1280s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1250s 1260s 1270s – 1280s – 1290s 1300s 1310s
Years:	1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1280s is the decade starting January 1, 1280 and ending December 31, 1289.

1280s: events by year

Contents: 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286 1287 1288 1289

1280

• Construction on the northern section of the Grand Canal of China is begun.
• The final expansion of the Lincoln Cathedral is completed.
• King Magnus I of Sweden founds a Swedish nobility by enacting a law accepting a contribution of a cavalry-member in lieu of ordinary tax payments.
• King Edward I of England forms the Court of King's Bench to hear petitions for justice instead of the king hearing them himself.
• The Wolf minimum of solar activity begins (approximate date).
• The Asen dynasty of tsars of Bulgaria ends.
• Syria attempts to secede from the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt, but Qalawun defeats the rebels and keeps Syria within the Egyptian sultanate.
• The second of two main surveys of the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, is completed; it began in 1279.
• Turin is conquered by Thomas III of Savoy, becoming the capital of the House of Savoy.
• Osman starts to rule.

By area

Europe

• March – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, brother of Prince of Wales Llywelyn the Last, attacks an English castle; his brother feels compelled to support him despite being unprepared for war. Their actions lead to the final English conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England.
• March 30 – The Sicilian rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers begins against the rule of Angevin King Charles I of Sicily; over the next 6 weeks, thousands of French are killed. The rebellion forces Charles to abandon the Ninth Crusade while still en route to the target city of Constantinople, and allows King Peter III of Aragon to take over rule of the island from Charles (which in turn leads to Peter's excommunication by Pope Martin IV).
• May 15 – Battle of Forlì between Guelphs and Ghibellines: the French army under Pope Martin IV is defeated by Guido I da Montefeltro.
• June – The army of Peter III of Aragon lands in North Africa in Collo to support the rebellious governor of Constantine, Ibn Wazir. But the uprising has been put down by the Hafsid ruler. Peter, wary of the situation in Sicily, quickly sails off and fails to take advantage of the state of rebellion in North Africa.
• June 26 – King Denis of Portugal marries Elizabeth of Aragon in Trancoso.
• December 11 – At the Battle of Orewin Bridge in mid-Wales, Llywelyn the Last is killed and the Welsh suffer their final decisive defeat at the hands of the English.
• December – Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I of Germany invests his sons Albert I of Germany and Rudolph II of Austria as co-rulers of the duchies of Austria and Styria, thus founding the Habsburg dynasty in those territories.
• Battle of Vronen: Floris V, Count of Holland defeats the Frisians and retrieves the body of his father, some 26 years dead.
• King Stefan Dragutin of Serbia breaks his leg while hunting and becomes ill; he gives the throne to his younger brother Stefan Milutin.
• The king of Aragon, Peter III, obtains the support of Nasrid Granada in preparation for the incoming Aragonese Crusade led by Philip the Fair of France.

By topics

Education

• Hertford College is founded at the University of Oxford.

Markets

• The form for the Trial of the Pyx, during which it is confirmed that newly minted coins conform to required standards, is established.
• First evidence of the existence of consolidated public debt in Brugges, confirming the expansion of use of life annuities to fund government expendiiture to the Low Countries.

Nature

• The most recent eruption of Larderello, a volcano in southern Tuscany, is observed.

Technology

• The technology of watermarks is introduced by paper manufacturers of Bologna, Italy.

Religion

• The Archbishop of Canterbury orders all synagogues of London to close, and forbids Jewish doctors from practicing on non-Jews.
• Construction of Albi Cathedral in Languedoc begins.

By area

• The Hafsid ruler, Abu Ishaq, is toppled by a bedouin rebellion led by Ibn Abi Umara

Asia

• King Ramkhamhaeng the Great of the Sukhothai kingdom creates the Thai alphabet, according to tradition.
• Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty invades the Khmer Empire of present-day Cambodia; King Jayavarman VIII decides to pay tribute rather than fight the invasion, buying peace and preserving the empire.
• Construction on the northern section of the Grand Canal of China is completed.
• The city of Guiyang is founded in China.

