1230s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1200s 1210s 1220s – 1230s – 1240s 1250s 1260s
Years:	1230 1231 1232 1233 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

This is a list of events occurring in the 1230s, ordered by year.

By area

Africa

• Sundiata starts to rule in Mali (approximate date).
• In the West African village of Siby, Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire, forces the Malinkés to bind themselves to each other by oath.

Europe

• March 9 – Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus near the village of Klokotnitsa.
• Iberian Peninsula: Alphonso IX defeats Ibn Hud al-Yamani (known as almogàver by the Christians) at the battle of Alange. This success opens the road to Badajoz to the Leonese troops. The Portuguese king Sancho II continues his offensive southward and takes Beja, Juromenha, Serpa and Moura.
• September 24 – The Kingdoms of León and Galicia unite with the Kingdoms of Castile and Toledo under Ferdinand III.
• The Teutonic Knights are invited into Prussia to forcibly convert the Prussians and Yatvags to Christianity.

By topic

Arts

• The Carmina Burana poetry and song collection is created (approximate date).

By area

Asia

• April 9 – After a bizarre weather phenomena of yellowish clouds and dust chokes the air around Hangzhou, Song Dynasty, China, obscuring the sky and sun, a fire breaks out at night in the southeast of the city, which continues into the next day. Fighting the flames is difficult due to limited visibility. When the fires are extinguished, it is discovered that an entire district of some 10,000 houses in the southeast of the city were consumed by the flames.
• Mongol troops cross the Yalu River into Korea, then under the Goryeo Kingdom.

Europe

• Italy: Emperor Frederick II promulgates the Constitutions of Melfi (also known as Liber Augustalis), a collection of laws for Sicily.
• Italy: The Pandorica is donated to the Vatican
• Llywelyn the Great launches a campaign against the Norman lordships in Wales.
• Spain: The Castillans reconquer the city of Quesada.

By topic

Religion

• Ardengus becomes bishop of Florence.

By area

Africa

• The Almohad army besieges Ceuta where Abu Musa, the rebellious brother of the caliph, has received shelter and the support of the population. The Genoese rent a part of their fleet to the rebels who successfully resist the forces of the caliph. The consequences of this revolt are threefold: the city becomes de facto independent from the Almohads, but its reliance on the Italian maritime powers increases and the trans-Saharan trade routes begin to shift eastward due to the local turmoil.

Asia

• The first edition of Tripitaka Koreana is destroyed by Mongol invaders.

Europe

• June 15 – Battle of Agridi: Henry I of Cyprus defeats the armies of Frederick II.
• Spain: Muhammad Ibn Yusuf Ibn Nasr rebels against the independent ruler of al-Andalus, Ibn Hud al-Yadami and takes control of the city of Arjona. This is the foundation of the Nasrid dynasty.
• Italy: Pope Gregory IX, driven from Rome by a revolt, takes refuge at Anagni.
• Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II promulgates the Statutum in favorem principum.

By topic

Markets

The northern French city of Troyes emits its first recorded life annuities, confirming the trend of consolidation of local public debts initiated in 1218 by the neighboring city of Reims.

Religion

• Anthony of Padua, patron saint of lost items, is canonized.

By area

Europe

• Elburg gets its city-rights.
• Gendt gets its city-rights.
• The rebellious city of San Severo is destroyed by Emperor Frederick II.
• Amadeus IV becomes count of Savoy.
• The Castillan troops besiege the Muslim-held city of Peniscola.
• Winter – Spain: after the loss of Trujillo and Úbeda, Ibn Hud al-Yamadi has to demande a truce to the king of Castile Ferdinand III.
• Pope Gregory IX forbids Jews to employ Christian servants.

By topic

Religion

• The Inquisition is established.
• Mustansiriya School is founded in Baghdad.

By area

Africa

• The Manden region raises against the Kaniaga kingdom. This is the beginning of a process that will lead to the rise of the Mali empire.

Asia

• February 9 – Song Dynasty Chinese and Mongolian armies occupy the Jurchen capital at Caizhou, marking the collapse of the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234).

Europe

• Upon the death of Knut Långe, the deposed Erik Eriksson returns as king of Sweden, possibly after a small war between the two of them. It is also possible that Knut dies of natural causes and Erik peacefully then returns as king.
• Pope Gregory IX calls for a crusade against Bosnia, and replaces the Bogumil Bosnian Bishop with a Catholic Dominican German, Johann.
• King Andrew II of Hungary proclaims herzeg Coloman as Ban of Bosnia, who passes it on to Prijezda, a cousin of Ban Matej Ninoslav (1234 to 1239), despite Matej being the legitimate Ban of Bosnia.
• Sancho II of Portugal conquers the cities of Aljustrel and Mértola over the Muslims.

