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The 1230s

367 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.

1230 CE40 entries

  • March 9 – Battle of Klokotnitsa: Byzantine forces under Theodore Komnenos Doukas invade Bulgaria, breaking the peace treaty with Tsar Ivan Asen II. Theodore gathers a large army, including western mercenaries. The two armies meet near the village of Klokotnitsa. Ivan applies clever tactics and manages to surround the Byzantines. They are completely defeated; only a small force under Theodore's brother Manuel Doukas manages to escape the battlefield. Theodore is taken prisoner and is blinded. In the aftermath, Ivan quickly extends its control over most of Theodore's domains in Thrace, Macedonia and Albania. The Latin Duchy of Philippopolis and the independent principality of Alexius Slav are also captured and annexed into Bulgaria.
  • April 30 – English invasion of France: King Henry III embarks from Portsmouth with a large expeditionary force. On May 2, he arrives on the island of Guernsey, and the next day the English army lands at Saint-Malo, where Peter I (de Dreux), duke of Brittany, meets Henry to pay him homage. The English forces march through the County of Anjou, taking the castle of Mirebeau in late July.
  • August – Treaty of Ceprano: Emperor Frederick II returns from the Sixth Crusade and signs a peace agreement with Pope Gregory IX at Ceprano. He agrees not to violate any territories held by the Papal States in return for Frederick's concessions in Sicily.

1231 CE38 entries

  • April 13 – Pope Gregory IX issues Parens scientiarum. The bull assures the independence and self-governance of the University of Paris.
  • August – Ögedei Khan orders the invasion of Korea. A Mongol army crosses the Yalu River and quickly secures the surrender of the border town of Uiju. The Mongols are joined by Hong Pok-wŏn, a Goryeo general, who takes their side with his subordinates numbering some 1500 families.
  • Spring – Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent becomes a powerful lord in the Welsh Marches, controlling the castles at Cardigan and Carmarthen. He begins to threaten the local Welsh leaders, Llywelyn the Great launches a campaign against Norman lordship in Wales.

1232 CE44 entries

  • May 30 – Anthony of Padua is canonized by Pope Gregory IX at Spoleto, less than a year after his death. He becomes the patron saint of lost items.
  • June – Mongol invasion of Korea: Choe Woo, Korean military dictator of Goryeo, orders against the pleas of King Gojong and his senior officials, the royal court, and most of Songdo's population to be moved to Ganghwa Island. Woo starts the construction of strong defenses on Ganghwa Island, which becomes a fortress. The government orders the common people to flee the countryside and take refuge in major cities, mountain citadels, or nearby islands. The Mongols occupy much of northern Korea, but fail to capture Ganghwa Island.
  • July 16 – Muhammad I is elected as ruler of the Taifa of Arjona. He revolts against Ibn Hud, the independent ruler of Al-Andalus, and takes control of the city, beginning the foundation of the Nasrid dynasty.

1233 CE30 entries

  • May 29 – Mongol–Jin War: The Mongol army led by Ögedei Khan captures Kaifeng, capital of the Jin dynasty ('Great Jin'), after the 13-month Siege of Kaifeng (1232). The Mongols plunder the city, while Emperor Aizong of Jin flees for the town of Caizhou. Meanwhile, Ögedei departs and leaves the final conquest to his favoured general, Subutai.
  • August 20 – Oath of Bereg: King Andrew II of Hungary vows to the Holy See that he will not employ Jews and Muslims to administer royal revenues, which causes diplomatic complaints and ecclesiastical censures.
  • November – Henry III's army camped at Grosmont Castle is attacked in the night, by a force of Welsh and English rebels. Several of Henry's supporters are captured, and the castle is returned to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, one of the rebels.

1234 CE30 entries

  • 1 April – Battle of the Curragh in County Kildare: forces loyal to King Henry III of England defeat those led by Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster who later dies from wounds received.
  • November – Pope Gregory IX proclaims war on the city of Rome after a local revolt forces him into exile. He issues the papal bull Rachel suum videns, calling for a new crusade to the Holy Land.
  • Lund Cathedral in Sweden is heavily damaged in a catastrophic fire. Large donations are made to the church, to rebuild the cathedral.

1235 CE20 entries

  • Siege of Constantinople: The Byzantine emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II besiege Constantinople in an attempt to take it from its Latin rulers, John of Brienne and Baldwin II. Angelo Sanudo successfully negotiates a two-year truce.
  • A Chinese text of this year records that Hangzhou City, the capital of the Song dynasty, has various social clubs that include a West Lake Poetry Club, the Buddhist Tea Society, the Physical Fitness Club, the Anglers' Club, the Occult Club, the Young Girls' Chorus, the Exotic Foods Club, the Plants and Fruits Club, the Antique Collectors' Club, the Horse-Lovers' Club, and the Refined Music Society.
  • Connacht in Ireland is finally conquered by the Hiberno-Norman Richard Mór de Burgh; Felim Ua Conchobair is expelled.

