1208
Year 1208 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Asia
- April 15 - A fire breaks out in the Song Chinese capital city of Hangzhou, raging for four days and nights, destroying 58,097 houses over an area of more than, killing 59 people, and an unrecorded number of other people, who are trampled while attempting to flee. The government provides temporary lodging for 5,345 people, in nearby Buddhist and Taoist monasteries. The collective victims of the disaster are given 160,000 strings of cash, along with 400 tons of rice. Some of the government officials who lose their homes take up residence in rented boathouses on the nearby West Lake.
Europe
- January 15 - Pierre de Castelnau is murdered by heretics supported by Raymond VI, count of Toulouse. He is held responsible and excommunicated by Pope Innocent III, leading to the Albigensian Crusade.
- January 31 - Battle of Lena: Swedish forces under King Eric X defeat the invading Danish army. King Sverker II is deposed as king of Sweden and is succeeded by Eric X.
- Livonian Crusade: The Crusader Livonian Brothers of the Sword, supported by tribes of Livs and Letts, initiate raids into Ugandi County in southern Estonia, resulting in the Estonian fight for independence.
- March 24 - Innocent III places England under a Papal Interdict, as punishment for John, King of England 's refusal to accept Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. During the interdict, religious services as marriages, burials, or baptisms cannot be performed. John confiscates church property of clergy who are unwilling to conduct services. Many bishops in the country flee abroad to the Continent.
- Autumn - William Marshal is recalled and humiliated by King John at court in London, while John gives his justiciar in Ireland, Meiler Fitzhenry the order to invade Marshal's lands there, burning the town of New Ross.
- June 21 - Philip of Swabia, king of Germany, is assassinated in Bamberg by the German count Otto of Wittelsbach, because Philip has refused to give him his 10-year-old daughter Beatrice in marriage.
- June 30 - Battle of Philippopolis: Bulgarian forces under Emperor Boril are defeated by the Latin army led by Emperor Henry of Flanders, near modern-day Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
- August 27 - Queen Irene Angelina dies in childbirth after the death of her husband Philip of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle, leaving four daughters: Beatrice, Maria, Kunigunde and Elisabeth.
- November 11 - Otto IV is elected by the German nobles as king of Germany at Frankfurt. He is engaged to Beatrice and travels to Milan where he receives the Iron Crown and the title of King of Italy, which continues until the end of World War I in 1918.
By topic
Literature
- Robert of Courçon, an English cardinal, writes his Summa – devoted to questions of canon law and ethics – dealing at length with the question of usury.
Religion
- November 17 - Innocent III asks the nobles in Northern France to take military action against the Cathars in Languedoc.