1204

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Year 1204 (MCCIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

• January – Four-year-old Guttorm is proclaimed King of Norway; his "reign" ends with his death a few months later.
• January 28 – Byzantine emperor Alexios IV Angelos is overthrown in a revolution.
• February 5 – Alexios V Doukas is proclaimed Byzantine emperor.

Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders

• April 13 – Fourth Crusade: The Crusaders take Constantinople by storm, and pillage the city for 3 days. 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, Marquess 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.

Births

• April 14 – Henry I, king of Castile (d. 1217)
• Haakon IV of Norway (d. 1263)
• Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia (d. 1247)
• Maria of Courtenay, Empress regent of Nicaea (d. 1228)
• Abû 'Uthmân Sa'îd ibn Hakam al Qurashi, Ra'îs of Manûrqa (d. 1282)
• Alice of Schaerbeek (d. 1250)

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 shogun (b. 1182)
• September 30 or November 30 – Emeric, King of Hungary (b. 1174)
• November 30 – Emeric, King of Hungary
• November –Ban Kulin, ruler of Bosnia (b. 1163)
• December 12 (or December 13) – Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (b. 1135)
• date unknown
  • Suleiman II of Rum
  • Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester, English nobleman
• probable – Amalric of Bena, French theologian

References