1150

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political events

Sweden's Sverker I Kolsson is deposed after a 16-year reign that has amalgamated the Swedes and the Goths, completed the joining of Götland with Svealand, and converted the country to Christianity (see 1156). Sverker has taken as his second wife a daughter of Poland's late duke Boleslav III (Wry-mouth), his enemies have proclaimed a 30-year-old pretender as king in Svealand, and this son of Jedvard Thordssson Bonde will reign until his assassination in 1160 as Erik IX Jedvardsson.

Albrecht the Bear inherits Brandenburg (see 1134).

Navarre's (Pamplona's) García IV (or V) dies at Lorca November 21 after a brief reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign as Sancho VI.

Cambodia's Khmer king Suryavarman I dies after a reign of more than 40 years in which he has reunited his realm after years of unrest and expanded it by conquest into the Chao Phraya River valley and other regions, consolidating conquered territories into a strong, unified empire (year approximate). A Mayahana Buddhist who has shown tolerance toward the local Vishnu cult of Hinduism, Suryavarman has overseen the construction of great temples and monasteries while promoting irrigation projects and other public works. Angkor Wat was begun early in his reign and will be completed after his death with sculptures portraying him as Vishnu.

transportation

Chinese sea masters and caravan leaders use magnetic compasses in crude form to guide them in their journeys (see science 1558).

religion

Norway's Inge I Haraldsson, now 15, calls a meeting at Bergen of all secular and religious leaders in anticipation that the English cardinal Nicholas Breakspear will found an archbishopric at Trondheim (Nidaros), as he will do 2 years hence. The new archbishopric will have five dioceses in Norway and six in Norwegian colonies, all of them heretofore under the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Lund, in Denmark.

education

The University of Paris has its beginnings (see Sorbonne, 1253).

music

Troubadour music is organized in the south of France.

architecture, real estate

Angkor Wat hails the completion of the Hindu funeral temple of the late Khmer king Suryavarman II. Largest and most splendid of Asia's Hindu temples, it is the centerpiece of a Cambodian capital that is surrounded by a 12-mile moat.

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