Timeline 1160-1175 (Interference)

1161-1165
1160-1161

Northern Europe: Eric IX the Lawgiver, king of Sweden, is killed by assassins on the payroll of the rival Sverker house. After the brief rule of Magnus Henriksson, Charles VII, son of the murdered Sverker I, is enthroned.

Western Europe: Duke Conan I of Anjou revolts against the usurper Pepin the Handsome. As Pepin besieges Conan at Cholet, he is caught by suprise, defeated and captured by the Breton army of king Eudes I, ally of the legitimate emperor Henry II, who can thus reenter France. The captive usurper is pardoned at the insistence of the French Church, but at the price of exile and taking vows as a Templar to live and fight in the Levant for the rest of his life:cool:.

1161 Northern Europe: King Inge I of Norway dies, succeeded by his rival nephew Haakon II Herdebrei, first son of Sigurd II, who manages to bring a relative peace in the country.

British Isles: The Northumbrians defeat the deposed Godred I of Alba and Scotland at Penrith and conquer Cumbria/Cumberland, forcing Godred to flee to the Isle of Man.

Southern Europe: A Norman-Anconitan fleet first defeats the Venetians off the Conero promontory, then is crushed by them off Cherso/Krk island. The Venetian fortresses in Otranto and Leuca are taken back by the Italo-Normans. William I of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy) plunders Romagna, torches Rimini, but fails in the siege of San Leo, and when he tries to attack Ravenna his army is decimated by malaria.

Caucasus: The Danishmendids take back Ani from the Iberians/Georgians.

India: The Pala dynasty of Bengal and Bihar comes to an end with the death of Madanpala, not before having firmly reestablished Buddhism as a major religion in NE India with the help of Tibetan preachers. The vast Pala domains are carved between the Chandra and Sena sub-kingdoms.

Far East: The Tatar tribe shatters the first Mongol confederacy into a collection of warring clans.

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): The Norseman Olaf Eiriksson explores the southern fringes of Skraelingarland (*OTL Acadia), that is the lands later to be known as New Palestine (*OTL Massachussets, New Hampshire and Maine). 1162

Western Europe, Middle East: Count Donat II of Barcelona self-raises his state to Duchy; his younger brother, Bernat of Tortosa, inherits the powerful crusader county of Tripoli (Lebanon) by marrying her distant cousin, countess Myriam.

Southern Europe: King Arrigo I the City-Razer decides to support Genoa in the incessant struggle for supremacy in Sardinia; a Lombard army lands in the norther part of the island and decisively crushes the Norman forces of Torres in the battle of Tilickennor (*a hamlet near OTL Sassari) with help from the other Sardinian judges-kings. Arrigo I has himself crowned High King of Sardinia in Genoa, though recognizing a theoretical Papal suzerainty over the island, and any commercial privilege to the Genoese. Robert III of Torres, the defeated Norman ruler, takes refuge in Naples.

Byzantine Empire: Basileus Andronicus I Comnenus, more and more supporting the anti-Latin faction, suddenly has all Venetians throughout the empire arrested:mad:, revoking Venetian trade privileges and tax exemptions.

Extinction of the Sigurdopoulos house of Pamphilia; the duchy reverts to the imperial crown of Byzantium as a catepanate, despite the claim from princess-regent Theodora of Antioch, sister of the deceased duke Magnus Sigurdsson.

India: Bijjala, a powerful local governor of Karnataka from the Kalachuri clan, overthrows and kills his overlord Taila III of the Kalyani Chalukyas, usurping the Chalukya throne.

Far East: Emperor Gaozong of southern Song China, having no more heirs, is succeeded by a sixth-degree :eek: cousin, Xiaozong (Zhao Shen), being most of the imperial family either dead or in Jurchen captivity in Manchuria.

1162-1163

Southern Europe: The Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrich II von Treffen, conquers Grado but is later captured by the Venetians, publicly humiliated and forced to give back the town.

Central-Eastern Europe: Stephen III, the legitimate heir of king Géza II, wins a civil war against his rebel uncles Ladislas/Làszlò II and Stephen IV, who had briefly dethroned him

1162-1166 Southern Europe: Raška/Kosovo shakes off Hungarian yoke. Soon afterwards Desa Vukanovic, the last scion of the Vojislavljevic clan, is overthrown by the four brothers Tihomir, Stracimir, Stefan Nemanja and Miroslav, who carve between themselves most Serbian lands up to Adriatic. In the end Stefan Nemanja, with Byzantine support, liquidates Tihomir, founding the Nemanji? dynasty of Raška/Kosovo, while Miroslav holds sway over Zahumlje (*later Dukovina, *OTL Hercegovina) and Travunja/Trivalja (a sub-kingdom due north of OTL Montenegro) and Stracimir becomes lord of parts of northern Serbia.

