1107
Concordat of London settles English investiture
Anselm and Henry I split the difference that had consumed popes and emperors for thirty years: bishops would do homage to the king for their lands but receive staff and ring from the church. The compromise quietly defused a fight that was tearing Germany apart. The English solution anticipated the later Concordat of Worms by fifteen years, proving that pragmatic settlement was possible when both parties found it cheaper than war.
Goryeo celadon reaches its zenith
Korean potters of the Goryeo dynasty perfected the jade-green celadon glaze that even Chinese connoisseurs themselves reluctantly admitted surpassed their own finest wares. Inlaid with cranes, clouds, and willows using the unique sanggam technique found nowhere else in the ceramic world, these pieces remain among the most coveted and celebrated objects in the entire history of East Asian art.
Jin begins to expand against Liao
Jurchen raiders under Aguda's family began testing the Liao frontier in Manchuria, defeating larger Khitan forces by using their heavy cavalry in concentrated shock charges. The raids gave the Jurchen confidence they could eventually make themselves the masters of North China. Within a decade these border skirmishes would escalate into a full-scale war of conquest that shattered the Liao dynasty and redrew the political map of East Asia.
Bohemond's Crusade against Byzantium
Bohemond of Taranto, the Norman prince of Antioch, landed an army on the Illyrian coast and laid siege to Dyrrachium in open war against Emperor Alexios I. Starved out after a year, he signed the humiliating Treaty of Devol and went home to die unnoticed in Apulia. The failed campaign exposed the fundamental tension between the Crusader states and Byzantium, whose emperor had never intended the First Crusade to produce independent Frankish principalities.