Near the end of the century Bulgaria again broke free from Byzantine rule and then Serbia was able to separate from Bulgaria to found the poverty ridden Serb Kingdom (1180).
Italy
The north half of Italy remained subject to the German Empire, but the Papal States had some semblance of self-government and Lombardy and Florence retained some local control. Venice continued to be independent while southern Italy and Sicily prospered under the excellent administration of the Normans. The people of the Two Sicilies had a free choice of religion under Roger I Guiscard and then Roger II after 1101. The latter even started a silk industry at Palmermo, bringing silk workers from Greece, after his expeditions there. Frederick Barbarossa entered Rome on his 4th expedition into Italy, in 1167, and enthroned an anti-pope Paschal III, but a pestilence broke out among his troops and he soon withdrew. The end of the predominance of knighthood was foreshadowed when an army of German knights met defeat to charging pikemen of the Lombard League of cities of northern Italy at Legnano in 1176. The League's subsequent military might was completely defensive with town walls and the massed pikemen infantry. (Ref. 279) At the end of the century the German Emperor Henry VI, with the help of Genoa and Pisa, which was then at the height of its power, wrested southern Italy away from Norman control. Genoa may have minted its own gold coins late in this century and other Italian cities soon followed. (Ref. 222, 260) Additional Notes
In the Italian Alps through Lombardy and Piedmont (as well as in Carinthia and Styria of Austria) the Carthusian monks were dominant in the development of pre-modern iron smelting through the use of strong drafts produced by the enormous water power of alpine streams. Then came a method of refining cast iron, by charcoal fire and the addition of scrap iron to produce steel (Ref. 260). In spite of political changes, the medical school at Salerno continued to function on a high level. Even epilepsy and psychoses were given somatic causes and treatment, although their organic bases were still denied by the followers of Galen. Salerno was a cross-roads of European, Arabic and Jewish medicine. Gerard, an Italian scholar of Cremona, went to Toledo, Spain to learn Arabic and by the time of his death in 1187 he had translated 71 Arabic works, most of them medical, including Avicenna's Canon and the works of Rhazes.
Central europe
In general Europe experienced another warm period during this century, as in the last one. (Ref. 224)
Germany
North German cities soon dominated the Baltic trade and new cities were formed father and farther eastward by the pseudo-crusades of the Knights of the Sword and the Teutonic Knights. (Ref . 137). Cultural advances speeded up civilization in the German realms. The first paper mill in Europe opened at Ravensburg. These areas also saw the mining of copper, silver, gold and iron. There were continued emperor - pope struggles with a temporary peace following the Concordant of Worms of 1122 when it was agreed that there would be a divided ceremony of investiture - one spiritual and one lay, thus assuring the concurrence of both pope and emperor in the choice of bishops.