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| - Northern Europe: Hermann, margrave of the Palatinate, inherits Thuringia from his elder brother, Ludwig V the Mild. Dietrich count of Groitzsch, a minor heir to the Wettin dynasty of Misnia/Meissen, which is a Bohemian vassal, begins claiming parts of Thuringia as a dowry, having married Jutta, Ludwig's only daughter. The issue ruins German-Bohemian relations and in the end causes the short Thuringian Dowry War, won by the Germans at the battle of Tannafeld, which marks the end of Bohemian supremacy in central Europe. The subsequent peace settlement sees both Meissen and Brandenburg return to the fold as German vassals. A final marriage between another Jutta:confused: , daughter of Hermann, and another Dietrich:confused: , the titular margrave of Misnia/Meissen and head of the Wettin house, settles the issue by marginally enlarging the Wettins' possessions with some Thuringian lands. Southern Europe: Savona rejects the Del Carretto feudal yoke and re-establishes herself as a free Comune. The Genoese build a fortress in Monaco (*Montecarlo), gainging confirmation of their possession from the dukes of Ventimiglia. Duke Berchtold II of Alamannia (Berchtold V von Zähringen) founds the city of Berne. Byzantine Empire: The imperial army completes the expulsion of Lesser Norman forces from continental Greece and Albania; some of the vanquished invaders are integrated into the army as pronoiars (feudatories owing service to the basileus). Middle East: Arab forces press into Lebanon, besieging and conquering some key Crusader fortresses, and unsuccesfully besieging Tyre. India: Caliph Muhammad of Ghor, betrayed by some of his generals on orders from his brothers, is defeated and killed in the battle of Taraori/Tarain by the Chauhan Rajput ruler of Ajmer, Prithvi Raj III, and his vassal Govinda of Delhi. Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe: The Cumans storm the Vlacho-Bulgarian empire and Hungary, extorting tributes from both. Middle East: Sultan Abdullah Saif ul-Islam leads his armies to the conquest of Aleppo from the Templars, then defeats the Antiochene Crusaders at Harim castle and puts Antioch itself under siege. Desperate calls from help result in Pope Leo IX (*OTL Celestine III) calling the Fourth Crusade against the powerful Arab ruler Southern Europe: Greater and Lesser Norman, Burgundian and Lombard Crusaders, under the ultimate leadership of emperor Amaury I of Greater Normandy, are ferried from Provence, Lombardy and Italy to Jaffa and Acre, where they assemble to fight back the Arabs. The Byzantines stem a Serbian invasion along the Vardar. Ragusa/Dubrovnik makes a trade agreement with Serbia, becoming its commercial outlet on the Mediterranean. Central-Eastern Europe: The death of margrave Ottokar/Odoacer IV extinguishes the dynasty of Styria. According to the last will of the duke, Styria is merged into personal union with Carinthia under Ulrich II von Sponheim. Central-Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Byzantine Empire: A powerful German-Luxemburgian army, led by Henry, first living son of king Frederick II (*OTL Barbarossa) of Germany, and Henry the Strong, heir to the Welf duchy of Bavaria, crosses Hungary and Serbia with no opposition, entering then Byzantine territory and wintering near Adrianople. Byzantine welcome is cold at best, but fortunately (for the Byzantines:D ) no major clashes happen. Far East: Minamoto no Yoritomo is granted the title of Shogun (generalissimo), marking the rise of the first shogunate (military rule) in Japanese history. The emperors are by now reduced to mostly ceremonial role, if preserving great influence. Southern Europe: Venetian and German Crusaders are “hijacked” by Doge Enrico Dandolo, old and blind but still very shrewd and strong, to the conquest and sack of Hungarian-held Zara, before proceeding to Syria through Crete and Cyprus. Byzantine Empire The Crusaders, with the Byzantine army cautiously on tow :p as a security guard, are ferried to Anatolia, where they retake Caesarea/Mazhak from the Ortoqids, clearing the way for Cilicia and the Levant. Middle East: Antioch falls to the Arab siege a week before the Crusaders and their Cilician-Armenian allies can arrive, and is subjected to a ruthless massacre of all non-Muslim population:mad: , including prince Magnus of Châtillon-Antioch and his mother Theodora Sigurdopoula. When the Crusaders arrive and discover the carnage, they retake the city in a few weeks: no mercy is shown, with all captured Muslims put to death or mutilated with utmost cruelty :mad: :mad: :mad: . Antioch (or its surviving ruins) is then bestowed upon the Knights Templar, who'll turn it into a huge, outstanding fortress-town. Some German Crusaders, impressed by the example of fierce bravery and fanaticism given by the mostly Anglo-French and Luxemburgian Templars, establish the Teutonic Order as its German-speaking counterpart. The southern Crusader army, bolstered by Sicilian and North African reinforcements, moves instead from Palestine against the core