North Africa: Failed attempt to subdue the Guanches of Gran Canaria by Joan Mikel el Serrano, nephew of king Augustine II of Sevilla; the Guanches resist successfully, but accept Christianity as Mencey (king) Maxirca is baptized as Paul. Other islands have marginal contact with Pisan tradesmen, the only known outcome being fierce epidemics of hitherto unknown diseases among the natives.

1163 Western Europe: A council of bishops held in Tours condemns Cathars, wherever they are found, to be deprived of any possessions:rolleyes:, sparking a major hunt for wealthy heretics in Aquitania/Occitania and Septimania, and intensifies plunder in the areas of Mauretania (*OTL Morocco) already held by Crusaders.

Byzantine Empire: The Vardariotes invade and conquer Morea/Peloponnesus on orders of basileus Andronicus I; duke Leo Diogenes flees to Heraklion, the Cretan port just taken by the Venetian fleet. The Venetians conquer Crete, Rhodes and the Ionian islands from the Byzantines.

Middle East: Emir Nur ad-Din of Syria vainly besieges the Hospitalier stronghold of Krak des Chevaliers

1163-1168

Southern Europe: Ban (duke) Bori? leads Bosnia to revolt against Hungary, occupying central Dalmatia with Split/Spalato and parts of Croatia. He eventually renews allegiance to the Hungarian crown, but retains substantial freedom for his land.

1164 Northern Europe: Western Pomerania is finally made a vassal of Germany, renewing tensions with Albert the Bear's Brandenburg and its overlord-ally, Bohemia.

Southern Europe: Honorius III (*OTL Victor IV), the Norman-backed rival Pope installed in Rome, dies. King William I of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy) has the Primate of Africa Peter V enthroned in Rome as Pope and king of Italy/Spoleto with the name of Augustine III; the exiled Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III), by now widley recognized in most of the Christian countries as the only the legitimate Pope-king, remains defiant in Ravenna and renews his interdict of the Italo-Norman kingdom.

A matrimonial alliance is celebrated between the Castiglioni counts of Seprio and the royal Amedei family, as Gualberto, heir to count John, is officially engaged to Lucia, daughter of Arrigo I the City-Razer, king of Lombardy and Sardinia.

Arrigo founds the city-fortress of Cuneo in southern Piedmont to control the Maritime Alps passes, then invades the Burgundian lands in alliance with the rebellious Communal city of Marseille, rising in revolt against king Adalbert III. Provence is ravaged and Arles briefly besieged before Arrigo withdraws beyond the Alps.

Judge (king) Barisone II of Arborea, the most powerful local ruler, is made viceroy (Bisdonno) of Sardinia by High King Arrigo I, and repels Pisan and Lesser Norman attacks, though the Pisan-Norman alliance manages to gobble up Cagliari/Santa Igia, the southern Sardinian judicate.

North Africa: Masfalku II, co-ruler of Lesvallia (*OTL Kabylia) and a distant descendant of Yoshua I Lamzag, crushes an invading Ifrigian force and its Numidian vassals at the battle of Nat'Rathen (*OTL Larba).

Byzantine Empire: The invading Ortoqid army conquers Caesarea/Mazhak and Iconium as Turkmen tribes go rampant in central Anatolia; the Batiturks rise again.

The Venetians sack Athens and conquer Corinth, soon to be ousted by the Vardariotes; the Byzantine army takes Dyrrachion (*OTL Durres) from Venice.

Middle East: Nur ad-Din of Syria, by now a hero in the Muslim world for his uncompromising stance against the Crusaders, defeats the Templars at Baniyas. 1164-1166

Southern Europe: Ancona rebels against her Norman allies-overlords and is twice vainly besieged. 1164-1167 Southern Europe: Genoa, angered at Arrigo's support of rival Marseille, turns against the king and suffers a long siege, escaping destruction only through its domination of the sea routes. When the Pisans try to blockade the town by sea, a dreadful storm, known as the Baptist's Breath (from the city's saint patron John the Baptist), wipes away the enemy. Then the Comune of Genoa negotiates favourable terms of surrender with king Arrigo, solemnly receiving him.

