← Fame through time1100-1199
The 12th century
Whose working lives fell in the 12th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 12th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Genghis Khan22 decades - 2
Saladin22 decades - 3
Richard I of England0 decades - 4
Hildegard of Bingen15 decades - 5
Henry II of England12 decades - 6
Maimonidesnot measured- - 7
Henry I of England6 decades - 8
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor20 decades - 9
Averroes22 decades - 10
Bernard of Clairvaux19 decades - 11
Pope Innocent III22 decades - 12
Adrian IV22 decades - 13
Eleanor of Aquitaine19 decades - 14
Stephen, King of England0 decades - 15
Thomas Becket22 decades - 16
Empress Matilda14 decades - 17
Peter Abelard20 decades - 18
Louis VII of France5 decades - 19
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem0 decades - 20
Zhu Xi8 decades - 21
Chrétien de Troyes21 decades - 22
Abdul Qadir Gilani0 decades - 23
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor22 decades - 24
Pope Alexander III22 decades - 25
Manuel I Komnenos0 decades - 26
Louis VI of France0 decades - 27
Henry the Lion22 decades - 28
Geoffrey of Monmouth22 decades - 29
Muhammad al-Idrisi0 decades - 30
Henry the Young King0 decades - 31
David I of Scotland0 decades - 32
Afonso I of Portugal0 decades - 33
Guy of Lusignannot measured- - 34
Henry V, Holy Roman Emperornot measured- - 35
Andronikos I Komnenos0 decades - 36
Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou13 decades - 37
Edgar Ætheling0 decades - 38
Muhammad of Ghor0 decades - 39
Roger II of Sicily0 decades - 40Börte0 decades
- 41
Anna Komnene1 decades - 42
John II Komnenos0 decades - 43
Minamoto no Yoritomo0 decades - 44
Nizami Ganjavi0 decades - 45
Marie de Francenot measured- - 46
Ismail al-Jazarinot measured- - 47
Bhāskara II0 decades - 48
Alfonso VIII of Castile21 decades - 49
Conrad III of Germanynot measured- - 50
William the Lion22 decades - 51
Saxo Grammaticus22 decades - 52
Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalemnot measured- - 53
Pope Honorius III19 decades - 54
Prithviraj Chauhan0 decades - 55
Matilda of Scotland2 decades - 56
Isaac II Angelos0 decades - 57
William of Tyre22 decades - 58
Enrico Dandolo1 decades - 59
Raynald of Châtillon22 decades - 60
Emperor Huizong of Song3 decades - 61
Attar of Nishapur0 decades - 62
Fulk, King of Jerusalemnot measured- - 63
Alphonse I of Aragon16 decades - 64
Alexios III Angelos0 decades - 65
Suryavarman II1 decades - 66
Baldwin III of Jerusalem0 decades - 67
Alexios V Doukas0 decades - 68
Balian of Ibelin0 decades - 69
Amalric of Jerusalem0 decades - 70
Alexios II Komnenos0 decades - 71
Alexander I of Scotland0 decades - 72Melisende3 decades
- 73
Pope Innocent II13 decades - 74
Sancho I of Portugal0 decades - 75
Minamoto no Yoshitsune0 decades - 76
Eleanor of England1 decades - 77
David IV of Georgia0 decades - 78
Albert the Bear7 decades - 79
Lothair II, Holy Roman Emperor19 decades - 80
Béla III of Hungary0 decades - 81
Conrad of Montferrat6 decades - 82
Basava20 decades - 83
Yesugei2 decades - 84
Sigurd the Crusader0 decades - 85
Isidore the Laborer22 decades - 86
Benjamin of Tudela13 decades - 87
Baldwin V of Jerusalem0 decades - 88
Alfonso VII of Castile0 decades - 89
Ahmad Sanjar0 decades - 90
Magnus Barefoot5 decades - 91
Valdemar I of Denmark0 decades - 92
Edgarnot measured- - 93
Judah Halevi0 decades - 94
Adela of Normandy0 decades - 95
Hugues de Payens0 decades - 96
Fakhr al-Din al-Razinot measured- - 97
Abraham ibn Ezra0 decades - 98
Urraca of León0 decades - 99
Yuri Dolgorukiy0 decades - 100
Tomoe Gozen0 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.