territories of the Saifid sultanate (*Abdullah's empire), recapturing al-Kerak and Helim/Aqaba. An attempted advance towards Medina proves an utter disaster:( due to the harsh desert climate, and most of the Crusader army is decimated by thirst and Bedouin raids, with only the North African cavalry performing well and protecting the painful withdrawal to the Jordan. Southern Europe: The tiny sea-trading town of Noli (Liguria) gains independence from the Del Carretto margraves, becoming a free republic under Genoese protection. The Byzantine fleet retakes the Ionian islands (save Venetian Corfu) from the Italo-Norman Margaritone da Brindisi, who ruled there as an independent prince. North Africa: Paul Iron Cross crushes the Spanish and Andalusian Crusaders in their strongholds at Sefta/Ceuta and Tangiers, ousting them from northern Mauretania (*OTL Morocco); he is thereafter hailed as prince of the Rawel (*OTL Rif) and king of the Maurians, his tolerance of Catharism healing past divisions. Byzantine Empire: Basileus Alexius II Branas dies, leaving the empire to his son, Theodosius IV (*The ill-fated co-emperor murdered in 658 by his brother Belisarius II is counted as Theodosius III). Middle East: Mohammed Mansur Billah leads an Arab army in the invasion of Palestine, which is ravaged. After torching the Nativity Church in Bethlehem and killing all Christians on their way, the Arabs put Jerusalem under siege, but to no avail. A relief force led by emperor Amaury I of Greater Normandy, the nominal overlord of all Crusader states, breaks the siege and drives back the invaders beyond the Jordan. In Lebanon and Syria the Templars, the German Crusaders and the Cilician Armenians recapture various strongholds and castles, but are heavily defeated outside Hamah. Central Asia: The last Greater Seljuk ruler, Tughril Beg III, falls in battle against Ala ud-Din Tukush Shah of Khorezm, who is able to enforce his rule over most of Persia/Iran up to the Zagros range. Far East: In China the Huang He (Yellow River) changes it course, flowing into the more southerly Huai He, and provoking major floods and disasters; it will keep this course up to 1853, swamping vast swathes of otherwise good agricultural land. Emperor Guangzong of Song China is forced to abdicate in favor of his relative Ningzong. Northern Europe: King Sverre of Norway is again challenged by the Øyskjegg rebellion under Hallkjell Jonsson, supported by the last Vikings from the Shetlands and Orkneys. The rebels are decisively trounced at the naval battle of Florvåg. Southern Europe: Judge-king Guglielmo Salusco IV of Cagliari/Santa Igia, supported by Pisan and Lesser Norman forces, plunders the judicate of Torres, then invades and vassalizes Arborea by razing its capital, Oristano, and enforcing marriages between the Arborean heirs and his daughters. Genoese-Lombard control (*the king of Lombardy is titular king of Sardinia and theoretical overlord of Genoa) is put to an end, and Torres is given back to its old former ruler, Robert III, as a vassal of the Lesser Norman kingdom. India: The Ghorid general Qutb ud-Din Aibak, a Turkic slave-soldier (Ghulam), seizes power in the Indus valley from the feuding Ghorid rulers, establishing his power base in Lahore and earning the nickname Ghazi (fighter for the faith) for his spirited defence against Rajput encroachments of Muslim-held territories. Southern Europe: Genoa imposes its unrequested “protection” to the ports of the Eastern (Levante) Riviera Northern Europe: Henry the Lion, duke of Bavaria, dies. His second son, Lothar, succeeds him on the Bavarian throne, and when news arrive that his brother Henry has died in the Holy Land, gains confirmation from king Frederick II (*OTL Barbarossa) of the Compromise of Augsburg of 1169, which would make him the heir apparent to the German crown and has been preserving peace in Germany for decades. King Canute I of Sweden dies. Being his children still too young, the Swedish nobility hails as king the Danish-grown Sverker II, heir of the rival Sverkersson house. Byzantine Empire: The Byzantines are ousted by Caesarea/Mazhak at the hands of Frederick the Asian von Babenberg, the young Crusading duke of Austria, which sets up again a Crusader state in Cappadocia and establishes the Akrite Order (from the [I]akritai[/I], the old Byzantine bordermen fighting Muslim invaders). Unusually, the Order will be open to both Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians, and accordingly divided into two sections, loyal to their appointed commanders and to the ultimate authority of duke Frederick. Caucasus: David Soslan, consort king of Iberia/Georgia, trounces the Azeris at the battle of Shamkor. Middle East: The Crusaders mount an unsuccessful expedition against Damascus, suffering a thorough defeat, then most of the armies head home in Europe. The Arab-Crusader conflict reduces to violent raids in Palestine and Jordan and cruel reprisals and manhunts agains the Bedouin tribes, the Jews and the unfortunate Muslim peasantry.
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