1164-1168

North Africa: A struggle for Egypt begins as the Kurd Shirkuh, one of Nur ad-din's ablest generals, manages to get a hold over the Vizierate of Fatimid Egypt, by now firmly held by Waliist :eek: (*followers of the Walis, the Sunni “Popes”) Mamluk soldier-slaves, despite the Fatimid “Caliphs”, now reduced to puppets, being Shi'a Ismailis, in a most unholy cohabitation. With the avowed intent of “freeing” :rolleyes: Egypt and “restoring” :rolleyes: the Fatimids, viceroy Guido of Biandrate-Levant-Jerusalem repeatedly invades the country, finally conquering all of the Nile Delta as the Genoese and Western Imperial navies take the fortress of Damietta and the city of Alexandria, where a Catholic Patriarchate is installed.

1164-1170

Arabia: Abdullah bin Yusuf an-Nafudi, a young Waliist Bedouin chieftain from a minor branch of the Banu Murra tribe endowed with both charisma and military genius, unifies the nomads of the wide deserts between Mesopotamia and Hijaz under his banner.

1164-1181

Northern Europe: A German-led “Crusade” for the Christianization of the western Slavic lands along the Baltic is waged by Frederick II of Germany (*OTL Barbarossa) and margrave Albert the Bear of Brandenburg, with Danish support. Poland is cut off from the Baltic coast up to the Vistula, saving only Danzig.

1165

Northern Europe: Frederick II of Germany (*OTL Barbarossa) ravages Jutland, extorting tribute from Valdemar I of Denmark.

The German king divides Frisia between the rich bishopric od Utrecht and the county of Holland, but neither has real authority over the region, ruled by local abbeys and free trading cities.

Western Europe: The first known Cathar synod is held in Lombers (Septimania) to counter the menace from the Catholics. King Raymond II, from his capital in Toulouse, desperately resists ecclesiastical call for an anti-Cathar Crusade, knowing it would disrupt his already ailing and feud-ridden state.

Southern Europe: Supported by both Venice and Frederick II of Germany the towns of Veneto/Bernmark rise against margrave Welf VI of Memmingen to form the Venetic League under the leadership of the Comune of Verona. This weakens the Welf rivals of Frederick, still not ready to acknowledge his royal status.

Byzantine Empire: Leo Diogenes reenters Morea/Peloponnesus and defends the stronghold of Monemvasia against the Byzantine army.

1166-1170
1166 

British Isles: After the murder of High King Muirchertach O’Lochlainn, the allied forces of Dublin and Rory O'Connor's Connacht conquers Leinster; Rory becomes the new High King. The deposed Diarmait macMurchada/Dermot macMurrough flees to Wales.

British Isles, Western Europe: The Greater Norman emperor, Henry II the Courteous, levies a a general tax on both lay and ecclesiastical properties, ostensibly to fund the Crusading effort in the Levant. He meets hostility from the Church, and mainly from his very chamberlain, Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury, whom as a consequence he dismisses.

Southern Italy: William I of Lesser Normandy dies after taming a baronial revolt, and leaves the Italo-Norman kingdom to his son, Roger III the Young, under the direction of the able minister, Maione of Bari.

Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III), the legitimate Pope, from his exile see in Ravenna decrees the establishment of the Venetic Patriarchate, moving to Venice the Patriarch of Grado and giving him religious authority over all of mainland Veneto, western Histria, Dalmatia and the Catholics of Albania.

Byzantine Empire: Turkmen raiders are defeated on the Sangarios river by the Byzantine army led by basileus Andronicus I.

The Venetians plunder Smyrna but are later defeated by sea at Astypalaea. Caucasus: Danishmendid Ahlat/Armenia annexes Siuna (eastern Armenia), the last semi-independent Armenian kingdom in the area.

1166-1167 Western Europe: King Diogo I of Portugal is captured by his father-in-law, John II Ramiro of Gallastria (*OTL Galicia and Asturias), while raiding Gallastrian Leòn. The Portuguese ruler had to retrocede all his conquests in the disputed areas.

India: The conservative brahmins oust Basava and his Lingayat followers from favor at the Chalukya court in Karnataka.

