1164
Tamar of Georgia born
The future queen of Georgia, daughter of George III and Burdukhan of Alania, was born around this time at Tbilisi. Her reign would be remembered as the Georgian golden age, stretching the kingdom from the Caucasus to the coast of the Caspian. Under Tamar, Georgia became the dominant power in the South Caucasus, its court patronizing literature, architecture, and theological scholarship in equal measure.
Constitutions of Clarendon
Henry II put down sixteen clauses reaffirming what he claimed were royal customs over the church, chiefly the right to try clerics in lay courts. Becket signed and then immediately repudiated his signature. Their break from personal friendship became open political war. The Constitutions articulated a vision of royal supremacy over ecclesiastical jurisdiction that would echo through English law for centuries, resurfacing in the Reformation and beyond.
Becket flees England
After the Council of Northampton turned into what Becket considered a rigged tribunal, the archbishop slipped away from his lodgings at night in a monk's habit and crossed the Channel disguised as a pilgrim named Christian. He would spend six years in French exile. During those years Becket bombarded England with excommunications and appeals to Rome while Henry confiscated his property and punished anyone caught corresponding with him.
Henry the Lion rebuilds Braunschweig
The Welf duke of Saxony, cousin of Barbarossa and master of much of northern Germany, set up a stone lion outside his castle at Braunschweig as a symbol of his power. He rebuilt the cathedral, organized trade fairs, and helped make Lubeck a Baltic port. The bronze lion, one of the earliest large-scale secular sculptures of the Middle Ages, still stands in the castle square as a monument to Welf ambition.