Europe

• June 1 – The young Duke Rudolph II of Austria is forced to yield his claim on the Duchies of Austria and Styria to his elder brother, Albert I of Germany, under the Treaty of Rheinfelden.
• July 8 – At the naval Battle of Malta at Valletta, an Angevin fleet sent to help put down a rebellion on Malta is defeated by the fleet of Roger of Lauria.
• October 3 – Death by hanging, drawing and quartering is first used as a form of capital punishment (for the newly created crime of high treason) by King Edward I of England in his execution of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last ruler of an independent Wales, at Shrewsbury.
• An earthquake destroys two thirds of the cave city of Vardzia, Georgia.
• Construction of Caernarfon Castle, Conwy Castle, and Harlech Castle is begun in Wales by King Edward I of England as a system of defenses against possible future Welsh uprisings.
• King Philip III of France causes a mass migration of Jews when he outlaws their residence in the small villages and rural localities of France.

By topic

Arts and culture

• The E. codex of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of Portuguese musical manuscripts, is dated to between 1280 and 1283.
• The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games (including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile between 1251 and 1283.

Markets

• The Saxon city of Goslar starts making efforts to redeem its already issued annuities, a sure indication of financial difficulty and maybe an early sign of the 13th century crisis.

Religion

• Jakub Swinka becomes archbishop of Gniezno.

By area

Africa

• Putting an end to the bedouin rebellion that had toppled his brother in 1283, Abu Hafs Umar I reconquers Tunis and re-installs the Hafsids as the dominating dynasty in Ifriqiya.
• Peter III of Aragon takes advantage of the weakness of the Hafsid dynasty and raids the island of Jerba. The Aragonese massacre the population and occupy the island.

Asia

• Mamluk sultan of Egypt Qalawun signs a 10-year truce with the Crusader city of Acre; he will violate the truce on pretexts in 1290.
• The Mongol Golden Horde, led by Nogai Khan, attacks Hungary a second time.
• The Byzantine city Tralles falls to the Turkish emirate of Menteshe. 20,000 people are led off as slaves.

Europe

• King Charles II of Naples is captured in a naval battle off Naples by Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon.
• The Statute of Rhuddlan is created, formally incorporating Wales into England in the entity England and Wales.
• Battle of Meloria: The Italian city-state of Genoa defeats its rival Pisa, ending Pisa's marine power and hastening the city's decline in power.
• King Stefan Dragutin of Serbia receives Belgrade, Syrmia, and other territories from Hungary, when his son marries the king of Hungary's cousin.
• The Kingdom of Germany imposes a trade embargo on Norway, due to the latter pillaging a German ship. The embargo cuts off vital supplies of grain, flour, vegetables and beer, causing a general famine.
• The German city of Hamburg is destroyed by a fire.

By topic

Arts and culture

• Construction on the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais is interrupted by a partial collapse of the choir; the event unnerves French masons working in the Gothic style.
• Jean de Meun translates Vegetius' 4th century military treatise De Re Militari from Latin into French.

Education

• Peterhouse, the oldest college at the University of Cambridge, is founded by Hugo de Balsham.

Health

• Completion of the al-Mansuri hospital in Cairo.

Markets

• The Republic of Venice begins coining the ducat, a gold coin that is to become the standard of European coinage for the following 600 years.

By area

Africa

• Mansa Sakura usurps the throne of the Mali Empire

Asia

• April 25 – Mamluk sultan Qalawun begins a siege of the Crusader fortress of Margat (in present-day Syria), a major stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller thought to be impregnable; he captures the fortress a month later.
• Tran Hung Dao leads Vietnamese forces in victory over an invading Mongol army of the Yuan dynasty.

Europe

• January 6 – Archbishop Jakub Świnka orders all priests subject to his bishopry in Poland to deliver sermons in Polish rather than German, thus further unifying the Catholic Church in Poland and fostering a national identity.
• September 4 – Roger of Lauria defeats King Philip III of France in a naval battle off of Barcelona.
• The writ Circumspecte Agatis, issued by King Edward I of England, defines the jurisdictions of church and state in England, thereby limiting the church's judicial powers to ecclesiastical cases only.
• The Second Statute of Westminster is passed in England, reforming various laws; it includes the famous clause de donis conditionalibus, considered one of the fundamental institutes of medieval law in England.

