1204
Events
January 27 – 28 – Byzantine emperor Alexios IV Angelos is overthrown in a revolution.
February 21 – 23 – A large solar storm takes place, and is recorded in Meigetsuki , the diary of the Japanese poet Fujiwara no Sadaie .
February 5 – Alexios V Doukas is crowned Byzantine emperor .Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders
April 12 – Sack of Constantinople : Crusaders enter Constantinople by storm and start pillaging the city as part of the Fourth Crusade . Forces of the Republic of Venice seize the antique statues that will become the horses of Saint Mark .
May 16 – Baldwin, Count of Flanders , is crowned emperor of the Latin Empire a week after his election by the members of the Fourth Crusade .
Theodore I Laskaris flees to Nicaea after the capture of Constantinople, and establishes the Empire of Nicaea ; Byzantine successor states are also established in Epirus and Trebizond .
Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat , a leader of the Fourth Crusade, founds the Kingdom of Thessalonica .
The writings of French theologian Amalric of Bena are condemned by the University of Paris and Pope Innocent III .
Tsar Kaloyan is recognized as king of Bulgaria by Pope Innocent III , after the creation of the Bulgarian Uniate church.
Valdemar II of Denmark is recognized as king in Norway.
Angers and Normandy are captured by Philip II of France .
The Cistercian convent of Port-Royal-des-Champs is established.
The district of Cham becomes subject to Bavaria .
Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia submits to Philip of Swabia .
Beaulieu Abbey is founded.
The Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey decide, after a plebiscite of wealthy land owners, to remain with the English crown, after Normandy is recaptured by Philip II of France .
Landshut , Bavaria , is Founded.
Deaths
January 1 – King Haakon III of Norway
January – Isaac II Angelos , Byzantine emperor
February 8 – Alexios IV Angelos , Byzantine emperor
April 1 – Eleanor of Aquitaine , Sovereign Duchess Regnant of Aquitaine, queen of France and England
August 11 – King Guttorm of Norway
August 14 – Minamoto no Yoriie , Japanese shōgun (b. 1182 )
September 30 or November 30 – Emeric, King of Hungary (b. 1174 )
c. October 21 – Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester , English nobleman
November – Ban Kulin , ruler of Bosnia (b. 1163 )
December 12 (or December 13 ) – Maimonides , Spanish rabbi and philosopher (b. 1135 )
December 22 – Fujiwara no Shunzei , Japanese waka poet (b. 1114)
date unknown – Suleiman II , Sultan of Rûm
probable – Amalric of Bena , French theologian
References
1 2 Choniates, Nicetas (1984). O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniatēs . Translated by Harry J. Magoulias. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 307–338 . ISBN 0-8143-1764-2 .
↑ Miyahara, Hiroko; Kataoka, Ryuho; Yamamoto, Kazuaki; Tokanai, Fuyuki; Moriya, Toru; Takeyama, Mirei; Sakurai, Hirohisa; Ohyama, Motonari; Horiuchi, Kazuho; Hotta, Hideyuki (April 10, 2026). "Extremely active Sun from 1190 to 1220 in the Medieval Period: Intercomparison of historical records and tree-ring carbon-14" . Proceedings of the Japanese Academy, Series B . 102 (4): 156– 166. Retrieved June 3, 2026 .
↑ Savignac, David (2020). "The Medieval Russian Account of the Fourth Crusade - A New Annotated Translation" . (Novgorod Chronicle )
↑ Queller, Donald E.; Madden, Thomas F. (1997). The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople . Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780812217131 .
↑ Tricht, Filip Van (2011). The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228) . The Medieval Mediterranean: Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400 - 1500. Translated by Peter Longbottom. Leiden, Boston: BRILL. pp. 50, 127. ISBN 9789004203921 .
↑ Tricht, Filip Van (2011). The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228) . Leiden, Boston: BRILL. p. 351. ISBN 9789004203235 .
↑ Finlay, George (1877). A History of Greece: From Its Conquest by the Romans to the Present Time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864 . Vol. IV: Mediaeval Greece and the empire of Trebizond, A.D. 1204-1461. Clarendon Press. p. 121.
↑ Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1976). The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571 . Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society: 114. Vol. I: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society. p. 21. ISBN 9780871691149 .
↑ Ciucu, Cristina (2018). "Being Truthful to 'Reality'. Grounds of non-violence in ascetic and mystical traditions." . In Chandra, Sudhir (ed.). Violence and Non-Violence across Time: History, Religion and Culture . London and New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 275. ISBN 9780429880933 .
↑ Loos, Milan (1974). Dualist Heresy in the Middle Ages . Prague: Springer Science & Business Media. p. 227. ISBN 9789024716739 .
↑ Orfield, Lester B. (2002). The Growth of Scandinavian Law . Union, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. p. 137. ISBN 9781584771807 .
