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England's Henry II lands at Waterford in response to a request for aid from Ireland's deposed king of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough (Diarmaid Macmurchada), who ruled Leinster from 1126 but was banished 5 years ago by Irish chieftains and dies May 1 at age 61 (see Pembroke, 1170). Richard de Clare (Richard FitzGilbert), 2nd earl of Pembroke, succeeds as ruler of Leinster, but his reign will be brief. Accompanied by Anglo-Norman justiciars who include Hugh de Lacy, Henry is greeted as "lord of Ireland" and claims the country as his own (see 1172).
The Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus orders the arrest of all Venetians in his empire March 12 and seizes their ships and goods (see 1366). Public sentiment forces the doge Vitale II Michiel to lead a Venetian fleet against the Byzantines, plague takes a heavy toll among the fleet's crewmen, half the ships have to be burned to keep them from falling into enemy hands, plague breaks out in Venice when the remaining ships return, and the doge is blamed for the disasters (see 1172).
Cairo's 33-year-old grand vizier Saladin (Saläh-al-Din Yusuf ibn-Ayyub) overthrows the Fatimid caliph, ending the caliphate that has ruled since 969 and made Egypt the center of Muslim culture. A Kurdish official in the service of Syria's emir Nür al-Din, Saladin was brought up at Damascus, built the Cairo citadel 5 years ago and now makes himself sovereign of Egypt. He will unite the Muslim world and hold power until his death in 1192.
