Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1190s

Wowser, we're already 20% of the way from the year 1000 to our own time!  The written record is starting to pick up a bit, but we've still got a ways to go before we can start talking about major motion pictures.  As someone is said to have said, a few decades before today's decade: "Once more into the breach!"

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1. On June 10, 1190, one of history's most famous redheads drowned in the Saleph River while leading the Third Crusade toward Jerusalem. What powerful man met this ignoble end?

2. On August 21, 1192, Minamoto no Yoritomo was granted a position equivalent to a military dictatorship. This officially established a form of governance that would dominate Japan for centuries. Yoritomo was the first _______________.   (...and the answer is not "samurai.")

3. In 1193, Enrico Dandolo became the leader of his city-state. He is remembered today "for his blindness, piety, longevity, and shrewdness, and is infamous for his role in the..." ...well, his role in something that happened in the 1200s. Dandolo had an exotic-sounding title that many people today associate with Shakespeare: he was the ______ of _______.

4. In 1194, this river had one of its periodic major changes of course, doubtless to the delight of some farming communities and the despair and destruction of many others. What's its name?

5. On 10 June 1194, the previous version of this famous building suffered a pretty bad fire. Afterwards, it was rebuilt with surprising speed into its current distinctive incarnation, and hasn't really been messed with much since. A half mark if you're lucky enough to guess the country, a full mark if you're well-traveled enough to recognize the building itself.

6. In 1195, Alexius III Angelus overthrew Isaac II. Unfortunately for him, he neglected the usual business of killing Isaac's son, something that would come back to haunt him in... ...well, in something that happened in the 1200s. What was Alexius' title, for the time being?

7. Hey look! It's the Halotti beszéd és könyörgés, the first extant manuscript of its language! Since it's kept in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, that language must be what?

8. Paraphrasing from the Wiki: Stefan Nemanjić (Стефан Немањић), or Stefan the First-Crowned, was Grand Prince from 1196, and the King from 1217 until his death in 1228. Through his promotion of the Grand Principality into a kingdom and his helping his brother Saint Sava in establishing the national Church, he is regarded one of the most important of the long lasting Nemanjić dynasty.

Of what nation was Stefan the first-crowned?

9. Pope Innocent III placed the Kingdom of Norway under interdict in October 1198. What does "placing under interdict" mean?

10. On March 25, 1199, somebody famous was shot in the left shoulder with a crossbow by a French boy at the siege of the castle of Châlus in France. The famous guy soon died of gangriene. The French boy, according to various sources, was either graciously pardoned by the famous guy, or hideously tortured to death by his henchman, or both. Who was the famous guy?

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Through History with The Monday Quiz: the 1180s

1. Phillip II Augustus cancelled debts to Jews, after taking a cut for himself.
2. The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament.
3. The Massacre of the Latins was the massacre of the Italian ex-pat community in Constantinople.
4. In New Zealand in the 1180s, absolutely nothing was going on from a human perspective.  It was the last significant landmass to be settled by people, and that was still probably several decades out.  But I'll accept "being settled by Polynesians," because we're within a reasonable margin of error.
5. Lebanese Christians are mostly Maronites.
6. 1185 saw the second emergence of  Bulgaria.
7. Jayavarman VII and Ta Prohm: the Southeast Asian superpower of the Khmer Empire.
8. Alpha Centauri, a three-star system -- did you know that?  I didn't. -- is a little more than four light years from earth.  So yes, their light from the 1180s reached earth in the 1180s and 1190s.  There's no fooling you guys.
9. Saladin was a real gentleman about the sacking of Jerusalem.
10. Richard the Lion-Hearted was happy to mortgage England to support his enthusiasm for crusading.

It was only Pfly vs. DrSchnell this week -- really, I can't imagine why this quiz format isn't more popular -- and top honors this time go to Pfly.