1249.html



King Louis IX of France leads the capture of Damietta in 1249 in the Seventh Crusade.

Events

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.
• August 15 - The First Battle of Athenry is fought in Galway, Ireland.
• University College, the first College at Oxford, is founded with money gifted from the estate of William of Durham.
• The Moors lose possession of Alicante in Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).
• King Afonso III of Portugal recaptures Faro in the Algarve from the Moors, thus ending the Portuguese Reconquista.
• 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.
• The city of Mystras, Greece is fortified and a palace is constructed there by William II Villehardouin.
• 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 of Toulouse orders the expulsion of Jews from Poitou, France.
• 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, has 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.
• The Hungarian capital is moved from Esztergom to Buda.

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.

Africa

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

Births

• July 9 - Emperor Kameyama of Japan (died 1305)
• Eric V of Denmark (died 1286)
• Robert III of Flanders
• Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (died 1268)
• Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford (died 1297)
• Pope John XXII (died 1334)
• Menachem Meiri, rabbi

Deaths

• July 6 - King Alexander II of Scotland (born 1198)
• September 27 - Count Raymond VII of Toulouse (born 1197)
• As-Salih Ayyub, ruler of Egypt
• Abu Zakariya, ruler of the Maghreb (born 1203)
• William of Sherwood, English logician (born 1190)
• Wuzhun Shifan, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (born 1178)
• Song Ci, Chinese physician and judge (born 1186)