+1 for William Marshall.

Since we mentioned Old Bill Marshal, I thought I'd ask a question I've been wondering for a while. I read that the church outlawed tournaments on account of the all the deaths, and it wasn't brought back in England until Richard I restored it in five counties upon his return in 1194. But Marshal was a renowned tournament regular. Were all the tournaments he was in illegal, or did he not really start up his tournament career until Richard brought it back? Anybody know anything about this?

I could be way off here, but I think he did some stuff in France and maybe the other germanic regions

Did anyone mention history of the Church?

18 March - 6 April 1123 First Lateranensis Council (Pope Callisto II):
It claims the right of the Church in the election and consecration of bishops against lay investiture; simony and concubinage among ecclesiastes are condemned as heresies.

April 1139 Second Lateranensis Council (Pope Innocenzo II)
The antipope Anacleto and Arnaldo da Brescia are condemned.

5 -19(22?) March 1179 Third Lateranensis Council (Pope Innocenzo III)
Confessio Fidei against Waldenses and Albigenses. Important definitions about the Trinity, the transubstantiation of the Eucharist, the creation, the redemption and about the sacraments.
Goacchino da Fiore's docrtinal errors are condemned.

The absence of plate armour ruins the 12th century for me...

when dodging and parrying blows was important :)

Roberto: Thanks for linking me to that, I loved every minute of it. So if I understand correctly, the church condemned tournaments, but nobody really paid too much attention to that?

Robin: I agree completely, maille and surcaots are what make the 12th century for me.

In 12th Century arose also the most important military orders:

- 1119 the Templar Knights, in Jerusalem with Ugo of Payens;
- 1120-60 Knights Hospitaller, under Raymond of Puy;
- 1190-98 the Teutonic Order.

11th to 13th century:
The lyrics and songs of the Carmina Burana where written. :)


Rem: Changed 12th to 13th century

The 12th century is without a doubt one of my favourite centuries in human history. From the Muslim,perspective, great military achievements were made in the Middle East at the middle of the century that turned the tables against the Crusader states. Several Seljuk rulers had of course scored majour victories against the Crusaders prior to the rise of the Zengids, but it was really the Zengid dynasty which pushed the fight forward and paved the way for Saladin.

1144: Zengi captures the city of Edessa and effectively ends the crusader principality spurring the second crusade.

1148: The city of Damascus aided by the Zengids successfully repulses a 50,000 man Crusader army, ending the second crusade in failure and influencing the decision of the Damascenes to later on fall under the Zengid fold, thus creating a unified Syrian front.

1164: One of my favourite battles of the period is Harim. Nur al-Din reaches the pinnacle of his military career when he defeats the combined armies of Antioch, Tripoli, the Byzantine Empire, and CIlicia.

And of course there are the three remarkable Zengid Crusader struggles over Egypt from 1164 to 1169 which ended in the loose unification of Syria and Egypt. In opinion Shrikuh's success in driving off the Franks from Egypt was really the beginning of the long end of the Crusader states.

Without a doubt a fascinating century.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_of_the_12th_century
the renaissance of the 12h century,

i made a video rying somewhat incoherently o explain how the 'dark ages but moe specificall the medieval period wasnt THAT bad in terms of medicine and education.
mentioning the founding of medieval universities the rise of logic and heology/ natural philosoph being intermixed and no rival concepts.
that europeans didnt consider chopping off of the limb or prayer as being the sole answer to every injury and infection you got.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:European_Ou...931500.png i mean based on this graph in latin europe we had ~200,000 manuscripts written during the 11th C
during the 12th century they produced nearly 800,000
the amount produced during the 13th cenury was twice that, at nearly 1.8 million

during he 15th century latin europe made an ouput of 5 million manuscripts. and 12 million printed books.
though in the 16th centuy europe printed 200 million books.
Century Manuscripts Books
6 13552 nan
7 10639 nan
8 43702 nan
9 201742 nan
10 135637 nan
11 212030 nan
12 768721 nan
13 1761951 nan
14 2746951 nan
15 4999161 12589000
16 nan 217444000
17 nan 531941000
18 nan 983874000

Very nice article William. The technological advancements of the 12th and 13th centuries were very impressive and long lasting. Unfortunately they are often overlooked in favour of the shiny 15th and 16th century renaissance.