1210s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1180s 1190s 1200s – 1210s – 1220s 1230s 1240s
Years:	1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

1210s: events by year

Contents: 1210 1211 1212 1213 1214 1215 1216 1217 1218 1219

1210

By area

Asia

• Emperor Juntoku succeeds Emperor Tsuchimikado on the throne of Japan.
• Jochi, eldest son of Genghis Khan, leads a Mongol campaign against the Kyrgyz.

Europe

• July 17 – Former king Sverker the Younger of Sweden is defeated and killed by present king Erik Knutsson of Sweden in the Battle of Gestilren.
• The Delhi Sultanate begins.
• Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor is excommunicated by Pope Innocent III for invading southern Italy.
• St Helen's Bishopsgate in London is founded.
• In England, king John raises £ 100,000 from church property as an extraordinary fiscal levy; the operation is described as an “inestimable and incomparable exaction” by contemporary sources.^[1]

By topic

Arts and culture

• Gottfried von Strassburg writes his epic poem Tristan (approximate date).
• 1210–1211 – Shazi makes Pen box, from Persia (Iran) or Afghanistan. It is now kept at Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C..

Nature

• September 24 – Venus occults Jupiter, the last such occurrence until 1570.

Religion

• Pope Innocent III gives oral permission to St. Francis to begin the Order of the Friars Minor.

1211

• John of England sends a gift of herrings to nunneries in almost every shire despite his status as an excommunicant.^[2]
• The oldest extant double-entry bookkeeping system record dates from this year.
• September 14 – Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross are founded.
• Troops led by Estonian resistance fighter Lembitu of Lehola destroy a garrison of missionaries in the historical Estonian region of Sakala, and raid the Russian town of Pskov.
• Mongol forces under Genghis Khan invade Jin China, aiming at this stage simply to loot the countryside. A Chinese army is defeated and slaughtered at the Badger's Mount Campaign near Zhangjiakou and another is beaten at Mukden, where the city is taken. Beijing is also besieged by the Mongol hordes.
• The church in the French city of Reims burns down; soon after, construction begins on the Notre Dame de Reims Cathedral.

1212

• July 10 – The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground, Over 3,000 people die.
• July 17 – Battle of Navas de Tolosa: The Christian kingdoms of Spain decisively defeat the Almohads. This victory leaves however the Kingdom of Castile in a difficult financial position as the numerous soldiers have to be paid by the treasury.^[3]
• December – Frederick II of Hohenstaufen is crowned King of Germany with the support of Pope Innocent III.
• The Children's Crusade, led by 12-year-old Stephen of Cloyes, sets out for the Holy Land from France.
• In Japan, Kamo no Chōmei writes the Hōjōki, one of the great works of classical Japanese prose.
• Bran Castle is erected by the Teutonic Knights.
• John of England impounds the revenue of all prelates appointed by bishops who had deserted him at his excommunication.^[4] He remains on good terms, however, with churchmen who stood by him, including Abbot Sampson, who this year bequeaths John his jewels.^[5]
• The Banner of Las Navas de Tolosa is begun. It is a trophy of Ferdinand III of Castile, and will end up in the Museo de Telas Medievales.

1213

• May 15 – King John of England submits to Pope Innocent III, who in turn lifts the interdict of 1208.
• May 30 – Battle of Damme: The English fleet under William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury destroys a French fleet off the Belgian port, in the first major victory for the fledgling Royal Navy.
• September 12 – Battle of Muret: The Toulousain and Aragonese forces of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Peter II of Aragon are defeated by the Albigensian Crusade under Simon de Montfort.
• Jin China is overrun by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, who plunder the countryside and cities, until only Beijing remains free, despite two bloody palace coups and a lengthy siege.
• Pope Innocent III issues a charter, calling for the Fifth Crusade to recapture Jerusalem.
• Mukhali seizes Mizhou and orders all the inhabitants massacred.

1214

By area

Asia

• The Emperor of Jin China surrenders to the Mongols under Genghis Khan, who have besieged Beijing for a year. He pays a huge ransom and then abandons Northern China, heading for Kaifeng.
• In his campaigns in Liaodong, the Mongol general Mukhali commands a newly formed Khitan–Chinese army and a special corps of 12,000 Chinese auxiliary troops.

Europe

• July 27 – Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
• King Alfonso VIII of Castile, besieges the Almohad troops in Baeza. The famine experienced in the peninsula is such that neither army is able to fight.
• Upon the death of their father, King Alfonso VIII of Castile, in September and of their mother, Eleanor Plantagenet, Bernguela becomes the regent of her young brother, king Henry I.^[3]
• The German city of Bielefeld is founded.

By topic

Education

• June 20 – The University of Oxford receives its charter.

Religion

• April 13 – Simon Apulia becomes Bishop of Exeter.