By topic

Arts

• The English romantic poem The Lay of Havelok the Dane is written (approximate date).

Markets

• First record of an emission of life annuities by the city of Lübeck. It is the first instance of issue of public debt in Germany and it confirms a trend of consolidation of local public debt over north-western Europe (see 1228).
• The county of Champagne is integrated into the kingdom of France, the region looses its haven characteristics for foreign merchants and the fairs of Troyes quickly dwindle into economic insignificance.

Religion

• April 2 – Pope Honorius IV succeeds Pope Martin IV as the 190th pope.

By area

Africa

• Abu Zakariya is successful in setting a principality centered on Bejaia, which becomes a rival of the main Hafsid entity based in Tunis.

Asia

• In the Lao kingdom of Muang Sua, King Panya Leng is overthrown in a coup d'etat led by his son Panya Khamphong, which is likely to have been supported by the regionally dominant Mongol Yuan dynasty of China.
• Kublai Khan plots a final Mongol invasion of Japan, but aborts the plan due to a lack of necessary resources.

Europe

• March 19 – King Alexander III of Scotland dies in a horse accident with only Queen Yolande de Dreux's unborn child and 3-year-old Margaret, Maid of Norway as heirs; this sets the stage for the First War of Scottish Independence and increased influence of England over Scotland.
• King Philip IV of France imposes the gabelle – a tax on salt in the form of a state monopoly – which would become immensely unpopular and grossly unequal, but persist until 1790.
• Prussians resettled in Sambia stage a famous uprising.
• King Rudolph I of Germany declares all Jews to be "serfs of the Treasury", thus negating all their political freedoms.
• The Guelph Republic of Siena allows exiled Ghibelline rebels back into the city.

By topic

Arts and culture

• March 7 – The Catholicon, a religious Latin dictionary, is completed by John Balbi of Genoa.

By place

Africa

• The Aragonese navy raids the Tunisian Kerkennah Islands.

Asia

• Mamluk sultan Qalawun captures the port city of Latakia in present-day Syria.
• Mongol Ilkhan Arghun Khan dispatches Rabban Bar Sauma to the leaders of Europe to negotiate an alliance against the Muslim states, specifically the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt.
• Kings Mengrai of the Lanna kingdom and Ramkhamhaeng the Great of the Sukhothai kingdom agree to a peace pact in their region of southeast Asia (present-day Thailand).
• Battle of Pagan: The Theravada Buddhist kingdom at Pagan, Myanmar falls to the invading armies of the Yuan Dynasty.

Europe

• January 17 – The Treaty of San Agayz is signed. King Alfonso III of Aragon conquers the island of Minorca from the Moors.
• June 8 – Rhys ap Maredudd revolts in Wales; the revolt will not be suppressed until 1288.
• December 14 – A huge storm and associated storm tide in the North Sea and English Channel, known as St. Lucia's flood in the Netherlands, kills thousands and reshapes the coastal line of the Netherlands and England.
  • In the Netherlands, a fringing barrier between the North Sea and a shallow lake in Holland collapses, causing the fifth largest flood in recorded history which creates the Zuider Zee inlet and kills over 50,000 people; it also gives sea access to Amsterdam, allowing its development as an important port city.
  • In England, the city of Winchelsea on Romney Marsh is destroyed; nearby Broomhill is also destroyed; course of the nearby river Rother diverted to Rye; cliff collapses at Hastings, blocking the harbour; parts of Norfolk are flooded; the port of Dunwich in Suffolk begins its decline.
  • In the English Fenland through the vehemence of the wind and the violence of the sea, the monastery of Spalding and many churches are overthrown and destroyed "All the whole country in the parts of Holland was for the most part turned into a standing pool so that an intolerable multitude of men, women and children were overwhelmed with the water, especially in the town of Boston, a great part thereof was destroyed."
• King Edward I of England arrests the heads of Jewish households, and demands their communities pay hefty ransoms for their release.
• The Mongol Golden Horde, led by khan Talabuga and Nogai Khan, attacks Poland for the third time. Lublin, Mazovia, Sandomierz and Sieradz are ravaged by the invaders, who are defeated in Kraków.
• In Aragon, the Uniones, an aristocratic uprising, forces the Crown to make concessions to the nobility. In particular, the king grants his barons a bill of rights, known as the Privilegium Generale.

