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The 1260s

396 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.

1260 CE50 entries

  • May 21 – Kublai sends his envoy Hao Jing to negotiate with Song dynasty Chancellor Jia Sidao, after the small force left by Kublai south of the Yangtze River is destroyed, by a Chinese army of the Southern Song dynasty. Chancellor Jia Sidao imprisons the entire embassy of Kublai. This slight will not be forgotten by Kublai, but he is unable to assault the Song, due to the civil war with his rival brother Ariq Böke.
  • September 3 – Battle of Ain Jalut in Galilee: The Egyptians defeat the Mongols, marking their first decisive defeat, and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire. Isa ibn Muhanna is appointed amir al-ʿarab under the Egyptian Mamluk Sultanate.
  • October 24 – The Cathedral of Chartres is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France (the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

1261 CE45 entries

  • May 25 – Pope Alexander IV dies after a pontificate of 6-years at Viterbo. He is succeeded by Urban IV as the 182nd pope of the Catholic Church.
  • June 13 – Al-Mustansir II becomes the first Abbasid ruler in Cairo (after his escape during the Siege of Baghdad). He is sent with an army by Sultan Baibars to recover Baghdad, but is killed in a Mongol ambush near Anbar (modern Iraq), on November 28. The Abbasid caliphs continue as religious figureheads for the Mamluks in Egypt until the 16th century.
  • July – Michael sends his general Alexios Strategopoulos with a small advance force of 800 soldiers, most of them Cumans, to keep watch on the Bulgarians and scout the defending positions of the Latin forces in the surroundings of Constantinople. When they reach the village of Selymbria, Strategopoulos is informed by local farmers that the entire Latin garrison and the Venetian fleet, are absent conducting a raid against the Nicaean island of Daphnousia. He decides not to lose such a golden opportunity and makes plans (without the consent of Michael) to retake the capital.

1262 CE38 entries

  • January 25 – Richard of Chichester in England (d. 1253) is canonized as a saint; he is best known for authoring the prayer adapted into the song "Day by Day" in the musical Godspell (1971).
  • March 8 – Battle of Hausbergen: The bourgeois of Strasbourg defeat a German army of knights (some 5,000 men) under Bishop Walter of Geroldseck. Strasbourg becomes an imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire.
  • September 14 – Reconquista: Castilian-Leonese forces led by Alfonso X conquer Cádiz. The city has been under Moorish rule since 711. The Muslims are ousted, and Alfonso repopulates the region (also called the Repoblación).

1263 CE46 entries

  • July 20–24 – Nahmanides, Spanish chief rabbi, defends the Talmud in an important debate (the Disputation of Barcelona) against Pablo Christiani, before James I of Aragon.
  • July – Scottish–Norwegian War: King Haakon IV of Norway ("the Old") assembles a fleet (some 120 warships), and sets sail to defend the Hebrides, in an attempt to reassert Norwegian sovereignty over the Western Isles of Scotland. Haakon stops at the Isle of Arran, where in August negotiations are started with the 21-year-old King Alexander III of Scotland. The talks are prolonged by the Scots until the autumn storms begin.
  • October 2 – Battle of Largs: Scottish forces under Alexander Stewart rout a Viking invasion force led by Haakon IV at Largs in North Ayrshire. The battle is inconclusive. On the morning of October 3, the Norwegians return to collect their dead and burn their beached ships. By the end of October, the Viking fleet reaches Orkney, where Haakon becomes ill and dies at the Bishop's Palace, on December 16.

