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The 1270s

439 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.

1270 CE43 entries

  • August 10 (10 Nehasé 1262) – Yekuno Amlak overthrows the Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty, claims the imperial throne and establishes the Solomonic Dynasty, which will last until 1974.
  • December 15 – The Nizari Ismaili garrison of Gerdkuh, Persia surrender after 17 years to the Mongols.
  • December – Crucial aspects of the philosophy of Averroism (itself based on Aristotle's works) are banned by the Roman Catholic Church, in a condemnation enacted by papal authority at the University of Paris.

1271 CE44 entries

  • February – Mamluk forces led by Sultan Baibars continue their territorial expansion in western Syria and appear before Safita Castle (called the White Castle) built by the Knights Templar. After a heroic defense, the small garrison is advised by Grand Master Thomas Bérard to surrender. The survivors are allowed to withdraw to Tortosa.
  • September 1 – Pope Gregory X succeeds the late Clement IV as the 184th pope of the Catholic Church, as the compromise candidate between French and Italian cardinals, ending a three-year conclave, the longest ever.
  • September 12 – Nichiren, Japanese Buddhist priest, is arrested by a band of soldiers and nearly beheaded. This incident, known as Hosshaku Kenpon or "casting off the transient and revealing the true," is regarded as a turning point of Nichiren's teachings within the various schools, known as Nichiren Buddhism.

1272 CE40 entries

  • February – Charles I of Anjou, king of Sicily, occupies the city of Durrës, and establishes the Angevin Kingdom of Albania. A delegation of Albanian nobles and citizens from Durrës make their way to Charles' court.
  • August 18 – Nubian forces sack the Egyptian Red Sea outpost of Aydhab and raid the southern frontier city of Aswan. In return, Baibars invades the kingdom of Makuria.
  • November – Charles I orders his officials to take all Genoese prisoner within his territories, except for the Guelphs and to seize their property. The Sicilian fleet occupies Ajaccio on Corsica. Pope Gregory X condemns the aggressive policy of Charles and proposes that the Genoese elect Guelph officials.

1273 CE42 entries

  • October 1 – Rudolf I is elected King of Germany over the rival candidate Ottokar II, king of Bohemia, ending the Great Interregnum. He is the first of many Habsburgs to hold the throne and is crowned in Aachen Cathedral, on October 24. Ottokar refuses to acknowledge Rudolf as the new ruler and is placed under the imperial ban, leading to the outbreak of war in 1276.
  • October 6 – Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest and theologian, writes Summa Theologica, a master work of Catholic theology, leaving it unfinished, after having a mystical experience during Mass.
  • December – Followers of Persian poet and mystic Rumi establish the Mevlevi Order ("whirling dervishes") in the city of Konya (approximate date).

1274 CE52 entries

  • May 1 – In Florence, the 9-year-old Dante first sees the 8-year-old Beatrice, his lifelong muse. She appears later as one of his guides in the Divine Comedy, Paradiso and Purgatorio.
  • May 7 – Second Council of Lyon: Pope Gregory X convenes a council at Lyon, after Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos gives assurances that the Orthodox Church is prepared to reunite with Rome. The council agrees to a settlement between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church over several key issues – Orthodox acceptance of papal primacy and the acceptance of the Nicene Creed with the Filioque clause. Gregory approves a tithe to support efforts to liberate the Holy Land from Muslims, and reaches apparent resolution of the schism, which ultimately proves unsuccessful. All but four mendicant orders of friars are suppressed. Catholic teaching on Purgatory is defined for the first time.
  • September 21 – Walter de Merton, English chancellor and regent, retires from royal service, in favour of Robert Burnell, who becomes a strong ally of the Edwardian regime.

