1201

Updated on Oct 01, 2024

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Year 1201 (MCCI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

July 31 – Attempted usurpation of the throne of the Byzantine Empire by John Komnenos the Fat; he is overthrown and decapitated by the end of the day.

John, King of England, puts an embargo on wheat exported to Flanders in an attempt to force an allegiance between the states. He also puts a levy of a fifteenth on the value of cargo exported to France, and disallows the export of wool to France without a special license. The levies are enforced in each port by at least six men, including one churchman and one knight. John also affirms this year that judgements made by the court of Westminster are as valid as those made "before the king himself or his chief justice".

The town of Riga is chartered as a city by Albert of Buxhoeveden, Bishop of Livonia, who'd landed on the site with 1,500 crusaders earlier in the year.

Boniface, Marquess of Montferrat is elected leader of the Fourth Crusade, after the death of Theobald III, Count of Champagne.

Pope Innocent III supports Otto IV as Holy Roman Emperor, against the rival Emperor, Philip of Swabia.