1253

'Years:' 1250 1251 1252 - 1253 - 1254 1255 1256

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

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

Contents

Events

Europe

War and politics

Culture

Asia

Births

Deaths

Events

Europe

War and politics

★ July 6 - Mindaugas is crowned as King of Lithuania.

★ July - William II, Count of Holland defeats the Flemish army at Westkapelle.

★ A series of naval wars begins between the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice, which will continue sporadically until 1371.

★ King Henry III of England meets with English nobles and church leaders to reaffirm the validity of the Magna Carta.

★ Pope Innocent IV returns to Rome, having left nine years earlier in 1244 to depose Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and being unable to return until after Frederick's death due to the agitation throughout Europe caused by that action.

★ Having rebuffed the armed forces of Conrad IV of Germany, Pope Innocent IV offers Sicily to Edmund, son of King Henry III of England.

★ Halych-Volynia becomes a vassal state to the expanding Mongol Empire.

Culture

★ Matthew Paris writes ''Historia Anglorum'', a work on English history.

★ The Basilica of San Francesco, the earliest important structure in the Italian Gothic style of architecture, is completed in Assisi, Italy.

★ Sligo Abbey is built in Sligo, Ireland.

★ The Domus Conversorum, a building and institution in London for Jews who had converted to Christianity, is established by King Henry III of England.

★ La Sorbonne was founded by Robert de Sorbon.

Asia

★ April 28 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his attention to preach the Lotus Sutra and ''Nam Myoho Renge Kyo'' as the true Buddhism, essentially founding the branch of Buddhism now known as Nichiren Buddhism.

★ May - 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 recorded meeting between European Christians and Buddhists.

★ The Mongol Empire launches attacks on the Muslim cities of Baghdad and Cairo.

★ The Mongol Empire destroys the Kingdom of Dali (''Yunnan'') in Laos and incorporates the region into their empire.

★ Kublai Khan introduces the ''baisha xiyue'' song and dance suite to the music of Yunnan.

★ The Chinese era ''Baoyou'' begins in the Southern Song Dynasty of China.

Births

★ October 17 - Saint Ivo of Kermartin, French canon lawyer

★ John I, Duke of Brabant (died 1294)

★ Hugh II of Cyprus (died 1267)

Deaths

★ January 19 - Dogen, Japanese founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism

★ July 8 - Theobald IV of Champagne (born 1201)

★ August 11 - Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (born 1194)

★ September 23 - Wenceslaus I, King of Bohemia

★ October 9 - Robert Grosseteste, English statesman and theologian

★ Saint Richard of Chichester

★ King Henry I of Cyprus (born 1217)

★ Amadeus IV of Savoy (born 1197)