text:
1077

Year 1077 (MLXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Fall – Nikephoros Bryennios (the Elder), governor (doux) of the Theme of Dyrrhachium in the western Balkans, and Nikephoros Botaneiates, a general (strategos) of the Theme of Anatolics (modern Turkey), are proclaimed emperors by their troops. Emperor Michael VII (Doukas) offers Bryennios the title of caesar (co-emperor) if he submits to his rule, but Bryennios refuses. He sets out from Dyrrhachium, and marches towards Constantinople.

Europe

 * January 25 – Walk to Canossa: Emperor Henry IV travels to the Castle of Canossa near Reggio Emilia (Northern Italy), to visit Pope Gregory VII. He waits (with his wife Bertha of Savoy and son Conrad) at the gates for three days, for absolution of his excommunication. Gregory lifts the sentence, imposing on Henry a vow to comply with certain conditions (see Investiture Controversy).
 * King Alfonso VI (the Brave) reaches an agreement with his cousin Sancho Ramírez, who is elected as king of Navarre. Alfonso annexes the territories of Álava, part of Gipuzkoa and La Bureba, he is crowned and adopts the title of Imperator totius Hispaniae ("Emperor of all Spain").
 * March 14 – German nobles opposing king Henry IV elected an antiking, Rudolf of Rheinfelden, despite king Henry having been absolved.
 * April 3 – Henry IV grants the County of Friuli (with ducal status) to Sigaerd of Beilstein, patriarch of Aquileia. He creates the first Parliament, representing the communes as well the nobility and clergy.
 * Hugh I, duke of Burgundy, supports Sancho Ramírez (or Sancho V) in his conquest of the Castle of Muñones from Emir Ahmad al-Muqtadir, who rules the Taifa of Zaragoza.
 * King Mihailo I is given the title "King of the Slavs" by Gregory VII. He becomes the first recognized ruler of the kingdom of Duklja (modern Montenegro).

England

 * Robert II (Curthose) instigates his first insurrection against his father, King William I (the Conqueror), in Normandy.
 * The first recorded trial by combat is held between Wulfstan and Walter.
 * August 14 – A fire destroys much of London.

Seljuk Empire

 * Suleiman ibn Qutulmish, a cousin of late Sultan Alp Arslan, consolidates his leadership over the Oghuz Turks and founds the Sultanate of Rum (modern Turkey).
 * Anushtegin Gharchai becomes governor (shihna) of Khwarezm and a vassal of the Seljuk Empire (until 1097).

Africa

 * The Almoravids complete the conquest of the Ghana Empire, and reach Spain (approximate date).

Arts

 * The Bayeux Tapestry (embroidery) is completed, probably in England, possibly to unveil at the dedication of Bayeux Cathedral this year.

Religion

 * September 1 – Pope Gregory VII appoints Landulf as bishop of Pisa. He makes him permanent legate of the Holy See in Corsica.
 * Paul of Caen is installed as abbot of St. Albans in England. He commences the building of St. Albans Abbey Church.
 * Pope Christodolos ends his reign as leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (modern Egypt).

Births

 * January 7 – Zhe Zong, emperor of the Song Dynasty (d. 1100)
 * Alexios Komnenos, Byzantine aristocrat and governor
 * Joseph ibn Migash, Spanish scholar and rabbi (d. 1141)
 * Ye Mengde, Chinese scholar, minister and poet (d. 1148)

Deaths

 * April 11 – Anawrahta, founder of the Pagan Empire (b. 1014)
 * April 25 – Géza I (Magnus), king of Hungary
 * October 14 – Andronikos Doukas, Byzantine nobleman
 * November 27 – Landulf VI, prince of Benevento
 * December 14 – Agnes of Poitou, Holy Roman Empress
 * December 21 – Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi, Persian historian (b. 995)
 * December 27 – Sviatoslav II, Grand Prince of Kiev (b. 1027)
 * date unknown
 * Eleanor of Normandy, countess of Flanders (b. 1010)
 * Minamoto no Takakuni, Japanese nobleman (b. 1004)
 * Roussel de Bailleul, Norman warrior and military leader
 * Shao Yong, Chinese philosopher and cosmologist (b. 1011)
 * Zhang Zai, Chinese philosopher and cosmologist (b. 1020)

title: 1077


text:
1081

Year 1081 (MLXXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * April 1 – Emperor Nikephoros III is forced to abdicate the throne, and retires to the Peribleptos monastery. He is succeeded by Alexios I Komnenos, who is crowned on April 5, as ruler of the Byzantine Empire. His brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos supports Alexios as new emperor, in exchange for the title of Caesar (co-emperor), and is appointed as commander of the Byzantine armies in the West.
 * May – A Norman fleet of 150 ships (including 60 horse transports), led by Duke Robert Guiscard, sets off towards the Dalmatian coast. An army of 15,000 men (including about 1,300 Norman knights) sails to the city of Avalona (modern Albania); they are joined by several ships from Ragusa, a republic in the Balkans who are enemies of the Byzantines.
 * October 18 – Battle of Dyrrhachium: After taking the island of Corfu, Robert Guiscard advances to Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës), and lays siege to the city. Alexios I Komnenos attempts to defend Illyria from the Normans (the first recorded mention of Albania), but is defeated by Guiscard, outside Dyrrhachium, the Byzantine capital city of Illyria.

Europe

 * King Alfonso VI (the Brave) of Castile exiles his most famous commander, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid), who goes into exile and offers his services to the twins – Counts Ramon Berenguer II and Berenguer Ramon II of Barcelona, but is turned down. He ends up in the service of Emir Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud of Zaragoza.
 * King Mihailo ("King of the Slavs") dies after a 30-year reign. He is succeeded by his son, Constantine Bodin as ruler of Duklja (until 1101).

Britain

 * Battle of Mynydd Carn (near St. Davids in Wales): Gruffudd ap Cynan in alliance with Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of Deheubarth, defeats the forces of Trahaearn ap Caradog, Caradog ap Gruffydd and Meilir ap Rhiwallon (who are all killed), allowing Gruffudd to claim the Kingdom of Gwynedd.
 * King William I (the Conqueror) orders the creation of a castle at Cardiff during his tour of southern Wales. The first castle on the site would be a motte and bailey type and is built on existing Roman fortifications.

Seljuk Empire

 * Seljuk emir Tzachas (or Chaka Bey) conquers Smyrna (modern-day İzmir) and founds a short-lived independent state, which emerges as the first sea power in Turkish history.

Religion

 * Pope Gregory VII writes a letter to Hermann, bishop of Metz, about the behavior of Emperor Henry IV (approximate date).
 * Construction begins on St. Canute's Cathedral in Odense (modern Denmark).

Births

 * Louis VI (the Fat), king of France (approximate date)
 * Gruffydd ap Rhys, king of Deheubarth (d. 1137)
 * Rudolf I, count of Bregenz and Chur (d. 1160)
 * Satake Masayoshi, Japanese samurai (d. 1147)
 * Suger, French abbot and historian (d. 1151)
 * William I, count of Luxembourg (d. 1131)
 * Zhang Bangchang, Chinese prime minister (d. 1127)
 * Zhao Mingcheng, Chinese scholar-official (d. 1129)

Deaths

 * September 1 – Eusebius (or Bruno), bishop of Angers
 * October 18
 * Konstantios Doukas, Byzantine emperor (b. 1060)
 * Nikephoros Palaiologos, Byzantine general
 * December 10 – Nikephoros III, Byzantine emperor
 * Abelard of Hauteville, Italo-Norman nobleman
 * Abu al-Walid al-Baji, Moorish scholar and poet (b. 1013)
 * Artau I, count of Pallars Sobirà (approximate date)
 * Bernard of Menthon, French priest and saint
 * Bolesław II (the Generous), king of Poland (or 1082)
 * Caradog ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwent
 * Ibn Hayyus, Syrian poet and panegyrist (b. 1003)
 * Jōjin, Japanese Tendai monk and writer (b. 1011)
 * Mihailo ("King of the Slavs"), king of Duklja
 * Trahaearn ap Caradog, king of Gwynedd (b. 1044)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1081


text:
1082

Year 19 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Spring – The Normans under Duke Robert Guiscard take Dyrrhachium (modern-day Durrës) in Illyria and advance inland, capturing most of Macedonia and Thessaly. Robert is forced to leave Greece to deal with an uprising in Italy. He leaves his son Bohemond in charge of the army, who lays siege to the city of Larissa. Emperor Alexios I mobilizes a new army, and with the support of 7,000 Seljuk Turks he clears Thessaly from the Normans.
 * Byzantine–Venetian treaty: Alexios I signs a trade and defence pact with Venice, in the form of an imperial Golden Bull. He grants the Venetians a commercial colony in Constantinople, as well as free trading and exemption from taxes, throughout the Byzantine Empire in return for their defense of the Adriatic Sea against the Normans.

Europe

 * May 12 – Battle of Mailberg: Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia invades Austria with an army of 8,000 men (supported by mercenaries from Moravia and Bavaria). He defeats the forces under Margrave Leopold II (the Fair) near Mailberg. The northern region of Lower Austria is devastated from pillage and famine.
 * December 6 – Count Ramon Berenguer II of Barcelona is killed while hunting in the woods. He is succeeded by his twin brother Berenguer Ramon II as the sole ruler of Catalonia (modern Spain).
 * Winter – Emperor Henry IV leads an expedition into Italy and besieges Rome. He gains entry; a synod is agreed upon by the Romans, to rule on the dispute between Henry and Pope Gregory VII.
 * Adalbero, margrave of Styria, is forced to resign in favor of his brother Ottokar II, who is an ally of Gregory VII.
 * The first mention of the town of Hofgeismar (modern Germany) is recorded.

Asia

 * The Korean printing of the entire Buddhism Tripitaka is completed (approximate date).

Religion

 * Construction of the Rochester Cathedral is completed in England.

Births

 * June 7 – Hui Zong, emperor of the Song Dynasty (d. 1135)
 * November 11 – Ramon Berenguer III, count of Barcelona (d. 1132)
 * Goswin of Anchin, French Benedictine monk and abbot (d. 1165)
 * Mary of Scotland, countess of Boulogne (d. 1116)
 * Minamoto no Yoshikuni, Japanese samurai (d. 1155)
 * Muhammad I (Tapar), sultan of the Seljuk Empire (d. 1118)
 * Petronilla of Lorraine, countess and regent of Holland (d. 1144)
 * Theotonius of Coimbra, Portuguese royal advisor (d. 1162)
 * Ulrich of Attems, Italian nobleman (approximate date)
 * Yaropolk II Vladimirovich, Grand Prince of Kiev (d. 1139)

Deaths

 * December 5 – Ramon Berenguer II, count of Barcelona
 * Arsen Ninotsmindeli, Georgian bishop and calligrapher
 * Bolesław II (the Generous), king of Poland (or 1081)
 * David of Munktorp, English Cluniac monk and abbot
 * Lothair Udo II, margrave of the Nordmark
 * Waleran I (or Walram), count of Arlon and Limburg

title: 1082


text:
1083

Year 1083 (MLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * January 6 – A Castilian army, under Count Gonzalo Salvadórez and his son-in-law Ramiro Garcés, Lord of Calahorra, child of the late King García Sánchez III of Pamplona, enters the surrendered bastian of Rueda, but are then treacherously set upon and killed. Gonzalo, Ramiro, and Ramiro's illegitimate half-brother Sancho Garcés are among the many nobles to lose their lives, in what will be remembered as the 'disaster' or 'treachery of Rueda'.
 * Castilian forces under Alfonso VI reconquer Talavera de la Reina in the Taifa of Toledo (modern Spain).
 * King Sancho Ramírez of Pamplona and Aragon, conquers Graus (located in the Pyrenees).
 * Summer – Emperor Henry IV besieges Pope Gregory VII in Castel Sant'Angelo at Rome.
 * October – While Robert Guiscard is in Italy, emperor Alexios I Komnenos retakes territory previously lost to the Normans, including the town of Kastoria. Several Normans, including Peter Aliphas, switch sides to the Byzantines.