1264 CE44 entries

  • April – Gilbert de Clare leads a massacre of the Jews at Canterbury, during the outbreak of the Second Barons' War. In the meantime, another of de Montfort's followers, John FitzJohn, leads a massacre against the Jews in London. The Jewish communities of Northampton, Winchester, Cambridge, and Lincoln are looted. The archæ (official chest of records) is destroyed or deposited at the headquarters of de Montfort's supporters at Ely.
  • May 14 – Battle of Lewes: English rebels led by Simon de Montfort defeat Henry III and Prince Edward ("the Lord Edward"), at Lewes. Henry leaves the safety of Lewes Castle and St. Pancras Priory, to engage the rebels. Edward routes part of the rebel army (some 5,000 men) with a cavalry charge, but during the battle de Montfort's forces capture both Henry and Edward, making Simon the "uncrowned king of England" for 15 months.
  • August 11 – By the papal bull Transiturus, Pope Urban IV declares the Feast of Corpus Christi (festum corporis) to be celebrated by the entire Catholic Church.

1265 CE31 entries

  • March – End of the Hungarian Civil War (1264–1265) – Battle of Isaszeg: Younger King Stephen decisively defeats his father's army.
  • June 18 – A draft Byzantine–Venetian treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but is not ratified by Doge Reniero Zeno
  • August 4 – Second Barons' War in England: The Battle of Evesham is fought in Worcestershire, with the army of Edward defeating the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, resulting in the death of Montfort and many of his allies. This is sometimes considered the death of chivalry in England.

1266 CE43 entries

  • May 15 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Chesterfield: English forces led by Henry of Almain, son of Richard of Cornwall, defeat rebels under Robert de Ferrers in a minor skirmish at Chesterfield. Robert is taken as a prisoner to London, and at the Parliament of England disinherits. In July, he is forced to surrender land and Liverpool Castle to Edmund Crouchback, second son of King Henry III of England.
  • July 2 – Treaty of Perth: King Alexander III of Scotland agrees to a peace settlement with King Magnus VI of Norway ("the Law-mender") in which the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Man are ceded to Scotland in exchange for 4,000 marks. In return, Alexander confirms Norwegian sovereignty over the islands of Shetland and Orkney.
  • July 23 – Siege of Safed: Mamluk forces capture the castle of Safed, defended by a garrison of 1,700 men (including some 500 Knights Templar), after a 6-week siege. Sultan Baibars promises safe conduct but when the Christians and Templars are on their way towards Acre, they are seized and beheaded.

1267 CE32 entries

  • February 16 – Kings Afonso III of Portugal and Alfonso X of Castile sign the Badajoz Convention, determining the border between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of León and ensuring Portuguese sovereignty over Algarve.
  • 24 March - In a parliament held in Sainte-Chapelle, King Louis IX and his three sons declared their intention to take part in the Eighth Crusade.
  • May 27 – Treaty of Viterbo: Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople gifts the Principality of Achaea to King Charles I of Sicily, in the hope that Charles can help him restore the Latin Empire.

1268 CE31 entries

  • May 18 – Battle of Antioch: The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars; his destruction of the city of Antioch is so great, as to permanently negate the city's importance.
  • August 23 – Battle of Tagliacozzo: The army of Charles of Anjou defeats the Ghibellines supporters of Conradin of Hohenstaufen, marking the fall of the Hohenstaufen Family from the Imperial and Sicilian thrones, and leading to the new chapter of Angevin domination in Southern Italy.
  • October 29 – Conradin, the last legitimate male heir of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Kings of Germany and Holy Roman Emperors, is executed, along with his companion Frederick I, Margrave of Baden, by Charles I of Sicily, a political rival and ally to the hostile Roman Catholic Church.

1269 CE36 entries

  • March – Ode de Pougy, French Abbess of Notre Dame aux Nonnains, and several associates who assist her, are excommunicated.
  • June 16 – Battle of Colle Val d'Elsa: Guelph forces (2,200 men) led by King Charles I of Anjou defeat the Ghibellines at Tuscany. After the battle, the Guelphs drive out their adversaries at Colle di Val d'Elsa, destroying their houses, and confiscating their possessions.
  • June 19 – King Louis IX of France ("the Saint") orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver. He also confiscates goods from the Jewish population to fund the Eighth Crusade.