1236 CE42 entries

  • January 14 – King Henry III marries the 14-year-old Eleanor of Provence, one of the four daughters of Raimond Berenguer, count of Provence. The ceremony takes place at Canterbury Cathedral, with Simon de Montfort, as Lord High Steward, takes care of the banquet and kitchen arrangements. Eleanor is crowned queen at Westminster Abbey shortly afterward.
  • September 22 – Battle of Saule: The Lithuanians and Semigallians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword at Šiauliai in Lithuania.
  • October 10 – Razia Sultana, daughter of Mamluk Sultan Shamsuddin Iltutmish, becomes the first female Muslim ruler of the Indian subcontinent, deposing her half-brother, Ruknuddin Firuz, as sultan of the Delhi Sultanate.

1237 CE45 entries

  • September 25 – Treaty of York: King Henry III signs an agreement with Alexander II of Scotland at York. Alexander subjects to Henry's sovereignty and renounces the Scottish claims to Northumberland, Westmorland and Cumberland. This establishes the Anglo-Scottish border in a form with the future status of several feudal properties and marks the end of Scotland's attempts to extend its frontier southward.
  • November 27 – Battle of Cortenuova: Frederick II defeats the forces of the Lombard League; about 5,000 Lombards are captured. Frederick makes a triumphal entry into the allied city of Cremona in the manner of an ancient Roman emperor, with the captured carroccio (later sent to the commune of Rome), and an elephant. During the winter campaign, Frederick captures the Piedmontese cities of Lodi, Novara, Vercelli, Chieri, and Savona.
  • December – Siege of Kolomna: Rus' forces under Yuri II of Vladimir are besieged and annihilated at Kolomna by the Mongols. Yuri barely escapes to Yaroslavl. The defenceless capital of Vladimir is taken after just 2 days. Yuri's wife Agatha (sister of Michael of Chernigov) and all his family die in Vladimir when a church where they have sought refuge from the fire collapses.

1238 CE41 entries

  • January – Simon de Montfort marries the 23-year-old Eleanor, sister of King Henry III. While the marriage takes place with the king's approval, the act itself is performed secretly and without consulting the barons. Eleanor has previously been married to William Marshal and has sworn a vow of perpetual chastity upon his death, which she breaks by marrying Montfort. Archbishop Edmund of Abingdon condemns the marriage for this reason.
  • June 8 – Treaty of Stensby: The Teutonic Knights sign an agreement with King Valdemar II of Denmark ("the Conqueror"). William of Modena, Italian papal diplomat, meets Grand Master Hermann Balk and Valdemar on a Danish island, settling outstanding disputes with Denmark. The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are merged into the Teutonic Order as an autonomous branch and become known as the Livonian Order.
  • July 11 – Siege of Brescia: Emperor Frederick II begins the siege of Brescia. He rejects the negotiations of the Lombard League and insists on unconditional surrender to the imperial forces in northern Italy. This blocks all possibilities of a peaceful settlement. Milan and five other Lombard cities are attacked. In early October, after a successful sortie by the city's defenders, Frederick is forced to lift the siege.

1239 CE37 entries

  • September 1 – Barons' Crusade: A Crusader force (some 1,500 knights) under King Theobald I of Navarre arrives at Acre. At a council of local barons – most prominently Walter IV of Brienne, Odo of Montbéliard, Balian of Beirut, John of Arsuf, and Balian of Sidon – plans are made to prepare an expedition against the Ayyubids in Egypt. Later, Theobald is joined by some Crusaders from Cyprus.
  • November 2 – An expeditionary force (some 4,000 knights) under Theobald I sets out from Acre for the Egyptian frontier, detachments from the military orders and several local barons accompany the Crusaders. While marching to Jaffa, a Crusader column led by Peter of Brittany and his lieutenant Raoul de Soissons with two hundred knights, lay an ambush and attacks a rich Muslim caravan.
  • November 13 – Battle of Gaza: The Crusader army led by Henry of Bar is defeated by the Egyptians near Gaza. More than a thousand men are slaughtered, including Henry himself. Six hundred more are captured and carried off to Egypt. Among them are Amaury VI de Montfort and Philippe de Nanteuil – who, in the dungeons of Cairo, writes a Crusade song about the failure of the expedition.