England

 * King William I (the Conqueror) imprisons his half-brother Odo of Bayeux for planning a military expedition to Italy.

Africa

 * Ceuta falls to the Almoravids, after a five-year siege.

Births

 * December 1 – Anna Komnene, Byzantine princess (d. 1153)
 * Florine of Burgundy, French noblewoman and crusader (d. 1097)
 * Jindřich Zdík (or Henry Zdík), bishop of Olomouc (d. 1150)
 * Li Gang, Chinese politician and Grand Chancellor (d. 1140)
 * Otto IV, count palatine of Bavaria (approximate date)
 * Qadi Ayyad, Almoravid imam and chief judge (qadi) (d. 1149)
 * Raymond du Puy, French knight and Grand Master (d. 1160)
 * Shin Panthagu, Burmese Buddhist monk and primate (d. 1174)
 * Viacheslav I Vladimirovich, Grand Prince of Kiev (d. 1154)

Deaths

 * January 6
 * Gonzalo Salvadórez, Spanish nobleman
 * Ramiro Garcés, Spanish nobleman
 * Sancho Garcés, Spanish nobleman
 * January 11 – Otto of Nordheim, duke of Bavaria
 * September 2 – Munjong of Goryeo, Korean ruler (b. 1019)
 * November 2 – Matilda of Flanders, queen of England
 * December 5 – Sunjong of Goryeo, Korean ruler (b. 1047)
 * Adelelm of Jumièges, Norman monk and abbot
 * Basil Apokapes (or Apocapes), Byzantine general
 * Ermengarde of Tonnerre, French noblewoman
 * Nicodemus of Palermo, Italian bishop and saint
 * Robert de Grandmesnil, Norman nobleman
 * Theodora Anna Doukaina, Venetian dogaressa (b. 1058)
 * Touzi Yiqing, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (d. 1032)
 * Zeng Gong, Chinese scholar and historian (b. 1019)

title: 1083


text:
1085

Year 1085 (MLXXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * May 25 – King Alfonso VI (the Brave) recaptures Toledo from the Moors, and occupies other cities such as Madrid and Talavera (including the castle of Aledo). Alfonso moves his capital to Toledo, and consolidates his power between Sistema Central and the Tagus River, from where he launches more attacks against the taifas of Córdoba, Seville, Badajoz and Granada (modern Spain).
 * Summer – Robert Guiscard heads for the Ionian Islands despite an epidemic among troops on Corfu. His son, Roger Borsa, lands on Cephalonia but Guiscard falls sick as his ship approaches the northernmost headland and is carried ashore, where he dies of fever (on July 17).
 * Emperor Henry IV declares the Peace of God in all the imperial territories of the Holy Roman Empire to quell any sedition.
 * June 15 – Vratislaus II, a son of Duke Bretislav I, becomes the first king of Bohemia and is elevated 'for life' by Henry IV.
 * Katedralskolan in Lund (modern Sweden), the oldest school in Scandinavia, is founded by King Canute IV of Denmark.

England

 * The Domesday Survey is commissioned by King William I (the Conqueror), apparently prompted by the abortive invasion of Canute IV, to ensure proper taxation and levies.

China

 * April 1 – Emperor Zhe Zong ascends the throne at the age of 8 under the supervision of his grandmother, Grand Empress Dowager Gao. She cancels the reform policy of Chancellor Wang Anshi.
 * The output of copper currency for the Chinese Song Dynasty reaches 6 billion coins a year, prompting the Chinese government to adopt the world's first paper-printed money later in the 1120s.

Births

 * September 19 – Maria Komnene, Byzantine princess
 * Ahmad Sanjar, Seljuk ruler of Khorasan (approximate date)
 * Alberich of Reims, archbishop of Bourges (approximate date)
 * Avempace, Andalusian polymath and philosopher (d. 1138)
 * Constantine Komnenos, Byzantine aristocrat (approximate date)
 * Elizabeth of Vermandois, English countess (approximate date)
 * Floris II (the Fat), count of Holland (approximate date)
 * Gilbert of Sempringham, English priest (approximate date)
 * Imad ad-Din Zengi, Seljuk ruler of Mosul (approximate date)
 * Meginhard I, count of Sponheim (approximate date)
 * Otomae, Japanese female singer and musician (d. 1169)
 * Otto II (the Black), Moravian prince (approximate date)
 * Ralph I (or Raoul), count of Vermandois (approximate date)
 * Robert fitz Martin, Norman knight and nobleman (d. 1159)
 * Stephen of Obazine, French priest and hermit (d. 1154)
 * Waleran II, duke of Lower Lorraine (approximate date)
 * William of Montevergine, Italian monk and abbot (d. 1142)
 * William the Simple, French nobleman (approximate date)
 * Zhang Zeduan, Chinese landscape painter (d. 1145)
 * Zhu Bian, Chinese diplomat, poet and writer (d. 1144)

Deaths

 * January 3 – Williram of Ebersberg, German abbot
 * April 1 – Shen Zong, emperor of the Song Dynasty (b. 1048)
 * May 25 – Gregory VII, pope of the Catholic Church
 * May 27 – Gundred (or Gundreda), English noblewoman
 * June 19 – Vitalis of Bernay, Norman monk and abbot
 * July 17 – Robert Guiscard, Norman warrior and nobleman
 * August 19 – Al-Juwayni, Persian scholar and imam (b. 1028)
 * September 20 – Hermann II, German nobleman (b. 1049)
 * Alfanus I (or Alfano), Italian physician and archbishop
 * Al-Lakhmi, Fatimid scholar, jurist and writer (b. 1006)
 * Cheng Hao, Chinese neo-Confucian philosopher (b. 1032)
 * Maitripada, Indian Buddhist philosopher (b. 1007)
 * Osbern Giffard, Norman nobleman (approximate date)
 * Wang Gui, Chinese official and chancellor (b. 1019)
 * Yūsuf Balasaguni, Karakhanid statesman (b. 1019)

title: 1085


text:
1089

Year 1089 (MLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * King Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia dies after a 12-year reign, and is succeeded by Stephen II. Zvonimir's widow, Queen Helena, plots the inheritance of the Croatian crown for her brother, King Ladislaus I of Hungary.
 * June 24 – Viscount Gaston IV of Béarn (supported by French crusaders) reconquers the Aragonese city of Monzón, from Emir Al-Mustain II of the Taifa of Zaragoza.
 * August 18 – Emperor Henry IV marries Eupraxia (daughter of Grand Prince Vsevolod I) at Cologne. She is crowned and assumes the name Adelaide (or Adelheid).
 * King George II abdicates the throne in favour of his 16-year-old son David IV (the Builder) who becomes ruler of Georgia (until 1125).

England

 * Northumbria is divided by King William II into the counties of Northumberland, County Palatine of Durham, Yorkshire, Westmorland and Lancashire.
 * August 11 – A powerful earthquake is recorded in England.

Religion

 * March 21 – Cîteaux Abbey, the first Cistercian monastery, is established by a group of French monks under Robert of Molesme in southern France.
 * September
 * The Synod of Melfi, led by Pope Urban II (his first papal council), issues decrees against simony and clerical marriage.
 * A church council, held in Constantinople, discuses relations between Eastern and Western Christianity.

 * August 28 - The Cathedral of Braga finishes its reconstruction, after 353 years of Muslim occupation, and is consecrated to Saint Mary.

Births

 * Abraham ibn Ezra, Jewish rabbi and philosopher (d. 1167)
 * Berthold of Zwiefalten, German abbot and writer (d. 1169)
 * Dahui Zonggao, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (d. 1163)
 * Han Shizhong, Chinese general (Song Dynasty) (d. 1151)
 * Mahsati, Persian female poet and writer (approximate date)
 * Richard de Luci, Norman High Sheriff of Essex (d. 1179)
 * Sigurd I (the Crusader), king of Norway (d. 1130)
 * Wulgrin II, count of Angoulême (approximate date)

Deaths

 * May 24 – Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury
 * May 29/30 – Mah-i Mulk Khatun wife of caliph al-Muqtadi (r. 1075–1094).
 * May 31 – Sigwin of Are, archbishop of Cologne
 * October 6 – Adalbero, bishop of Würzburg
 * November 11 – Peter Igneus, Italian cardinal-bishop
 * December 22 – William the Walloon, French abbot
 * Agnes of Aquitaine, Italian countess of Savoy
 * Demetrius Zvonimir, king of Croatia and Dalmatia
 * Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair, king of Dublin
 * Durandus of Troarn, French monk and theologian
 * Isaac ibn Ghiyyat, Jewish rabbi and philosopher
 * Mieszko Bolesławowic, Polish prince of Kraków
 * Renauld II, French count of Nevers and Auxerre
 * Theobold III (or Thibaut), French nobleman

title: 1089


text:
1090

Year 1090 (MXC) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * A third Almoravid expedition is launched in Al-Andalus, designed to finally subdue the Taifa's Kingdoms. The cities of Córdoba, Seville, Granada, Málaga, Almería and Ronda fall to the troops of Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin.
 * King Stephen II of Croatia becomes involved in an open conflict between factions of Croatian nobles, who reassert their traditional rights in their own counties.

Seljuk Empire

 * Hassan-i Sabbah founds the Nizari Ismaili state after taking control of the Alamut Castle and organising the military group called the Order of Assassins.

Africa

 * Béjaïa (or Bugia) becomes the capital of the Hammadid Dynasty in modern Algeria. It becomes an important port and centre of culture.

Arts and Culture

 * Troubadours begin playing in western Aquitaine (Poitou and Saintonge) and Gascony (approximate date).

Science and Technology

 * Qin Guan, Chinese poet of the Song Dynasty, writes the Can Shu (Book of Sericulture), which describes a silk-reeling machine that has the world's oldest known mechanical belt drive.

Births

 * January 17 – Qin Hui, Chinese chancellor (d. 1155)
 * unknown dates
 * Frederick II (the One-Eyed), German nobleman (d. 1147)
 * Fujiwara no Atsuyori (or Dōin), Japanese waka poet (d. 1179)
 * probable
 * Agnes I, German abbess of Quedlinburg (approximate date)
 * Alaungsithu, Burmese king of the Pagan Dynasty (d. 1167)
 * Arnold of Brescia, Italian canon regular (approximate date)
 * Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot and theologian (d. 1153)
 * Chen Yuyi, Chinese politician of the Song Dynasty (d. 1138)
 * Eliezer ben Nathan, German rabbi and liturgical poet (d. 1170)
 * Eric II (the Memorable), king of Denmark (approximate date)
 * Fujiwara no Akisuke, Japanese nobleman and poet (d. 1155)
 * Juliane de Fontevrault, illegitimate daughter of King Henry I of England
 * Conrad I, German nobleman and rector of Burgundy (d. 1152)
 * Niklot (or Nyklot), Obotrite prince and tribal chief (d. 1160)
 * Robert FitzRoy, 1st Earl of Gloucester
 * Theobald II (the Great), French nobleman
 * Theobald of Bec, archbishop of Canterbury
 * William de Mohun, 1st Earl of Somerset

Deaths

 * March 22 – García II, king of Galicia and Portugal (b. 1042)
 * April 16 – Sikelgaita, Lombard duchess of Apulia (b. 1040)
 * May 3 – Adelaide of Rheinfelden, queen consort of Hungary
 * May 12 – Liutold of Eppenstein, German nobleman
 * May 18 – Berthold of Rheinfelden, German nobleman
 * June 26 – Jaromír, Bohemian prince and bishop
 * July 3 – Egbert II (or Ekbert), German nobleman
 * August 11 – Fujiwara no Atsuie, Japanese nobleman (b. 1033)
 * August 13 – Constance of Normandy, duchess of Brittany
 * unknown dates
 * Abd al-Jalil ibn Wahbun, Moorish poet and writer
 * Fayun Faxiu, Chinese Chan Buddhist monk (b. 1027)
 * Richard fitz Gilbert, Norman nobleman (b. c.10350
 * Guo Xi, Chinese landscape painter
 * St Isaiah of Rostov, Kievan missionary and bishop
 * Raynald I, French Benedictine abbot (b. 1059)
 * William of Poitiers, French priest and chronicler (b. c.1020)
 * probable
 * Osbern of Canterbury, English hagiographer

title: 1090


text:
1091

Year 1091 (MXCI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Spring – Tzachas, a Seljuk Turkish military commander, establishes an independent maritime state centred in the Ionian coastal city of Smyrna (modern-day İzmir). He proclaims himself emperor (basileus), and concludes an alliance with the Pechenegs in Thrace. Tzachas uses his fleet to blockade Constantinople by sea, while the Pechenegs besiege the capital by land.
 * April 29 – Battle of Levounion: Emperor Alexios I, supported by his allies, defeats 80,000 of Pechenegs (including women and children) at the Evros River, near Enos (modern Turkey). The Cumans and Byzantine forces fall upon the enemy camp, slaughtering all in their path. The Pechenegs are butchered so savagely, that this people is almost wiped out.

