1250s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1220s 1230s 1240s – 1250s – 1260s 1270s 1280s
Years:	1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1250s decade ran from January 1, 1250, to December 31, 1259.

1250s: events by year

Contents: 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1259

By place

World

• The world population is estimated at between 400 and 416 million individuals.
• Medieval music: end of the Notre Dame school of polyphony

Europe

• February – After the death of Erik Eriksson on February 2, Valdemar I, who is the eldest son of Birger jarl, is elected king of Sweden and becomes the first Swedish king of the Folkung house.
• April 30 – King Louis IX of France is released by his Egyptian captors, after paying a ransom of one million dinars and turning over the city of Damietta.
• October 12 – A great storm shifts the mouth of the River Rother 12 miles (20 km) to the west; a battering series of strong storms significantly alter other coastal geography as well (see Romney Marsh).
• December 13 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, beginning a 23-year-long interregnum known as the Great Interregnum. Frederick II is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs.
• The Lombard League dissolves upon the death of its member states' nemesis, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• King Afonso III of Portugal captures the Algarve from the Moors, thus completing the expulsion of the Moors from Portugal.
• Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic as the 8th discovered metal. He also first uses the word oriole to describe a type of bird (most likely the golden oriole).
• The University of Valladolid is founded in Spain.
• The Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy is converted from a pontoon bridge to a permanent, raised wooden structure.
• Vincent of Beauvais completes his proto-encyclopedic work, The Greater Mirror.
• The Parlement law courts of ancien régime France are established.
• A plague breaks out in the city Naples (in present-day Italy), called the Naple's Plague.
• Villard de Honnecourt draws the first known image of a sawmill.

Asia

• A kurultai is called by Batu Khan in Siberia as part of maneuverings to eventually elect Möngke Khan as khan of the Mongol empire in 1251.
• Starting in this year and ending in 1275, the foreign-born Muslim Kuwabara serves as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for the Song Dynasty Chinese seaport at Quanzhou, where he writes a monograph on the Chinese shipping industry and maritime economy.

Africa

• July 3 – Battle of Fariskur: Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
• The Bahri dynasty of Mamluks seize power in Egypt.
• The Welayta state is founded in present-day Ethiopia.
• In Tunis, a popular rebellion against newly arrived, wealthy and influential Andalusian refugees breaks out and is violently put down.

Oceania

• Samoa frees itself from Tongan rule. Beginning of the Malietoa dynasty in Samoa (approximate date).

By topic

Markets

• The Flemish town of Douai emits the first recorded redeemable annuities in medieval Europe, confirming a trend of consolidation of local public debt stated in 1218 in Rheims.
• The Sienese bankers belonging to the firm known as the Gran Tavola, under the steering of the Bonsignori brothers, become the main financiers of the Papacy.

By place

Europe

• April 6 – Saint Peter of Verona is assassinated by Carino of Balsamo.
• May 15 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.
• December 25 – Christopher I of Denmark is crowned King of Denmark in Lund Cathedral
• The first European gold coins are minted in the Italian city of Florence, and are known as florins.
• The Polish land of Lebus is incorporated into the German state of Brandenburg, marking the start of Brandenburg's expansion into previously Polish areas (Neumark).
• The Swedish city of Stockholm is founded by Birger Jarl.
• The Lithuanian city of Klaipėda (Memel) is founded by the Teutonic Knights.
• The town and monastery of Orval Abbey in Belgium burn to the ground; rebuilding takes 100 years.
• Thomas Aquinas travels to the University of Paris to begin his studies there for a masters degree.
• In astronomy, work begins on the recording of the Alfonsine tables.

Asia

• The classic Japanese text Jikkunsho is completed.
• The Chinese era Chunyou ends.
• The Mongols take the westernmost province of the Song Dynasty empire.

By place

Europe

• July – William II, Count of Holland defeats the Flemish army at Westkapelle.
• July 6 – Mindaugas is crowned as King of Lithuania.
• A series of naval wars begins between the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice, which will continue sporadically until 1371.
• King Henry III of England meets with English nobles and church leaders to reaffirm the validity of the Magna Carta.
• Pope Innocent IV returns to Rome, having left 9 years earlier in 1244 to depose Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and being unable to return until after Frederick's death, due to the agitation throughout Europe caused by that action.
• Having rebuffed the armed forces of Conrad IV of Germany, Pope Innocent IV offers Sicily to Edmund, son of King Henry III of England.
• Halych-Volynia becomes a vassal state to the expanding Mongol Empire.
• Matthew Paris writes Historia Anglorum, a work on English history.
• The Basilica of San Francesco, the earliest important structure in the Italian Gothic style of architecture, is completed in Assisi, Italy.
• Sligo Abbey is built in Sligo, Ireland.
• The Domus Conversorum, a building and institution in London for Jews who had converted to Christianity, is established by King Henry III of England.