By topic

Arts and culture

• The Altar of St. James at the Cathedral of San Zeno in Pistoia, Italy – a masterwork of the silversmithing trade containing nearly a ton of silver – is begun; it will not be completed for nearly 200 years.

Markets

• The Italian city of Sienna exacts a forced loan on its taxpayers for the first time. This is a common fixture of medieval public finance.

Religion

• Construction on the Cathedral of Uppsala is begun; it will not be completed until 1435.

Trivia

• The Bruntal coat of arms makes its first appearance.

By area

Asia

• April – Battle of Bạch Đằng: Đại Việt (Vietnamese) general Trần Hưng Đạo sinks the fleet of an invading Mogul army of the Yuan Dynasty by placing steel-tipped bamboo stakes in the Bach Dang River near Ha Long Bay.
• The Japanese era Koan ends, and the Shōō era begins.
• Japan: Prince Subaru conquers the provinces of Gunma and Tochigi.

Europe

• January 20 – Newcastle Emlyn Castle in Wales is recaptured by English forces, bringing Rhys ap Maredudd's revolt to an end.
• June 5 – Battle of Worringen: John I of Brabant defeats the duchy of Guelders in one of the largest battles in Europe of the Middle Ages, thus winning possession of the duchy of Limburg. The battle also liberates the city of Cologne from rule by the Archbishopric of Cologne; it had previously been one of the major ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire.
• August 8 – Pope Nicholas IV proclaims a crusade against King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, who had lost credibility by favoring his semi-pagan Cuman subjects and in general refusing to conform to the social standards of western Europe.
• The Scots Parliament creates a law allowing women to propose marriage to men during leap years; men who refuse such proposals are required to pay a fine to the spurned bride-to-be.

By topic

Arts and culture

• The oldest surviving bell in the clocks atop the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is built.
• Work is begun on the construction of Mob Quad in Merton College, Oxford.

Markets

• June 16 – The bishop of Västerås buys 1/8 of the Stora Kopparberg copper mine in Falun, Sweden.
• The Flemish city of Ghent seeks rights to start redeeming its already issued annuities. It is a clear indication of financial difficulty and maybe an early sign of the crisis of the 13th century.

Religion

• February 22 – Pope Nicholas IV succeeds Pope Honorius IV as the 191st pope.

Technology

• The oldest known bronze handgun in the world is dated to this year, a Chinese gun found in Acheng District that was once used to suppress the rebellion of the Christian Mongol Prince Nayan in 1287–1288.

By place

America

• The 5,452 meter (17,887 feet) high volcano Popocatépetl is first ascended by members of the Tecuanipas tribe in present-day Mexico.

Asia

• April 27 – Fall of Tripoli: Mamluk sultan Qalawun captures the County of Tripoli (in present-day Lebanon) after a month-long siege, thus extinguishing the crusader state.
• Prince Subaru of Japan conquers the province of Saitama.

Europe

• June 11 – The Italian Guelph and Ghibelline factions fight in the Battle of Campaldino; the Guelph victory secures their position of power in Florence.
• Construction of Conwy Castle, ordered by King Edward I of England, is completed in Wales.
• Jews are expelled from Gascony and Anjou in France.
• Construction of the Belaya Vezha tower in Belarus is completed.

By topic

Education

• Pope Nicholas IV formally constitutes the University of Montpellier in France by papal bull, combining various existing schools under the mantle of a single university.

Markets

• In Siena, twenty three partners, including five members of the Bonsignori family, re-create the Gran Tavola, formerly the most successful European bank, which had ceased its operations after the death of its creator and manager Orlando Bonsignori in 1273.

Religion

• Franciscan friars begin missionary work in China.

