12th Century

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, regarded as first Gothic building
• Portugal declares independence from the kingdom of Leon and Castille in 1139

Significant people

• Peter Abelard, one of the first scholastic philosophers
• Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics
• Henry II, first Angevin King of England
• Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar
• Richard of St. Victor, theologian
• Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal
• Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor

Artwork

European art: transitional period from Romanesque to Gothic.

Clothing

T-tunic styles continue esentially unchanged from the 11th century (often a little tighter fitting across the chest), as clothing for the common man or woman, and the lord or lady when working, or less fashionable. Court styles see the introduction of the bliaut for both sexes, a tightly fitted garment, often cut with silly dangly long sleeves.
See: 12th century garb

Material Culture

Objects (e.g. silk) and ideas are being brought back from the crusades to western Europe, resulting in a faster transition of ideas (e.g. 12th Century fashion) and sudden new fashionable objects.

Some Groups that Cover This Period

• SCA
• Re-Enactors
  • New Varangian Guard

Internal Links

See also:

• 11th Century
• 12th century fighting equipment
• 13th Century
• Period
• Daily life in the 12th century

External Links

• Some Clothing of the Middle Ages - http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/cloth/bockhome.html
• 12th century Garb mailing list (also diverges to acessories, jewellery and occasionally daily life in the 12th C) - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/12thcenturygarb/
• Instructions on how to make a (current best guess) highly authentic bliaut - http://bliautlady.50megs.com/