Directory

1120 CE

Reconquista: Battle of Cutanda: The combined forces of Aragon and Navarre under King Alfonso the Battler crush the Almoravid army near Calamocha. Alfonso recaptures the fortified towns of Calatayud and Daroca. September (the eighth month of the Chinese calendar) – Wanyan Xiyin, a Jurchen nobleman and minister, completes the design of the first version of the Jurchen script. The White Ship sinks in the English Channel off Barfleur. Henry I's only legitimate son, William Adelin, is among 300 (many of them Anglo-Norman nobility) who drown.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • The Pseudo-Ingulf's Croyland Chronicle records Cornwall as a nation distinct from England.source

Conflict & Security

  • June 17 – Reconquista: Battle of Cutanda: The combined forces of Aragon and Navarre under King Alfonso the Battler crush the Almoravid army near Calamocha. Alfonso recaptures the fortified towns of Calatayud and Daroca.source
  • Fang La, a Chinese rebel leader, leads an uprising against the Song dynasty in Qixian Village (modern-day Zhejiang) in southeast China. He raises an army and captures Hangzhou.source
  • Siege of Sozopolis: Byzantine forces under Emperor John II Komnenos conquer Sozopolis in Pisidia, from the Sultanate of Rum. The Seljuk garrison is defeated while they are trapped between the Byzantine cavalry and the army (which is besieging the fortress).source

Exploration & Expansion

  • The Almoravid fleet under Admirals Abu Abd Allah ibn Maymum of Almería and Isa ibn Maymum of Sevilla attacks the coastline of the Christian Kingdom of Galicia.source
  • Summer – Baldwin II leads an expedition to Antioch to defend the northern Crusader states. He signs a 1-year truce with Ilghazi, Artuqid ruler of Mardin, securing the possession of Kafartab and other fortresses in Syria.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 16 – Council of Nablus: King Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Patriarch Warmund convenes an assembly at Nablus, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. The prelates and noblemen who attend the meeting confirm the clergy's right to collect the tithe and to bear arms "in the cause of defense".source
  • August–September (the eighth month of the Chinese calendar) – Wanyan Xiyin, a Jurchen nobleman and minister, completes the design of the first version of the Jurchen script.source
  • Baldwin II grants the Knights Templar under Hugues de Payens and Godfrey de Saint-Omer a headquarters in a wing of the royal palace on the Temple Mount in the captured Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.source
  • Bishop Urban begins the construction on Llandaff Cathedral in Wales.source
  • Order of Premonstratensians founded by Norbert of Xanten at Prémontré in Picardy.source

Science & Discovery

  • Walcher of Malvern, an English astronomer and mathematician, creates a system of measurement for the Earth using degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude.source

Health & Medicine

  • The flourishing south Chinese coastal city of Quanzhou claims a population of 500,000 citizens, including the hinterland.source

Crime & Justice

  • King Henry I gives a portion of the Stoneleigh estate (located in Warwickshire) to Geoffrey de Clinton, his chamberlain and treasurer. He builds a motte and bailey castle and forms a lake to provide better defences.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • November 25 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel off Barfleur. Henry I's only legitimate son, William Adelin, is among 300 (many of them Anglo-Norman nobility) who drown.source

Culture & Society

  • Freiburg is founded by Conrad I and his elder brother, Duke Berthold III of Zähringen, as a free market town.source

Births

  • Gonçalo Mendes de Sousa, Portuguesesource
  • Frederick II of Berg, archbishop of Cologne (d. 1158)source
  • Zhao Boju, Chinese landscape painter (d. 1182)source
  • Ioveta of Bethany, princess and daughter of Baldwin IIsource
  • Fujiwara no Yorinaga, Japanese statesman (d. 1156)source
  • Urban III, pope of the Catholic Church (d. 1187)source
  • Rainald of Dassel, archbishop of Cologne (d. 1167)source
  • Gunhilda of Dunbar, Scottish Noblewoman (d. 1166)source
  • William I ("the Wicked"), king of Sicily (d. 1166)source
  • Alfonso of Capua, Italo-Norman nobleman (d. 1144)source
  • Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, Arab-Jewish translatorsource
  • Roger de Mowbray, English nobleman (d. 1188)source
  • Arnold I of Vaucourt, archbishop of Trier (d. 1183)source
  • Philip of Milly, French nobleman and knight (d. 1171)source

Deaths

  • September 3 – Blessed Gerard, founder of the Knights Hospitallersource
  • September 24 – Welf II ("the Fat"), duke of Bavaria (b. 1072)source
  • November 25 – Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester (b. 1094)source
  • November 25 – William Adelin, duke and son of Henry I (b. 1103)source
  • November 25 – Matilda FitzRoy, countess and daughter of Henry Isource
  • November 25 – Ralph of Pont-Echanfray, Norman knight (b. 1070)source
  • Ingegerd, queen of Denmark and Sweden (b. 1046)source
  • Adelaide, countess of Vermandois and Valois (or 1124)source
  • Fujiwara no Sadazane, Japanese calligrapher (b. 1076)source
  • Eudo Dapifer (or FitzHerbert), Norman noblemansource
  • Raymond Pilet d'Alès, French nobleman (b. 1075)source
  • Afridun I (the Martyr), ruler (shah) of Shirvan (b. 1046)source
  • Fujiwara no Atsutaka, Japanese nobleman and poetsource