1275 CE53 entries

  • April 22 – The first Statute of Westminster, drawn up between Parliament and Edward I, defines the legal privileges that landowners are allowed. These are based on the investigations carried out in 1274 into the landowner's rights to own their land. Establishing a series of laws into 51 chapters, including equal treatment of rich and poor, free and fair elections, and definition of Bailable and non-bailable offenses.
  • July 22 – Magnus deposes Valdemar and is elected new king of Sweden at the Stones of Mora.
  • September 11 – 1275 British earthquake: An earthquake strikes the south of Great Britain. The epicentre is unknown, although it may have been in the Portsmouth-Chichester area on the south coast of England or in Glamorgan, Wales.

1276 CE41 entries

  • January 10 – Pope Gregory X dies after a 4-year pontificate at Arezzo. He is succeeded by Innocent V as the 185th pope of the Catholic Church.
  • March 9 – Augsburg is granted the status of a free imperial city. Later this year, Ravensburg also receives the status.
  • June 22 – Innocent V dies after a 5-month reign at Rome. He is succeeded by Adrian V (or Hadrian) as the 186th pope of the Catholic Church.

1277 CE44 entries

  • March 19 – Byzantine–Venetian Treaty: Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos concludes an agreement with the Republic of Venice. Stipulating a two-year truce, and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire. Michael keeps the Venetians and their fleet from participating in the attempts of Charles I, king of Sicily, to organize an anti-Byzantine crusade, while the Venetians can retain their access to the Byzantine market.
  • April 15 – Battle of Elbistan: A Mamluk army (some 14,000 men) under Sultan Baibars marches from Syria into the Mongol-dominated Sultanate of Rum and attacks the Mongol occupation force at Elbistan. Baibars, with at least 10,000 horsemen, defeats and overwhelms the Mongol forces. After the battle, he marches unopposed to Kayseri in the heart of Anatolia in triumph and enters the city on April 23.
  • April – John XXI sends a papal embassy to Constantinople to force Michael VIII Palaiologos, his 18-year-old son and heir Andronikos and Patriarch John XI Bekkos to reaffirm their allegiance to the Union of Lyon in the Palace of Blachernae. Michael refuses to accept a religious union of the Greek Orthodox Church with Rome.

1278 CE37 entries

  • May 1 – William of Villehardouin, prince of Achaea, dies. By the terms of the Treaty of Viterbo, his lands passed under the direct control of Charles I, king of Sicily. Charles appoints a bailiff to rule the Latin principality. In response, Charles swears fealty to the new pope, Nicholas III, on May 24. He promises not to attack or invade the Byzantine Empire because Nicholas has hopes to unify the Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church.
  • August 5 – Reconquista: Siege of Algeciras – Castilian forces (some 30,000 men) led by King Alfonso X ("the Wise") besiege Algeciras (at this time under control of the Marinids). A fleet of 24 ships and some 80 galleys is placed in the Bay of Gibraltar to prevent the supply of the city from nearby Gibraltar. The fleet is made up of most of the members of the Order of Saint Mary of Spain, a military-religious order which is concentrated in naval warfare.
  • September 29 – Reconquista: Aragonese forces led by King Peter III take the Muslim stronghold of Montesa, putting an end to two years of Mudéjar rebellion. The defeated Muslims are expelled from the realm and go into exile.

1279 CE43 entries

  • July 17 – Battle of Devina: Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos sends a Byzantine expeditionary force (some 10,000 men) to Bulgaria, to impose his ally (and son-in-law) Ivan Asen III on the throne. Tsar Ivaylo, former rebel leader (see Uprising of Ivaylo), attacks the Byzantines in the Kotel Pass, completely routing them. Many of them perish in the battle – while the rest are captured and later killed by orders from Ivaylo. Later, Michael sends another army of some 5,000 men, but this is also defeated by Ivaylo before reaching the Balkan Mountains. Without support, Ivan Asen has to flee to Constantinople and the turmoil in Bulgaria continues.
  • August 5 – The Diet of Hungary adopts the so-called Cuman laws to regulate the social status and lifestyle of the nomadic and pagan Cumans living in the Kingdom of Hungary.
  • October 12 – The Dai-Gohonzon, supreme object of veneration of Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism, is said to be inscribed by Nichiren Daishonin.