1260s: Encyclopedia II - 1260s - War and politics

1260s - War and politics

1260s - Europe

• 1260 - The Baltic Samogatians and Curonians defeat the Teutonic knights in the Battle of Durbe.
• 1263 - October - King Alexander III of Scotland defeats the Viking armada of King Haakon IV of Norway in the Battle of Largs.
• 1263 - The chieftains of the eastern part of Iceland become the last to pledge fealty to the Norwegian king, bringing a more complete end to the Icelandic Commonwealth and the Icelandic civil war.
• 1266 - The war between Scotland and Norway ends as King Alexander III of Scotland and King Magnus VI of Norway agree to the Treaty of Perth, which cedes the Western Isles and Isle of Man to Scotland in exchange for a large monetary payment.

• 1260 - September 4 - The forces of King Manfred of Sicily, in league with the Ghibellines, defeat the Guelphs at Monte Aperto.
• 1260 - War breaks out in the Valais (today in Switzerland) as the Bishopry of Sion defends against an invasion by the County of Savoy.
• 1263 - Genoa captures the city of Chania on Crete from the Venetians.
• 1264 - The Thuringian War of Succession ends.
• 1266 - February 26 - In the Battle of Benevento, an army led by Charles, Count of Anjou, defeats a combined German and Sicilian force led by King Manfred of Sicily. Manfred is killed in the battle and Pope Clement IV invests Charles as king of Sicily and Naples.

• 1263 - King James I of Aragon conquers Crevillente, Spain from the Moors during the Reconquista.
• 1264 - In Spain, King James I of Aragon reconquers the cities of Orihuela in Alicante and Elx in Valencia from the Moors, ending over 500 years of Islamic rule.
• 1265 - King Alfonso X of Castile captures the city of Alicante, Spain from the Moors during the Reconquista.
• 1267 - King Afonso III of Portugal and King Alfonso X of Castile sign a treaty determining the southern border between Portugal and Spain as the Guadiana River, a border that remains to this day.

• 1260 - King Otakar II of Bohemia captures Styria from King Bela IV of Hungary in the Battle of Kressenbrunn.
• 1261 - Bela IV of Hungary repels a Tatar invasion.
• 1268 - King Stephen V of Hungary launches a war against Bulgaria.

• 1261 - King Henry III of England obtains a papal bull releasing him from the Provisions of Oxford, setting the stage for a civil war over the power struggle between the crown and the aristocracy of England.
• 1264 - Before May - Second Barons' War, an English civil war, begins.
• 1264 - May 12 to May 14 - The Battle of Lewes is fought between Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester and King Henry III of England in Sussex. By the end of the battle, de Montfort's forces capture both King Henry and his brother, future King Edward I, making de Montfort the "uncrowned king of England".
• 1265 - January 20 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the Houses of Parliament.
• 1265 - Before August - Future King Edward I escapes captivity in the hands of Simon de Montfort.
• 1265 - August 4 - The Battle of Evesham is fought in Worcestershire, with the army of Edward defeating the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort and killing de Montfort and many of his allies. This is sometimes considered the death of chivalry in England.
• 1266 - October - The war winds down as supporters of the slain rebel leader Simon de Montfort make an offer of peace to the king in the Dictum of Kenilworth.
• 1267 - The Second Barons' War ends, as the rebels and King Henry III of England agree to peace terms as laid out in the Dictum of Kenilworth.

• 1260 - The Duchy of Saxony is divided into Saxony-Lauenberg and Saxony-Wittenberg, marking the end of the first Saxon state.
• 1261 - The population of Greenland accepts the overlordship of the King of Norway.
• 1262 - Strasbourg becomes an Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1262 - The Icelandic Commonwealth enters into a treaty establishing a union with Norway and acknowledges Norwegian King Haakon IV as its ruler.
• 1264 - The state of Hesse gains its independence from Thuringia and becomes a free state of the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1265 - The Isle of Man comes under Scottish rule for a brief period of 10 years.
• 1267 - Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople gifts the Principality of Achaea to King Charles I of Sicily in the Treaty of Viterbo in the hopes that Charles could help him restore the Latin Empire.
• 1268 - The county of Wernigerode become a vassal state of the margrave of Brandenburg.