Europe

 * Spring – King Stephen II, the last member of the Trpimirović Dynasty, dies without leaving an heir after a 2-year reign. War and unrest breaks out in Croatia afterwards. King Ladislaus I of Hungary, on instigation of his sister, Queen Helena, intervenes in the conflict and occupies Croatia. He proclaims himself king, but is contested by the Croatian nobleman Petar Snačić.
 * February – Norman conquest of Sicily: The Normans conquer Noto and complete the 30-year-long conquest of Sicily from the Moorish rulers. Duke Roger Borsa (a son of Robert Guiscard) surrenders his share in the castles of Calabria, and receives his inheritance of Palermo. He grants charters to various towns and encourages urban planning in Apulia and Calabria.
 * Summer – The Norman invasion of Malta: A Norman fleet led by Count Roger I (Bosso) arrives in Malta. Roger disembarks his army, and besieges the island's capital Medina (modern-day Mdina). The inhabitants negotiate peace terms (by promising to pay an annual tribute) and swear an oath of loyalty to Roger. On the way back, the Normans sack the island Gozo.
 * July – The Abbadid Dynasty ruling in Al-Andalus (modern Spain) falls, when the Almoravid forces storm Seville. Confronted with this threat, Emir Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Aftas of Badajoz obtains the support of King Alfonso VI (the Brave) of Castile, in exchange for the Moorish positions on the Tagus River (Sintra, Santarém and Lisbon).

Britain and France

 * Spring – King William II invades Normandy with a large army. His brothers, Henry and Robert Curthose, mobilizes mercenary forces to resist William during the siege at Mont-Saint-Michel. Henry is forced to surrender his estates of the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy and signs a peace treaty.
 * Summer – King Malcolm III of Scotland invades the north of England, and besieges Durham. The Normans led by William II march north to oppose the Scots, but a conflict is averted. Malcolm is forced to accept the terms of the Treaty of Abernethy (see 1072) and pays homage to William.
 * Cardiff Castle is constructed by Robert Fitzhamon, Norman lord of Gloucester (approximate date).

Disasters

 * October 17 – London tornado: A T8 tornado (roughly equal to an F4 on the Fujita scale) occurs in London. The wooden London Bridge is demolished and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow is badly damaged.

Religion

 * December – Athanasius VI bar Khamoro becomes (against his will) patriarch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Antioch (until 1129).

Births

 * September 18 – Andronikos Komnenos, Byzantine prince and general
 * December 22 – Jutta von Sponheim, German abbess (d. 1136)
 * Hongzhi Zhengjue, Chinese Chan Buddhist monk and writer (d. 1157)
 * Matilda of Rethel, French noblewoman and sovereign (d. 1151)
 * Tiantong Zongjue, Chinese Buddhist monk and patriarch (d. 1162)
 * Wartislaw I (or Warcisław), duke of Pomerania (approximate date)

Deaths

 * March 26 – Wallada bint al-Mustakfi, Andalusian female poet (b. 994)
 * June 17 – Dirk V, count of Friesland (west of the Vlie) (b. 1052)
 * June 29 – Frederick of Montbéliard, margrave of Turin
 * July 5 – William of Hirsau, German abbot and music theorist
 * August 8 – Altmann of Passau, German bishop and saint
 * August 25 – Sisnando Davides, Mozarab military leader
 * December 19
 * Adelaide of Susa, margravine of Turin
 * Fujiwara no Tadaie, Japanese statesman (b. 1033)
 * Fu Yaoyu, Chinese government official and politician (b. 1024)
 * Helena of Hungary, queen of Croatia (approximate date)
 * Jordan I (or Giordano), Italo-Norman prince of Capua
 * Mac meic Aedh Ua Flaithbheartaigh, king of Iar Connacht
 * Robert D'Oyly, Norman nobleman (approximate date)
 * Stephen II (or Stjepan), king of Croatia (approximate date)
 * Wolfhelm of Brauweiler, German Benedictine abbot
 * Zaheer-ul-Daulah Artuk Beg, Seljuk general and governor

title: 1091


text:
1092

Year 1092 (MXCII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Summer – Emperor Alexios I (Komnenos) bribes one of Kilij Arslan's (sultan of the Sultanate of Rum) officials to recover Sinope (the capital of Paphlagonia), and neighbouring coastal regions. He uses the Byzantine fleet to defeat the Seljuk navy off the coast of Cius in Bithynia.

Europe

 * January 14 – Vratislaus II, the first king of Bohemia, dies after a 6½-year reign and is succeeded by his brother Conrad I who becomes duke and not king because Vratislaus has been elevated to the royal dignity 'for life' by Emperor Henry IV (see 1085). Conrad dies September 6 after a 8-month reign and is succeeded by his nephew Bretislav II (the eldest son of Vratislaus).

Britain

 * Summer – King William II annexes Cumbria from the Scottish Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde, and builds Carlisle Castle.
 * May 11 – Lincoln Cathedral, one of England's finest Gothic buildings, is consecrated.
 * High tides cause great flooding in England and Scotland. The Kentish lands of Earl Godwin are inundated, becoming known as the Goodwin Sands.

Seljuk Empire

 * November 19 – Sultan Malik-Shah I dies after a 20-year reign while hunting. The Seljuk Empire falls into chaos, his brother Tutush I and rival successors carve up their own independent sultanates in the Middle East. Malik-Shah is succeeded by his son Mahmud I, but he does not gain control of the empire.

China

 * Su Song, a Chinese statesman and scientist, publishes his Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, a treatise outlining the construction and operation of his complex astronomical clocktower, built in Kaifeng. It also includes a celestial atlas of five star maps.

Religion

 * April 21 – The Diocese of Pisa is elevated to the dignity of a metropolitan archdiocese by Pope Urban II.
 * May 21 – Synod of Szabolcs: King Ladislaus I assembles a council of the prelates of Hungary at the fortress of Szabolcs.

Births

 * Adélaide de Maurienne, queen of France (d. 1154)
 * Al-Mustarshid, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (d. 1135)
 * Fulk V (the Younger), king of Jerusalem (d. 1143)
 * Magnús Einarsson, bishop of Skálholt (d. 1148)
 * Peter the Venerable, French monk and abbot (d. 1156)
 * Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, Tibetan Buddhist leader (d. 1158)
 * Sybilla of Normandy, queen of Scotland (d. 1122)
 * Zhang Jiucheng, Chinese politician (d. 1159)

Deaths

 * January 14 – Vratislaus II, duke and king of Bohemia
 * May 7 – Remigius de Fécamp, bishop of Lincoln
 * September 6 – Conrad I, duke of Bohemia
 * October 14 – Nizam al-Mulk, Seljuk vizier (b. 1018)
 * November 19 – Malik-Shah I, Seljuk sultan (b. 1055)
 * Abu'l-Qasim, Seljuk general and governor
 * Bermudo Ovéquiz (or Vermudo), Spanish nobleman
 * Bogumił, archbishop of Gniezno (approximate date)
 * Ermengol IV (or Armengol), count of Urgell (b. 1056)
 * Helibo, Chinese nobleman and chieftain (b. 1039)
 * Jordan of Hauteville, Italo-Norman nobleman
 * Richard de Montfort, French nobleman

title: 1092


text:
1094

Year 1094 (MXCIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Spring – Emperor Alexios I (Komnenos) sends a Byzantine expeditionary force under General Tatikios to Nicaea, in an attempt to re-capture the city from the Seljuk Turks. However, the arrival of Barkiyaruq's army en route stops the Byzantines. Alexios sends reinforcements; short of supplies, the Seljuk Turks retreat. Abu'l-Qasim, Seljuk governor of Nicaea, is defeated and forced to conclude a truce with Alexios.

Europe

 * May
 * Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (El Cid) completes his conquest of Valencia in Al-Andalus (modern Spain). He begins his rule (in the name of King Alfonso VI) of Valencia. The Almoravid campaign to regain the city fails.
 * Duncan II (son of the late King Malcolm III) invades England at the head of an army of Norman knights from Scotland, aided by his half-brother Edmund. He succeeds his uncle, King Donald III (the Fair), as ruler of Scotland.
 * July 28 – William Bertrand dies, and his margravial title of Provence is inherited by Raymond IV (Saint-Gilles), who becomes count of Toulouse (until 1105).
 * November 12 – King Donald III mobilizes his army and kills Duncan II in battle in the Lowlands. He re-takes the Scottish throne, Edmund sides with Donald as co-ruler and is named as heir as he has no children.

Fatimid Egypt

 * After the death of Caliph al-Mustansir Billah, his son-in-law and vizier Al-Afdal declares al-Musta'li, a younger son of al-Mustansir, in a coup d'état as new Caliph. Al-Mustansir's designated heir, Nizar, flees to Alexandria.

Eastern Islamic world

 * Sultan Mahmud I dies after a 2-year reign. He is succeeded by his brother Barkiyaruq (one of the Seljuk prince who claim the throne) as ruler of the Seljuk Empire.
 * Caliph of Baghdad, al-Muqtadi died on 3 February 1094 and he was succeeded by his nominated heir Ahmad (al-Mustazhir).

