April 10 – Ten-year-old John I, son of the former King Sverker II ("the Younger") succeeds Eric X ("Knutsson") as King of Sweden, when Eric dies of fever at the end of a 8-year reign, at Näs Castle on the island of Visingsö.
May 18 – King John of England assembles a naval force to defend against a French invasion. Bad storms disperse the fleet, and John spends the summer reorganizing defenses across the country. He sees several of his military household desert to the barons, including his half-brother, William Longespée, who is the commander of John's army in the south.[2]
June – The rebel English barons besiege Windsor Castle and Dover Castle; the latter is strategically important as the 'gateway to England', controlling the shortest route to France. Meanwhile, King John uses Corfe Castle in the southwest as his base of operations while he plans his campaign against the barons and the French invading army under Louis.[3]
October 8 – Az-Zahir Ghazi, Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo, dies after a 23-year reign. He is succeeded by his 3-year-old son Al-Aziz Muhammad. Because of his young age, Toghril becomes Al-Aziz's regent or guardian (atabeg).
May – Pope Innocent III travels to Perugia to try to settle the long feud between Genoa and Pisa, that both states might contribute to the transport of the Fifth Crusade. There, after a short illness, Innocent dies on July 16. Two days after his death the aged Cardinal Cencio Savelli (later Honorius III) is elected as the 177th pope of the Catholic Church.[8]
^Kenneth M; Wolff, Robert Lee; Hazard, Harry (eds.). A History of The Crusades, Vol II: The Later Crusades, 1189–1311, pp. 522–554. The University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN0-299-04844-6.
