1255

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Year 1255 (MCCLV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Asia

• Hulagu Khan is dispatched by his brother Möngke Khan to destroy the remaining Muslim states in southwestern Asia.

Europe

• May – William of Rubruck from Constantinople returns to Cyprus from his missionary journey to convert the Tatars of central and eastern Asia, his efforts having been unsuccessful.
• August – The final Cathar stronghold in southern France falls, eliminating their last refuge since the Roman Catholic Church began the Albigensian Crusade to crush the sect in 1209.
• The death of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln prompts the persecution of Jews in England, based on the blood libel.
• Lisbon becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.
• A survey of royal privileges is conducted, which is included in the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a followup to the Domesday Book completed in 1086; the Hundred Rolls is later completed with two larger surveys in 1274/1275 and 1279/1280.
• Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) is founded by the Teutonic Knights in Prussia and named in honour of king Ottokar II of Bohemia.
• Theodore II Laskaris, Byzantine Emperor (in exile in the Empire of Nicaea), conducts a military campaign to recover Thrace from the Bulgarians. He concludes the task successfully a year later in 1256.
• The Duchy of Bavaria is split into Upper and Lower Bavaria.
• The lands of the House of Nassau are divided, not to be reunited until 1806.
• King Béla IV of Hungary grants Banská Bystrica the municipal rights of a royal town.

By topic

Arts and culture

• The Gothic cathedral at Bourges, France, is completed. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Markets

• At the death of Bernardo Bonsignori, his brother, Orlando, is left sole director of the largest banking firm in western Europe, the Gran Tavola of Siena. ^[1]

Births

• July – Albert I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1308)
• William de Ros, 2nd Baron de Ros, claimant to the crown of Scotland (d. 1317)
• Duccio di Buoninsegna, Sienese painter (d. 1319)
• Grand Prince Andrey of Gorodets (approximate date; d. 1304)
• Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg, King of the Romans (approximate date; d. 1298)

Deaths

• May 1 – Walter de Gray, English prelate and statesman
• August 22 – Jarler, Archbishop of Uppsala since 1236
• August 27 – Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (b. 1247)
• Sundiata Keita, semi-historical hero and founder of the Mali Empire (approximate date; b. c. 1190)
• Batu Khan, Mongol ruler and founder of the Blue Horde

References