Religion

 * May 15 – The Cathedral of St. Agatha in Catania (Sicily) is consecrated by the Breton abbot Ansger.
 * October 8 – Doge Vitale Faliero consecrates the new Basilica of San Marco in Venice.
 * King Ladislaus I of Hungary founds a diocese (alongside the bishop's see) in Zagreb.
 * Al-Musta'li becomes the nineteenth imam of Musta'li Ismailism

Births

 * January 14 – Eudokia Komnene, Byzantine princess (d. 1129)
 * Abd al-Mu'min, Almohad caliph (approximate date)
 * Ibn Zuhr (or Avenzoar), Moorish physician (d. 1162)
 * Malachy, Irish archbishop and saint (d. 1148)
 * Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester (d. 1120)
 * Yelü Dashi, founder of the Qara Khitai (d. 1143)

Deaths

 * January 10 – Al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph (b. 1029)
 * February 3
 * Al-Muqtadi, Abbasid caliph (b. 1056)
 * Teishi, Japanese empress (b. 1013)
 * June 2 – Nicholas the Pilgrim, Italian shepherd (b. 1075)
 * June 4 – Sancho V, king of Aragon and Pamplona
 * July 28 – William Bertrand, margrave of Provence
 * October 14
 * Bertha of Holland, French queen
 * Fujiwara no Nobunaga, Japanese nobleman (b. 1022)
 * November 12 – Duncan II, king of Scotland
 * Abu Ali Fana-Khusrau, Buyid nobleman
 * Al-Bakri, Moorish historian and geographer
 * Aq Sunqur al-Hajib, Seljuk sultan of Aleppo
 * Badr al-Jamali, Fatimid vizier and statesman
 * Isaac Albalia, Andalusian Jewish astronomer (b. 1035)
 * Jonathan I, Italo-Norman count of Carinola
 * Mahmud I, sultan of the Seljuk Empire
 * Michael of Avranches, Italian bishop
 * Roger de Beaumont, Norman nobleman
 * Roger de Montgomery, Norman nobleman
 * Terken Khatun, Seljuk empress and regent
 * William Fitzeustace, Norman nobleman
 * Wulfnoth Godwinson, English nobleman

title: 1094


text:
1102

Year 1102 (MCII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Levant

 * Spring – A Fatimid expeditionary force (some 20,000 men) invades Palestine and launches attacks into the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders defeat a Fatimid rearguard near Ascalon, and capture the city after a 3-year siege. The Crusaders capture Caesarea Maritima with support of the Genoese fleet. A number of Genoese trading colonies are established along the Mediterranean coast.
 * Siege of Tripoli: The Crusaders under Raymond IV begin the siege of Tripoli (modern Lebanon). The garrison calls for assistance, but a Seljuk relief army from Damascus and Homs is defeated by Raymond.
 * May 17 – Battle of Ramla: The Crusaders (500 knights) under King Baldwin I are defeated by the Fatimid army at Ramla (modern Israel). Baldwin and his companions escape through the enemy lines to Arsuf.
 * May 27 – The Crusaders under Baldwin I break their way out of Jaffa, which is encircled by the Fatimid Army. A charge of the French cavalry breaks the enemy's ranks, and forces them to retreat to Ascalon.
 * Raymond IV is imprisoned by Tancred, nephew of Bohemond I, and regent of the Principality of Antioch (he is later released after promising to denounce any claims).
 * Dagobert of Pisa is briefly deposed as Patriarch of Jerusalem (he is restored later in the year).
 * The Venetians establish a new trade emporium in Sidon (modern Lebanon).

Europe

 * May 5 – The short-lived principality created by Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar ends: Valencia is captured by Almoravid forces under Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin. It is later recaptured, evacuated and burned by King Alfonso VI.
 * June 4 – Władysław I Herman, duke of Poland, dies at Płock (possibly poisoned by his enemies) after a 23-year reign. He leaves the succession to be disputed between his sons Zbigniew and Bolesław III Wrymouth.
 * The Pacta Conventa formed by the Croatian nobility, recognize King Coloman as their overlord, initiating the personal union between the two kingdoms. Coloman is crowned king of Croatia (until 1116).

England

 * King Henry I captures Arundel Castle after having besieged Earl Robert of Bellême. Robert loses his English lands (as did his brothers Roger the Poitevin and Arnulf de Montgomery) and is banished to Normandy.

Religion

 * Council of London: A church council convened by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, bans sodomy and the sale of Christian slaves to non-Christian countries, and reforms the clergy.
 * Henry I orders the tomb of Edward the Confessor be opened; the body of the former king is supposedly found undecayed. The Westminster monks start to claim Edward as a saint.

Births

 * February 7 – Matilda, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1167)
 * October 25 – William Clito, count of Flanders (d. 1128)
 * Chekawa Yeshe Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monk (d. 1176)
 * Eleanor of Champagne, French noblewoman (d. 1147)
 * Gilla na Naemh Ua Duinn, Irish poet and writer (d. 1160)
 * Henry II, margrave of the Northern March (d. 1128)
 * Klængur Þorsteinsson, bishop of Skálholt (d. 1176)
 * Liang Hongyu, Chinese general (d. 1135)
 * Nerses IV, Catholicos of Armenia (d. 1173)
 * Peter of Tarentaise, French abbot and bishop (d. 1174)
 * Roger de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Warwick (d. 1153)
 * Zhu, Chinese empress of the Song Dynasty (d. 1127)

Deaths

 * April 9 – Raoul II, Norman nobleman (House of Tosny)
 * May 19 – Stephen II, French nobleman and crusader
 * June 4 – Władysław I Herman, duke of Poland
 * July 29 – Albert III, count of Namur (House of Namur)
 * November 1 – Anna Dalassena, Byzantine noblewoman
 * Ermengol V, count of Urgell (b. 1078)
 * Felicia of Sicily, queen of Hungary (approximate date)
 * Fujiwara no Kanshi, Japanese empress (b. 1021)
 * Giselbert II, count of Roussillon
 * Guglielmo Embriaco, Genoese merchant (b. 1040)
 * Hugh VI, French nobleman and crusader
 * Khön Könchok Gyalpo, Tibetan Buddhist monk (b. 1034)
 * Mahmud al-Kashgari, Turkish lexicographer (b. 1005)
 * Maurice, cardinal-bishop of Porto
 * Odo I, duke of Burgundy (b. 1060)
 * Odon de Châtillon, cardinal-bishop of Ostia
 * Stephen I, count palatine of Burgundy (b. 1065)
 * Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham
 * Xiang, Chinese empress and regent (b. 1047)

title: 1102


text:
1104

Year 1104 (MCIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Byzantine Empire

 * Summer – The Byzantines re-occupy the Cilician cities of Tarsus, Adana and Mamistra. A naval squadron, under Admiral Cantacuzenus, pursues in Cypriot waters a Genoese raiding fleet, and sails on to Latakia, where they capture the harbour and the lower city. Bohemond I reinforces the garrison in the citadel.

Levant

 * Spring – The Crusaders, led by Bohemond I, re-invade the territory of Aleppo, and try to capture the town of Kafar Latha. The attack fails, owing to the resistance of the local Banu tribe. Meanwhile, Joscelin of Courtenay cuts the communications between Aleppo and the Euphrates.
 * May 7 – Battle of Harran: The Crusaders under Baldwin II are defeated by the Seljuk Turks. Baldwin and Joscelin of Courtenay are taken prisoner. Tancred (nephew of Bohemond I) becomes regent of Edessa. The defeat at Harran marks a key turning point of Crusader expansion.
 * May 26 – King Baldwin I captures Acre, the port is besieged from April, and blockaded by the Genoese and Pisan fleet. Baldwin promises a free passage to those who want to move to Ascalon, but the Italian sailors plunder the wealthy Muslim emigrants and kill many of them.
 * Autumn – Bohemond I departs to Italy for reinforcements. He takes with him gold and silver, and precious stuff to raise an army against Emperor Alexios I (Komnenos). Tancred becomes co-ruler over Antioch – and appoints his brother-in-law, Richard of Salerno, as his deputy.
 * Toghtekin, Seljuk ruler (atabeg) of Damascus, founds a short-lived principality in Syria (the first example of a series of Seljuk ruled dynasties).

England

 * September 3 – St. Cuthbert is reburied in Durham Cathedral.

Europe

 * September 28 – Alfonso I becomes king of Aragon and Navarre (after the death of his half-brother Peter I).
 * King David IV of Georgia defeats 100,000 Seljuk Turks with only 1,500 warriors (approximate date).
 * Sultan Kilij Arslan I of the Sultanate of Rum starts a war with the Danishmendids.
 * The Venetian Arsenal is founded in Venice.

Volcanology

 * Autumn – The volcano Hekla erupts in Iceland and devastates farms for 45 miles (some 70 km) around.

Religion

 * April 21 – The new basilica at Vézelay Abbey (located in northern Burgundy) in France is dedicated.

Births

 * Euphrosyne of Polotsk, Kievan princess (d. 1167)
 * Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, Japanese waka poet (d. 1177)
 * Gens du Beaucet, French hermit and saint (d. 1127)
 * Ibn Zafar al Siqilli, Arab-Sicilian politician (d. 1170)
 * Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester (d. 1168)
 * Vladimir Volodarevich, Galician prince (d. 1152)
 * Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester (d. 1166)

Deaths

 * June 8 – Duqaq, Seljuk ruler of Damascus
 * September 25 – Simon II, French nobleman
 * October 26 – Johann I, bishop of Speyer
 * Al-Mansur ibn al-Nasir, Hammadid ruler
 * Danishmend Gazi, ruler of the Danishmends
 * Ebontius, bishop of Barbastro
 * Herewald of Llandaff, Welsh bishop
 * Peter I, king of Aragon and Navarre
 * Seraphin, archbishop of Esztergom
 * Serlo, Norman cleric and abbot
 * Sökmen, governor of Jerusalem
 * Svend Tronkræver, Danish prince

title: 1104


text:
1105

Year 1105 (MCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Levant

 * February 28 – Raymond IV dies at his castle of Mons Peregrinus ("Pilgrim's Mountain") near Tripoli. Raymond leaves his 2-year-old son Alfonso I by his third wife, Elvira of Castile, to rule the County of Tripoli. Raymond's nephew William-Jordan, count of Cerdagne, becomes regent over Alfonso. Bertrand, the eldest son of Raymond, inherits the title 'Count of Toulouse'.
 * April 20 – Battle of Artah: The Crusaders under Tancred, Norman prince and regent of Antioch, defeat a Seljuk army (some 7,000 men) at Artah (modern-day Reyhanlı). Tancred threatens Aleppo, capital of Sultan Fakhr al-Mulk Radwan, and expands his conquest by conquering more territory east of the Orontes River with minor opposition.
 * August 27 – Battle of Ramla: The Crusaders under King Baldwin I defeat a Fatimid expeditionary force (some 15,000 men) at Ramla. Baldwin pillages the enemy camp – but does not further pursue the Fatimids. The battle ends in the last large-scale attempt of the Fatimids to reconquer Palestine.

Europe

 * The Almoravid emir, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, sends a maritime expedition to Palestine from Sevilla to ward off the Crusaders and perhaps to reconquer Jerusalem. The fleet of about seventy ships rushes into a storm in the Mediterranean Sea, and is never seen again.
 * Bohemond I, Norman prince of Antioch, arrives in Apulia (Southern Italy) after an absence of 9 years. He travels to Rome and meets Pope Paschal II. His cousin, Roger II becomes count of Sicily.
 * Autumn – Bohemond I and papal legate Bruno travel to the north of France and visit the court of King Philip I (the Amorous). Bohemond gets permission to recruit men throughout the kingdom.
 * Inge the Elder dies and is succeeded by his nephew Philip as ruler of Sweden. He and his brother Inge the Younger rule the kingdom together (until the death of Philip in 1118).
 * December 31 – Emperor Henry IV is deposed by his son Henry V (who is king of Germany). Henry is forced to resign his crown and is imprisoned in the castle of Böckelheim.

England

 * Summer – King Henry I invades Normandy, takes Bayeux (after a short siege) and Caen. He advances on Falaise, and starts inconclusive peace negotiations with Duke Robert II. Henry withdraws to deal with political issues at home.
 * Henry I meets Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, under threat of excommunication at L'Aigle in Normandy to settle their disputes that has led to Anselm's exile from England (see 1103).

Seljuk Empire

 * Sultan Barkiyaruq dies in Borujerd (modern Iran) after a 13-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Malik-Shah II, but is deposed and killed by his uncle Muhammad I. Muhammad becomes ruler of the Seljuk Empire, but his brother Ahmad Sanjar (Seljuk ruler of Khorasan) holds more power as co-ruler.
 * Autumn – Kilij Arslan I, sultan of the Sultanate of Rum, leads a Seljuk expedition to take over Melitene (modern Turkey). He attempts to capture Edessa, but the Crusader fortress is too strongly defended by its garrison. Kilij Arslan then moves on to Harran, which surrenders to him.

