1228 CE

The 16-year-old Isabella II, Holy Roman Empress and wife of Frederick II, dies after giving birth to her second child, Conrad IV, at Andria. He receives the title King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) – with Frederick as regent. By his father, Conrad is the grandson of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI and great-grandson of the late Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa). Stephen of Anagni, Italian papal chaplain, is commissioned to collect a special tax in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to finance Gregory X's War of the Keys against Frederick II. Battle of Bolnisi: Khwarazmian forces led by Sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni defeat a coalition of Georgians, Kipchaks, Alans, Vainakhs and Laks (some 40,000 men) at Bolnisi (modern Georgia).

In the 1220s, the 13th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • King James I (the Conqueror) launches a major offensive against the Almohads in Majorca. At the same moment, Emir Ibn Hud al-Yamadi (confronted by increasing Christian pressure) denounces Almohad rule in Murcia (modern Spain) and acknowledges the Abbasid Caliphate as legitimate overlord, in effect declaring independence. Other notable Christian success: King Alfonso IX of León conquers Mérida.source

Conflict & Security

  • November – Frederick II puts pressure on the negotiations by a military display. He assembles his Crusader army and marches down the coast to Jaffa – which he proceeds to refortify. At the same moment, Ayyubid forces under An-Nasir Dawud, who are not participating in the revolt at Damascus, move to Nablus, to intercept Al-Kamil's supply lines. Al-Kamil breaks off the negotiations, saying that the Crusaders have pillaged several Muslim villages, and only resumes them again when Frederick pays out compensation to the victims.source
  • King Sukaphaa establishes the Ahom Dynasty and becomes the first Ahom ruler in Assam (until 1268).source
  • Autumn – Frederick II receives an embassy of Egypt's Sultan Al-Kamil, including Fakhr al-Din ibn as-Shaikh, at the Hospitaller camp at Recordane, near Acre. Meanwhile, Al-Kamil is engaged in suppressing a rebellion in Syria and has concentrated his forces on a siege at Damascus. Frederick is pressed for time, because his army is not large enough for a major campaign. Al-Kamil, who has full control of Jerusalem, starts diplomatic negotiations.source
  • Battle of Bolnisi: Khwarazmian forces led by Sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni defeat a coalition of Georgians, Kipchaks, Alans, Vainakhs and Laks (some 40,000 men) at Bolnisi (modern Georgia).source

Exploration & Expansion

  • The Transylvanian town of Reghin is first mentioned, in a charter of King Andrew II of Hungary.source

Religion & Belief

  • July 16 – Saint Francis of Assisi is canonized by Gregory IX.source
  • December 23 – Stephen of Anagni, Italian papal chaplain, is commissioned to collect a special tax in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to finance Gregory X's War of the Keys against Frederick II.source
  • Summer – Emperor Frederick II sails from Brindisi with an expeditionary force and arrives in Acre in the Middle East on September 7. He disembarks a well-trained and equipped Crusader army (some 10,000 men and 2,000 knights). After his arrival in Palestine, Frederick is again excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX, for setting out for the Crusade before he has obtained absolution from his previous ex-communication (see 1227). Many of the local nobility, the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller deny him their support for the Crusade. Frederick can only rely on his own army and the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master, Hermann von Salza, is his friend.source

Economy & Finance

  • The city of Tournai emits its first recorded life annuity, thus confirming a trend of consolidation of public debts started ten years earlier, in Reims.source
  • The first evidence is uncovered of the use of the Knights Templar as cashiers by King Henry III of England, to safely transfer important sums to the continent, using letters of exchange. This shows that large transfers could take place across Europe, even before the emergence of important networks of Italian merchant-bankers.source

Births

  • April 25 – Conrad IV (or Conrad II), king of Germany (died 1254)source
  • Takatsukasa Kanehira, Japanese nobleman (kugyō) (died 1294)source
  • Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi, Egyptian scholar and jurist (died 1285)source
  • Wang Yun, Chinese politician, poet and writer (died 1304)source
  • Ibn Daqiq al-'Id, Egyptian scholar, jurist and writer (died 1302)source
  • Bartolo da San Gimignano, Italian Franciscan priest (died 1300)source
  • Alfonso of Brienne, Norman nobleman and knight (died 1270)source
  • Eleanor de Braose, Cambro-Norman noblewoman (died 1251)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – Yvette of Huy, Belgian anchoress (born 1158)source
  • January 31 – Guy de Montfort, French nobleman and knightsource
  • February 17 – Henry I, German nobleman and knight (born 1155)source
  • April 25 – The 16-year-old Isabella II, Holy Roman Empress and wife of Frederick II, dies after giving birth to her second child, Conrad IV, at Andria. He receives the title King of Jerusalem (as Conrad II) – with Frederick as regent. By his father, Conrad is the grandson of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Henry VI and great-grandson of the late Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa).source
  • April 25 – Isabella II, queen and regent of Jerusalem (born 1212)source
  • June 18 – Mathilde of Bourbon, French noblewoman (born 1165)source
  • July 9 – Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury (born 1150)source
  • August 8 – Rujing, Japanese Sōtō Zen patriarch (born 1163)source
  • September 24 – Stefan the First-Crowned, king of Serbiasource
  • October 15 – Shichijō-in, Japanese noblewoman (born 1157)source
  • October 31 – Eustace of Fauconberg, bishop of Londonsource
  • December 8 – Geoffrey de Burgh, bishop of Ely (born 1180)source
  • Emperor Robert I (or Courtenay) dies after a 7-year reign in Morea (Southern Greece). He is succeeded by his 11-year-old brother, Baldwin II, as ruler of the Latin Empire in Constantinople, with John of Brienne as regent.source
  • Stephen Devereux, Norman Marcher Lord (born 1191)source
  • Henry de Loundres, an Anglo-Norman churchman who was Archbishop of Dublin, from 1213 to 1228.Irelandsource