• 1264 - June 18 - The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
• 1264 to 1267 - The civil war in England known as the Second Barons' War marks a high point of struggle for political power between the landed aristocracy of England and the King.
• 1268 - New election procedures for the election of the doge are established in Venice in order to reduce the influence of powerful individual families.
• 1268 - Pope Clement IV dies; the following papal election fails to choose a new pope for almost three years, precipitating the later creation of stringent rules governing the electoral procedures.

• 1262 - King Mindaugas of Lithuania renounces Christianity, returning to his pagan roots and reverting to Grand Duke of Lithuania.
• 1263 - Mindaugas, the first and only Christian king of Lithuania, is assassinated by his cousin Treniota.
• 1264 - In the Peerage of England, the title Baron de Ros, the oldest continuously held peerage title in England, is created by writ of summons.
• 1267 - King Henry III of England acknowledges Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's title of Prince of Wales in the Treaty of Montgomery.
• 1268 - 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 Catholic church.
• 1268 - The House of Bourbon first rises to prominence with the marriage of Robert, Count of Clermont to King Louis IX of France's daughter, Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress to the lordship of Bourbon.
• 1269 - King Otakar II of Bohemia inherits Carinthia and part of Carniola, making him the most powerful prince within the Holy Roman Empire.

1260s - Asia and Africa

• 1260 - May 5 - Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire.
• 1260 - September 3 - The Mongols are defeated by the Mamluks at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking the first decisive defeat of the Mongols and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire.
• 1263 - Hulagu Khan is defeated in an attempted invasion north of the Caucasus.
• 1266 - Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, brother and uncle of Marco Polo reach Kublai Khan's capital Khanbaliq (now Beijing) in China, setting the stage for Marco's famous expedition starting five years later. Kublai Khan sends the Polos back with a message requesting the pope dispatch western scholars to teach in the Mongol Empire; however, this request is largely ignored.
• 1268 - The Battle of Xiangyang, a six-year battle between the Chinese Song Dynasty and the Mongol forces of Kublai Khan, begins in what is today Hubei.
• 1268 - Kublai Khan sends an emissary to the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan demanding an acknowledgment of souzerainty and payment of tribute; the Japanese refuse, starting a diplomatic back-and-forth lasting until the Mongols attempt to invade in 1274.

• 1260 - September 3 - The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine.
• 1260 - October 24 - Saif ad-Din Qutuz, Mamluk sultan of Egypt, is assassinated by Baibars, who seizes power for himself.
• 1261 - Baibars establishes a puppet Caliphate in Cairo.
• 1266 - Baibars expands his domain, capturing the city of Byblos (in present-day Lebanon) and the important castle of Toron from crusader states, and defeating the Armenians at Cilicia.
• 1268 - May 18 - The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to Baibars in the Battle of Antioch; Baibars' destruction of the city of Antioch was so great as to permanently negate the city's importance.

• 1261 - July 25 - The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines also succeed in capturing Thessalonica and the rest of the Latin Empire.

• The Almohad dynasty of caliphs (not universally accepted) that once ruled most of North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Spain) is extinguished when Idris II is murdered in the dynasty's last remaining possession, Marrakesh.
• The Berber Merinid dynasty completes the conquest of Morocco, replacing the Almohad dynasty which it defeated in Marrakesh.

• 1260 - The Sena Dynasty of Bengal falls.
• 1260 - The Hindu Silharya Dynasty, which ruled an area around Mumbai, ends.
• 1267 - Malik ul Salih establishes Samudra Pasai, the first Muslim state in Indonesia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "War and politics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki