.

Central-Eastern Europe: The Bohemians of king Vladislav II invade the Polish duchy of Silesia, then defeat king Boleslaw IV of Poland at the battle of Opole and make all of Poland tributary: Bohemia reaches its apogee, acquiring Silesia which is put under Wladislaw II the Exile, the deposed former king of Poland. Claiming old dynastical ties with the deposed Diogenes dukes of Drystra/Silistra, the Rus' of grand prince Jurij Dolgorukij of Kiev and Rostov-Vladimir-Suzdal', one of Vladimir II the Great's (*OTL Vladimir Monomakh's) many sons and the most powerful ruler of Russia, conquer the Danubian fortress from the beleaguered Byzantines. Velizarij (*OTL Vasilko), one of Jurij's sons, is enthroned there making the place a safe harbor for anti-Byzantine rebels. A few months later Yurij Dolgorukij dies and Kievan power over Russia wanes in favor of the growing duel for supremacy between the principalities of Rostov-Vladimir-Suzdal' and Polotsk.

Middle East: Nur ad-Din recaptures Edessa (*OTL Urfa) from the Templars after a hard-fought siege in which Grand Master André de Montbard is killed in action.

1157-1159

Northern Europe, Southern Europe: To regain credibility Ludwig VI of Germany tries to reconquer Romancia (*OTL eastern Switzerland plus Valtellina and Vorarlberg) but is excommunicated by Pope Adrian IV, being now Romancia a purely ecclesiastical holding. He tries to keep reigning but a rebel coalition defeats him on the Sieg river and the Diet of Regensburg, at the urge of most ecclesiastical princes, deposes him. The Electors, however, fail to appoint a new king, and a new inevitable civil war begins. British isles, Western Europe: Civil war in the Norman empire after the usurpation in France and Normandy proper by Pepin the Handsome, brother of the Greater Norman emperor, Henry II, for a time believed dead in battle against the Welshmen. The emperor, once set free, enterprises a painful reconquest of England with both Church support and help from his vassal and brother-in-law Wulfstan I of Northumbria. In the battle of Higham Castle the rebel barons are crushed and England secured.

1158 Southern Europe: The Lombard king, Arrigo I the City-Razer, true to his nickname invades the Canossian kingdom and razes the town of Parma, who dared attack his lands during the Burgundian invasion; the divided Canossas don't move for help, indeed rejoicing the temporary elimination of a powerful Comune.

Byzantine Empire: The Ortoqid Turks score a major victory over the Byzantine army in the battle of Perrhai (*OTL Adiyaman), paving the way for another wave of invasions into Anatolia.

Middle East: William I of Montferrat-Jerusalem dies, leaving the regency of the Holy City to his son-in-law, Guido of Biandrate, marquis of the Levant (Arsuf and Caesarea of Palestine). 1158-1164 British isles: Somerled of the Isles, gained the support of most Pictish clans, ousts his brother-in-law, king Godfrey I the Black, from Alba and Scotland. The deposed king takes refuge in the isle of Man, preserving bridgeheads in Cumbria and Galloway, then on Somerled's death he is able to regain the Double Crown of Alba and Scotland with Norwegian help, despite some Northumbrian meddling in favor of the usurper's heirs.

1159

Southern Europe: Pope Adrian IV dies. The Council of Cardinals, rejecting Norman pressure, elects Orlando Bandinelli from Siena as Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III), but the Norman king of southern Italy, William I, has Honorius III (Ottavio di Montecelio, a scion of the Tuscolo clan, *OTL Victor IV), appointed as rival anti-Pope and forcibly enthroned in Rome, as Alexander flees to Spoleto.

North Africa: The Grand Master of the Portuguese branch of the Templars, Dom Gualdim Pais, founds Guarda Catòlica da Moreia (*later Moreia, OTL Casablanca) as a Templar outpost against the Cathar Gadirotes.

Central-Eastern Europe: The Duchy of Silesia is divided into the two smaller units of Upper and Lower Silesia under Wladislaw the Exile's sons, vassals of Bohemia.

Middle East: Suspect death of the young prince of Antioch, Roger II the Child of the Hauteville family. Raynald the Wolf of Châtillon, Roger's stepfather, becomes the new prince.

1159-1161

Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: Basileus John II Comnenus dies of old age in Constantinople, leaving the throne to his favorite and only surviving son, Manuel. The new ruler's ambitious cousin, Andronicus, after the failure of a plot, starts a bloody civil war which brings the Empire on its knees:( . Alongside Andronicus take part the Vardariote Turkish Guard, the always unruly Vlachs and Bulgarians, the Kievan Rus', Zeta (*later Melanoria, OTL Montenegro), the Batiturks of southern Anatolia and their Danishmendid cousins, while the legitimate basileus gains support from the Kipchak/Cumans, Hungary, Venice, the Western Empire of Sicily, Iberia/Georgia and the Ortoqid Turks. After several pitched encounters and numberless raids and skirmishes, with foreign mercenaries camping throughout the empire, the war is decided when Manuel is murdered in the besieged city of Thessalonica. In the meantime the Turks (Ortoqid and Danishmendids) have invaded Cappadocia; Melitene (*OTL Malatya) has fallen to the Danishmendids, Caesarea/Mazhak has suffered a sack at Ortoqid hands, and in Europe the Hungarians have taken Vidin and vassalized the Serbs of Raška/Kosovo.

1159-1162

Western Europe: The Pyrenean War between Navarra and Toulouse/Septimania ends without a clear winner; the lands of the counts of Foix and of the counts of Barcelona, disputed between the warring kingdoms, gain factual self-rule.

1160 Northern Europe: The self-proclaimed rival kings of Germany Frederick von Hohenstaufen (*OTL Barbarossa) duke of Saxony and Henry the Lion duke of Bavaria clash with their respective armies and allies at the battle of Schloss Gelnhausen, where Frederick wins, entering Frankfurt am Mein to be crowned as king Frederick II of Germany. Instrumental for the victory is support from the deposed Ludwig VI of Thuringia, Frederick's brother-in-law. But Henry the Lion, though wounded, entrenches in his Bavarian domains and Frederick doesn't press over, content with gaining the crown. The county of Nassau (NW Germany) is founded and bestowed upon the counts of Laurenburg.

Western Europe: King Otto III the Blind of Luxemburg dies without heirs, extinguishing the main Ardennes/Luxemburg dynasty. Duke Henry II of Limburg-Brabant-Arlon, the regent and strongman of the kingdom and a very distant relative of the royal family, inherits the crown without opposition as king Henry III of Luxemburg.

Southern Europe: Spoleto is torched by William I of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy) for hosting Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III), its legitimate and titular king, plus being the Roman Pope. Alexander takes refuge in Ravenna under Canossa and Venetian protection. Venice quells another Communal revolt at Zara, its main Dalmatian holding. Middle East: Raynald the Wolf of Châtillon, prince of Antioch, is captured by Nur ad-Din's Muslims near Marash (Syria); Antioch remains under the regency of princess Theodora, who later gives birth to Magnus, Raynald's only son.

ca. 1160

Central Asia: The governor of Khorezm, Il-Arslan Abu’l-Fath, rejects Seljuk authority, proclaims himself Shah and defeats a Karakhitai invasion. The last independent Uygur khanates of eastern Turkestan are vassalized by the Karakhitai empire.

SE Asia: Muzaffar Shah I, ruler of Kedah (NW Malaya), converts to Caliphist Islam (*the Sunni faction rejecting the Walis as supreme religious authority) as the first Muslim polity in the Malay area.