1179

Year 1179 (MCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Levant

• April 10 – A Crusader army led by King Baldwin IV (the Leper) is ambushed by Muslim forces in a narrow valley in the forest of Banyas. Baldwin is only able to extricate his forces owing to the heroism of Humphrey II, lord of Toron, who holds up the Muslims with his bodyguard till Baldwin and his army escape. Humphrey suffers mortal wounds and dies on April 22.^[1] He is succeeded by his 13-year-old grandson Humphrey IV.
• Odo de St. Amand, Grand Master of the Templars, and Lord Baldwin of Ibelin.^[2]
• Jacob's Ford, killing 80 knights and taking 700 civilians captive.^[3]

• June 18 – Battle of Kalvskinnet: Norwegian forces led by King Sverre Sigurdsson defeat and kill Earl Erling Skakke, outside Nidaros in Norway. The battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
• Frederick I (Barbarossa) to answer charges of misgovernment.^[4]
• Summer –
  Catholic Church against the Leonese
  monarchy.
• Mieszko III (the Old), duke of Poland, travels to Germany
  and ask Frederick I to offer help in his restoration of the Polish throne. But Frederick demands a payment of 10,000 silver.
• November 1 – The 14-year-old Philip II is crowned at Rheims by Archbishop William of the White Hands. He becomes joint ruler of France, together with his father King Louis VII.
• King William I (the Lion) establishes two castles at the Beauly Firth and the Cromarty Firth in northern Scotland. On his return, the city of Aberdeen is chartered by Wiliam.^[5]

England

• Summer –
  Richard de Luci (or Lucy), High Sherrif of Essex, resigns his judicial office. He enters Lesnes Abbey (near London) that he founded in Kent, as penance for his part in the events leading to the murder of Thomas Becket (see 1170). Richard dies there on July 14
  .

• Cape Espichel.^[6] The Portuguese fleet later manages to enter in the harbour of Ceuta
  , and destroy a number of Muslim ships. It is the beginning of a four-year naval conflict between the Almohads and Portuguese.

• Taira no Kiyomori, Japanese military leader, confines the former Emperor Go-Shirakawa to his quarters after discovering that he has tried to confiscate the estates of Kiyomori's deceased children.

Mesoamerica

• The Maya city Chichen Itza is sacked and burned by Hunac Ceel, ruler of Mayapan (approximate date).

By topic

Religion

• March –
  heretics. It further institutes a reformation of clerical life and regulates that in order to prevent future schisms
  , the pope must receive 2⁄3 of the cardinals' votes to be elected.
• Rupertsberg
  . Having founded two monasteries, she has also written theological, botanical, and medicinal texts.
• Westminster School is founded by Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey (by papal command) in England.
• A synod of thirty-three Armenian bishops in
  Hromkla discusses the conditions for union with the Byzantine Church and sends a profession of faith to emperor Manuel I Komnenos who dies before receiving it.^[7]
• The
  Drigung Kagyu school of Kagyu Buddhism
  is founded (approximate date).

• Fariduddin Ganjshakar, Indian preacher (d. 1266
  )
• May 13 – Theobald III, count of Champagne (d. 1201)
• May 17 – Ogasawara Nagatsune, Japanese warrior (d. 1247)
• Constance of Aragon, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1222)
• Donatus of Ripacandida, Italian monk and saint (d. 1198)
• John of Ibelin, constable and lord of Beirut (d. 1236
  )
• Konoe Iezane, Japanese nobleman and monk (d. 1243)
• Serapion of Algiers, English priest and martyr (d. 1240)
• Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic historian and poet (d. 1241)
• William IV (Talvas), Norman nobleman (d. 1221)
• Yaqut al-Hamawi, Arab geographer and writer (d. 1229)

Deaths

• February 25 – Adelelm, English Lord High Treasurer
• April 22 – Humphrey II, constable and lord of Toron (b. 1117)^[8]
• June 18 – Erling Skakke, Norwegian nobleman (b. 1115)
• Richard de Luci, Norman High Sheriff (b. 1089
  )
• July 27 – Mudzaffar Shah I, ruler of the Kedah Sultanate
• August 9 – Roger of Worcester, English bishop (b. 1118)
• August 20 – William le Gros (la Gras), English nobleman
• September 2 – Taira no Shigemori, Japanese nobleman (b. 1138)
• September 17 – Hildegard of Bingen, German abbess (b. 1098)
• Odo de St. Amand, French Grand Master (b. 1110
  )
• Chong Chung-bu, Korean military leader (b. 1106
  )
• December 25 – Roger de Bailleul, French monk and abbot
• Fujiwara no Atsuyori (or Dōin), Japanese waka poet (b. 1090)
• Guihomar IV (or Guidomar), Breton nobleman (b. 1130)
• Reginald de Warenne (or Rainald), Norman nobleman
• Urraca of Castile (Alfonso), queen of Navarre (b. 1133)

References