1167 Northern Europe: Bishop Absalon fortifies Copenhagen against the Wendish pirates still infesting the Danish seas. Charles VII Sverkersson, king of Sweden, is murdered and replaced with Canute I of the rival Jedvardsson family, who finally brings some stability to the country.

Southern Europe: After Genoa's negotiated surrender to king Arrigo I, most Lombard Comuni form the Lombard League in Cremona as a mutual defense treaty against royal and feudal encroachments. The news is intepreted at court as high treason and a declaration of war.

The margrave of Bernmark/Veneto and of the Palatinate, Welf VI of Memmingen, and his ally Folco II of Este, torch Vicenza and defeat the Veronese militia at San Bonifacio. But the Venetic League assaults Este holdings, knocking out Folco from the war, then besieges and captures Welf at Soave. With the Charter of Verona the vanquished feudatory is forced to acknowledge the free cities of Verona, Vicenza, Padova, Treviso and Feltre with full rights over their current possessions, severely curtailing marchional authority.

Middle East: Nur ad-Din wrests the Lebanese fortress of Castel Nou from the Tripoline Crusaders 1167-1168

British Isles: Owain II of Wales seizes Deheubarth upon Cadwaladr's death. Emperor Henry II the Courteous of Greater Normandy tries to contest this by force of arms, but a baronial revolt erupts in England, supported by Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury and former minister for the sovereign. The Norman forces are defeated at Rhuddlan by the Welshman and Henry has to suspend his “Crusader tax” to appease the Church and restore his authority.

1167-1180

SE Asia: Khrit briefly replaces Parin as capital of Arakan, then the court is reestablished in Pingtsa.

1168 Northern Europe: The Danes of king Valdemar I the Great crush the last heathen Slavic principality at Arkona in Rügen, a century-old pirate nest where the Wends had a sanctuary dedicated to their god Svantevit. Slavic piracy in the Baltic is eliminated, after having desolated Denmark for decades.

King Frederick II (*OTL Barbarossa) of Germany strips Welf VI of Memmingen of the Palatinate, bestowing this important march upon Hermann, second son of his brother-in-law and key ally, the former king of Germany Ludwig duke of Thuringia.

Southern Europe: The Lombard League founds the city-fortress of Alessandria (in honor of Pope Alexander, mildly supporting its cause) as a strategic buffer between the holdings of the margraves of Montferrat and the royal domains. The new town resists the siege of margrave William V, but king Arrigo razes Piacenza and enforces obedience and tributes on Cremona at swordpoint. When even his capital, Pavia, revolts, Arrigo takes refuge at the castle of Lomello.

Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja of Raška/Kosovo and his brother Stracimir ally with the basileus; Serbs and Byzantines raze the Hungarian fortress of Zemun and rebuild Belgrade, bestowing it upon a Byzantine katepano (commander). Also Naissos/Niš is rebuilt as a Byzantine border fortress.

Byzantine Empire: Unable to bend the strong resolve of Andronicus I, Venice is forced to come to terms with Byzantium. The Venetians cannot trade any more in Constantinople itself or beyond the Dardanelles, but preserve the possession of several seaports in Albania and Morea/Peloponnesus, plus the entire islands of Crete and Rhodes and their former holdings of Corfu, Chios and Samos, paying only reduced taxes throughout the Mediterranean ports of the empire. Morea is confirmed under Leo Diogenes, but now as a Byzantine hereditary duchy.

The Danishmendid army captures the key Byzantine stronghold of Angora; then Danishmendids and Ortoqids begin to vie for power in Anatolia and to gain the favor of Batiturk tribes and clans.

North Africa: Fearing conquest at Crusader hands, the weak Fatimid Caliph of Egypt al-Adid sets fire to his capital of al-Fustat, which burns for 54 days. On the spot, as the Crusaders withdraw, Salah ad-Din, nephew of the new Vizier Shirkuh, has a new strong castle built, named al-Qahira (Cairo), the Victorious.

Central Hesperia (*OTL America): Tula, the Toltec capital, is destroyed by Chichimec invaders from the north; Huemac, the last emperor, will die in exile in nearby Chapultepec. The Tepanec kingdom of Azcapotzalco acquires supremacy in the central highland of Mexico.

1168-1184

India: After Bijjala's murder the Kalachuri usurpers in Kalyani lose strength and are ultimately overcome by the last scion of the local Chalukya dynasty, Someshwara IV.

