1249

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( 1240s: )     1249
University College, the first College at Oxford, is founded.

Events

By place

Africa

• King Louis IX of France captures Damietta in Egypt, in the first major military engagement of the Seventh Crusade.

Asia

• Pho Khun Si Indrathit becomes the first king of the Sukhothai Kingdom, marking the founding of the modern Thai nation.
• The Hikitsuke, a judicial organ of the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates of Japan, is established.
• The Japanese Hōji era ends, and the Kenchō era begins.

Europe

• February 16 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by King Louis IX of France as an ambassador, to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
• May 26 – The Battle of Fossalta is fought between the Holy Roman Empire and the Lombard League. The Italians capture the German commander.
• July 13 – Alexander III is crowned as King of the Scots.
• August 15 – The First Battle of Athenry is fought in Galway, Ireland.
• The city of Stralsund (in present-day Germany) is burned to the ground, by forces from the rival city of Lübeck.
• Swedish statesman Birger Jarl subjugates the province of Tavastia in Finland, securing Swedish power in Finland.
• Alphonse, Count of Poitiers orders the expulsion of Jews from Poitou, France.
• The Hungarian capital is moved from Esztergom to Buda.

Mediterranean

• The Moors lose possession of Alicante in Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).
• King Afonso III of Portugal recaptures Faro and Silves in the Algarve from the Moors, thus ending the Portuguese Reconquista.
• The city of Mystras, Greece is fortified, and a palace is constructed there by William II Villehardouin.

By topic

Education

• Spring – University College, the first College at Oxford, is founded with money from the estate of William of Durham.

Microhistory

• Jean Mouflet makes an agreement with the abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in the Senonais region in France: in return for an annual payment, the monastery will recognize Jean as a "citizen of Sens". He is a leather merchant, with a leather shop that he leases for the rent of 50 shillings a year. The agreement is witnessed by Jean's wife, Douce, daughter of a wealthy and prominent citizen of Sens, Felis Charpentier.

Science

• Roger Bacon publishes a major scientific work, including writings of convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness, and the first publication of the formula for gunpowder in the western world.

Births

• July 9 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (d. 1305)
• Eric V of Denmark (d. 1286)
• Robert III of Flanders, ruler
• Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (d. 1268)
• Constance of Sicily, Queen of Aragon (d. 1302)
• Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford (d. 1297)
• Pope John XXII (d. 1334)
• Menachem Meiri, Catalan rabbi
• Amadeus V of Savoy (d. 1323)

Deaths

• July 6 – King Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1198)
• July 19 – Jacopo Tiepolo, Doge of Venice
• September 27 – Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse (b. 1197)
• November 22 – As-Salih Ayyub, ruler of Egypt
• date unknown
  • Abu Zakariya, ruler of the Maghreb (b. 1203)
  • Stephanie of Lampron, queen consort of Cyprus
  • Wuzhun Shifan, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (b. 1178)
  • Song Ci, Chinese physician and judge (b. 1186)

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