Europe in the 1280s was marked by naval warfare on the Mediterranean and consolidation of power by the major states. Ongoing struggles over the control of Sicily provoked lengthy naval warfare: after the Sicilian Vespers rebellion, the French Angevins struggled against Aragon for control of the island. King Rudolph I of Germany established the Habsburg dynasty in Austria when he invested his two sons with power there. In England, King Edward I of England completed the conquest of Wales and annexed the territory via the Statute of Rhuddlan; he also constructed a series of castles in Wales to suppress any future rebellions. Edward I also established several important legal traditions, including a court system to hear claims on the king's behalf and a codification of the separation of church and state legal powers. The death of King Alexander III of Scotland fomented political wrangling in Scotland which would soon lead to increased English influence over Scotland. In Sweden, King Magnus I of Sweden founded a Swedish nobility.

In Asia, the Mongols continued to expand their territories, although at a slower pace and with less success than in previous decades. Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty established control over the Khmer empire in Cambodia, the Pagan Empire in Myanmar, and a kingdom of Laos, but failed a second attempted invasion of Japan and was twice defeated in attempted invasions of Vietnam. The Thai kingdoms of Lanna and Sukhothai also exercised power in the region, avoiding conflict with the Yuan Dynasty to the north. Across the continent in the Middle East, the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt continued to extinguish crusader states under the leadership of Qalawun, capturing Margat, Latakia, and the County of Tripoli. In Anatolia, Osman I became a local chief, or bey, planting the seed that would eventually grow into the Ottoman Empire.

The 1280s was also a busy decade in culture. In Thailand, King Ramkhamhaeng the Great invented the Thai alphabet. In Holland, the St. Lucia's flood killed 50,000 while creating the Zuider Zee, thus giving Amsterdam the sea access it would later need to rise to prominence as an important port. In legal reforms, King Edward I of England started the use of drawing and quartering as punishment for traitors, King Philip IV of France created the gabelle, an onerous tax on salt, and the Scots Parliament passed laws allowing women to propose marriage to men, but only in leap years. The northern branch of the Grand Canal of China was constructed during the first half of the decade, the Uppsala Cathedral was begun, and a partial collapse set back construction of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais in a blow to the aspirations of its Gothic architecture. Colleges at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded. The cities of Al Mansurah, Egypt and Guiyang, China were founded, while Hamburg, Germany burnt to the ground in a catastrophic fire. Jews continued to be persecuted across Europe, while Taoists suffered under Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China.

War and politics

Europe

War and peace

Continental Europe and the British Isles

• 1282 – March – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, brother to Prince of Wales Llywelyn the Last, attacks an English castle; his brother feels compelled to support him despite poor preparation for war, quickly leading to the final English conquest of Wales by King Edward I of England.
• 1286 – Prussians settled in exile in Serbia stage a famous uprising.
• 1287 – June 8 – the Welsh nobleman Rhys ap Maredudd begins a revolt in Wales that lasts until January 1288.
• 1288 – June 5 – John I of Brabant defeats the duchy of Guelders in the Battle of Worringen — one of the largest battles in Europe of the Middle Ages — thus winning possession of the duchy of Limburg. The battle also liberates the city of Cologne from rule by the Archbishopric of Cologne; it had previously been one of the major ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1288 – August 8 – Pope Nicholas IV proclaims a crusade against King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, who had lost credibility by favoring his semi-pagan Cuman subjects and in general refusing to conform to the social standards of western Europe.