1169 British Isles: A Welsh army conquers Wexford and Waterford for the exiled Diarmat/Dermot macMurrough of Leinster, who sought help in Wales. Richard FitzGilbert de Clare nicknamed Strongbow, the dispossessed Norman earl of Penfro (*OTL Pembroke) in Deheubarth, joins the expedition and becomes Dermot's son-in-law by marrying one of his daughters. A few weeks after the Welsh-Irish army raised by Dermot and Richard is defeated at Tara, the historical ceremonial capital of Ireland, by the forces of High King Rory O'Connor.

Northern Europe: Duke Henry the Lion of Bavaria is forced to acknowledge his cousin Frederick von Hohenstaufen (*OTL Barbarossa) as the legitimate German king after an invasion of his lands. In the Compromise of Augsburg it is however convened that the Electors will be bound to support Henry or one of his son as Frederick's successors; in turn Henry – or his sons - should recommend Frederick's son or his heir as his own successor, so as to establish a regular Welf-Hohenstaufen succession:confused:. Central-Eastern Europe: Kiev is sacked at the hands of Andrew I the Pious, son of Jurij Dolgorukij' and grand prince of Vladimir, Rostov and Suzdal', and loses the role of capital of Russia, which now shifts to Vladimir.

Byzantine Empire: The Danishmendid Turks and their Azerbaijani allies conquer Sebastea/Sivas from the Byzantines.

North Africa: Shirkuh manages to get a firm hold over the Egyptian Vizierate by eliminating his rival Shawar. Shirkuh's nephew, Salah ad-Din, retakes the fortress of Bilbeis from the Crusaders India: A civil war inside the ancient Pandya kingdom of southern Deccan is truncated by the intervention of the Chola overlords.

1170 Northern Europe: Albert the Bear, margrave of Brandenburg, dies, dividing his estates between his sons – some of them having taken religious orders – with the eldest, Otto, being confirmed margrave under an increasingly weak Bohemian suzerainty.

British Isles: Owain II Mawr dies, after stating that the Welsh crown should be inherited by primogeniture, on Norman example. His first son, Dafydd I, takes over hunting down some of his rebel brothers and step-brothers. One of them, Madoc, joins the Welsh-Irish forces of Leinster in Ireland and is made earl of Dublin when the city is captured, establishing there the Maddox clan.

Southern Europe: Arrigo I the City-Razer, king of Lombardy and Sardinia, is forced to accept a compromise peace with the Comuni, including his own capital, Pavia, where town officials will now be elected by the townsmen, and no more simply appointed by the ruler.

1171-1175
1171

British Isles: Richard de Clare “Strongbow” usurps the throne of Leinster upon the death of his father-in-law Diarmait/Dermot macMurrough. He is the first non-Irish ruler in Ireland's history. Later on he and Madoc of Dublin defeat the High King Rory O’Connor under the walls of Dublin, securing their independence.

British Isles, Western Europe: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is murdered in his cathedral:mad: by some knights, supporters of emperor Henry II, whose power is shaken by the sheer gravity of the deed. The assassins are gruesomly put to death.

Southern Europe: The margraviate of Histria passes as an inheritance from the local Sponheim-Ortenburg rulers to the Bavarian Andechs family. The Andechs also get the duchy of Meran (southern Tyrol).

The Norman-sponsored Pope-king Augustin III dies. King Roger III of Lesser Normandy (southern Italy), after a meeting at Orvieto, allows the exiled Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III) to reign in Rome, removing the Norman garrison from the Urbs in exchange for the cancellation of the Papal interdict against his kingdom and a pledge to send soldiers to the Holy Land and Mauretania (*OTL Morocco) to fight infidels and heretics.

Central Eastern Europe: Kiev is conquered from the Vladimirians by the White Ruthenians of prince Vseslav of Polotsk/Palteskei, marking the foundation of the mixed Balto-Slavic Pólacak Empire, taking its strength from the fierce and still heathen Lithuanian warriors. Byzantine Empire: Basileus Andronicus I Comnenus has the duke of Morea/Peloponnesus, Leo Diogenes, murdered by treason :mad: in Constantinople, replacing him with his own younger son, John. A first campaign led by the basileus in Anatolia proves indecisive, without major battles; Iconium is briefly recovered and then lost again.

