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1253
- Jews are expelled from Vienne France by order of Pope Innocent III.
- The Basilica of San Francesco, the earliest important structure in the Italian Gothic style of architecture, is completed in Assisi, Italy.
- 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.
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1252 - – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorises the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.
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1251 - April – The first Shepherds' Crusade, a domestic French uprising in response to events in Egypt during the Seventh Crusade, occurs.
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1250 - December 13 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies. Frederick II is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs.
And thus the great myth of the eternal emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the rise of the Habsburgs begin...
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1249
The Seventh Crusade leaves Cyprus. Led by France's Louis IX, the crusaders take Damietta. The king's brother Alphonse de Poitiers join them to march on Cairo where they are halted before Mansura.
Roger Bacon makes the first known European reference to gunpowder in a letter written at Oxford. This is 12 years after the Mongol invasions, and the English Franciscan now knows how to make powder. He also struggles to make science part of the curriculum at Oxford colleges, claiming that it is complementary to religion, not opposed to it.
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1248
a few interesting things here:
August 15 – The foundation stone of the Cologne cathedral is laid after an older cathedral on the site burns down on April 30. Construction is completed 632 years later, in 1880!
Our king Louis IX of France launches his Seventh Crusade, and marches unto Egypt with an army of 20,000.
Construction on the Alhambra palace, in Granada, Spain, is begun by the Moors. (wonderful place, albeit a little spoiled by the re-designed 1930s gardens. Still, the Generalife is the most enchanting place I have ever seen...)
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1247 - Shams ad-Din disappears, resulting in Jalal Uddin Rumi writing 30,000 verses of poetry about his disappearance.
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1246
The papal emissionary Johannes de Plano Carpini becomes one of the first europeans to be granted audience with the Mongol Kahn in the capital Karakorum.
The Mexicans settle Chapultepec, a former Toltec stronghold.
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1245
The rebuilding of Westminster Abbey is started.
King Philip 111 of France is born.
The First Council of Lyon takes place.
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1244
In the siege and subsequent fall of Jerusalem the Khwarezmians completely razed the city, leaving it in ruins, utterly useless to Christians and Muslims alike. This event sparked The Seventh Crusade under Louis IX of France.
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1243
Castile captures the city of Murcia from the Moors.
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1242
Europe seemed destined for disaster as Batu, grandson of Ghengis Kahn was all set to pillage the continent, but the threat never materialized: In early 1242, word reached Batu of the death of his father, Ogedai Khan late in the previous year. Tradition demanded that a successor be chosen, and Batu was forced to return to the capital in Krakorum, pulling out of Europe. Christendom may owe its existence today to the death of an Asian war chief back in 1241.
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1241
The Mongol invasion of Europe continues. Poland and Hungary suffer heavy losses but the mongol leader, Ogedei Khan, dies
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1240
Jul 15th - A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
Dec 6th - Mongols under Batu Khan occupy & destroy Kiev
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1239
Ziyanid dynasty takes control from the Almohads in Algeria.
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1238
The mongols under Batu Khan invade and defeat the Rus' under Yuri Vsevolodovich of Vladimir-Suzdal. Later in the year they seize Moscow, a small town at the time .
Mohammed I ibn Nasr, begins the Alhambra complex on the site of a pre-Islamic fortress.
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1237
England and Scotland sign the Treaty of York, establishing the location of their common border.
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1236
Córdoba is retaken by the Christians, and becomes a a rallying point against the remaining Islamic population.
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1235
A general inquisition begins in France.
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1234 - Pope Gregory IX calls for a crusade against Bosnia
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1233
The fortress of Kalan is built.
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1232
Pope Gregory IX is forced to escape from Rome due to a revolt, and takes refuge at Anagni.
The first use of true rockets is reported. At this time, the Chinese and the Mongols were at war with each other. During the battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled the Mongol invaders by a barrage of "arrows of flying fire." These fire-arrows were a simple form of a solid-propellant rocket. A tube, capped at one end, contained gunpowder. The other end was left open and the tube was attached to a long stick. When the powder was ignited, the rapid burning of the powder produced fire, smoke, and gas that escaped out the open end and produced a thrust. The stick acted as a simple guidance system that kept the rocket headed in one general direction as it flew through the air. It is not clear how effective these arrows of flying fire were as weapons of destruction, but their psychological effects on the Mongols must have been formidable.
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1231
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.
Wikipedia^
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1231 - 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.
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1230 - teutonic knights begin violent conversion of the Prussians to Christianity
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1229 - The Catholic Church permanently establishes the Inquisition, in the charge of the Dominican Order in Rome.