Asia

• April 28 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his intent to preach the Lotus Sutra and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as the true Buddhism, thus founding Nichiren Buddhism.
• May – King Louis IX of France dispatches William of Rubruck from Constantinople on a missionary journey to convert the Tatars of central and eastern Asia. Later that year, William records the first meeting between European Christians and Buddhists.
• The Mongol Empire launches attacks on the Muslim cities of Baghdad and Cairo.
• The Mongol Empire destroys the Kingdom of Dali in modern Yunnan and incorporates the region into their empire.
• Kublai Khan introduces the baisha xiyue song and dance suite to the music of Yunnan.
• The Chinese era Baoyou begins in the Southern Song Dynasty of China.
• The Mongols defeat the Thai confederacy.

By place

Asia

• King Louis IX of France, having exhausted his funds and being needed at home, abandons the Seventh Crusade (which he had conducted first in Egypt and then Syria) and returns to France.
• The classic Japanese text Kokin Chomonjo is completed.
• The Mongols destroy the Kingdom of Dali in modern Yunnan.
• The Mongols enslave 200,000 Koreans and take them away.

Europe

Northern Europe

• June 12 – The city of Alkmaar obtains city rights from the count of Holland, William II.
• October 10 – Edward Plantagenet marries Eleanor of Castile. His father Henry III had demanded the marriage in exchange for ending the war with her brother Alfonso X of Castile.
• In England, an important step in the evolution of the Parliament and Peerage occurs, as lesser barons are replaced on the King's Council by elected representatives from shires and cities.
• Pope Innocent IV excommunicates Conrad IV of Germany and Rudolph I of Germany (later elected Holy Roman Emperor).
• The Danish city of Copenhagen receives its city charter.
• The Swedish city of Malmö is founded.
• Danylo of Halych, prince of Halych-Wolyn Rus, is crowned a king. The kingdom of Rus (Ruthenia Minor, Halych-Wolyn) is founded

Southern Europe

• December 2 – Manfred of Sicily defeats the army of Pope Innocent IV at Foggia.
• King Louis IX of France expels all Jews from France.
• King Afonso III of Portugal holds the first session of the Cortes (Portugal's general assembly composed of nobles, members of the middle class, and representatives from all municipalities) in Leiria.
• The Ghibelline town of Pistoia is taken over by Guelph Florence.
• The Horses of Saint Mark, once supposed to have adorned the Arch of Trajan in ancient Rome, are installed at Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice.
• Battle of Adrianople: The Byzantines defeat Bulgaria.

By topic

Markets

• As part of an offensive against usury in north-western Europe, the pope Innocent IV releves the city of Beauvais from its obligations to its creditors.

Religion

• December 12 – Pope Alexander IV succeeds Pope Innocent IV as the 181st pope.
• Construction is begun on the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht.
• The Catholic dogma of purgatory is clarified and so named by the Catholic Church.

By place

Asia

• Hulagu Khan is dispatched by his brother Möngke Khan to destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia.

Europe

• May – William of Rubruck from Constantinople returns to Cyprus from his missionary journey to convert the Tatars of central and eastern Asia, his efforts having been unsuccessful.
• August – The final Cathar stronghold in southern France falls, eliminating their last refuge since the Roman Catholic Church began the Albigensian Crusade to crush the sect in 1209.
• The death of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln prompts the persecution of Jews in England, based on the blood libel.
• Lisbon becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.
• A survey of royal privileges is conducted, which is included in the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086; the Hundred Rolls is later completed with two larger surveys in 1274/1275 and 1279/1280.
• Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) is founded by the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and named in honour of king Ottokar II of Bohemia.
• Theodore II Lascaris, Byzantine Emperor (in exile in the Empire of Nicaea), conducts a military campaign to recover Thrace from the Bulgarians. He concludes the task successfully a year later in 1256.
• The Duchy of Bavaria is split into Upper and Lower Bavaria.
• The German state of Nassau is divided, not to be reunited until 1806.
• King Béla IV of Hungary grants Banská Bystrica the municipal rights of a royal town.