Mediterranean Europe

• 1281 – Pope Martin IV authorizes the Ninth Crusade against the newly re-established Byzantine Empire in Constantinople; French and Venetian expeditions set out toward Constantinople but are forced to turn back in the following year.
• 1281 – An offensive by the Byzantine Empire significantly reduces the size of the Kingdom of Albania, as it recaptures land seized from the Despotate of Epirus by Charles I of Sicily ten years earlier.
• 1282 – March 30 – The Sicilian rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers begins against the rule of Angevin King Charles I of Sicily; over the next six weeks, thousands of French are killed. The rebellion forces Charles to abandon the Ninth Crusade while still en route to the target city of Constantinople, and allows King Peter III of Aragon to take over rule of the island from Charles (which in turn leads to Peter's excommunication by Pope Martin IV).
• 1283 – July 8 – At the naval Battle of Malta at Valletta, an Angevin fleet sent to help put down a rebellion on Malta is defeated by the fleet of Roger of Lauria.
• 1284 – King Charles II of Naples is captured in a naval battle off Naples by Roger of Lauria, admiral to King Peter III of Aragon.
• 1284 – The Italian city-state of Genoa defeats its rival Pisa in the naval Battle of Meloria, ending Pisa's marine power and hastening the city's decline in power.
• 1285 – September 4 – Roger of Lauria defeats King Philip III of France in a naval battle off of Barcelona.
• 1287 – January 17 – King Alfonso III of Aragon captures the island of Minorca from the Moors.

Political entities

• 1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan is created, formally incorporating Wales into England in the entity England and Wales.
• 1284 – Stefan Dragutin, king of Serbia, receives Belgrade, Syrmia, and other territories from Hungary when his son marries the king of Hungary's cousin.

Political reform

• 1280 – King Magnus I of Sweden founds a Swedish nobility by enacting a law accepting a contribution of a cavalry-member in lieu of ordinary tax payments.
• 1280 – King Edward I of England forms the Court of King's Bench to hear petitions for justice instead of the king hearing them himself.
• 1285 – The writ Circumspecte Agatis, issued by King Edward I of England, defines the jurisdictions of church and state in England, thereby limiting the church's judicial powers to ecclesiastical cases only.

People and dynasties

• 1280 – The Asen dynasty of tsars of Bulgaria ends.
• 1282 – Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I of Germany invests his sons Albert I of Germany and Rudolph II of Austria as co-rulers of the duchies of Austria and Styria, thus founding the Habsburg dynasty in those territories.
• 1283 – June 1 – The young Duke Rudolph II of Austria is forced to yield his claim on the Duchies of Austria and Styria to his elder brother, Albert I of Germany, under the Treaty of Rheinfelden.
• 1286 – March 19 – King Alexander III of Scotland dies in a horse accident with Queen Yolande de Dreux's unborn child and the 3-year-old Margaret, Maid of Norway as heirs; this sets the stage for the First war of Scottish Independence and increased influence of England over Scotland.

The Mongolian sphere of influence

The Yuan dynasty: East Asia

• 1281 – August 15 – The second Mongol invasion of Japan is foiled at the Battle of Kōan (or Battle of Hakata Bay) as a large typhoon — famously called a kamikaze, or divine wind — destroys much of the combined Chinese and Korean fleet and forces, numbering over 140,000 men and 4,000 ships.
• 1281 – The Mon kingdom of Haripunchai falls as its capital Lamphun (in present-day Thailand) is captured by King Mengrai's Lannathai kingdom.
• 1283 – Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty invades the Khmer empire of present-day Cambodia; King Jayavarman VIII decides to pay tribute rather than fight the invasion, buying peace and preserving the empire.
• 1285 – Tran Hung Dao leads Vietnamese forces in victory over an invading army of the Yuan dynasty.
• 1286 – In Laos, King Panya Leng is overthrown in a coup d'état led by his son Panya Khamphong, which is likely to have been supported by the regionally dominant Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan.
• 1286 – Kublai Khan plots a final Mongol invasion of Japan, but aborts the plan due to a lack of necessary resources.
• 1287 – Kings Mengrai of the Lanna kingdom and Ramkhamhaeng the Great of the Sukhothai kingdom agree to a peace pact in their region of southeast Asia (present-day Thailand).
• 1287 – The Theravada Buddhist kingdom at Pagan, Myanmar falls to the invading forces of the Yuan Dynasty in the Battle of Pagan.
• 1288 – Vietnamese general Tran Hung Dao sinks the entire fleet of an invading Yuan dynasty army by placing steel-tipped bamboo stakes in the Bạch Đằng River, near Halong Bay.
• 1289 – Franciscan friars begin missionary work in China.