North Africa: Salah ad-Din abolishes the weakened Fatimid Caliphate and proclaims himself regent of Egypt in the name of Nur ad-Din of Syria: for the first time there are no major claimants to the Caliphate in the Muslim world. The Egyptians themselves remain strongly Caliphist in their religious views, but Salah ad-Din, despite being a Waliist (loyal to the Meccan claimant to the Waliate [the Sunni “Papacy”]), shows great tolerance, only excluding Caliphists from the army. The first public clock is installed in St. Cyprian's Cathedral in Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis).

1171-1174

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): The Welshman Riryd, exiled by his brother earl Madoc of Dublin, sails northwest with a hundred Welsh and Irish followers, touching Iceland and Greenland and ending his voyage in Vinlandria (*OTL Newfoudland), a land he heard of through the dim hints of Icelandic tradesmen in Ireland. There he meets the Hesperian (*OTL American) Norsemen and leads their first exploration of Bakkland (*Québec and Ontario) and the Great Lakes. As most Norsemen turn back on the long and dangerous route, Riryd with his followers continues by canoe and on foot, exploring the lands due south of the Great Lakes, where a native kingdom exists, centered in OTL Cahokia. Riryd and his men, at first welcomed as demi-gods, are soon chased out as fierce epidemics ravage the land, and take refuge further south among an Hesperian nation, the Rwadhas (*OTL Mandans), mixing with them. Their adventure will be preserved through oral tradition, and only later their lot will be known through the northeastern Hesperian peoples, who are by now gaining a grasp on rune-carving :confused: from the Norsemen.

1171-1178 Northern Europe: The Danes, on impulse from bishop Absalon and king Valdemar I the Great, conquer and Christianize the islands of Saaremaa/Ösel and Hiiumaa/Dagö along the coasts of Estonia, enslaving the Finnic natives.

1172

British Isles, Western Europe: Emperor Henry II the Courteous, despite having gained Papal pardon for the murder of Thomas Becket, abdicates to retire as a Cistercian monk; he is succeeded by his first son, the duke of Normandy William IV the Sturdy.

British Isles: The 2nd synod of Cashel solves the last pending issues between the Celtic and Roman branches of Catholicism. Richard de Clare “Strongbow” Irish-Welsh forces conquers the kingdom of Ossory; its capital, Kilkenny, becomes one of Richard's main strongholds.

Southern Europe: Arrigo I of Lombardy and Sardinia, repented :rolleyes: of his former actions, bows in front of Pope Alexander II (*OTL Alexander III) at the synod of Pavia. The Lombard ruler allows Milan to be rebuilt, but only under the strict authority of the Milanese archbishopric, as an ecclesiastical principality; the city walls are to be rebuilt only after Arrigo's death. The king also acknowledges the free Comune of Alessandria. The Archbishopric of Pavia is granted religious authority over the whole of Piedmont. Among other notable decisions taken at the synod, there is a strong condemnation of Arnaldism (see 1144-1146) as heretic. The Venetians conquer Ragusa/Dubrovnik, extorting rich tributes from the rivals.

Central-Eastern Europe: Dynastical issues after the death of king Vladislav II weaken Bohemia. The new ruler, Bed?ich, makes an agreement with Frederick II of Germany (*OTL Barbarossa), conceding full independence to both Austria (now raised to duchy in its own) and Brandenburg, who become sovereign states.

Byzantine Empire: Batiturk marauders torch Sardis (Asia Minor); the Danishmendids are defeated by Byzantines and Iberians/Georgians in their attempt to capture Trabzon.

North Africa: Salah ad-Din retakes Damietta and Alexandria from the Crusaders, who are almost completely ousted from Egypt. He shows his nobility by saving the Latin Patriarch of Alexandria, the Sicilian Giacobbe da Lentini, from a Muslim mob bent on lynching him, and offering him shelter and freedom to hold his office in Cairo.

Arabia: Abdullah bin Yusuf an-Nafudi leads his Bedouin army to crush the Ismaili Shi'a emirate of al-Hasa, of which only a stronghold in Bahrain remains.

1173 

British Isles: Thomas Becket is canonized as a saint and martyr, becoming a powerful national symbol for England. Madoc of Dublin and Richard Strongbow de Clare overthrow the Irish kingdom of Meath/Mide (central-eastern Ireland), then their alliance falls apart on the issue of dividing the spoils, as the local rulers try to fight back.

Western Europe: Peter Waldo founds in Lyon the Waldensian Christian denomination – a pauperistic movement.

