1152
• Geoffrey fitzHenry, the illegitimate son of Henry fitzEmpress, is born in Anjou.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, seemingly unable to bear a son to Louis VII of France, has her marriage to him annulled. She almost immediately remarries, this time to Henry fitzEmpress of Anjou, whose territories now stretch from Cherbourg to the Pyrenees.
• The Church of Ireland acknowledges the authority of the Pope for the first time.
• Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England and wife of King Stephen, dies of a fever.

1153
• Henry fitzEmpress of Anjou, now the greatest landowner in France, sails to England to unseat King Stephen and place his mother on the throne of England. He builds a league of barons and confronts the King at Wallingford. The sudden death of Prince Eustace saps King Stephen of the will to fight, and, in exchange for peace, he names Henry his heir.
• Malcolm IV succeeds his grandfather as King of Scotland
• William IX, Count of Poitiers, the son of Henry fitzEmpress and Eleanor of Aquitaine, is born.
• Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Clare and 1st Earl of Hertford, dies after reconciling with King Stephen. He is succeeded by his brother Roger de Clare

1154
• King Stephen dies at Dover. Henry and Eleanor are crowned King and Queen of England at Westminster Abbey.
• Nicholas Breakspear becomes Pope Adrian IV, the only English pope in history.
• The city of Birmingham is founded.

1155
• The City of Bristol receives a Royal Charter.
• Pope Adrian IV gives the King of England lordship over Ireland
• In a move that will deeply confuse students of history for the rest of time, England chooses to shift New Year's Day from January 1st to March 25th.
• Geoffrey of Monmouth, compiler of many of the King Arthur legends, dies.
• Prince Henry the Young King is born.

1156
• Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II's son William, Count of Poitiers, dies aged 3.
• Prince Henry becomes heir apparent.

1157
• The Battle of Ewloe: Henry II invades Wales and is defeated by Owain Gwynedd
• Richard Lionheart is born
• Margaret of France, who will marry Henry the Young King and briefly be Queen of England, is born.

1158
• The infant Margaret of France is formally betrothed to the toddler Prince Henry. The Vexin area of Normandy is promised as her dowry, and the Knights Templar are given custody of it until Prince Henry is of an age to claim it.
• The English Pound Sterling is introduced.
• The Order of the Knights of Calatrava is founded in Spain.
• King Henry's brother Geoffrey, who took over the County of Anjou when he became King of England, dies quite suddenly.
• Prince Geoffrey of England is born.

1159
• Pope Adrian IV, born Nicholas Breakspear, dies.
• William of Blois, second son of King Stephen, Count of Blois and Earl of Surrey, dies at Toulouse, having fled England after being implicated in a plot to murder Henry II.

1160
• Princess Alys of France is born.
• Simon IV de Montfort is born.
• Robin of Locksley, who will become Robin Hood, is born.

1161
• Constance, Duchess of Brittany, is born.

1162
• Thomas a Becket is named Archbishop of Canterbury
• Princess Eleanor of England, who will become Queen of Castile, is born.
• Richard de Clare, Lord of Clare and 4th Earl of Hertford, is born.
• Genghis Khan is born.---We think.

1163
• Owain Gwynedd is recognized as Prince of Wales
• The first stone of Notre Dame de Paris is laid.

1164
• The Constitutions of Clarendon are passed by a council of nobles and bishops at Clarendon palace. They are meant to give the King of England jurisdiction over the English church.
• Thomas a Becket immediately challenges the Constitutions, and is found guilty of contempt of the secular courts. He leaves England for France to secure the assistance of the pope and other senior religious figures.
• Battle of Renfrew: the Norse under Somerled, King of the Isles, assail Scotland, but are defeated by the Bishop of Glasgow and the Steward of Scotland.

1165
• William the Lion succeeds his brother as King of Scotland
• King Henry II Curtmantle begins an affair with Rosamund Clifford. Eleanor of Aquitaine is not best pleased.
• Battle of Crogen: King Henry Curtmantle again invades Wales and again is defeated in battle and forced to withdraw.
• Prince Philip, the future King Philip II Augustus of France, is born.
• Princess Joan of England, the future Queen of Sicily, is born.

1166
• Henry II Curtmantle conquers Brittany and marries 5-year-old Duchess Constance to his 7-year-old son Geoffrey.
• Henry Curtmantle enacts the Assize of Clarendon, which reforms English law and defines the role of the sheriffs.
• William Marshal is knighted while on campaign in Brittany.
• Prince John of England is born.
• William de Warenne, the son of Isabel of Warenne and Hamelin, the half-brother of Henry Curtmantle, is born.

1167
• Henry Curtmantle forbids English students from attending the University of Paris. The population at the University of Oxford swells.
• Empress Matilda dies

1168
• Prince Richard Lionheart, aged 11, is made Duke of Aquitaine.
• Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, dies.