Asia

 * The Tamna Kingdom is annexed by the Korean Goryeo Dynasty.

Religion

 * Winter – Sylvester IV is elected as antipope in Rome by members of the Roman aristocracy, with support of Henry V.

Births

 * March 1 – Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile (d. 1157)
 * March 14 – Drogo, Flemish hermit and saint (d. 1186)
 * Alexander III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1181)
 * Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra, Abbasid vizier (d. 1165)
 * Basava, Indian philosopher and statesman (d. 1167)
 * Fujiwara no Motohira, Japanese nobleman (d. 1157)
 * Hu Hong, Chinese Confucian scholar (d. 1161)
 * Ibn Asakir, Syrian historian and mystic (d. 1175)
 * Ibn Tufail, Arab Andalusian polymath (d. 1185)
 * John FitzGilbert, Marshal of England (d. 1165)
 * Joseph Kimhi, Spanish Jewish rabbi (d. 1170)
 * Lope Díaz I de Haro, Castilian nobleman (d. 1170)
 * Mahmud II, sultan of the Seljuk Empire (d. 1131)
 * Matilda of Boulogne, queen of England (d. 1152)
 * Maurice FitzGerald, English nobleman (d. 1176)
 * Melisende, queen consort of Jerusalem (d. 1161)
 * Odo of Novara, Italian priest and saint (d. 1200)
 * Serlo of Wilton, English poet and writer (d. 1181)
 * Sophia of Bavaria, German noblewoman (d. 1145)
 * Sophie of Winzenburg, German noblewoman (d. 1160)
 * Władysław II (the Exile), Polish nobleman (d. 1159)
 * Xuedou Zhijian, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (d. 1192)

Deaths

 * February 28 – Raymond IV, French nobleman
 * March 14 – Judith of Swabia, duchess of Poland (b. 1054)
 * July 13 – Rashi, French Jewish rabbi and writer (b. 1040)
 * November 10 – Sukjong, Korean ruler of Goryeo (b. 1054)
 * Abu Esmail Moayed-o-din Togharayi, Seljuk poet (b. 1045)
 * Barkiyaruq, sultan of the Seljuk Empire
 * Dagobert of Pisa, Italian archbishop
 * Gregory II, Armenian Catholicos
 * Huang Tingjian, Chinese calligrapher and poet (b. 1045)
 * Hugh of Fauquembergues, prince of Galilee (or 1106)
 * Inge the Elder, king of Sweden (approximate date)
 * Malik-Shah II, sultan of the Seljuk Empire
 * María Rodríguez, countess of Barcelona (b. 1080)
 * Peter of Anagni, Italian bishop and papal legate
 * Richard II, prince of Capua (or 1106)
 * Shōshi, Japanese empress consort (b. 1027)
 * Simon of Hauteville, count of Sicily (b. 1093)

title: 1105


text:
1106

Year 1106 (MCVI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – Bohemond I, prince of Antioch, marries Constance of France (daughter of King Philip I) in the cathedral of Chartres. Philip agrees to marry his second daughter, the 9-year-old Cecile of France, to Tancred (nephew of Bohemond). Meanwhile, Bohemond mobilises an expeditionary force (some 30,000 men) to begin a campaign against Emperor Alexios I.
 * August 7 – Emperor Henry IV escapes his captors at Ingelheim. He enters into negotiations at Cologne with English, French and Danish noblemen, and begins to collect an army to oppose his son Henry V but dies at Liège after a 49-year reign. Henry leads a successful expedition against Count Robert II of Flanders and is forced to swear his allegiance to him.
 * September 28 – Battle of Tinchebray: King Henry I defeats and imprisons his older brother Robert II, duke of Normandy, in Devizes Castle. Edgar Atheling (uncle of Henry's wife) and the 3-year-old William Clito, son of Robert, are also taken prisoner. Henry places his nephew William in the custody of Helias of Saint-Saens, count of Arques.
 * Autumn – Bohemond I returns to Apulia (Southern Italy) with an expeditionary force to prepare an offensive against the Byzantines. He is accompanied by his newlywed wife Constance (who is pregnant by him) and followers.
 * Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin dies after a 45-year reign. He is succeeded by his 22-year-old son Ali ibn Yusuf as ruler of the Almoravid Empire. Ali appoints his brother Tamin ibn Yusuf as governor of Al-Andalus (modern Spain).
 * Bolesław III, duke of Poland, begins a civil war against his half-brother Zbigniew, for control over Lesser Poland and Silesia.
 * The city of Balaguer (located in Catalonia) is conquered from the Moors by Ermengol VI, count of Urgell.

Britain

 * Roger le Poer, bishop of Salisbury, is granted land in south Wales by Henry I. He starts the construction of Kidwelly Castle on the banks of the river Gwendraeth.
 * Magnus Erlendsson becomes Earl of Orkney (until 1115).

Astronomy

 * February 2 – A comet (the Great Comet of 1106) is seen and reported by several civilisations around the world. Lasting for 40 days, the comet grows steadily in brightness until finally fading away.

Births

 * Alexios Komnenos, Byzantine co-emperor (d. 1142)
 * Celestine III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1198)
 * David FitzGerald, bishop of St. Davids (d. 1176)
 * Fujiwara no Michinori, Japanese nobleman (d. 1160)
 * Hugh II, French nobleman (d. 1134)
 * Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford (d. 1141)
 * Ibn Asakir, Syrian scholar and historian (d. 1175)
 * Chŏng Chung-bu, Korean military leader (d. 1179)
 * Magnus I, king of Sweden (d. 1134)
 * Matilda of Anjou, duchess of Normandy (d. 1154)
 * Minamoto no Yorimasa, Japanese military leader (d. 1180)
 * Xing, Chinese empress (d. 1139)

Deaths

 * February 3 – Khalaf ibn Mula'ib, Uqaylid emir
 * April 16 – Arnold I, Lotharingian nobleman
 * May 1 – Conon, Lotharingian nobleman
 * May 19 – Geoffrey IV, French nobleman
 * June 16 – Benno, bishop of Meissen (b. 1010)
 * June 24 – Yan Vyshatich, Kievan nobleman
 * August 7 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1050)
 * August 23 – Magnus, German nobleman (b. 1045)
 * September 13 – Peter, French nobleman
 * September 17 – Manasses II, archbishop of Reims
 * October 7 – Hugh of Die, French bishop (b. 1040)
 * Ali ibn Tahir al-Sulami, Syrian jurist and philologist
 * Domnall Ua Conchobair, king of Connacht
 * Gonzalo Núñez de Lara, Castilian nobleman
 * Hugh of Fauquembergues, prince of Galilee (or 1105)
 * Jikirmish, Seljuk ruler
 * John of Lodi, Italian hermit and bishop (b. 1025)
 * Li Gonglin, Chinese painter and antiquarian (b. 1049)
 * Lothair Udo III, margrave of the Nordmark (b. 1070)
 * Máel Muire mac Céilechair, Irish cleric and writer
 * Minamoto no Yoshiie, Japanese samurai (b. 1039)
 * Nathan ben Jehiel, Italian Jewish lexicographer
 * Richard II, prince of Capua (or 1105)
 * Yusuf ibn Tashfin, sultan of Morocco (b. 1009)

title: 1106


text:
1108

Year 1108 (MCVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – King Sigurd I sails from England, on the Norwegian Crusade to Palestine. He repels a Muslim fleet near the Tagus River, then attacks Sintra, Lisbon and Alcácer do Sal, and finally defeats a second Muslim fleet further south.
 * May 29 – Battle of Uclés: Almoravid forces defeat the armies of Castile and León. The advance of the Reconquista is halted, and the Berbers re-capture the towns of Uclés, Cuenca, Huete and Ocaña. The Christians, many of nobility, are beheaded.
 * July 29 – King Philip I dies at Melun, after a 48-year reign. He is succeeded by his son Louis VI, who, at the start of his rule, faces insurrections from feudal brigands and rebellious robber barons.
 * September – Siege of Dyrrhachium: Italo-Norman forces under Bohemond I lift the siege due to illness and lack of supplies. Bohemond becomes a vassal of the Byzantine Empire by signing the Treaty of Devol.
 * Autumn – The Principality of Nitra ceases to exist, after King Coloman of Hungary, deposes its last ruler, Álmos, duke of Croatia.
 * The consuls of Bergamo are first mentioned, indicating that the city has become an independent commune in Lombardy (Northern Italy).

Levant

 * Summer – Jawali Saqawa, Turkish ruler of Mosul, accepts a ransom of 30,000 dinar by Count Joscelin I and releases his cousin Baldwin II, count of Edessa, who is held as prisoner (see 1104).
 * Baldwin I marches out against Sidon, with the support of a squadron of sailor-adventurers from various Italian cities. A Fatimid fleet from Egypt defeats the Italians in a sea-battle outside the harbour.

Asia

 * The Taira and Minamoto clans join forces to rule Japan, after defeating the warrior monks of the Enryaku-ji temple near Kyoto. The Taira replace many Fujiwara nobles in important offices – while the Minamoto gain more military experience by bringing parts of Northern Honshu under Japanese control (approximate date).

Religion

 * Chichester Cathedral is consecrated under Ralph de Luffa, bishop of Chichester, in England.
 * Construction begins on the tower of Winchester Cathedral, building continues until 1120.
 * Pistoia Cathedral in Italy is damaged by a severe fire.
 * June 13 – Restored Ferentino Cathedral in Italy is consecrated.

Births

 * Andronikos Komnenos, Byzantine prince (d. 1142)
 * Baldwin IV, count of Hainaut (d. 1171)
 * Bohemond II, Italo-Norman prince of Antioch (d. 1130)
 * Derbforgaill, Irish princess (d. 1193)
 * Ghiyath ad-Din Mas'ud, Seljuk sultan (d. 1152)
 * Henry X, duke of Bavaria (d. 1139)
 * Leopold IV, duke of Bavaria (d. 1141)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Gertrude, Grand Princess of Kiev
 * March 18 – Abe no Munetō, Japanese samurai (b. 1032)
 * May 21 – Gerard, Norman archbishop of York
 * May 29
 * García Ordóñez, Castilian nobleman
 * Sancho Alfónsez, Castilian nobleman
 * July 5 – Guy of Hauteville, Italo-Norman diplomat
 * July 29 – Philip I, king of France
 * November 15 – Enrico Contarini, bishop of Castello
 * García Álvarez, Castilian official and military leader
 * Gonzalo, bishop of Mondoñedo (approximate date)
 * Gregory III, count of Tusculum (approximate date)
 * Gundulf, bishop of Rochester (approximate date)
 * Guy II, French nobleman and crusader
 * Mafalda of Pulla-Calabria, Norman noblewoman (b. 1060)
 * Urse d'Abetot, Norman sheriff of Worcestershire
 * Veera Ballala I, Indian ruler of the Hoysala Empire
 * Wang, Chinese empress of the Song Dynasty (b. 1084)

title: 1108


text:
1109

Year 1109 (MCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Levant

 * July 12 – Siege of Tripoli: After a 7-year siege (supported by the Genoese fleet), Tripoli falls to the Crusaders. Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar, qadi of Tripoli, submits to Bertrand of Toulouse (the eldest son of Raymond IV). He establishes the County of Tripoli, the fourth Crusader state in the Middle East. Bertrand deposes Raymond's nephew William II as nominal count of Tripoli, who dies of an arrow wound sustained during the siege.