By topic

• Saint Dominic is canonized.
• Pope Gregory IX releases the Nova Compilatio Decretalium.

1235

• The Normans invade Connacht.
• St. Elizabeth of Hungary is canonized by Pope Gregory IX (see 1231).
• A general inquisition begins in France.
• The Byzantine emperor John III Ducas Vatatzes and the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II besiege Constantinople in an attempt to take it from its Latin rulers, John of Brienne and Baldwin II. Angelo Sanudo successfully negotiates a 2-year truce.
• The Lancaster Royal Grammar School is founded.
• A Chinese text of this year records that Hangzhou City, the capital of the Song Dynasty, held various social clubs that included a West Lake Poetry Club, the Buddhist Tea Society, the Physical Fitness Club, the Anglers' Club, the Occult Club, the Young Girls' Chorus, the Exotic Foods Club, the Plants and Fruits Club, the Antique Collectors' Club, the Horse-Lovers' Club, and the Refined Music Society.
• Prince Sogolon Djata leads the Mandinka to victory at the Battle of Kirina against the Susu marking the birth of the Mali Empire.
• Battle of Kirina: Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita defeats Sosso king Soumaoro Kanté, beginning the Mali Empire.

By area

Asia

• Only 4 of 58 districts in Sichuan, China, are captured from the Southern Song by the Mongols under Ögedei. The population of Chengdu, roughly one million inhabitants, is summarily slaughtered after the Mongols take the city with little effort.
• Razia al-Din accedes to the Sultanate of Delhi.

Europe

• January 14 – Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.
• June 29 – Spain: Córdoba is taken by the Castillan troops from the emir Ibn Hud al-Yamadi as part of the movement of Reconquista.
• September 22 – Battle of Saule: The Lithuanians and Semigallians beat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword.
• Volga Bulgaria is conquered by Mongol khan Batu.
• A tournament at Tickhill in England turns into a battle between northerners and southerners, but peace is restored by the papal legate.

By topic

Arts

• May 6 – Roger of Wendover, Benedictine monk and chronicler of St. Albans Abbey dies. His chronicle is continued by Matthew Paris.

Markets

• A drought causes the harvest to fail and causes one of the rate famines of the 13^th century in Europe.

1237

• Thomas II of Savoy becomes count of Flanders.
• Elbląg, Poland is founded.
• After turning aside south for 15 years to invade the Caucasus, Asia Minor and Persia — united now under Batu Khan with representatives of all 4 khanates leading 150,000 Mongol, Turkish and Persian troops into Europe, resume the European invasion with the resumption of Mongol invasion of Rus' foreshadowed by.
• December 21 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Sack of Ryazan.
• Gualdo Tadino, Italy, is destroyed by fire.
• The County of Artois is founded in France.
• Baldwin II becomes Latin Emperor of Constantinople.
• Conrad IV of Germany becomes King of Germany.
• The Livonian Brothers of the Sword unite with the Teutonic Knights.
• Battle of Cortenuova: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor defeats the Lombard League.
• A major fire destroys some 30,000 dwellings in the Chinese capital city of Hangzhou.
• England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border.

By place

Europe

• March 4 – Mongol invasion of Rus – Battle of the Sit River: The Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan defeat the Rus' under Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir-Suzdal.
• August 21 – Battle of Örlygsstaðir: Sighvatur Sturluson and Sturla Sighvatsson defeat Kolbeinn ungi Arnorsson and Gissur Thorvaldsson for control of Iceland.
• September 28 – James I of Aragon captures the city of Valencia from the Moors, who retreat to Granada.
• The seat of the Patriarch of Aquileia is transferred to Udine.
• Simon de Montfort marries Eleanor, sister of Henry III of England.
• The Mongols seize Moscow, at the time a small town.
• Peterborough Cathedral is consecrated.
• Founder of the Nasrid dynasty, Mohammed I ibn Nasr, begins Alhambra complex on the site of a pre-Islamic fortress.
• Thowadra Monastery is founded in Bhutan.

Asia

• The Khmers are expelled from Luang Phrabang in Laos.
• The Sukhothai kingdom is founded in Thailand.

1239

• March 20 – Pope Gregory IX excommunicates Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• November – the pope grants the status of Crusade to king of Castile's ongoing invasion of the muslim kingdom of Murcia.
• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor conducts the Siege of Faenza.
• The main tower of Lincoln Cathedral in England collapses.
• Foundation of Netley Abbey in England.
• Mongol invasion of Rus is in progress, bringing with it a pandemic of Rinderpest.