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Richard the Lion-Hearted adopts "Dieu et mon droit" (God and my own right) as the motto of the royal arms of England at the Battle of Gisors. He asserts that he is no vassal of France but royal by God's grace and his own, but is forced to cede Gisors to France's Philippe II Augustus, along with the fortresses of Neaufles and Dangu (see 1194; 1199).
Ireland's last high king Roderic O'Connor dies in a monastery near Lough Corrib, County Galway.
The former Holy Roman Empress-consort Constance d'Hauteville dies at Palermo November 27 at age 44, having secured the imperial throne for her son Friedrich II.
Pope Celestine III dies at his native Rome January 8 at age 91 (approximate) after a reign of nearly 7 years. He is succeeded by Lotario dei Conti di Segni, 37, who is related through his mother, Claricia (née Scotti), to many noble Roman families and is elected after only two ballots; ordained a priest February 21, he is conducted on a white horse February 22 in a solemn procession that winds its way along the west bank of the Tiber amidst a great clanging of church bells and consecrated as bishop of Rome, becoming the most powerful man in Latin Christendom. "We are the successor of the Prince of the Apostles," he says in his sermon, "but we are not his vicar, nor the vicar of any man or Apostle, but the vicar of Jesus Christ himself." Innocent III begins a reign that will continue until his death in 1216.
The new pope Innocent III excommunicates France's Philippe II Augustus for repudiating his 1193 marriage to Ingeborg, 22-year-old sister of Denmark's Canute VI, to whom he took an almost instant dislike, but public opinion forces Philippe to effect a reconciliation with the pope.
Pope Innocent III excommunicates Norway's Sverrir Sigurdsson and the bishops who crowned him in 1190 (see 1196); Sverrir responds with a speech arguing that secular power is paramount to that of the Church (see 1199).
Germans gathered for a new crusade support the Teutonic Knights (House of the Hospitalers of St. Mary of the Teutons in Jerusalem) (see 1190). Headquarters of the order will remain at Acre until 1291, membership will be open only to Germans, and knighthood will be reserved for noblemen (see 1226).
The Islamic religious philosopher Averroës dies at Marrakech at age 72 (approximate), having defended the philosophical study of religion in opposition to theologians. He has written summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle's works and on Plato's Republic.
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