1169
• Henry Curtmantle signs a treaty with the King of France which features the betrothal of Alys of the Vexin to Richard Lionheart. Alys comes to England, where she becomes a ward of the King.
• Richard de Clare, called Strongbow, leads the Norman Invasion of Ireland ostensibly to restore the deposed Irish King of Leinster. In reality, the de Clares are spearheading English dominion over Ireland.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine leaves the court of Henry Curtmantle to establish her own court at Poitiers. This is the famous Court of Love, where a council of women headed by Eleanor promulgate the concepts of courtly love for the first time, as recorded by Andreas Capellanus.
• Henry decides to crown his son Henry a co-King of England. Thomas a Becket refuses to perform the ceremony while the Constitutions of Clarendon are still in force, but Henry secures the assistance of the Archbishop of York instead.


1170
• Incensed by the coronation issue, Becket persuades the pope to allow him to lay an interdict on the Kingdom, preventing anyone within it from receiving any sacraments. This forces Henry to come to terms. Becket returns to England.
• Thomas a Becket excommunicates three of Henry's supporters, infuriating the king, who cries out "What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and promoted in my household, who will let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk?!"
• Interpreting his complaint as a request for Becket to be dealt with, four knights made their way to Canterbury to arrest Becket, who claimed sanctuary. In response, the knights chopped him up. This led to international scandal, Becket's elevation to sainthood as a martyr, and, after the intervention of the King of France, a fresh interdict on the Kingdom of England.
• Dublin falls to a combined Irish and Anglo-Norman force.
• The Welsh prince Madoc sails to North America in his ship Gwennan Gorn.
• Cheddar cheese is invented. Nothing bad happens ever again.


1171
• Saladin overthrows the Fatimids and becomes Sultan of Egypt.
• Henry Curtmantle invades Ireland personally, most likely to maintain control over Richard de Clare, who supported Stephen during the Anarchy. He seizes Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford as personal fiefs, and he offers protection to those Irish who recognize him as their overlord.
• Diarmait mac Murchada, whose claim to Leinster supplied the pretext for Strongbow's invasion, dies.

1172
• Henry Curtmantle reaches a settlement with the papacy in which he agrees to revoke the Constitutions of Clarendon and go on crusade in order to have the interdict lifted.
• Henry Curtmantle arranges a betrothal between Prince John of England and Alicia, the daughter of Count Humbert III of Savoy.
• Upon hearing the number and quality of castles promised to John and Alicia, Henry the Young King becomes jealous and stages a rebellion that will take Henry Curtmantle two years to put down. By the time he does so, Alicia has died and the treaty becomes moot.
• The Synod of Cashel ends the Celtic Christian system, submits Ireland to the pope for the final time, and acknowledges Henry Curtmantle as Lord of Ireland.
• Ranulph de Blondeville, 4th Earl of Chester, is born.
• Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke, is born.

1173
• Henry the Young King withdraws to the court of the King of France, igniting his revolt. In the end, his brothers Richard and Geoffrey and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, will join his revolt.
• Abergavenny Castle falls to the Welsh
• The Leaning Tower of Pisa is begun.
• Llewellyn the Great is born.
• Roger de Clare, Lord of Clare and 2nd Earl of Hertford, dies.

1174
• Richard of Dover becomes Archbishop of Canterbury
• King William the Lion of Scotland is captured at Alnwick by Ranulf de Glanvill after having invaded England in support of the Young King's revolt. He is humiliated and loses a portion of Scottish territory to Curtmantle.
• Treaty of Montlouis: the Young King's revolt ends peacefully. The princes are forgiven, but Eleanor of Aquitaine is imprisoned in Normandy.
• Henry Curtmantle publicly acknowledges Rosamund Clifford as his mistress.
• Battle of Thurles: Donal Mor o Briain defeats the Normans and prevents their invasion of Thomond in Ireland.
• First Newmarket Horseraces are recorded.
• Saladin seizes Damascus.

1175
• Henry Curtmantle invites Rosamund Clifford to live with him in place of the imprisoned Eleanor
• Treaty of Windsor: the last High King of Ireland submits to Henry Curtmantle.
• William de Braose stages the Abergavenny Massacre, murdering several Welsh noblemen.

1176
• The Assize of Northampton subjects all land possession in England to Royal Law, and guarantees the rights of knightly tenants.
• The first recorded eisteddfod, a literary and bardic festival, takes place at Cardigan in Wales.
• The first stone version of London Bridge is constructed.
• Birth of the allies of Prince John, William of Longespee and Henry de Bohun
• Death of Richard "Strongbow" de Clare.
• Death of William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel.
• Death of Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry Curtmantle

1177
• William de Mandeville goes on Crusade with the Count of Flanders.

1178
• William de Mandeville returns from Syria.

1179
• Philip II Augustus is crowned co-King of France with his father, Louis VII.
• Aberdeen is founded by William the Lion.
• Westminster School is founded at Westminster Abbey
• Death of Hildegard von Bingen, German Abbess, Mystic, and Scholar.

