1278

This article is about the year 1278.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1240s  1250s  1260s  – 1270s –  1280s  1290s  1300s
Years:	1275 1276 1277 – 1278 – 1279 1280 1281

1278 by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Art and literature

1278 in poetry

1278 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1278 MCCLXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2031
Armenian calendar	727 ԹՎ ՉԻԷ
Assyrian calendar	6028
Bahá'í calendar	-566–-565
Bengali calendar	685
Berber calendar	2228
English Regnal year	6 Edw. 1 – 7 Edw. 1
Buddhist calendar	1822
Burmese calendar	640
Byzantine calendar	6786–6787
Chinese calendar	丁丑年十二月初七日 (3914/3974-12-7) — to — 戊寅年閏十一月十六日 (3915/3975-intercalary 11-16)
Coptic calendar	994–995
Ethiopian calendar	1270–1271
Hebrew calendar	5038–5039
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1334–1335
- Shaka Samvat	1200–1201
- Kali Yuga	4379–4380
Holocene calendar	11278
Iranian calendar	656–657
Islamic calendar	676–677
Japanese calendar
Julian calendar	1278    MCCLXXVIII
Korean calendar	3611
Minguo calendar	634 before ROC 民前634年
Thai solar calendar	1821

Year 1278 (MCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By area

Asia

• May 8 – Emperor Duanzong of Song China dies of illness and is succeeded by his brother Zhao Bing, who becomes Emperor Huaizong of Song. Meanwhile, armed forces under the control of Mongol leader Kublai Khan draw closer to the remnants of the Song imperial court. A year later at the Battle of Yamen the Song Dynasty will cease to exist, becoming incorporated into the Yuan Dynasty of China.
• The Japanese era Kenji ends, and the Koan era begins.

Europe

• August 26 – Battle of Marchfield: Kings Rudolph I of Germany and Ladislaus IV of Hungary defeat King Otakar II of Bohemia in a match of over 80,000 men and the largest battle of knights in the Middle Ages. The battle ends a power struggle between Rudolph and Otakar over the fate of central Europe, and Rudolph's Habsburg family will continue to rule Austria and other captured territories until the end of World War I in 1918.
• September 29 – Peter III of Aragon takes the Muslim stronghold of Montesa putting an end to two years of Mudejar rebellion. The defeated Muslims are expelled from the realm and go into exile.
• The independence, boundaries, and political structure of Andorra are agreed to by the catalan Bishop of Urgell and the Count of Foix.
• End of the so-called War of the Cow in what will become Wallonia (it had begun in 1275).

By topic

Arts and culture

• The earliest known written copy of the Avesta, a collection of ancient sacred Persian Zoroastrian texts previously passed down orally, is produced.

Markets

• Giles of Lessines writes his De usuris. He estimates that some credit contracts need not to be usurious as "future things are not estimated to be of such value as those collected in the instant". The prevalence of this view in the usury debate allows for the development of the financial industry in Catholic Europe.

Religion

• An edict by Pope Nicholas III requires all Jews to attend conversion sermons.

Births

• Constantine III of Armenia (d. c. 1310)
• Ferdinand of Majorca (d. 1316)
• Philip I of Taranto (d. 1332)
• Thomas, earl of Lancaster (d. 1322)

Deaths

• February 10 – Margaret II, Countess of Flanders (b. 1202)
• May 1 – William II Villehardouin
• May 8 – Emperor Duanzong of China (b. 1268)
• June 30 – Pierre de la Broce, French courtier
• August 26 – King Otakar II of Bohemia
• Al-Nawawi, Distinguished Islamic Scholar (b. 1233)
• Ulrich von Liechtenstein, knight, politician, and minnesinger (b. 1200)
• Nicola Pisano, Italian sculptor