Europe

 * Summer – Almoravid emir Ali ibn Yusuf organizes a public ritual of penance (auto-da-fé) of the works of Al-Ghazali, in front of the Great Mosque of Cordoba.
 * July 1 – Urraca of León becomes queen of León, Castile and Galicia after the death of her father, King Alfonso VI. She marries Alfonso I.
 * August 10 – Battle of Nakło: Bolesław III leads an expedition into Pomerania. He besieges the castle of Nakło, and defeats a Pomeranian relief force.
 * August 24
 * Siege of Głogów: German forces led by King Henry V besiege Głogów. He is forced to abandon the siege – due to attacks of Polish guerilla warriors.
 * Battle of Hundsfeld: Bolesław III defeats the imperial forces under Henry V at Hundsfeld. The Germans are ambushed by the Polish forces.
 * The Almoravid army, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, fails to reconquer Toledo (lost in 1085).

Education

 * Anselm of Laon, French monk and theologian, becomes chancellor of the cathedral at Laon (approximate date).

Births

 * July 25 – Afonso I, king of Portugal (d. 1185)
 * September 7 – Gongye, Korean queen (d. 1183)
 * October 29 – Injong of Goryeo, Korean king (d. 1146)
 * Abu'l-Hasan al-Hasan ibn Ali, Zirid emir (d. 1171)
 * Al-Rashid, caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate (d. 1138)
 * Béla II, king of Hungary and Croatia (d. 1141)
 * Bertrand de Blanchefort, French Grand Master (d. 1169)
 * William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel (d. 1176)

Deaths

 * January 26 – Alberic of Cîteaux, French abbot
 * April 14 – Fulk IV, count of Anjou (b. 1043)
 * April 21 – Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1033)
 * April 28 – Hugh the Great, abbot of Cluny (b. 1024)
 * May 12 – Dominic de la Calzada, Spanish priest (b. 1019)
 * July 1 – Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile
 * September 21 – Svatopluk, duke of Bohemia
 * November 16 – Ingulf, Norman Benedictine abbot
 * Eupraxia of Kiev, Holy Roman Empress
 * Ngok Loden Sherab, Tibetan Buddhist monk (b. 1059)
 * William II, count of Cerdagne and Tripoli

title: 1109


text:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (originally The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere) is the longest major poem by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions use a revised version printed in 1817 that featured a gloss. It is often considered a signal shift to modern poetry and the beginning of British Romantic literature.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner recounts the experiences of a sailor who has returned from a long sea voyage. The mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding ceremony and begins to narrate a story. The Wedding-Guest's reaction turns from amusement to impatience to fear to fascination as the mariner's story progresses, as can be seen in the language style; Coleridge uses narrative techniques such as personification and repetition to create a sense of danger, the supernatural, or serenity, depending on the mood in different parts of the poem.

Synopsis

The poem begins with an old grey-bearded sailor, the Mariner, stopping a guest at a wedding ceremony to tell him a story of a sailing voyage he took long ago. The Wedding-Guest is at first reluctant to listen, as the ceremony is about to begin, but the mariner's glittering eye captivates him.

The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches the icy waters of the Antarctic. An albatross appears and leads the ship out of the ice jam where it is stuck, but even as the albatross is fed and praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird:

[...] With my cross-bow I shot the.

— lines 81–82

The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears:

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, That bring the fog and mist.

— lines 101–102

They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as it arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially blown them north now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed:

Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: Oh Christ! That ever this should be! Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea.

— lines 115–126

The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret:

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.

— lines 139–142

After a "weary time", the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly pale woman, who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-Death the life of the mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue to the mariner's fate: he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross. One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon their faces:

Four times fifty living men, (And I heard nor sigh nor groan) With heavy thump, a lifeless lump, They dropped down one by one.

The souls did from their bodies fly,— They fled to bliss or woe! And every soul, it passed me by, Like the whizz of my cross-bow!

— lines 216–223

Eventually, this stage of the mariner's curse is lifted after he begins to appreciate the many sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("A spring of love gush'd from my heart, And I bless'd them unaware"). As he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. It then starts to rain, and the bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship. In a trance, the mariner hears two spirits discussing his voyage and penance, and learns that the ship is being powered supernaturally:

The air is cut away before, And closes from behind.

— lines 424–425

Finally the mariner wakes from his trance and comes in sight of his homeland, but is initially uncertain as to whether or not he is hallucinating:

Oh! dream of joy! is this indeed The light-house top I see? Is this the hill? is this the kirk? Is this mine own countree?

We drifted o'er the harbour-bar, And I with sobs did pray— O let me be awake, my God! Or let me sleep alway.

— lines 464–471

The rotten remains of the ship sink in a whirlpool, leaving only the mariner behind. A hermit on the mainland who has spotted the approaching ship comes to meet it in a boat, rowed by a pilot and his boy. When they pull the mariner from the water, they think he is dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot shrieks with fright. The hermit prays, and the mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy laughs, thinking the mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". Back on land, the mariner is compelled by "a woful agony" to tell the hermit his story.

As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by the agony of his guilt, is now forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets:

He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.

— lines 614–617

After finishing his story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding-guest returns home, waking the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".

The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, published in 1800, he replaced many of the archaic words.

Inspiration for the poem
The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–1775) of the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was the astronomer on Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On this second voyage Cook crossed three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent Terra Australis existed. Critics have also suggested that the poem may have been inspired by the voyage of Thomas James into the Arctic.

According to Wordsworth, the poem was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, that described a privateering voyage in 1719 during which a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shot a black albatross.

As they discussed Shelvocke's book, Wordsworth proffered the following developmental critique to Coleridge, which importantly contains a reference to tutelary spirits: "Suppose you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime." By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem had taken shape.

Bernard Martin argues in The Ancient Mariner and the Authentic Narrative that Coleridge was also influenced by the life of Anglican clergyman John Newton, who had a near-death experience aboard a slave ship.

The poem may also have been inspired by the legends of the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the earth until Judgement Day for a terrible crime, found in Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, M. G. Lewis' The Monk (a 1796 novel Coleridge reviewed), and the legend of the Flying Dutchman.

It is argued that the harbour at Watchet in Somerset was the primary inspiration for the poem, although some time before, John Cruikshank, a local acquaintance of Coleridge's, had related a dream about a skeleton ship crewed by spectral sailors. In September 2003, a commemorative statue, by Alan B. Herriot of Penicuik, Scotland, was unveiled at Watchet harbour.

Coleridge's comments
In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge wrote:

"The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life ... In this idea originated the plan of the Lyrical Ballads; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least Romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. ... With this view I wrote the Ancient Mariner."

In Table Talk, Coleridge wrote:

"Mrs. Barbauld once told me that she admired The Ancient Mariner very much, but that there were two faults in it – it was improbable, and had no moral. As for the probability, I owned that that might admit some question; but as to the want of a moral, I told her that in my own judgement the poem had too much; and that the only, or chief fault, if I might say so, was the obtrusion of the moral sentiment so openly on the reader as a principle or cause of action in a work of such pure imagination. It ought to have had no more moral than the Arabian Nights ' tale of the merchant's sitting down to eat dates by the side of a well, and throwing the shells aside, and lo! a genie starts up, and says he must kill the aforesaid merchant, because one of the date shells had, it seems, put out the eye of the genie's son."

Wordsworth's comments
Wordsworth wrote to Joseph Cottle in 1799:

"From what I can gather it seems that the Ancient Mariner has upon the whole been an injury to the volume, I mean that the old words and the strangeness of it have deterred readers from going on. If the volume should come to a second Edition I would put in its place some little things which would be more likely to suit the common taste."

However, when Lyrical Ballads was reprinted, Wordsworth included it despite Coleridge's objections, writing:

"The Poem of my Friend has indeed great defects; first, that the principal person has no distinct character, either in his profession of Mariner, or as a human being who having been long under the control of supernatural impressions might be supposed himself to partake of something supernatural; secondly, that he does not act, but is continually acted upon; thirdly, that the events having no necessary connection do not produce each other; and lastly, that the imagery is somewhat too laboriously accumulated. Yet the Poem contains many delicate touches of passion, and indeed the passion is every where true to nature, a great number of the stanzas present beautiful images, and are expressed with unusual felicity of language; and the versification, though the metre is itself unfit for long poems, is harmonious and artfully varied, exhibiting the utmost powers of that metre, and every variety of which it is capable. It therefore appeared to me that these several merits (the first of which, namely that of the passion, is of the highest kind) gave to the Poem a value which is not often possessed by better Poems."

Early criticisms
Upon its release, the poem was criticized for being obscure and difficult to read. The use of archaic spelling of words was seen as not in keeping with Wordsworth's claims of using common language. Criticism was renewed again in 1815–1816, when Coleridge added marginal notes to the poem that were also written in an archaic style. These notes or glosses, placed next to the text of the poem, ostensibly interpret the verses much like marginal notes found in the Bible. There were many opinions on why Coleridge inserted the gloss.

Charles Lamb, who had deeply admired the original for its attention to "Human Feeling", claimed that the gloss distanced the audience from the narrative, weakening the poem's effects. The entire poem was first published in the collection of Lyrical Ballads. Another version of the poem was published in the 1817 collection entitled Sibylline Leaves (see 1817 in poetry).

Interpretations
On a surface level the poem explores a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him. According to Jerome McGann the poem is like a salvation story. The poem's structure is multi-layered text based on Coleridge's interest in higher criticism. "Like the Iliad or Paradise Lost or any great historical product, the Rime is a work of trans-historical rather than so-called universal significance. This verbal distinction is important because it calls attention to a real one. Like The Divine Comedy or any other poem, the Rime is not valued or used always or everywhere or by everyone in the same way or for the same reasons."

Whalley (1947) suggests that the Ancient Mariner is an autobiographical portrait of Coleridge himself, comparing the mariner's loneliness with Coleridge's own feelings of loneliness expressed in his letters and journals.

In Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), Camille Paglia writes that the Bridegroom, Wedding-Guest and Mariner all represent aspects of Coleridge: "The Bridegroom is a masculine persona" that is "integrated with society", and that the Wedding-Guest is an adolescent seeking "sexual fulfilment and collective joy", that must merge with the Bridegroom but is unable to because of the appearance of a spectre-self, a "male heroine" who "luxuriates in passive suffering".

Versions of the poem
Coleridge often made changes to his poems and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was no exception – he produced at least eighteen different versions over the years. He regarded revision as an essential part of creating poetry. The first published version of the poem was in Lyrical Ballads in 1798. The second edition of this anthology in 1800 included a revised text, requested by Coleridge, in which some of the language and many of the archaic spellings were modernised. He also reduced the title to The Ancient Mariner but for later versions the longer title was restored. The 1802 and 1805 editions of Lyrical Ballads had minor textual changes. In 1817 Coleridge's Sibylline Leaves anthology included a new version with an extensive marginal gloss, written by the poet. The last version he produced was in 1834.

Traditionally literary critics regarded each revision of a text by an author as producing a more authoritative version and Coleridge published somewhat revised versions of the poem in his Poetical Works anthology editions of 1828, 1829, and lastly in 1834—the year of his death. More recently scholars look to the earliest version, even in manuscript, as the most authoritative but for this poem no manuscript is extant. Hence the editors of the edition of Collected Poems published in 1972 used the 1798 version but made their own modernisation of the spelling and they added some passages taken from later editions.

The 1817 edition, the one most used today and the first to be published under Coleridge's own name rather than anonymously, added a new Latin epigraph but the major change was the addition of the gloss that has a considerable effect on the way the poem reads. Coleridge's grandson E.H. Coleridge produced a detailed study of the published versions of the poem. Over all, Coleridge's revisions resulted in the poem losing thirty-nine lines and an introductory prose "Argument", and gaining fifty-eight glosses and a Latin epigraph.

