1167
Lombard League formed at Pontida
Sixteen northern Italian cities, led by Milan, swore at a Benedictine monastery near Bergamo to unite against Barbarossa. Within months they were rebuilding Milan's walls in defiance of imperial decree. The league would become the model for later Italian civic coalitions. The oath at Pontida bound the cities to mutual defense with a penalty of economic embargo against any member that broke ranks, creating a surprisingly effective military alliance.
Sena dynasty at its height in Bengal
Ballala Sena ruled Bengal from the capital at Nabadwip during the apex of Sena power, promoting Sanskrit literature and court poetry, codifying elaborate Hindu caste regulations in his scholarly treatise the Danasagara, and patronizing a late but brilliant efflorescence of Indian classical learning. His court attracted grammarians, logicians, and philosophers from across the subcontinent for what would prove to be Sanskrit culture's final flowering in eastern India.
Nile flood overwhelms Fatimid Cairo
An unusually high Nile flood overwhelmed the canal system and levees protecting Fatimid Cairo, inundating low-lying neighborhoods, destroying warehouses of stored grain, and triggering famine across Lower Egypt that lasted well into the following year. The disaster starkly underscored the fragility of the dying Fatimid regime in its final years, as Saladin's disciplined Ayyubid soldiers prepared to take permanent administrative control of the wealthiest country in the Islamic world.
Scholars leave Paris for Oxford
A dispute between Henry II and Louis VII prompted the English king to recall English masters and students from the Paris schools. Many settled at Oxford, where teaching had existed for decades but now took off. The move is usually counted as the practical birth of Oxford University. Within a generation Oxford had its own chancellor, its own rented halls, and its own fierce arguments with the town, the famous town-and-gown riots.
Barbarossa's army destroyed by disease in Rome
Fresh from capturing Rome, Barbarossa's forces were struck by what was probably malaria. Within days hundreds were dead, including his chancellor, his Welf cousin, and most of his German captains. The emperor fled north in disguise through hostile Lombardy and barely got home. The catastrophe broke the back of Barbarossa's fourth Italian expedition and demonstrated that Rome's notorious summer fevers were a more effective defender than any army.