1215

• March 4 – King John of England makes an oath to the Pope as a crusader to gain the support of Innocent III.
• June 15 – King John of England is forced to put his seal on the Magna Carta, outlining the rights of landowning men (nobles and knights) and restricting the king's power.
• August – King John of England rejects the Magna Carta, leading to the First Barons' War.
• August 24 – Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
• November – The Fourth Council of the Lateran is held.
• Beijing is captured and torched by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, initiating the Yuan Dynasty in China. Beijing burns for more than a month.
• Otto IV is deposed as King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor, replaced by Frederick II (King 1212–1250).
• The Dominican Order is founded, according to some sources.
• Bhiksu Ananda of Kapitanagar completes writing the holy Buddhist book Arya Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita (sutra) in gold ink in Ranjana script.
• 1215–1216 – The Macy Jug, from Iran, is made. It is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• Kalinga Magha from Kalinga Province in India lands in Sri Lanka with a force of 24,000 men, to capture the city of Polonnaruwa and depose its King, Parakrama Pandya.

1216

By area

Europe

• April – First Barons' War: Prince Louis of France, the future King Louis VIII, invades England.
• April 10 – Upon the death of Erik Knutsson, he is succeeded by his rival Johan Sverkersson as king of Sweden.
• April 22 – Battle of Lipitsa: Mstislav the Daring and Konstantin of Rostov defeat their rivals for the rule of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal.
• July 24 – the French crusaders of the castle of Beaucaire surrend to Raymond, future count of Toulouse.^[6]
• October 19 – Henry III becomes King of England.
• Dresden receives city rights.

By topic

Religion

• July 24 – Pope Honorius III succeeds Pope Innocent III as the 177th pope.
• Pope Honorius III officially approves the Order of Preachers (the Dominican Order).
• Ballintubber Abbey is founded by King Cathal Crovdearg O'Connor of Connaught in Ireland.

1217

By area

Asia

• Mukhali is back in Genghis Khan's camp in Mongolia and receives the hereditary title of prince, a golden seal, and a white standard with 9 tails and a black crescent in the middle. He is appointed commander in chief of operations in North China.

• The Fifth Crusade reaches the Holy Land

Europe

• April 9 – Peter of Courtenay is crowned emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople at Rome, by Pope Honorius III.
• September 21 – Battle of St. Matthew's Day: The Germans defeat the Estonians.
• November] – Castile: The former regent of the now deceased young Henry I of Castile, Alvaro Núñez de Lara, is captured and forced to relinquish all his castles.^[3]
• The Kingdom of Serbia is founded.
• Alcácer do Sal is reconquered by the troops of the Portuguese king Afonso II.^[7]

• In England, a decree establishes that only Englishman can be clergy of Ireland.
• End of the First Barons War:
  • May 20 – First Barons' War: The royalists prevail at Lincoln.
  • August 24 – First Barons' War: In the Battle of Sandwich between English and French soldiers in the English Channel, mercenary Eustace the Monk, working for the French side, is captured and beheaded.
  • September 11 – The Treaty of Lambeth ends the First Barons' War.

1218

By area

Africa

• August 31 – Al-Kamil becomes the new Egyptian Sultan on the death of his father Al-Adil.

Asia

• May 24 – The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
• Damietta is besieged by the knights of the Fifth Crusade.
• Minamoto no Sanetomo becomes Udaijin of Japan.
• The Kara-Khitan Khanate is destroyed by Genghis Khan's Mongolian cavalry.
• Genghis Khan's Mongols, under the leadership of his eldest son Jochi, conduct a second campaign against the Kyrgyz.
• Genghis Khan proposes to the Khwarazm shah of Persia that he accept Mongol overlordship and establish trade relations.

Europe

• The Livonian Brothers of the Sword begin to conquer Estonia.
• July – Spain: In order to facilitate the movement of Reconquista, the pope Honorius III reverses Innocent III’s earlier judgement and declares Ferdinand III the legitimate heir to the crown of Leon.^[3]

By topic

Education

• Alfonso IX of Castile founds the University of Salamanca.

Markets

• The northern French city of Rheims emits the first recorded public life annuity in medieval Europe. Theretofore, this type of instrument had been mostly issued by religious institutions. The emission by Rheims is the first evidence of a consolidation of public debt that is to become common in the Langue d'Oïl, the Low Countries and Germany.^[8]

Religion

• Saint Pedro Nolasco founds the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy in Barcelona, Spain.

1219

By area

Africa

• November 5 – Damietta, Egypt falls to the Crusaders after a siege.
• Saint Francis of Assisi introduces Catholicism into Egypt, during the Fifth Crusade.
• The Egyptian city of Al Mansurah is founded.

Asia

• The Hojo family, vassals of the Shogun, reduce him to a figurehead.

Europe

• June 15 – Battle of Lyndanisse: Danish crusaders led by King Waldemar II conquer Tallinn. The Flag of Denmark allegedly falls from the sky during that battle.
• Twenty-one Lithuanian dukes sign a peace treaty with Halych-Volhynia.
• Upon the death of Aymeric of Saint Maur, Alan Marcell becomes master of the Temple in England.^[9]

By topic

Technology

• The windmill is first introduced to China with the travels of Yelü Chucai to Transoxiana.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References