The Ilkhanate: southwest Asia

• 1281 – Second Mongol invasion of Syria. Defeated by Mamluks near Hims.
• 1287 – Mongol Ilhan Arghun Khan dispatches Rabban Bar Sauma to the leaders of Europe to negotiate an alliance against Muslim states, specifically the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt.

The Golden Horde: Eastern Europe

• 1285 – Second Mongol raid against Hungary, led by Nogai Khan.
• 1287 – Third Mongol raid against Poland.

The Mamluk Sultanate sphere of influence: the Middle East

• 1280 – Syria attempts to secede from the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt, but Qalawun defeats the rebels and keeps Syria within the Egyptian sultanate.
• 1281 – October 29 – Mamluk sultan Qalawun defeats an invasion of Syria by Mongol Ilkhan Abaqa Khan at the Battle of Homs.
• 1281 – Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, becomes bey of the Sögüt tribe in central Anatolia; in 1299 he will declare independence from the Seljuk Turks, marking the birth of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1284 – Mamluk sultan of Egypt Qalawun signs a ten-year truce with the Crusader city of Acre; he will violate the truce on pretexts in 1290.
• 1285 – April 25 – Mamluk sultan Qalawun begins a siege of the Crusader fortress of Margat (in present-day Syria), a major stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller thought to be impregnable; he captures the fortress a month later.
• 1287 – Mamluk sultan Qalawun captures the port city of Latakia in present-day Syria.
• 1289 – April 27 – Mamluk sultan Qalawun captures the County of Tripoli (in present-day Lebanon) after a month-long siege, thus extinguishing the crusader state.

Culture

Natural events

• 1280 – The Wolf minimum of solar activity begins (approximate date).
• 1282 – The most recent eruption of Larderello, a volcano in southern Tuscany, is observed.
• 1287 – December 14 – A fringing barrier between the North Sea and a shallow lake in Holland collapses during a heavy storm, causing the fifth largest flood in recorded history which creates the Zuider Zee inlet and kills over 50,000 people; it also gives sea access to Amsterdam, allowing its development as an important port city.
• 1287 – The English city of Old Winchelsea on Romney Marsh is destroyed by catastrophic flooding during a severe storm; a new town of the same name is later constructed some two miles away on higher ground.

Science, literature, and industry

• 1280 to 1283 – The E codex of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of Portuguese musical manuscripts, is dated to between 1280 and 1283.
• 1282 – The technology of watermarks is introduced by paper manufacturers of Bologna, Italy.
• 1283 – The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games (including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile between 1251 and 1283.
• 1283 – King Ramkhamhaeng the Great of the Sukhothai kingdom creates the Thai alphabet, according to tradition.
• 1284 – Jean de Meun translates Vegetius' 4th century military treatise De Re Militari from Latin into French.
• 1285 – The English romantic poem The Lay of Havelok the Dane is written (approximate date).
• 1289 – The 5,452 meter (17,887 feet) high volcano Popocatépetl is first ascended by members of the Tecuanipas tribe in present-day Mexico.

Civic laws and institutions

• 1280 – The second of two main surveys of the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, is completed; it began in 1279.
• 1282 – The form for the Trial of the Pyx, during which it is confirmed that newly minted coins conform to required standards, is established.
• 1283 – October 3 – Death by drawing and quartering is first used as a form of capital punishment (for the newly created crime of high treason) by King Edward I of England in his execution of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the last ruler of an independent Wales.
• 1284 – The Republic of Venice begins coining the ducat, a gold coin that is to become the standard of European coinage for the following 600 years.
• 1285 – The second Statute of Westminster is passed in England, reforming various laws; it includes the famous clause de donis conditionalibus, considered one of the fundamental institutes of medieval law in England.
• 1286 – King Philip IV of France imposes the gabelle — a tax on salt in the form of a state monopoly — which would become immensely unpopular and grossly unequal, but persist until 1790.
• 1288 – The Scottish Parliament creates a law allowing women to propose marriage to men during leap years; men who refuse such proposals are required to pay a fine to the spurned bride-to-be.

