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The 1220s

456 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 13th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1220 CE51 entries

  • April 26 – King Frederick II confirms rights of independence to the German bishops (the Confoederatio cum principibus ecclesiasticis) in an attempt to secure the election of his 9-year-old son, Henry VII as King of Germany.
  • July – The Crusaders, led by the Knights Hospitaller, raid Burlus, located in the Nile Delta in Egypt. The town is pillaged, but the knights are ambushed on their return, and several Hospitallers, including Grand Master Guérin de Montaigu, are captured. Meanwhile, Sultan Al-Kamil sends an Egyptian squadron down the Rosetta branch of the Nile. It sails to Cyprus, where it finds a Crusader fleet lying off Limassol. During the attack, they sink and capture all the ships, taking many thousands of prisoners.
  • November – Genghis Khan dispatches his youngest son Tolui, at the head of an army (around 50,000 men), into the Khwarazmian province of Khorasan. His forces also include 300 catapults, 700 mangonels to discharge pots filled with naphtha, 4,000 storming-ladders, and 2,500 sacks of earth for filling up moats. Among the first cities to fall is Termez (captured after a two-day siege) and later Balkh.

1221 CE43 entries

  • June 16 – The Jewish population of Erfurt (Duchy of Thuringia) is massacred after a ritual murder libel. A crowd storms the synagogue where the Jews have gathered with the threat of baptism or death. The Jewish quarter, including the synagogue, is razed: many Jews are tortured and killed.
  • September – Battle of Parwan: Sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni recruits an army of Turkic and Afghan warriors numbering some 60,000 men. As soon as news of this reaches Genghis Khan he sends a Mongol army of 30,000 men, led by his stepbrother Shigi Qutuqu. Meanwhile, Jalal al-Din moves to Parwan (modern Afghanistan), where the two armies meet in a narrow valley. Jalal al-Din takes the initiative, ordering his right-wing of Turks to dismount and engage in a skirmish. On the third day, the Mongols are finally defeated by the Khwarezmian forces and are forced to retreat. Shigi Qutuzu is driven off in defeat, losing over half his army.
  • November 24 – Battle of the Indus: Left with some 20,000 men, Jalal al-Din Mangburni has headed for the Indus River where Genghis catches up with him. In a desperate battle the Khwarezmain forces are destroyed, completing the Mongol conquest of the Khwarazmian Empire, while Jalal al-Din flees across the river and escapes into India.

1222 CE24 entries

  • April 17 – Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury in England, opens a council at Osney Abbey, Oxford.
  • August – After the death of John I of Sweden on March 10, 6-year-old Erik Eriksson is elected new King of Sweden (sometime between this time and July 1223).
  • December 15 – The Golden Bull of 1222 is issued in Hungary, limiting the power of the monarchy over the nobility.

1223 CE69 entries

  • January 4 – Germanus II takes office as Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, after moving the patriarchate's capital 56 mi from Constantinople (now Istanbul) to Nicaea (now Iznik in Turkey), as the guest of John III Doukas Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea.
  • April 14 – On the island of Sri Lanka, King Chodaganga Deva lands at Trincomalee on the Tamil New Year's Day (the 1st of Chittirai of Shaka era year 1145) and makes a large donation to fund the Hindu Koneswaram Temple. The event is commemorated in an inscription in the Sanskrit language in the temple.
  • October 8 – At Montgomery in Wales, King Henry III of England reaches a peaceful settlement with Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, the powerful ruler of the semi-independent Principality of Gwynedd, following a mediation by Ranulf de Blondeville, the Earl of Chester.

1224 CE52 entries

  • April 23 – William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, one of the enforcers of the Magna Carta, marries Eleanor of England, Countess of Leicester, the nine-year-old daughter of the late King John of England and sister of King Henry III, in order to strengthen the Marshal family's connection with the House of Plantagenet.
  • June 5 – The University of Naples is founded by Emperor Frederick II. Frederick's main purpose is to create an institution of higher learning that will put an end to the predominance of the universities of northern Italy, most notably these of Bologna and Padua, which are considered either too independent or under the strong influence of \Pope Honorius III.
  • December – Theodore Komnenos (Doukas), ruler of the Despotate of Epirus, captures Thessaloniki – beginning the de facto Byzantine Empire of Thessalonica. Later, Theodore Komnenos was crowned Byzantine emperor but is not recognized as such by the rest of the Greek or Latin population.

1225 CE53 entries

  • May 10 – Gerold of Lausanne, French bishop of Valence, becomes the new Latin patriarch of Jerusalem (until 1239).
  • June 10 – Pope Honorius III issues the bull Vineae Domini custodes in which he approves the mission of two friars to Morocco. The bull is reissued in October when Honorius III exhorts the Dominican and Franciscan order to participate in that mission.
  • December 31 – Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only empress regnant in the history of Vietnam, marries Trần Thái Tông, making him the first ruler of the Trần dynasty.

1226 CE52 entries

  • March 26 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Golden Bull of Rimini, in which he grants Teutonic Knights the right to all of the lands they will get during the mission in Prussia; he also declares himself a senior of the Teutonic Order and Poland, as well as the universal ruler of Christian Europe.
  • May 17 – Ralph Neville is appointed as the new Lord Chancellor of England by the Great Council of Regency, regent for the Kingdom of England during the reign of King Henry III.
  • September 11 – The Catholic Church practice of eucharistic adoration among lay people formally begins in Avignon, Provence.

1227 CE40 entries

  • January 11 – The city of Požga in Croatia is first mentioned, in a charter of King Andrew II of Hungary.
  • July 22 – Battle of Bornhöved: Count Adolf IV of Holstein – leading a coalition army from the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, defeats the Danish-German forces of King Valdemar II, and the Welf nobleman Otto I (the Child). Adolf shakes off Danish supremacy and accepts an overlordship by the Archbishopric of Bremen under Archbishop Gerhard II of Lippe. Adolf expands his power and establishes new frontiers within the Holy Roman Empire.
  • August 18 – Genghis Khan dies during the fall of Yinchuan after a 21-year reign. His exact cause of death remains a mystery, and is variously attributed to being killed in action against the Western Xia, illness, falling from his horse, or wounds sustained during hunting. Genghis is succeeded by his third son, Ögedei Khan, who becomes the "Great Khan" of the Mongol Empire.

1228 CE34 entries

  • 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).
  • 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.
  • 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).

1229 CE38 entries

  • May – Frederick II arrives at Cyprus, where he attends the wedding proxy of the 12-year-old King Henry I (the Fat) to Alice of Montferrat – whose father is one of his staunch supporters in Italy. On June 10, Frederick lands at Brindisi, where the papal army under his father-in-law John of Brienne has invaded the Italian territories in Campania (→ War of the Keys).
  • June – Emir Al-Ashraf Musa captures Damascus and acknowledges the supremacy of his elder brother Al-Kamil. His other brother, An-Nasir Dawud, is compensated with the lordship of Al-Karak in the Transjordan region.
  • September 5 – A Catalan-Aragonese expeditionary army under King James I (the Conqueror) embarks with 155 ships, 1,500 knights and 15,000 men from Tarragona, Salou, and Cambrils, in southern Catalonia. He sets sail to conquer Majorca. On December 31, James finally conquers the island from the Almohad ruler, Abu Yahya.