The decline of the Seljuqs following their defeat by the Kara-khitans had allowed the Khwarezmids, then a vassal of the Kara-Khitans, to expand into former Seljuq territory.

The citizens of Bukhara revolt in 1207 against the sadrs (leaders of the religious classes), which the Khwarezm-Shah 'Ala' ad-Din Muhammad uses as a pretext for invading and taking Bukhara.

Muhammad now forms an alliance with the Western Kara-Khanid ruler Uthman (who will later marry Muhammad's daughter) against the Kara-Khitans.

The territory carved by the Knights of the Sword from the homeland of the forcibly Christianized Livs in 1207 becomes part of the bishopric of Livonia, a principality of the Holy Roman Empire with the bishop as its prince.

Náxos passes to Venetian control in 1207 when Marco Sanudo, Dandolo’s maternal nephew, conquers the island and soon captures the rest of the islands of the Cyclades.

He establishes himself as Duke of Naxia, or Duke of the Archipelago, subject, like the Principality of Achaea, to the Latin emperor in Constantinople.

The Poor of Lyon, the Poor of Lombardy, or the Poor of God, are also referred to as the Waldensians (or Waldenses), after their leader, Peter Waldo, who had been excommunicated by Pope Lucius III during the synod held at Verona in 1184.

Distinct from the Albigensians or Cathars, their ideas had been condemned in 1179 at the Third Lateran Council.

Driven away from Lyon, Waldo and his followers have settled in the high valleys of Piedmont, and in France, in the Luberon.

Waldo and his followers have developed a system whereby they go from town to town and meet secretly with small groups of Waldensians, confessing sins and holding service.

A traveling Waldensian preacher is known as a barba, and there is even record of some women holding this office.

The group shelters and house the barba and helps make arrangements to move on to the next town in secret.

Innocent III, upon ascending the papal throne in 1198, had at first tried pacific conversion of the Cathar heretics of southern France, who have long denied the sacraments and the authority of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.

In 1207, he appoints Pierre de Castelnau, a prominent Cistercian, as apostolic legate and inquisitor to lead an expedition against the Cathari (better known as Albigenses after the town of Albi) and particularly to obtain the recantation of Count Raymond VI de Toulouse, who is allowing the heresy to spread throughout his domain.

A nephew of King Louis VII of France and brother-in-law of King Richard I of England, Raymond is tolerant toward the many heretics among his subjects.

Apparently, although the Cathari reject Judaism on theological grounds, many also reject the notion of Jesus as a god and accuse the Church of social and economical corruption.

Jews fare well in areas under their control, even attaining positions of prominence.

Having urged him from 1205 to stamp out the heretics, Peter now excommunicates Raymond, placing the Languedoc region under interdict, which arouses grave opposition.

Dipold had finally wrested Frederick from Capparone in 1206 and given him over to the guardianship of the chancellor, Walter of Palearia, an ally of the Germans and the Genoese.

Capparone, meanwhile, had maintained himself in the royal palace until Dipold comes to the island and dislodges him.

By 1207, Walter, however, distrusts Dipold, who had recently traveled to Rome to be released from excommunication by Pope Innocent III.

The chancellor captures him, but Dipold escapes and flees to …

…Salerno, where he enters into open war with Walter and the chancellor's brother-in-law, Peter of Celano.

Dipold soundly defeats the men of Naples, allies of Palearia, in May.

Sixteen monks of Christ Church, who had gone to Rome empowered to act for the whole chapter, are ordered to proceed to a new election in presence of the Pope.

Stephen Langton had studied at the University of Paris and lectured there on theology until 1206, when Pope Innocent III, with whom he had formed a friendship at Paris, called him to Rome and made him cardinal-priest of San Crisogono.

Langton, whose piety and learning had already won him prebends at Paris and York and gained him recognition as the foremost English churchman, is chosen and is consecrated by the Pope at Viterbo on June 17, 1207.

The see of the Archbishop of Canterbury has been vacant since the death of Hubert Walter in 1205.

Some of the younger monks had elected to the see Reginald, the subprior of Christ Church, Canterbury, while another faction, under pressure from King John, had chosen John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich.

Both elections had been quashed on appeal to Rome.

The papal-approved choice of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, initiates a hard political struggle between John of England and Pope Innocent III.

The King proclaims as a public enemy anyone who recognizes Langton as Archbishop.

John expels the Canterbury monks, who are now unanimous in support of Stephen, on July 15, 1207.