1250

'Years:' 1247 1248 1249 - 1250 - 1251 1252 1253

'Decades:' 1220s 1230s 1240s - '1250s' - 1260s 1270s 1280s

'Centuries:' 12th century - '13th century' - 14th century

Contents

Events

Europe

Asia

Africa

Births

Deaths

Eras and population estimates

Events

Europe

★ April 30 - King Louis IX of France released by his Egyptian captors after paying a ransom of one million dinars and turning over the city of Damietta.

★ October 12 - A great storm shifts the mouth of the River Rother 12 miles (20 km) to the west; a battering series of strong storms significantly alter other coastal geography as well (''see Romney Marsh'').

★ December 13 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, beginning a 23-year-long interregnum known as the 'great interregnum'. Frederick II is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs.

★ The Lombard League dissolves upon the death of its member states' nemesis, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

★ King Afonso III of Portugal captures the Algarve from the Moors, thus completing the expulsion of the Moors from Portugal.

★ Valdemar I of Sweden, first Swedish king of the Folkung house, becomes King of Sweden

★ Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic. He also first uses the word oriole to describe a type of bird (most likely the golden oriole of Great Britain).

★ University of Valladolid is founded in Spain.

★ The Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy is converted from a pontoon bridge to a permanent, raised wooden structure.

★ Vincent of Beauvais completes his proto-encyclopedic work, ''The Greater Mirror''.

★ The Parlement law courts of ''ancien régime'' France are established.

★ A plague breaks out in the city Naples (In what is now Italy), called the Naple's Plague

★ Villard de Honnecourt draws the first known image of a sawmill.

Asia

★ A kurultai is called by Batu Khan in Siberia as part of maneuverings to eventually elect Möngke Khan as khan of the Mongol empire in 1251.

Africa

★ July 3 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.

★ The Bahri dynasty of Mamluks seize power in Egypt.

★ The Welayta state is founded in present-day Ethiopia (see Rulers of Walayta)

Births

★ Pietro d'Abano, Italian physician, philosopher and astrologer (died 1316)

★ Guido Cavalcanti, Italian poet (died 1300)

★ Dmitri of Pereslavl, Grand-duke of Vladimir-Suzdal (d. 1294)

★ Pierre Dubois, French publicist (approximate date; died c. 1312)

★ Moses de Leon, compiler of the Zohar (approximate date; died 1305)

★ Giovanni Pisano, Italian sculptor (approximate date; died 1314)

★ Daniel Fortesque, knight of the MediEvil game, died 1286

Deaths

★ February 2 - King Eric XI of Sweden

★ February 8 - Robert I of Artois, French crusader (killed in battle) (born 1216)

★ February 8 - William II Longespee, English crusader

★ June 18 - Teresa of Portugal

★ August 9 - King Eric IV of Denmark (born 1216)

★ October 4 - Herman VI, Margrave of Baden

★ December 13 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1194)

★ Leonardo of Pisa, Italian mathematician

★ Matej Ninoslav, Croatian ban

Eras and population estimates

The world population in 1250 is estimated at between 400 and 416 million individuals.
Being a round number, the year 1250 is used to demarcate the beginning or ending of various eras or epochs. These include:

★ Judaism's acknowledged center of Jewish thought and learning:

★
★ End of the ''Geonim'' era in Babylonia (from 650)

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★ Beginning of the ''Rishonim'' era (until 1550)

★ Medieval music - end of the Notre Dame school of polyphony