Venice acquires valuable trading privileges from Constantinople, her merchants being excused all dues and customs in the Byzantine empire

Roger I, the first Norman count of Sicily, completes the conquest of the island from the Muslims

Many of the towns of northern Italy acquire virtual independence as self-governing communes

Work begins on the exquisite palace chapel in Palermo, built for the Norman kings of Sicily

Pope Innocent III and the second Lateran council outlaw the crossbow as a weapon causing unacceptable devastation

The fall of Edessa prompts the pope, Eugenius III, to call for a second crusade to defend the Latin kingdom

The Medici move into Florence from their country home in the Mugello valley

The three-year old Frederick II has a claim to the thrones of both Sicily and Germany on the death of his father, the emperor Henry VI

In the cathedral on Torcello, and in St Mark's, Venetian mosaics are a culmination in the west of the Byzantine tradition

The fleet of the fourth crusade departs from Venice - only to be diverted from its purposes by Venetian guile

Venice takes the useful islands of Corfu and Crete as part of the spoils of the fourth crusade

A Latin empire is set up in Constantinople on the same basis as the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem

Many of the treasures adorning the church of San Marco in Venice are loot taken from Constantinople during the fourth crusade

St Francis and eleven companions tell Innocent III of their wish for a life of holy poverty in the bustle of the towns

Participants in the Children's Crusade suffer disaster after the waters of the Mediterranean fail to part for them

St Dominic and his companions tell Innocent III of their wish to teach and preach in the bustle of the towns

The Dominicans are formally established by Pope Honorius III as Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum, the Order of the Friars Preachers

The Franciscans are formally established by Honorius III as Ordo Fratrum Minorum, the Order of the Friars Minor

Gregory IX sends Dominican friars to root out the remains of the Catharist heresy in France, thus launching the Inquisition

The Palio, in which horses race round the Campo in Siena, is held from this time

Construction begins of two basilicas, one above the other on a hillside in Assisi, in memory of St Francis

The pope, eager to fill the vacant throne of Sicily, offers it to a son of Henry III of England but gets no firm response

Pope Alexander IV establishes a third order of preaching friars, the Augustinians

Nicola Pisano completes a pulpit for Pisa, borrowing details from Roman sarcophagi - an early example of a new interest in the classical past

A new form of poetry is written in northern Italy, described later by Dante as a sweet new style - the dolce stil nuovo