Crime & Justice in the 13th century

41 sourced entries, 1200 CE to 1299 CE, oldest first. Also see Crime & Justice across every century or everything else in the 13th century.

• 1200The rebel leader Ivanko is captured and executed by the Byzantine general Alexios Palaiologos (son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos).source
• 1203At Rouen, William de Braose, an English nobleman, becomes the guardian of the imprisoned 16-year-old Arthur of Brittany, designated heir to the throne of England – who is not known to be alive after April and is probably murdered by or at the orders of his uncle, King John.source
• 1203First evidence that the Temple in London is extending loans to John, King of England. The sums remain small, but are often used for critical operations, such as the ransoming of the king's soldiers captured by the French.source
• 1206March 15 – Sultan Muhammad of Ghor is murdered and succeeded by Qutb al-Din Aibak, his deputy in India, who founds the Mamluk Dynasty, the first dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate.source
• 1207The first documentary evidence of forced loans in Venice. This technique becomes the staple of public finance in Europe, until the 16th century.source
• 1207Hōnen and his followers of the Pure Land sect are persecuted and exiled to remote parts of Japan, while a few are executed, for what the government considers heretical Buddhist teachings.source
• 1210November 1 – John orders that Jews across the country have to pay a tallage, a sum of money to the king. Those who do not pay are arrested and imprisoned. Many Jews are executed or leave the country.source
• 1220Gothic architecture becomes increasingly popular in Europe:source
• 1220Llywelyn the Great, Welsh prince of Gwynedd, begins raiding Pembrokeshire to retake land that he accuses William Marshal (the Younger) of stealing. This also includes Wiston Castle.source
• 1221June 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.source
• 1222Genghis Khan’s armies were said to have killed approximately 1.6 million people in the city of Herat, in Northwestern Afghanistan.source
• 1223May 7 – Henry I, Count of Schwerin, kidnaps the King of Denmark, Valdemar II and the king's 14-year-old son, Valdemar the Young, after landing with a group of soldiers on the island of Lyø, where King Valdemar had been hunting. King Valdemar will be held captive for three years until Easter Sunday of 1226, and released after payment of 44,000 silver marks and the surrendering of lands taken 20 years earlier in Holstein.source
• 1232August – Gregory IX is forced to remain in his summer residence at Anagni by Lombard forces from Rome.source
• 1232Peter de Rivaux, nephew of Peter des Roches, is made Lord Treasurer of Henry III's household and keeper of the king's wardrobe. This moves him into an important position for controlling the king's affairs.source
• 1235A general inquisition begins in France.source
• 1238Evpaty Kolovrat, Kievan knight (bogatyr), returns to his hometown of Ryazan, which was burnt to the ground by the Mongols in 1237. He gathers some 1,700 survivors and pursues Batu Khan, attacking his rearguard, and annihilating thousands of Mongols. Finally, Kolovrat is slain from afar by siege-weaponry. Batu Khan shows admiration for his bravery and as a sign of respect, returns his body and allows his soldiers to return home.source
• 1241September 23 – Snorri Sturluson, Icelandic saga writer, is murdered by Gissur Þorvaldsson, an emissary of King Haakon IV of Norway.source
• 1246September 30 – Yaroslav II, father of Alexander Nevsky, is poisoned by Töregene Khatun, after he is summoned by Güyük Khan in Karakorum.source
• 1250April 30 – King Louis IX (the Saint) is released by his Egyptian captors after paying a ransom of one million dinars and turning over the city of Damietta.source
• 1250May 2 – Al-Muazzam Turanshah, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, is murdered, ending effective Ayyubid Dynasty rule in the country. He is briefly succeeded by his widow, Sultana Shajar al-Durr.source
• 1250Starting in this year and ending in 1275, the Muslim Shougeng Pu, likely a Persian or an Arab, serves as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for the Song dynasty Chinese seaport at Quanzhou, due to his effort in defeating pirates.source
• 1254Doge Reniero Zeno sends the Horses of Saint Mark, looted from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, to Venice, where they are installed on the terrace of the façade of St. Mark's Basilica.source
• 1257April 10 – Izz al-Din Aybak, Mamluk sultan of Egypt, is murdered on orders of his wife, Shajar al-Durr. He is succeeded by his 14-year-old son, Nur al-Din Ali, as ruler of the Mamluk Sultanate (until 1259).source
• 1257Egyptian judge Ibn bint al-A'azz appointed Vizier of Egypt for a second term.source
• 1258Irish, assisted by Scottish gallowglasses, halt the English advance westward through Ireland.source
• 1260The civil servant and bard longing for lost al-Andalus, Ibn al-Abbar, is burnt at the stake by the Marinid ruler.source
• 1263The Lord Edward, son and heir of Henry III of England, seizes £10,000 which had been deposited to the trust of the Knights Templar in London by foreign merchants and English magnates.source
• 1264Approximate date – High Duke Bolesław V the Chaste promulgates legal protection for Jewish communities in Lesser Poland, including protection from kidnapping and forcible baptism of Jewish children.source
• 1266Ode de Pougy, French Abbess of Notre Dame aux Nonnains, sends a gang to attempt to destroy the nearby part-completed Église Saint-Urbain, Troyes.source
• 1271September 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.source
• 1273The Holy Redeemer khachkar, believed to be one of the finest examples of that style of art, is carved in Haghpat (modern Armenia).source
• 1275The verge escapement, a simple type of escapement used in clocks, is invented (approximate date).source
• 1277February – The Duke of Wrocław Henry IV Probus is kidnapped from his estates in Jelcz, and moved to Legnica by Bolesław II the Horned.source
• 1277Roger Bacon, Franciscan friar and University of Oxford lecturer, is arrested for spreading anti-Church views; specifically, the Church's stance on Greek philosopher Galen.source
• 1278November 17 – King Edward I ("Longshanks") raises the penalty for coin clipping from banishment to execution. All Jews are subjected to arrest and search of their homes on suspicion of coin clipping. Some 680 Jews are imprisoned in the Tower of London, with more than 300 subsequently executed. At this time, the Jewish population is believed to have been some 3,000.source
• 1279A Mongol Yuan embassy, sent by Kublai Khan to Japan, is killed by orders from Hōjō Tokimune, leading to a second invasion.source
• 1282The form for the Trial of the Pyx in England, during which it is confirmed that newly minted coins conform to required standards, is established.source
• 1290June 13 – Shamsuddin Kayumars, Mamluk ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, is murdered and succeeded by Jalal-ud-din Khalji (or Firuz Shah I), founder of the Khalji dynasty, ending Mamluk rule and instigating the Khalji Revolution.source
• 1297A Portuguese Water Dog is first described in a monk's report of a drowning sailor, who has been pulled from the sea by a dog.source
• 1299King Edward I of England is recorded as borrowing from Italian merchants. He obtains a loan of 2,000 pollard marks, from agents of the Frescobaldi Firm in London.source
• 1299Approximate date – Rustichello da Pisa completes taking down The Travels of Marco Polo from Marco while they are both imprisoned in Genoa.source