Art and architecture

• 1280 – Construction on the northern section of the Grand Canal of China is begun; it is completed in 1283.
• 1280 – The final expansion of the Lincoln Cathedral is completed.
• 1283 – Construction of Caernarfon Castle, Conwy Castle (completed in 1289), and Harlech Castle are begun in Wales by King Edward I of England as a system of defenses against possible future Welsh uprisings.
• 1284 – Construction on the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais is interrupted by a partial collapse of the choir; the event unnerves French masons working in the Gothic style.
• 1286 – In Glasgow, the wooden Glasgow Bridge is constructed to span the River Clyde.
• 1287 – The Altar of St. James at the Cathedral of San Zeno in Pistoia, Italy — a masterwork of the silversmithing trade containing nearly a ton of silver — is begun; it will not be completed for nearly 200 years.
• 1287 – Construction on the Cathedral of Uppsala is begun; it will not be completed until 1435.
• 1288 – The oldest surviving bell in the clocks atop the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome dates to 1288.
• 1289 – Construction of the Belaya Vezha tower in Belarus is completed.

Cities and institutions

• 1280 – The Egyptian city of Al Mansurah is founded.
• 1282 – Hertford College is founded at the University of Oxford.
• 1283 – The city of Guiyang is founded in China.
• 1284 – The German city of Hamburg is destroyed by a fire.
• 1284 – Peterhouse, the oldest college at the University of Cambridge, is founded by Hugo de Balsham as The Scholars of the Bishop of Ely.
• 1289 – Pope Nicholas IV formally constitutes the University of Montpellier in France by papal bull, combining various existing schools under the mantle of a single university.

Religion

Christianity

• 1285 – January 6 – Archbishop Jakub Świnka orders all priests subject to his bishopry in Poland to deliver sermons in Polish rather than German, thus further unifying the Catholic Church in Poland and fostering a national identity.
• 1286 – March 7 – The Catholicon, a religious Latin dictionary, is completed by John Balbi of Genoa.

Judaism

• 1282 – The Archbishop of Canterbury orders all synagogues of London to close, and forbids Jewish doctors from practicing on non-Jews.
• 1283 – King Philip III of France causes a mass migration of Jews when he outlaws their residence in the small villages and rural localities of France.
• 1286 – King Rudolph I of Germany declares all Jews to be "serfs of the Treasury", thus negating all their political freedoms.
• 1287 – King Edward I of England arrests the heads of Jewish households, and demands their communities pay hefty ransoms for their release.
• 1289 – Jews are expelled from Gascony and Anjou in France.

Taoism

• 1281 – Kublai Khan orders the burning of sacred Taoist texts, resulting in the reduction in number of volumes of the Dao Zheng (Taoist Canon) from 4,565 to 1,120.

Births

• 1282 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1347)
• 1284 – April 25 – King Edward II of England (d. 1327)
• 1285 – William of Ockham, English Franciscan to whom Occam's Razor is attributed (approximate date; d. 1349)
• 1286 – Duke Frederick I of Austria (d. 1330)
• 1286 – Odoric of Pordenone, famous traveller (approximate date; d. 1331)
• 1288 – Gersonides, Jewish philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer (d. 1344)
• 1289 – October 4 – King Louis X of France (d. 1316)

Deaths

• 1280 – November 15 – Albertus Magnus, German philosopher (b. c. 1193)
• 1280 – King Magnus VI of Norway
• 1282 – October 13 – Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism (b. 1222)
• 1282 – December 11 – Llywelyn the Last, Prince of Wales (b. c. 1228)
• 1282 – December 11 – Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus of the Byzantine Empire (b. 1225)
• 1282 – Abaqa Khan, Mongol Ilkhan (b. 1234)
• 1283 – October 3 – Dafydd ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales (b. c. 1238)
• 1284 – April 4 – King Alfonso X of Castile (b. 1221)
• 1285 – October 5 – King Philip III of France (b. 1245)
• 1285 – Emperor Yekuno Amlak of Ethiopia
• 1286 – March 19 – King Alexander III of Scotland (b. 1241)
• 1288 – Ibn Nafis, Arabic scientist (b. 1210)