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The Peace of Constance ends the conflict between the Lombard towns, the pope, and Friedrich I Barbarossa, but it also ends any remnant of unity in the Holy Roman Empire.
The Byzantine co-emperor Andronicus I Comnenus is crowned as such in September, has the co-emperor Alexius II Comnenus strangled in November, and at age 65 marries the 13-year-old widow of Alexius to legitimize his usurpation of the throne. Assuming sole power, he undertakes reforms of the corrupt political system, punishing officials found guilty of taking bribes, barring the sale of political offices, and reining in the power of the feudal nobility and landed gentry whose privileges have been undermining the empire, but Hungary's Béla III invades Byzantine territory and sacks some cities, justifying his action on the grounds that he is avenging the death of the late dowager empress Maria of Antioch (see 1185).
The sultan Saladin takes Aleppo (see 1176), but despite frequent appeals to the Abbasid caliph an-Nasir he will receive little support from the caliphate (see 1185).
Japan's Taira clan is driven out of Kyoto by Minamoto clansmen under the command of Yoshinaka Minamoto, 29, a cousin of Yoritomo (see 1181). The Minamoto family installs the 3-year-old half-brother of the emperor Antoku as the emperor Gotoba in rivalry with the Taira family's emperor (see 1185).
Poetry: Senzaishu by Japanese poet Saigyo-hosi, 75, who at age 23 abandoned his wife and family to become a priest and has spent his life wandering through Japan composing short poems of 31 syllables each, called tanka.
France's young King Philippe II Augustus II has the marketplace at Paris enlarged and builds a shelter for merchants. The market will attract food sellers from all over the country, become known as Les Halles, and continue as such until 1971 (see 1866).
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