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'Years:' 1288 1289 1290 - 1291 - 1292 1293 1294

'Decades:' 1260s 1270s 1280s - '1290s' - 1300s 1310s 1320s

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

1291 (MCCXCI) was a year in the 13th century.

Contents

Events

Europe

Asia

Births

Deaths

Events

Europe

★ In the spring of this year, Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi set sail from Genoa with the goal of reaching India; they never return.

★ May 10 - Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England in mediating resolution of the succession crisis created by the death of King Alexander III of Scotland five years prior.

★ Early August - According to tradition, the Swiss Confederation is formed by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, the "three forest cantons". A purported enacting document, the Federal Charter of 1291, is now widely believed to be a forgery.

★ Sancho IV of Castile captures Tarifa from the Moors.

★ The Habsburgs acquire the Swiss city of Lucerne.

★ Pope Nicholas IV confirms the independence of San Marino via papal bull.

★ All glassmakers in Venice are forced to moved to the island of Murano in order to contain the risk of fire, thus establishing the glass industry there.

★ Klenová castle is constructed in southern Bohemia as part of a frontier defense system.

★ King Andrew III of Hungary gives royal town privileges to Bratislava, the present-day capital of Slovakia.

Asia

★ May 18 - Mamluk Sultan of Egypt Khalil captures Acre, thus exterminating the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem — the final Christian landholding remaining from the Crusades — and ending the Ninth Crusade and effectively all Crusades by eliminating the possibility of further attacks on the Holy Land (see Siege of Acre (1291)).

★ The artificial Kunming Lake is constructed as a reservoir for Beijing in Yuan Dynasty China by famous engineer and astronomer Guo Shoujing.

★ Emperor Kameyama, emperor of Japan, establishes the Zen Buddhist temple of Nanzenji in Kyoto.

Births

★ February 8 - King Afonso IV of Portugal (died 1357)

★ October 31 - Philippe de Vitry, French composer (died 1361)

★ Pope Clement VI (died 1352)

★ Theodore I of Montferrat (died 1338)

★ Aimone of Savoy (died 1343)

Deaths

★ March 10 - Arghun, Persian ruler

★ June 18 - King Alfonso III of Aragon (born 1265)

★ June 26 - Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III of England

★ July 15 - Rudolph I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (born 1218)

★ Hong Dagu, Korean military leader (born 1244)