1137
Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Louis VII
A fifteen-year-old heiress to the largest duchy in France married the heir to a small Capetian kingdom at Bordeaux cathedral. A week later her father-in-law was dead and Eleanor was queen of France. The marriage would last fifteen unhappy years before she traded kingdoms, marrying Henry of Anjou and bringing Aquitaine with her to create the Plantagenet empire that would dominate western Europe.
Almohad conquest of Marrakesh
Abd al-Mu'min's Almohad armies stormed the red walls of Marrakesh after a prolonged and bloody siege, killing the last Almoravid emir and establishing the great oasis city as the capital of a new puritanical caliphate stretching from the Senegal River to the Mediterranean. The Almohads demolished the Almoravid mosques they deemed improperly oriented toward Mecca and immediately began building grander ones on corrected foundations.
Chola decline under Kulottunga II
In southern India, the once-dominant Chola empire lost further territory to rising Pandya and Hoysala neighbors. Kulottunga II retained nominal overlordship but the vast maritime empire his predecessors had built across the Bay of Bengal was visibly contracting. The great Chola navy, which had once raided Srivijaya and dominated the maritime spice routes between India and Southeast Asia, could no longer project power beyond the Coromandel coast.
Death of William X of Aquitaine
The troubadour-duke of Aquitaine died on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, leaving his vast lands to his daughter Eleanor. Within weeks the girl was married off to the future Louis VII of France on her father's deathbed instructions. Eleanor inherited the largest and richest duchy in France, its courts the cradle of troubadour poetry, its revenues greater than those of the Capetian crown itself.
Volcanic eruption disrupts Icelandic settlements
A fissure eruption in southern Iceland blanketed pasturelands with choking tephra and poisoned the thin grass that sustained livestock across a wide swathe of the island's most productive farmland. The eruption forced the seasonal migration of entire farming communities and severely strained the limited resources of a Norse island society that lived always at the precarious edge of subsistence, one bad summer from catastrophe.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1137?
Saeculum lists 5 curated events from 1137. The most significant is Eleanor of Aquitaine marries Louis VII: A fifteen-year-old heiress to the largest duchy in France married the heir to a small Capetian kingdom at Bordeaux cathedral.
What era was 1137 part of?
1137 falls within the High Middle Ages (1000-1300). Crusades, cathedrals, and the slow waking of Europe.
Which regions saw notable events in 1137?
The curated events from 1137 span Europe, Africa and South Asia.