In general the anthologies included printed lists of errata and, in the case of the particularly lengthy list in Sibylline Leaves, the list was included at the beginning of the volume. Such changes were often editorial rather than merely correcting errors. Coleridge also made handwritten changes in printed volumes of his work, particularly when he presented them as gifts to friends.

In popular culture
In addition to being referred to in several other notable works, due to the popularity of the poem the phrase "albatross around one's neck" has become an English-language idiom referring to "a heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success".

The phrase "Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink" has appeared widely in popular culture, but usually given in a more natural modern phrasing as "Water, water, everywhere / But not a drop to drink"; some such appearances have, in turn, played on the frequency with which these lines are misquoted.

title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner


text:
1240

Year 1240 (MCCXL) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * May 24 – Duke Skule Bårdsson, claimant to the Norwegian throne, is defeated by King Haakon IV (the Old) and his supporters. He seeks refuge in Elgeseter Priory in Trondheim, and Haakon burns down the monastery, in which Skule is burned alive. Haakon becomes the undisputed ruler; this ends the civil war era in Norway, after 110 years.
 * July 15 – Battle of the Neva: A Swedish army under Bishop Thomas sails up the Gulf of Finland in their longboats. They proceed into the Neva River with the aim of seizing control over Lake Ladoga and from there, striking at the city of Novgorod. Prince Alexander rallies his druzhina comparable to the 'household' of western European countries, and decisively routs the Swedish forces, saving the Novgorod Republic from a full-scale enemy invasion from the North. As a result, Alexander wins his first military victory at the age of 19 and receives the title of Nevsky.
 * August – Siege of Faenza: Frederick II lays siege to the town of Faenza during the war of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Meanwhile, Frederick makes an alliance with Pisa to support his campaign against the Papal States.
 * Winter – Alexander Nevsky quarrels with the Kievan nobles (boyars) and merchants of Novgorod, probably about peaceful trade with the westerners. He is banished, along with his mother, wife, and his druzhina to take up residence in the region around Moscow, a minor town on the western border of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal.
 * Reconquista: King Sancho II (the Pious) conquers the city of Ayamonte from the Almoravids, securing the Portuguese position in Al-Andalus.

Africa

 * Summer – As-Salih Ayyub becomes ruler of Egypt, after deposing his half-brother Al-Adil II. Meanwhile, other members of the Ayyubid Dynasty are conspiring to depose him and replace him with his uncle, As-Salih Ismail. During his reign, As-Salih begins buying large numbers of Kipchak slaves, to form an elite core in the Egyptian army, known as Mamluks.

Levant

 * October 10 – Richard of Cornwall, brother of King Henry III, arrives at Acre for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His pilgrimage has the approval of Emperor Frederick II, who is married to his younger sister, Isabella of England, and gives him the task to make arrangements with the Military Orders. On his arrival, Richard travels to Ascalon, where he is met by ambassadors from As-Salih Ayyub. As a negotiator, he is successful in the release of prisoners captured at Gaza (see 1239), and he also assists with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

Mongol Empire

 * Winter – The Mongols under Batu Khan cross the frozen Dnieper River and lay siege to the city of Kiev. On December 6, the walls are rendered rubble by Chinese catapults and the Mongols pour into the city. Brutal hand-to-hand street fighting occurs, the Kievans are eventually forced to fall back to the central parts of the city. Many people take refuge in the Church of the Blessed Virgin. As scores of terrified Kievans climb onto the Church's upper balcony to shield themselves from Mongol arrows, their collective weight strain its infrastructure, causing the roof to collapse and crush countless citizens under its weight. Of a total population of 50,000, all but 2,000 are massacred.

Religion

 * June 12 – The Disputation of Paris begins at the court of King Louis IX (the Saint), where four rabbis defend the Talmud against Nicholas Donin's accusations of blasphemy.
 * Pope Gregory IX authorizes a Crusade against Novgorod, hoping that the Kievan Rus' will be too preoccupied dealing with the raiding Mongols to the east to defend.

Births

 * May 2 – Du Zong (or Zhao Qi), Chinese emperor (d. 1274)
 * September 29 – Margaret, queen of Scotland (d. 1275)
 * Abraham Abulafia, Moorish Jewish philosopher (d. 1292)
 * Afonso Mendes de Melo, Portuguese nobleman (d. 1280)
 * Agostino Novello, Italian priest and prior general (d. 1309)
 * Albert II (the Degenerate), German nobleman (d. 1314)
 * Andrea dei Conti, Italian nobleman and priest (d. 1302)
 * Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Spanish physician (d. 1311)
 * Balian of Ibelin, Cypriot nobleman and knight (d. 1302)
 * Beka I Jaqeli, Georgian prince (mtavari) (d. 1306)
 * Benedict XI, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1304)
 * Conrad I, German nobleman and regent (d. 1304)
 * Conrad of Lichtenberg, German bishop (d. 1299)
 * Daumantas of Pskov, Lithuanian prince (d. 1299)
 * Frederick III, German nobleman and knight (d. 1302)
 * Giovanni Pelingotto, Italian hermit and monk (d. 1304)
 * Henry VI, count of Luxembourg and Arlon (d. 1288)
 * Jean d'Eppe, French nobleman and knight (d. 1293)
 * Magnus III (Birgersson), king of Sweden (d. 1290)
 * Peter III, king of Aragon and Valencia (d. 1285)
 * Siger of Brabant, French philosopher (d. 1284)
 * Simon VI, English nobleman and knight (d. 1271)
 * Simone Ballachi, Italian monk and friar (d. 1319)

Deaths

 * January 23 – Albert of Pisa, Italian Franciscan friar
 * February 24 – Egidia de Lacy, Norman noblewoman
 * March 6 – Sylvester of Assisi, Italian priest (b. 1175)
 * April 11 – Llywelyn the Great, king of Gwynedd
 * May 24 – Skule Bårdsson, Norwegian nobleman
 * May 27 – William de Warenne, English nobleman
 * July 22 – John de Lacy, English nobleman (b.1192)
 * July 24 – Conrad of Thuringia, German Grand Master
 * August 14 – Ludmilla of Bohemia, duchess of Bavaria
 * August 31 – Raymond Nonnatus, Spanish cardinal
 * October 13 – Malik Altunia, Indian governor and ruler
 * November 16
 * Edmund of Abingdon, English archbishop (b. 1174)
 * Ibn Arabi, Andalusian philosopher and poet (b. 1165)
 * December 6 – Constance, queen of Bohemia (b. 1180)
 * Alan of Beccles, English clergyman and secretary (b. 1195)
 * Alexander of Villedieu, French teacher and poet (b. 1175)
 * Anastasia of Greater Poland, Polish noblewoman (b. 1164)
 * Branca of Portugal, Portuguese princess (infanta) (b. 1198)
 * Caesarius of Heisterbach, German hagiographer (b. 1180)
 * Conrad of Lichtenau, German nobleman and chronicler
 * Fujiwara no Hideyoshi, Japanese waka poet (b. 1184)
 * Germanus II (Nauplius), patriarch of Constantinople
 * Guilhabert de Castres, French bishop and theologian
 * Hartmann I, German nobleman and knight (b. 1160)
 * Hōjō Tokifusa, Japanese nobleman and regent (b. 1175)
 * John FitzRobert, English nobleman and knight (b. 1190)
 * Tbeli Abuserisdze, Georgian scholar and writer (b. 1190)
 * Thomas Moulton, English nobleman and knight

title: 1240


text:
1241

Year 1241 (MCCXLI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

 * March 18 – Battle of Chmielnik (Mongol invasion of Poland): The Mongols overwhelm the feudal Polish armies of Sandomierz and Kraków provinces, and plunder the abandoned city of Kraków.
 * April 9 – Battle of Legnica: The Mongols, under the command of Baidar, Kadan and Orda Khan, defeat the feudal Polish nobility, including the Knights Templar.
 * April 11 – Battle of Mohi: Batu Khan and Subutai defeat Béla IV of Hungary. The battle is the last major event in the Mongol Invasion of Europe.
 * May – Battle of Giglio: an Imperial fleet defeats a Genoan fleet in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
 * May 10 – Battle of Cameirge in Ulster: The Milesian Irish septs of the Ó Dónaills from Donegal, the Ó Néills from Armagh and the Ó Dochartaighs of Connacht defeat the last Tuatha Dé Danann sept, the Meic Lochlainn of Tír Eoghain and Inishowen under Domhnall mac Muirchertaigh Mac Lochlainn. From now on the Kings of Tír Eoghain will all be of the Ó Néill dynasty, Brian Ua Néill becoming sole ruler.
 * Early northern summer – A succession crisis or other priorities results in the Mongols withdrawing behind their river barrier into the Ukraine and the Russias, leaving Central Asian and far Eastern Europe peoples tributary to the Khanates, but leaving Poland and Hungary to begin recovery and reorganization.
 * August 29 – After Henry III of England's invasion of Wales, the Treaty of Gwerneigron is signed by him and Dafydd ap Llywelyn, curbing the latter's authority and denying him royal title.
 * September 23 – Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic saga writer, is murdered by Gissur Þorvaldsson, an emissary of King Haakon IV of Norway.
 * October 25 – Pope Celestine IV succeeds Pope Gregory IX, as the 179th pope.
 * Emperor Lizong of Song China accepts the Neo-Confucian teachings of the late Zhu Xi, including his commentary on the Four Books. This will have an impact upon the philosophical schools of surrounding countries as well, including Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
 * Livonian Crusade: The Estonian rebellion of 1237 is suppressed on Saaremaa Island, by the Livonian Order.
 * The University of Valladolid is founded in Spain.

Births

 * September 4 – King Alexander III of Scotland (d. 1286)
 * Eleanor of Castile, queen of Edward I of England (d. 1290)
 * Sophia of Denmark, queen consort of Sweden (d. 1286)

Deaths

 * March 17 – Köten, Cuman chieftain
 * March 28 – Valdemar II of Denmark (b. 1170)
 * March 31 – Pousa, voivode of Transylvania
 * April 9 – Duke Henry II of Poland
 * April 11 (killed in the Battle of Mohi):
 * Andrew, son of Serafin, judge royal
 * Izsép Bő, Hungarian nobleman
 * Ugrin Csák, Archbishop of Kalocsa (b. c. 1190)
 * Gregory, Bishop of Győr
 * Nicholas I Gutkeled, ban of Slavonia
 * James, Bishop of Nyitra
 * Dominic I Rátót, master of the treasury
 * Matthias Rátót, archbishop of Esztergom (b. c. 1206)
 * Raynald of Belleville, bishop of Transylvania
 * Denis Tomaj, palatine of Hungary
 * June 24 – Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
 * August 10 – Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany (b. c. 1184), princess long gently imprisoned in England
 * August 22 – Pope Gregory IX
 * September 20 – Conrad II of Salzwedel, German nobleman and bishop
 * September 23 – Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian, poet and politician (b. 1178)
 * September 26 – Fujiwara no Teika, Japanese poet
 * November 10 – Pope Celestine IV
 * December 1 – Isabella of England, Holy Roman empress, spouse of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1214)
 * Bernardo di Quintavalle, Italian follower of St. Francis of Assisi
 * Mary, Countess of Blois (b. 1200)
 * Nicholas Szák, Hungarian nobleman
 * Buzád Hahót, Hungarian nobleman and Christian martyr
 * Coloman of Galicia, Hungarian royalty, Prince (then King) of Halych, Duke of Slavonia (b. 1208)
 * Ögedei Khan, 2nd Khagan of the Mongol Empire and successor to Genghis Khan (b. c. 1185)
 * Baba Ishak, charismatic Turkman preacher (b. c. 1239)