1180
• Louis VII of France dies, and Philip II Augustus becomes sole king.
• Gilbert de Clare, the son of the 3rd Earl of Hertford, is born.

1182
• A riot in Constantinople turns into a massacre of the portion of the population of the city that follows the Latin rite of Christianity. This is later cited as a partial cause of the 1204 sack of Constantinople by the 4th Crusade.
• Queen Margaret, the wife of Henry the Young King, is accused of adultery with William Marshal by King Henry Curtmantle in order to begin the process of obtaining an annulment of the childless marriage.
• Birth of Francis of Assisi

1183
• First account of a sport that resembles cricket.
• Henry the Young King dies. On his deathbed, he entreats William Marshal to take his crusading cloak to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He also seeks to be reconciled with his father, but Curtmantle refuses to see him because the wily king is concerned that his rebellious son is laying a trap for him.
• While Eleanor of Aquitaine and some of his friends began to set up a campaign to get Henry canonized, others desert the cause of the princes to reconcile with Curtmantle because the Young King's court left them too impoverished to survive without royal assistance.
• Birth of Chagatai Khan, son of Genghis.

1184
• The first royal ordinance is promulgated. It demands that the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller in England assist the government in the collection of taxes.
• Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury, dies.


1185
• Prince John, aged 19, is knighted and sent to Ireland to administer the island in his father's name, a model that, with some hiccups, worked reasonably well with Geoffrey in Brittany and Richard in Aquitaine. John, however, is a disaster. He blows the money set aside for setting up the Irish administration on booze and manages to unite the notoriously factional Irish lords against the Anglo-Normans with his alternatively arrogant and childish behavior, including tugging on their beards during important conferences and mocking their accent. John is soon recalled home for his own safety.
• Henry Curtmantle gets John named King of Ireland by pope Urban III, and bestows him with a golden crown adorned with peacock feathers, proving once and for all that what happens in Ireland stays in Ireland.
• Baldwin of Forde becomes Archbishop of Canterbury
• The Templars begin construction of the New Temple Church in London, which will be the Order's headquarters in England and the site of their banking activities.
• There is a solar eclipse this year that is visible across much of the known world.

1186
• Prince Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany, dies. Duchess Constance continues to administer the duchy.

1187
• Prince Geoffrey's son, Arthur, is born after his father's death.
• Battle of the Horns of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, and the Knights Hospitaller and Templar in battle. Guy de Lusignan is captured, but Reynald de Chatillon and the surviving knights of the orders are summarily executed.
• Three months after Hattin, Jerusalem falls to Saladin. A month later, Pope Gregory VIII issues the bull Audita tremendi, which calls for a third crusade.
• In England, Ranulf de Glanville, Lord Justiciar of England and custodian of the imprisoned Eleanor of Aquitaine, who has already codified the procedures of the secular courts as well as the Royal Court, pens a treatise that explains how serfs can be free.
• Birth of Prince Louis of France, who will become very important to English history during the reign of King John.

1188
• Saladin lays siege to the Hospitallers at the Krak des Chevaliers, but he is unable to take the castle.
• Newgate Prison is built in London
• The English begin to prepare to go on Crusade, with Henry Curtmantle himself taking the cross. To pay for the army necessary to defeat Saladin, a special tithe of ten percent of all property in the kingdom is levied.
• At Gisors, on the border between English Normandy and France, King Henry Curtmantle and King Philip II Augustus meet to discuss the crusade. Henry and his advisors stood under the shade of a large elm tree, forcing Philip and his men to stand in the hot sun. Enraged, Philip has his men chop down the elm tree, signaling that there will be no more negotiations between the French and Henry Curtmantle.
• Richard Lionheart and Philip II Augustus of France unite against Henry Curtmantle.

1189
• The siege of Acre begins in the Levant.
• The Kings of France and England raise their armies. While each side claims that this is for the purpose of pursuing the Crusade, it is equally likely that these enormous forces will be used against each other.
• Prince John, in spite of the obvious favoritism shown him by his father, and in spite of the fact that he is likely to be named heir, passing over Richard, joins his brother's rebellion.
• Friedrich Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, reaches Serbia, having already set off on Crusade with the Imperial host.
• Henry Curtmantle capitulates to Richard Lionheart and Philip II, agreeing to pay Philip 20,000 marks and recognizing Richard as heir to the throne. Henry is brokenhearted at John's betrayal and bitter at his defeat, and dies shortly after.
• Richard sends William Marshal to secure the release of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and arranges with Philip that they will set off on crusade together as soon as the coronation takes place.
• Eleanor arrives in England and begins receiving the submission of the English earls on behalf of her son.
• Geoffrey Ridel, Bishop of Ely and Lord Exchequer, dies quite suddenly in Normandy.
• September 3rd: The Coronation is scheduled to take place at Westminster, and our game begins.