1149

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Spring - Emperor Manuel I recovers Corfu with the help of the Venetians, who defeat the Sicilian fleet. During the three-month siege, Byzantine admiral Stephen Kontostephanos is killed by a stone thrown by a catapult. Manuel prepares an offensive against the Normans, King Roger II sends a fleet under George of Antioch to pilliage the suburbs of Constantinople.

  Levant

• Spring - Nur al-Din, Seljuk ruler of Aleppo, invades the Principality of Antioch and defeats the Crusaders under Raymond of Poitiers at Baghras. He moves southward to besiege the fortress of Inab, one of the few strongholds of the Crusaders east of the Orontes River. Raymond with a small army hurries to its rescue. Nur al-Din, misinformed of the strength of the Crusader forces, retreats. In fact the Zangid forces outnumbers the Crusaders by over four to one. Against Ali's advice Raymond decides to reinfroce the garrison of Inab.
• April - King Louis VII and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine sail homeward in separate Sicilian ships. While the fleet rounds the Peloponnese it is attacked by ships of the Byzantine navy. Louis gives orders to raise the French flag and is allowed to sail on. But the ships containing many of his followers and his possessions are captured and taken as a war-prize to Constantinople.
• June 29 - Battle of Inab: The Zangid army under Nur al-Din defeat the combined army of Raymond of Poitiers and the Assassins of Ali ibn Wafa at Inab. After the battle, Nur al-Din invades Antiochene territory and captures the fortresses of Artah and Harim. He then turns west to appear before the walls of Antioch itself and raids as far as St. Symeon.
• July - King Baldwin III receives an urgent request for help from Antioch to break the incomplete Zangid blockade of the city. Meanwhile, the Crusaders fail to retake Harim. Nur al-Din strengthens his siege of Antioch, but it is too large to surround. A truce is agreed under which Harim and farther east territory remains under Seljuk dominance.
• July 15 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is consecrated, after reconstruction.

  Europe

• The Italian 'naval republics' of Genoa, Pisa and Venice finance their expanding trade within and outside Europe – trade which includes an arms industry for manufactures and merchants alike.
• October 24 - Ramon Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, conquers Lleida from the Almoravids, after a siege of seven months.
• Åhus, in present-day Sweden, gains city rights.

  England

• Spring - King Stephen besieges Worchester, but is unable to capture the castle due to its strong defences. He expels William de Beauchamp, lord of the city. Stephen builds two forts near the castle to assist in the attack.
• March - The 16-year-old Henry of Anjou, eldest son of Queen Matilda, lands in England in a second attempt to take the English throne from Stephen. He travels up via Salisbury and Gloucester north to Carlisle.
• May 22 - Henry of Anjou is knighted at Carlisle by King David I. Henry acknowledges the Scottish king's right to Northumberland.

  By topic

Commerce

• Genoa grants the benefits of a part of the city's fiscal revenues to a consortium of creditors called compera, the first example of the consolidation of public debt in medieval Europe.

  Religion

• April 8 - Pope Eugene III takes refuge in the castle of Tusculum where he meets Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He attempts to reunite the couple by insisting to restore the love between them.