title: 1241


text:
1242

Year 1242 (MCCXLII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – Prince Alexander Nevsky is joined by his brother Andrey II (Yaroslavich) at Novgorod, supported with his elite druzhina (or 'household') from Suzdal. They head southwest across the frozen marshes, which cover much of the land between Novgorod and Pskov. On March 5, Alexander retakes the city almost without a struggle, before the larger Crusader garrison in nearby Izborsk can intervene.
 * April – A Russian force led by Alexander Nevsky crosses the frontier between Novgorod and Livonian Crusader territory, to raid into Catholic Estonia. After that, Alexander breaks his army off into contingents to ravage the countryside. He is forced to turn back, when a local Crusader force under Bishop Hermann von Buxhövden defeats Alexander's advance guard at Mooste bridge south of Tartu.
 * April 5 – Battle of Lake Peipus (or Battle on the Ice): Russian forces led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by a Crusader army (some 2,600 men), including German Teutonic Knights. The opposing armies meet upon the frozen surface of Lake Peipus. The outnumbered Teutonic Knights are defeated on the slippery surface, by Alexander's elite druzhina and the Novgorod forces.
 * May 28 – Avignonet massacre: A group of Cathars, with the probable connivance of Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, murder the inquisitor William Arnaud and eleven of his companions.
 * July 21–22 – Battle of Taillebourg: French forces (some 25,000 men) under King Louis IX (the Saint) defeat King Henry III at the bridge over the Charente River near Taillebourg. After the battle, Louis continues to pursue the English troops, capturing many prisoners. Henry retreats with the remnants of his army to Bordeaux, where he spends the winter.
 * Summer – Alexander Nevsky sends envoys to Batu Khan, preemptively capitulating before the Mongols even though they have not reached Novgorod, and accepts his rule as Mongol overlord.
 * November 16 – King Béla IV issues the Golden Bull to the inhabitants of Gradec (modern-day Zagreb) and Samobor in Croatia. By this golden bull, Béla proclaimes Gradec a royal free city.
 * Siegfried III, archbishop of Mainz, conquers Wiesbaden (a free imperial city) and orders the city's destruction, during the war of Emperor Frederick II against the Papal States.
 * King Sancho II (the Pious) conquers the cities of Tavira, Alvor and Paderne, in his continuing expansion against the Muslims, known as the Reconquista.

Mongol Empire

 * Spring – Siege of Esztergom: The Mongols under Batu Khan assault and destroy most of the Hungarian city of Esztergom. Batu Khan sends a reconnaissance party against the Holy Roman Empire.
 * Battle of Grobnik Field: Croatian forces under Béla IV stop the Mongol invasion in Hungary and Croatia. Béla rebuilds the country and orders the building of fortifications through his kingdom.
 * Siege of Sernya: Mongol forces led by Subutai besiege and capture Sernya. During the siege, Queen Narchat is killed as she and a small group of warriors attempt to flee the city.
 * Batu Khan establishes the Golden Horde at Sarai and withdraws his forces after messengers arrive with the news that the Great Khan Ögedei Khan has died (see 1241).

England

 * May – Isabella of Angoulême, mother of Henry III, persuades him to mount an expedition to retake Poitou. On May 20, Henry arrives at Royan and joins the rebelling French nobles – forming an army (some 30,000 men). Louis IX exchanges letters with Henry to resolve the conflict, but the dispute escalates further.

Africa

 * Summer – In the Maghreb, after a string of successes against the Almohad Caliphate, Hafsid forces under Sultan Abu Zakariya Yahya, conquer the city of Tlemcen (modern Algeria). The Kingdom of Tlemcen becomes a vassal of Abu Zakariya, and is formed in a series of small states between his rule and the states of the Western Maghreb.

Middle East

 * Spring – The Templar Knights raid the city of Hebron. Meanwhile, An-Nasir Dawud, Ayyubid ruler of Damascus, sends forces to cut off the road to Jerusalem, and to levy tolls on the pilgrims and merchants that pass by.
 * Death of Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir and succession of al-Musta'sim to the Caliphal throne.

Asia

 * February 10 – The 10-year-old Emperor Shijō (or Mitsuhito) dies suddenly, despite a dispute over who should follow him as sovereign, Go-Saga (son of former Emperor Tsuchimikado) ascends to the throne of Japan.

Religion

 * William of Modena, Italian bishop and papal diplomat, sets up four dioceses in Poland, including the Archdiocese of Warmia.

Science

 * Ibn al-Nafis, Arab polymath and writer, suggests that the right and left ventricles of the heart are separate, and describes the lesser circulation of blood.

Births

 * January 27 – Margaret of Hungary, Hungarian nun (d. 1270)
 * March 17 – Maud de Prendergast, Irish noblewoman (d. 1272)
 * June 25 – Beatrice of England, English princess (d. 1275)
 * July 24 – Christina von Stommeln, German mystic (d. 1312)
 * December 15 – Munetaka, Japanese shogun (d. 1274)
 * Al-Ashraf Umar II, Arab ruler and astronomer (d. 1296)
 * Beatrice of Castile, queen consort of Portugal (d. 1303)
 * Beatrice of Navarre, duchess of Burgundy (d. 1295)
 * George Pachymeres, Byzantine historian (d. 1310)
 * Hōjō Tokimura, Japanese nobleman (rensho) (d. 1305)
 * Patrick IV (de Dunbar), Scottish nobleman (d. 1308)
 * Stephen I Kotromanić, Bosnian nobleman (d. 1314)
 * Theobald Butler, Norman chief governor (d. 1285)
 * Theodoric of Landsberg, German nobleman (d. 1285)
 * William I, German nobleman and archbishop (d. 1308)
 * William de Leybourne, English nobleman (d. 1310)

Deaths

 * February 10
 * Shijō (or Mitsuhito), emperor of Japan (b. 1231)
 * Verdiana, Italian noblewoman and saint (b. 1182)
 * February 12 – Henry VII, king of Germany (b. 1211)
 * March 26 – William de Forz, English nobleman (b. 1190)
 * March 28 – Theoderich von Wied, German archbishop
 * April 22 – Abubakar ibn Gussom, Arab poet (b. 1168)
 * May 13 – Gerard of Villamagna, Italian hermit (b. 1174)
 * May 15 – Muiz ud-Din Bahram, Indian ruler (b. 1212)
 * June 26 – Thomas de Beaumont, English nobleman
 * July 1 – Chagatai Khan, son of Genghis Khan (b. 1183)
 * July 14 – Hōjō Yasutoki, Japanese regent (b. 1183)
 * October 7 – Juntoku, emperor of Japan (b. 1197)
 * November 12 – Jocelin of Wells, English bishop
 * November 20 – Narchat, Moksha queen (b. 1216)
 * December 2 – Al-Mustansir, Abbasid caliph (b. 1192)
 * December 9 – Richard le Gras, English abbot and bishop
 * December 26 – Hugh de Lacy, Norman nobleman (b. 1176)
 * Aimeric de Belenoi, French cleric, troubadour and writer
 * Archambaud VIII (the Great), French nobleman (b. 1189)
 * Ceslaus, Polish nobleman, jurist and missionary (b. 1184)
 * Da'ud Abu al-Fadl, Ayyubid Jewish physician (b. 1161)
 * Enguerrand III, French nobleman and knight (b. 1182)
 * Muhammad Aufi, Persian historian and writer (b. 1171)
 * Nuño Sánchez, Spanish nobleman and knight (b. 1185)
 * Ogasawara Nagakiyo, Japanese samurai (b. 1162)
 * Richard de Morins, English archdeacon and jurist
 * Richard Mór de Burgh, Norman nobleman (b. 1194)
 * Sasaki Yoshikiyo, Japanese nobleman (b. 1161)

title: 1242


text:
1243

Year 1243 (MCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * March – King Ferdinand III (the Saint) turns the independent Taifa of Murcia into a protectorate, and initiates the process of the colonization and Christianization of the region. He receives the submission of the Moors, under the terms of a peace agreement (the famous Treaty of Alcaraz).
 * April 27 – Treaty of Bordeaux: King Louis IX (the Saint) and King Henry III agree to a truce that ends the Saintonge War. The truce does not stop the on-going clashes (and further tensions) between France and England.
 * Siege of Viterbo: Emperor Frederick II besieges Viterbo on request of the rebel citizens. The defenders are able to set fire to the siege towers and after signing a peace treaty, Frederick is persuaded to withdraw his army.
 * Siege of Montségur: French forces (some 10,000 men) begin the siege of Château de Montségur to raze the stronghold held by the rebellious Cathars. The castle is defended by some 100 troops and 500 refugees.
 * May 1 – The Castillan troops are garrisoned in Murcia, to support the Hudid Dynasty.

England

 * Spring – Henry III bestows the custody of Kenilworth Castle to Simon de Montfort. Simon's wife Eleanor, Henry's sister, already owned Odiham Castle (or King John's Castle) so Simon has two of the strongest fortresses in England under his control.

Levant

 * June 12 – A Crusader force under Balian III, lord of Beirut, captures Tyre after a long siege. The barons seize the citadel on July 10, with the help of Alice, queen of Cyprus, whose forces arrive on June 15. This ending the War of the Lombards.

Mongol Empire

 * June 26 – Battle of Köse Dağ: The Mongols under Baiju Noyan defeat the Seljuk Turks of the Sultanate of Rum and their Byzantine allies. The Seljuks and the Empire of Trebizond become vassals of the Mongols.

Religion

 * June 25 – Pope Innocent IV succeeds Celestine IV as the 180th pope of the Catholic Church, after a sede vacante of 7 months.

Births

 * May 31 – James II, Aragonese ruler of Majorca (d. 1311)
 * June 6 – Alix of Brittany, Breton noblewoman (d. 1288)
 * June 28 – Go-Fukakusa, emperor of Japan (d. 1304)
 * September 2
 * Gilbert de Clare, English nobleman (d. 1295)
 * Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry (d. 1321)
 * Alfonso Fernández el Niño, Spanish nobleman (d. 1281)
 * An Hyang (or Ahn Yu), Korean Confucian scholar (d. 1306)
 * Augustinus Triumphus, Italian hermit and writer (d. 1328)
 * Awaji Nichiken, Japanese Buddhist monk (d. 1338)
 * Giles of Rome, Italian friar and archbishop (d. 1316)
 * John I of Chalon-Auxerre, French nobleman (d. 1309)
 * Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, Italian missionary (d. 1320)
 * Roger Bernard III, French nobleman and poet (d. 1302)
 * Zhenjin (or Chingkim), Mongolian prince (d. 1286)

Deaths

 * January 17 – Herman V, German nobleman (b. 1180)
 * January 19 – Konoe Iezane, Japanese nobleman (b. 1179)
 * February 20 – Romano Bonaventura, Italian cardinal
 * March 10 – Cyril III, patriarch of Alexandria (b. 1175)
 * April 25 – Boniface of Valperga, Italian monk and bishop
 * May 3 – Hawise of Chester, English noblewoman (b. 1180)
 * May 4 – Hubert de Burgh, English Chief Justiciar (b. 1170)
 * May 7 – Hugh d'Aubigny, English nobleman and knight
 * June 4 – Constance, margravine of Meissen (b. 1212)
 * June 26 – Dardin Shervashidze, Georgian nobleman
 * August 16 – Stepan Tverdislavich, Russian posadnik
 * October 15 – Hedwig of Silesia, Polish duchess (b. 1174)
 * October 26 – Bernat Calbó (or Calvó), Catalan bishop
 * Ermengol IX, Catalan nobleman and child ruler (b. 1235)
 * Fujiwara no Reishi, Japanese empress consort (b. 1185)
 * Haymo of Faversham, English priest and philosopher
 * Indravarman II, Cambodian ruler of the Khmer Empire
 * Maol Eoin Ó Crechain, Irish priest and archdeacon
 * Margaret of Burgundy, countess of Savoy (b. 1192)
 * Umm Assa'd bint Isam al-Himyari, Arab female poet

title: 1243