Southern Europe: The Venetians try to subdue also Ancona, but their siege ends in a failure.

Middle East: Salah ad-Din captures from the Crusaders the fortress of Eilat on the Red Sea, but fails in the siege siege of the Crusader stronghold of Kerak (SW Jordan).

Arabia: Salah ad-Din of Egypt swiftly marches on Mecca, gaining a tenuous control over Hijaz and the Holy Cities of Islam; his army then proceeds to Yemen, conquering a sizable part of the country from the local Zaydi clans, who resist in their mountain fastnesses.

Central Asia: Tabaristan (SE of the Caspian Sea) breaks free from both the last Seljuks and the Khorezmians under Ardashir I of the ancient Bavandid clan, mostly converted to Twelver (mainstream) Shiism.

1174 British Isles: Taking advantage of the civil stife following the death of king Wulfstan I, Godred I of Alba and Scotland invades Northumbria, trying to wrest back Cumbria/Cumberland. After ravaging the land and briefly besieging Yorwich (*OTL York) itself his army is defeated.

Byzantine Empire: Basileus Andronicus I retakes Angora from the Turks, then is defeated along the Halys river and begins a series of cruel, paranoid purges of the military, torturing and killing some of his best generals on suspicion of possible coups.

Middle East: Nur ad-Din of Syria dies, much to the rejoycing of the beleaguered Crusaders he often and willingly trounced on many battlefields. He is succeeded by his young son As-Salih Ismail al-Malik under the regency of the powerful eunuch Gumushtugin as the generals vie for power; but soon Salah ad-Din, bypassing Crusader territories with a long desert trip, manages to occupy Damascus.

North Africa, East Africa: Salah ad-Din's armies vassalizes the Banu Suleiman chieftainships of Cyrenaica and the Christian kingdom of Mukurra (Nubia).

Arabia: As a civil war wracks Hijaz between different Hashemite claimants to the governorship of Hijaz, Emir Abdullah bin Yusuf an-Nafudi allies with the winner, Mukaththir, conquers Mecca and assumes the titles of Prince of the Faithful, First Follower of the Prophet, Fighter for the True Faith, Sword of Islam, First Brother of the Protectors of the Holy Cities, Warden of the Wardens (*The Walis, the Sunni “Popes” in Mecca) and Sultan of the Arabs:cool:, leaving his Hashemite ally in charge in Hijaz and massacring mercilessly his opponents.

1174-1179

Central-Eastern Europe: Grand Prince Vseslav the Great of Polotsk/Palteskei enforces vassallage upon the principalities of Galicia and Volhynia, making them tributary of the rapidly growing Pólacak Empire.

1175

British Isles: A Norman-Northumbrian counterinvasion of Scotland captures Edinburgh, then is halted in the bloody battle of Airdrie by Godred I, who however accepts to pay tribute to the Normans and cede some border counties to Northumbria, where Austin I the Pious is installed as king.

Southern Europe: Manfredi II, a scion of the Montferrat clan and grandson of Bonifacio del Vasto, is acknowledged as marquis of Saluzzo (Piedmont) by king Arrigo I, whom he served loyally in many occasions.

Middle East: The Ortoqid Turks reject Zengid suzerainty and gobble up Edessa (*OTL Urfa) and Harran/Carrhae. Raynald the Wolf of Châtillon is released from prisony by atabeg Gumushtugin of Aleppo, in gratitude for the help given by Antiochene and Templar forces against Salah ad-Din.

Arabia: The Egyptian ruler Salah ad-Din is narrowly beaten by sultan Abdullah in the battle of Jebel Shaar, and has to renounce his claims over the Holy Cities. Abdullah has the Wali of Mecca, Ibrahim II, declaring him the sole legitimate ruler of all good Muslim and all other Muslim rulers subjects to Abdullah; as a consequence the Waliist confession, already divided in its loyalty between the three rival Walis :rolleyes: in Mecca, Merv and Multan, is further divided. In Yemen Egyptian forces led by al-Mu'azzam Shams-ud-Din Turan Shah conquer Aden

ca. 1175 Central Asia, Caucasus: Sultan Ala ud-Din of Khorezm newly defeats the Karakhitais and subdues the Kipchak tribes dwelling north of the Aral Sea; part of these nomads emigrate southwest to Daghestan, where they become known as the Kumyks.