12th century

(11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries)

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200.

Events

• Song dynasty loses power over Northern China
• First, Second, and Third Crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam
• Pope Adrian IV granted overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England.
• Suger rebuilds the abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, seen as first Gothic building
• Portugal declares independence from the kingdom of León and Castille in 1139 (traditionally said to have been recognised by Leon and Castille in 1143).
• Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, was destroyed.
• Thomas Becket murdered in 1170.

Significant people

• Pierre Abélard, one of the first scholastic philosophers
• Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics
• Saladin, ruler of Egypt and Syria who resisted the Crusaders
• Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar
• Richard of St. Victor, theologian
• Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal
• Maimonides, leading Jewish philosopher
• Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Decades and years