↑ Kibler, William W.; Zinn, Grover A. (2016) [1995]. Routledge Revivals: Medieval France (1995): An Encyclopedia . New York and London: Taylor & Francis. p. 33. ISBN 9781351665667 .
↑ Jordan, Alyce A. (2016). "The St Thomas Becket Windows at Angers and Coutances: Devotion, Subversion and the Scottish Connection" . In Webster, Paul; Gelin, Marie-Pierre (eds.). The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, C.1170-c.1220 . Boydell & Brewer. p. 178. ISBN 9781783271610 .
↑ Berlis, Angela (2017). "The Power of Place: Port-Royal, a Wounded Place Transfigured" . In Berlis, Angela; Korte, Anne-Marie; Biezeveld, Kune (eds.). Everyday Life and the Sacred: Re/configuring Gender Studies in Religion . Leiden, Boston: BRILL. p. 174. ISBN 9789004353794 .
↑ Heyberger, Joseph (1863). Bavaria: Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern : mit einer Uebersichtskarte des diesseitigen Bayerns in 15 Blättern. Oberpfalz und Regensburg, Schwaben und Neuburg; Abth. 1, Oberpfalz und Regensburg. 2,1 (in German). Munich: Cotta. p. 467.
↑ Wihoda, Martin (2015). Vladislaus Henry: The Formation of Moravian Identity . Leiden, Boston: BRILL. p. 91. ISBN 9789004303836 .
↑ Church, Stephen (2015). King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant . Basingstoke and Oxford: Pan Macmillan. p. 1208. ISBN 9780230772465 .
↑ Farran, Sue; Örücü, Esin (2016). A Study of Mixed Legal Systems: Endangered, Entrenched or Blended . London and New York: Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 9781317186496 .
↑ "Landshut | Bavarian City, Medieval Castle, Gothic Cathedral | Britannica" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved November 8, 2025 .
↑ Thomas, Joseph (1870). Universal Pronouncing Dictionary of Biography and Mythology . Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott and Company. p. 1166.
1 2 Wise, Leonard F.; Hansen, Mark Hillary; Egan, E. W. (2005). Kings, Rulers, and Statesmen . New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 218. ISBN 9781402725920 .
↑ Martin, Therese, ed. (2012). Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture (2 Vol. Set) . Visualizing the Middle Ages. Leiden, Boston: BRILL. p. 1078. ISBN 9789004185555 .
↑ State, Paul F. (2015). Historical Dictionary of Brussels . Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 30. ISBN 9780810879218 .
↑ Carr, John (2015). Fighting Emperors of Byzantium . Barnsley: Pen and Sword. p. 269. ISBN 9781473856400 .
↑ Saint-Guillain, Guillaume (2011). "Tales of San Marco: Venetian Historiography and Thirteenth-century Byzantine Prosopography" . In Herrin, Judith; Saint-Guillain, Guillaume (eds.). Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean After 1204 . Surrey and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 274. ISBN 9781409410980 .
↑ Koestler-Grack, Rachel A. (2005). Eleanor of Aquitaine: Heroine of the Middle Ages . Philadelphia, PA: Infobase Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 9781438104164 .
↑ Þórðarson, Sturla (2012). "The Saga of Hacon, Hacon's Son" . Icelandic Sagas and Other Historical Documents Relating to the Settlements and Descents of the Northmen of the British Isles . Vol. 4: The Saga of Hacon, and a Fragment of the Saga of Magnus, with Appendices. Translated by George Webbe Dasent. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9781108052498 .
↑ Henshall, Kenneth (2013). Historical Dictionary of Japan to 1945 . Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780810878723 .
↑ Jaritz, Gerhard; Szende, Katalin (2016). Medieval East Central Europe in a Comparative Perspective: From Frontier Zones to Lands in Focus . London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781317212249 .
↑ Bartlett, Robert (2013) [2000]. England under the Norman and Angevin Kings: 1075-1225 . Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192547378 .
↑ Clancy, Tim (2017) [2004]. Bosnia & Herzegovina 5 . Chalfont St Peter and Guilford: Bradt Travel Guides. p. 260. ISBN 9781784770181 .
↑ Seeskin, Kenneth (1991). Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed . Millburn, NJ: Behrman House, Inc. pp. xv. ISBN 9780874415094 .
↑ "Fujiwara Shunzei | Japanese poet and critic" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved December 11, 2020 .
↑ Laale, Hans Willer (2011). Ephesus (Ephesos): An Abbreviated History from Androclus to Constantine XI . Bloomington, IN: WestBow Press. p. 394. ISBN 9781449716189 .
↑ Eleyot, Lawrence (2016). Philosophy of One on the Many . Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781524635817 .