Year 1160 (MCLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire Spring – Emperor Manuel I (Komnenos) sends an embassy led by John Kontostephanos to Jerusalem, to ask King Baldwin III to nominate one of the princesses of the Crusader States, as a bride for the widowed emperor. Their two candidates are 15-year-old Maria of Antioch, and Melisende of Tripoli. Baldwin suggests Melisende, and her brother Count Raymond III sets about gathering an enormous dowry. The ambassadors are not satisfied, and delay the marriage for over a year. They hear rumours about Melisende's birth, based on her mother's (Countess Hodierna of Jerusalem) infidelity, and therefore Melisende's possible illegitimacy. Europe January 25 – King Frederick I (Barbarossa) captures Crema after a 6-month siege, as part of his campaign against the independent Italian city-states. Some 20,000 survivors are allowed to leave the city with whatever they could carry before Crema is looted and burnt to the ground. The expense of the siege (over 2,000 silver marks) and Frederick's determination to enforce it over the winter, demonstrates his ability to hold troops in the field and to keep his allies on side. May 18 – Erik Jedvardsson (Eric IX) is murdered, after which his murderer Magnus Henriksen proclaims himself king of Sweden as Magnus II. He is murdered in turn the following year, however. Erik is soon worshipped as a saint. Though never formally canonized by Pope Alexander III, he eventually becomes the patron saint of Sweden. A plot of land at Miholjanec is donated to the Knights Templar, who build a monastery in nearby Zdelia. This is the earliest historical mention of the Templars in Croatia and Hungary. Spital am Semmering (modern Austria) is founded by Margrave Ottokar III. He erects a hospital and completes the colonization of the area around the Traisen and Gölsen rivers. Autumn – Within weeks of the death of his second wife, Queen Constance of Castile, King Louis VII marries Adela of Champagne, daughter of Count Theobald II (the Great). A large Portuguese offensive begins in the Alentejo region, against the Almoravids. The city of Tomar is founded by Gualdim Pais, Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Levant Autumn – Raynald of Châtillon, prince of Antioch, makes a plundering raid in the valley of the Euphrates at Marash to seize cattle, horses and