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France's Louis VII dies September 18 at age 59 after a 43-year reign in which he has repudiated his ex-wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, warred with her new husband (England's Henry II), and with Geoffrey of Anjou, but built the prestige of the crown by entrusting the administration of his realm to reliable men of modest origin and consolidating his territories instead of adding to them. His 15-year-old son by his third wife (Alix of Champagne) was crowned last year at Reims and will rule until 1223 as Philippe II Augustus.
Heinrich III (der Löwe [the Lion]), duke of Saxony, loses his Saxon and Bavarian duchies and all his imperial fiefs for having breached the king's peace (see 1178). The Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa breaks up Heinrich's former domain; one part of Saxony is renamed the duchy of Westphalia and given to the archbishop of Cologne; the eastern part is given as a fief to Bernhard of Brandenburg, a son of the late Albrecht the Bear. Friedrich gives his ally Otto von Wittelsbach the duchy of Bavaria, which is transformed from a duchy to a territorial state and will be ruled by Wittelsbachs until 1918, although the houses of Löwenstein, Wertheim, and Rosenberg will rule parts of Bavaria at various times (see 1208). Heinrich holds out in northern Saxony but will be obliged to submit in the summer of next year, and although he will be permitted to retain his hereditary lands of Brunswick and Lüneburg, he will be exiled for several years to the court of his father-in-law, England's Henry II.
Poland's nobility and clergy convene the Congress of Leczyca and vest their duke Casimir II's descendants with hereditary rights to the crown in return for the privileges he has granted them (see 1173), but he will never himself be crowned king (see 1194).
The Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus dies September 24 at age 60 after a 37-year reign of great splendor that has involved the empire in repeated conflicts with the Normans and has weakened it financially. Manuel is succeeded by his 12-year-old son, who will reign briefly as Alexius II Comnenus with his mother, Maria of Antioch, as regent (see 1182).
The 34th Abbasid caliph an-Nasir ascends the throne to begin a 45-year reign in which he will expand his realm, assume control of the chivalrous futuwa order, gain esteem among other Muslim princes, but fail in his efforts to unify the Islamic world.
An uprising against Japan's ruling Taira family begins as Kiyomori Taira alienates the imperial family with his excesses following the death last year of his eldest son Shigemori at age 41 (see 1179). One revolt is led by an imperial prince and another by Yorimasa Minamoto, now 74, who is supported by some of the monasteries but who is killed by the Taira. Yoritomo Minamoto, now 23, leads a general uprising August 17 with help from his father-in-law, Tokimasa Hojo, now 42 (see 1160). Hojo's daughter Masako, also now 23, married Yoritomo 3 years ago against her father's wishes (Minamoto had been exiled to Izu and had no title). The emperor Takukura abdicates at age 19 and is succeeded by his 2-year-old son Antoku, grandson of Kiyomori Taira, whose samurai forces encounter opposition in October on the Fuji River from troops raised by the Minamoto family. A Minamoto detachment gets behind the Taira position, a sudden flight of waterfowl alarms the Taira in the night, they flee westward, taking the infant emperor along, and the Minamoto forces begin a series of victories (see 1181).
Pope Alexander III sends the antipope Innocent III in January to the monastery of La Cava in Apulia, southern Italy.
Glass windows appear in private English houses, but most people have only shutters for windows (see tax, 1695).
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