1249

Events 
 By place 

 Africa 
 King Louis IX of France captures Damietta in Egypt. It is the first major military battle of the Seventh Crusade.

 Asia 
 Pho Khun Si Indrathit is the first king of the Sukhothai kingdom. This is the start of the modern Thai nation.
 The Hikitsuke, a judicial organ of the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates of Japan, is started.
 The Japanese Hōji era ends, and the Kenchō era begins.

 Europe 
 February 16 – Andrew of Longjumeau is sent by King Louis IX of France as an ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
 June 13 – coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots.
 August 15 – The First Battle of Athenry is fought in Galway, Ireland.
 The city of Stralsund (in present-day Germany) is burned to the ground by forces from the rival city of Lübeck.
 Swedish statesman Birger Jarl takes over the province of Tavastia in Finland. This gives Sweden power in Finland.
 Alphonse of Toulouse orders Jews from Poitou, France to leave.
 The Hungarian capital is moved from Esztergom to Buda.

 Mediterranean 
 May 26 – The Battle of Fossalta is fought between the Holy Roman Empire and the Lombard League. The Lombards capture the German commander.
 The Moors lose possession of Alicante in Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain).
 King Afonso III of Portugal recaptures Faro and Silves in the Algarve from the Moors. This ends the Portuguese Reconquista.
 The city of Mystras, Greece is strengthened and a palace is built there by William II Villehardouin.

 By topic 

 Education 
 University College, the first College at Oxford, is founded with money gifted from the estate of William of Durham.

 Science 
 Roger Bacon publishes a major scientific work. It includes writings of convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness. It is the first publication of the formula for gunpowder in the western world.

 Births 
 Eric V of Denmark (d. 1286)
 Robert III of Flanders
 Frederick I, Margrave of Baden (d. 1268)
 Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Hereford (d. 1297)
 Pope John XXII (d. 1334)
 Menachem Meiri, rabbi

 Deaths 
 July 6 – King Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1198)
 July 19 – Jacopo Tiepolo, Doge of Venice
 September 27 – Count Raymond VII of Toulouse (b. 1197)
 As-Salih Ayyub, ruler of Egypt
 Abu Zakariya, ruler of the Maghreb (b. 1203)
 William of Sherwood, English logician (b. 1190)
 Wuzhun Shifan, Chinese Zen Buddhist monk (b. 1178)
 Song Ci, Chinese physician and judge (b. 1186)

 References