By topic

Arts and culture

• The Gothic cathedral at Bourges, France, is completed. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Markets

• At the death of Bernardo Bonsignori, his brother, Orlando, is left sole director of the largest banking firm in western Europe, the Gran Tavola of Siena.

By place

Europe

• May 4 – Pope Alexander IV issues the papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae, constituting the Order of Saint Augustine at Lecceto Monastery.
• The city of Lviv, in present-day Ukraine, is founded by Danylo King of Rus.
• Theodore II Lascaris, Byzantine Emperor (in exile in the Empire of Nicaea), successfully concludes a military campaign started a year earlier to recover Thrace from the Bulgarians.
• Abingdon School is founded.
• Roger Bacon becomes a Franciscan Friar.
• Church of Santa Costanza, Rome, is consecrated as a church.
• The ancient Irish Kingdom of Breifne splits into East Breifne and West Breifne after a war between the O'Reillys and the O'Rourkes.

Asia

• October – Mongol commander Baiju (operating under Hulagu Khan's command) leads his forces in a victory over Kay Ka'us II of the Sultanate of Rüm, thereby capturing Anatolia.
• December 15 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
• Hulagu Khan establishes the Ilkhanate dynasty of Persia, which will become one of four main divisions of the Mongol Empire.
• The Japanese Kenchō era ends, and the Kōgen era begins.

1257

• Robert de Sorbon founds the Collège de Sorbonne at Paris, giving a formal college (and still-common name) to the already existing University of Paris in France.
• Matthew Paris, English historian, personally interviews King Henry III of England for an entire week while compiling his major work of English history, Chronica Majora.
• King Henry III of England orders the production of a twenty pence English coin of pure gold, the first high-denomination coin minted in England and the first to use gold. Unfortunately for King Henry, the bullion value of the coins is about 20% higher than the nominal face value, leading to poor circulation as coins are melted down by individuals for their gold content.
• The second Genoese War breaks out between Genoa and Venice in Outremer, known as the War of Saint Sabas.
• The city of Kraków is rebuilt by Boleslaus V of Poland after being nearly destroyed in the Tatar invasions in 1241.
• The Japanese Kōgen era ends, and the Shōka era begins.
• The Mongols take Dai Viet (northern Vietnam).
• Founding of Aberdeen Grammar School.

By area

Global

• January – One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the Holocene epoch occurs, possibly from a tropical location such as El Chichón, Mexico or Quilotoa, Ecuador. Observed effects of the eruption include the following anecdotal accounts: dry fog in France; lunar eclipses in England; severe winter in Europe; a "harsh" spring in Northern Iceland; famine in England, Western Germany, France, and Northern Italy; and pestilence in London, parts of France, Austria, Iraq, Syria, and South-East Turkey.

Asia

• February 10 – Battle of Baghdad (1258) – Hulagu Khan's Mongol forces overrun Baghdad, then the leading center of Islamic culture and learning and capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. They burn the imperial city to the ground, killing as many as 1,000,000 citizens.
• The Chinese era Baoyou ends in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.
• Korea surrenders to the Mongols, ending the effective resistance of the Choe faction within Korea.

Europe

• Llywelyn the Last declares himself Prince of Wales. He is the final ruler of an independent Wales, before its conquest by the English.
• King Henry III of England is forced by seven powerful barons to accept the Provisions of Oxford.
• Gissur Thorvaldsson is made Earl of Iceland by King Haakon IV of Norway.

Markets

• In Genoa, the Republic starts imposing forced loans, known as luoghi to its taxpayers, they are a common resource of medieval public finance.

Religion

• Civil unrest in northern Italy spawns the medieval musical form of Geisslerlieder, penitential songs sung by wandering bands of Flagellants.

By place

Europe

• The Oxford Parliament, led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, leads to the acceptance by King Henry III of England of the Provisions of Oxford.
• September – Battle of Pelagonia: The Empire of Nicaea defeats the Principality of Achaea, ensuring the eventual reconquest of Constantinople in 1261.
• December 4 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
• The famous frescoes of the Boyana Church in Bulgaria are completed (the church and its murals are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
• The German cities of Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock enter into a pact to defend against pirates of the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Hanseatic League.
• Nogai Khan leads the second Mongol Golden Horde attack against Lithuania and Poland.

Asia

• August 11 – While conducting a siege against the Song Dynasty city known as Fishing Town in the province of Chongqing, China, the Mongol Khagan, Mongke Khan, dies in the nearby hills. Persian, Chinese, and Mongol records have different accounts of how he died, including succumbing to an arrow wound received by a Chinese archer in the siege, dysentery, and even a cholera epidemic. His death sparks a succession crisis in the Mongol Empire, while his brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai soon convene their own kuriltai to elect themselves as the next Khan of Khans, opening the path to a four–year-long civil war from 1260 to 1264. In the end, Ariq Böke surrenders to Kublai.
• While engaged in a war with the Mongols, the Song Chinese official Li Zengbo writes in his Kozhai Zagao, Xugaohou that the city of Qingzhou is manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased gunpowder bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.
• Lannathai, a kingdom in the north of Thailand, is founded by King Mengrai.
• The Goryeo kingdom in Korea surrenders to invading Mongol forces.
• The Chinese era Kaiqing begins and ends in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.
• The Japanese Shōka era ends, and the Shōgen era begins.

Events and trends

The decade was perhaps most dominated by the Mongols, who under the leadership of Möngke Khan continued their rapid expansion throughout Asia both to the east and west of their home territories. The Mongols destroyed the Kingdom of Dali in Laos, and captured the Goryeo kingdom in Korea, eastern Galicia in Europe, Anatolia in Turkey, and the Islamic center of Baghdad, where tens or hundreds of thousands were killed as the city was burned to the ground. In Thailand the Lannathai kingdom was founded. In Japan, a new sect of Buddhism was formed, while in Korea the carving of Buddhist scriptures on 81,000 wooden blocks was completed.

Europe noted several important cultural milestones, including the completion of several important cathedrals and the beginning of construction of others, as well as the founding of the Collège de Sorbonne at the University of Paris. Significant political developments in Europe included the lack of a Holy Roman Emperor for most of the decade, further erosion of the power of the monarchy in England and Portugal, the end of the failed Seventh Crusade in Egypt, and the expulsion of the Jews from France and the Moors from Portugal. In religion, a papal bull authorized the use of torture in the Medieval Inquisition, and the Roman Catholic church clarified the concept of purgatory. Several important modern cities, including Stockholm and Lviv, were founded in the 1250s.

One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the Holocene epoch is thought to have occurred ca. January, 1258, with ice cores pointing to a tropical location such as El Chichón, Mexico or possibly Quilotoa, Ecuador. The aftermath may have led to climatic anomalies in rainfall, effects on agriculture, as well as famine and epidemic disease across Europe.

War and politics

Mongol Empire

• 1251 – Möngke Khan is elected as the fourth khan of the Mongol Empire.
• 1253 – Galicia becomes a vassal state to the expanding Mongol Empire.
• 1253 – The Mongol Empire launches attacks on the Muslim cities of Baghdad and Cairo.
• 1253 – The Mongol Empire destroys the Kingdom of Dali (Yunnan) in Laos and incorporates the region into their empire.
• 1253 – Kublai Khan introduces the baisha xiyue song and dance suite to the music of Yunnan.
• 1255 – Hulagu Khan is dispatched by his brother Möngke Khan to destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia.
• 1256 – October – Mongol commander Baiju (operating under Hulagu Khan's command) leads his forces in a victory over Kay Ka'us II of the Sultanate of Rüm, thereby capturing Anatolia.
• 1256 – December 15 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut in present-day Iran.
• 1256 – Hulagu Khan establishes the Ilkhanate dynasty of Persia, which will become one of four main divisions of the Mongol Empire.
• 1258 – February 13 – The Hulagu Khan's Mongol forces overrun Baghdad, then the leading center of Islamic culture and learning, burning it to the ground and killing as many as 800,000 citizens.
• 1259 – The Goryeo kingdom in Korea surrenders to invading Mongol forces.
• 1259 – Second Mongol Golden Horde raid against Poland, led by Nogai Khan.

Europe

• 1250 – December 13 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, beginning a 23-year-long interregnum known as the great interregnum. Frederick II is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs. The Lombard League dissolves upon the death of Frederick II, its member states' nemesis.
• 1250 – King Afonso III of Portugal captures the Algarve from the Moors, thus completing the expulsion of the Moors from Portugal.
• 1251 – Andrew of Longumeau, dispatched two years earlier by King Louis IX of France as an ambassador to the Mongols, returns to his king with reports from the Mongols and Tartary; his mission is considered a failure.
• 1253 – King Henry III of England meets with English nobles and church leaders to reaffirm the validity of the Magna Carta.
• 1254 – King Louis IX of France, having exhausted his funds and being needed at home, abandons the Seventh Crusade (which he had conducted first in Egypt and then Syria) and returns to France.
• 1254 – King Louis IX of France expels all Jews from France.
• 1254 – King Afonso III of Portugal holds the first session of the Cortes (Portugal's general assembly composed of nobles, members of the middle class, and representatives from all municipalities) in Leiria.
• 1254 – In England, an important step in the evolution of the Parliament and Peerage occurs, as lesser barons are replaced on the King's Council by elected representatives from shires and cities.
• 1255 – May – William of Rubruck from Constantinople returns to Cyprus from his missionary journey to convert the Tatars of central and eastern Asia, his efforts having been unsuccessful.
• 1258 – King Henry III of England is forced by seven powerful barons to accept the Provisions of Oxford, effectively ending the absolute monarchy in England by requiring the calling of a parliament.
• 1259 – September – The Empire of Nicaea defeats the Principality of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia, ensuring the eventual reconquest of Constantinople in 1261.
• 1259 – December 4 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
• 1259 – The German cities of Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock enter into a pact to defend against pirates of the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Hanseatic League.

Asia and Africa

• 1250 – The Bahri dynasty of Mamluks seize power in Egypt.
• 1259 – Lannathai, a kingdom in the north of Thailand, is founded by King Mengrai.

Culture

Science and literature

• 1250 – Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic. He also first uses the word oriole to describe a type of bird (most likely the golden oriole of Great Britain).
• 1254 – The classic Japanese text Kokin Chomonjo is completed.
• 1257 – Matthew Paris, English historian, personally interviews King Henry III of England for a week straight while compiling his major work of English history, Chronica Majora.

Art and architecture

• 1250 – The Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy is converted from a pontoon bridge to a permanent, raised wooden structure.
• 1253 – The Basilica of San Francesco, the earliest important structure in the Italian Gothic style of architecture, is completed in Assisi, Italy.
• 1254 – The Horses of Saint Mark, once supposed to have adorned the Arch of Trajan in ancient Rome, are installed at Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice.
• 1254 – Construction is begun on the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht.
• 1255 – The Gothic cathedral Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Bourges at Bourges, France, is completed. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 1259 – The famous frescoes of the Boyana Church in Bulgaria are completed (the church and its murals are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

Cities and institutions

• 1250 – University of Valladolid is founded in Spain.
• 1251 – The German city of Berlin, founded some fifty years earlier, receives its city charter.
• 1252 – The first European gold coins are minted in the Italian city of Florence, and are known as florins.
• 1252 – The Swedish city of Stockholm is founded by Birger Jarl.
• 1254 – The Danish city of Copenhagen receives its city charter.
• 1254 – The Swedish city of Malmö is founded.
• 1255 – The Portuguese capital is moved to Lisbon.
• 1255 – Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) is founded in Prussia.
• 1256 – The city of Lviv, in present-day Ukraine, is founded by Danylo King of Rus.
• 1257 – Robert de Sorbon founds the Collège de Sorbonne at Paris, giving a formal college (and still-common name) to the already existing University of Paris in France.

Religion

• 1251 – Carving of the Tripitaka Koreana, a collection of Buddhist scriptures recorded on some 81,000 wooden blocks, is completed.
• 1252 – May 15 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.
• 1253 – April 28 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his intention to preach the Lotus Sutra and Nam Myoho Renge Kyo as the true Buddhism, essentially founding the branch of Buddhism now known as Nichiren Buddhism.
• 1254 – The Catholic dogma of purgatory is clarified and so named by the Catholic Church.
• 1256 – April 13 – Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull constituting the Order of Saint Augustine.

Births

• 1254 – September 15 – Marco Polo, Venetian merchant and explorer (d. 1324)
• 1255 – July – Albert I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1308)
• 1258 – Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1326)

Deaths

• 1250 – December 13 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1194)
• 1250 – Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci
• 1253 – September 22 – Dōgen Zenji, founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in Japan and author of the Shōbōgenzō and other important works (b. 1200)
• 1254 – December 7 – Pope Innocent IV
• 1255 – Batu Khan, Mongol ruler and founder of the Blue Horde (b. c. 1205)
• 1256 – Felim mac Cathal Crobderg Ua Conchobair, King of Connacht