(Feature Photo: Easter Island heads; Credit: Mike W., Wikimedia Commons)
1250
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is kings of England – Louis IX is king of France – Andrey II is on the Russian throne – Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe is flourishing (names of kings not recorded)
The university of Angers is founded in France
The Moai (a word meaning “statue”) on Easter Island begin to be carved by the Rapa Nui people, these sculptures are also known as the Easter Island Heads); the heads will be carved between 1250-1500 according to Wikipedia – Although, the Encyclopedia Britannica says that they began being carved between 700-850, either way, it seems they either have been carved or are being carved at this point
The City of Cahokia in North America near present day St. Louis, Missouri, (but its in Illinois on the other side of the Mississippi River) is larger than London at this point, it is surrounded by more than 120 pyramids, and farmland, it is a trading center, it was built about the same time as the Mayan culture, it also compared to Paris’ population
The Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517) emerges from the weakening of the Ayyubid realm in Egypt and Syria, within a short period of time, the Mamluks created the greatest Islamic empire of the later Middle Ages, which included control of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Henry III makes lavish improvements to Westminster Palace, creating the superb King’s Great Chamber (Castles, Palaces, and Historic Homes, pg. 14)
Sometime in the thirteenth century, a gold cloisonné pendant reliquary with representations of St. George and St. Demetrios inscribed ‘[the bearer] prays that you will be his fiery defense in battle’ and round the edge, ‘Anointed with your blood and myrrh,’ from Salonica
(Collections of the British Museum, pg. 127)
1251
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Andrey II is on the Russian throne – Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe is flourishing (names of kings not recorded)
The Kingdom of Zimbabwe in southern Africa is flourishing and growing rich on foreign trade, at it's peak it will reach up to 30,000 people; It is known for its huge and impressive dry-stone walls (Photo: Ruins of a conical tower and walls from the Kingdom of Zimbabwe; Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
1252
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Andrey II dies and (Saint) Alexander ascends to the Russian throne – Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe is flourishing (names of kings not recorded)
1253
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
1254
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne – Marco Polo is born in Venice Italy
November 1, Edward I, the future king of England and King Henry III's son, marries Eleanor of Castile, daughter of King Ferdinand III of Castile (in Spain); They are married in the monastery of Las Hueglas in Burgos, Castile; Edward becomes king in 1272
1255
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne –
Mathew Paris, a Benedictine monk who lives at the monastery in St. Albans, creates a map of the earth and the cosmos in circles, the earth is a circle in the middle called “Terra” and is fixed in the center, surrounded by the circles of water, air, fire, the moon, the planets, and the firmament,
“Medieval Europeans, even the most learned of geographers among them, are to this day often described as having believed the world was flat. But this isn’t true. Thanks in large part to the labors of Arab astronomers and mathematicians, ancient Greek proofs of the earth as spherical had survived into the Middle Ages and were circulating in Europe—and at some point early in the thirteenth century an English scholar known as John of Holywood, or Sacrobosco, Laid them out in an astronomical treatise appropriately titled The Sphere”...
...also translated at The Sphere of the World or Discussion on the Sphere, the RAS of England has a copy of it from 1485 (see that year)...
“...If the earth was flat,” Sacrobosco wrote, “the stars would rise as soon for Westerners as for Orientals, which is false. Also if the earth were flat from north to south and vice versa, the stars that were always visible to anyone would continue to be so wherever he went, which is false. But it seems flat to human sight because it is so extensive,”
Matthew Paris also drew the Holy Roman Emperor, Fredrich II holding a T-O globe
(The Fourth Part of the World, pg. 27-28)
1256
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
Dover Castle’s strengthening improvements by Henry III are completed
1257
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is king of England – Richard of Cornwall becomes king of Germany (also called king of the Romans) – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
May 17, Richard of Cornwall is crowned King of Germany or "King of the Romans," Richard is an English prince, the brother of the English king, Henry III, his dad was King John I
Dover Castle’s strengthening improvements by Henry III are completed
1258
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
1259
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
1260
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
The Chapter House is built in York Minster during the 1260's
The Polos (Marco Polo’s family, foresees a political change in Constantinople (the overthrow of the Crusaders who had ruled there since 1204) liquidate their property there, invested their capital in jewels, and set off for the Volga River, where Berke Khan, sovereign of the western territories in the Mongol Empire held court at Sarai or Bulgar, the Polos apparently managed their affairs well at Berke’s court, where they doubled their assets, when political events prevented their return to Venice, they traveled eastward to Bukhara (Bokhara) and ended their journey in 1265
1261
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
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Back and forth and back again
The Hagia Sophia becomes a Christian Cathedral again after being a Roman Catholic one, and it remains so until it becomes a Mosque in 1453, (and it remains so until 1931 when it becomes a museum, then in 2020 it becomes a Mosque again).
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The crusaders who had ruled Constantinople since 1204, are overthrown by Michael VIII Palaeologus (Encyclopedia Britannica)
1262
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
1263
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – (Saint) Alexander is on the Russian throne
1264
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III ascends to the Russian throne
1265
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III is on the Russian throne
The Polos end their journey in the western territories of the Mongol Empire, probably at the grand khan’s summer residence, Shangdu (immortalized as Xanadu by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (Encyclopedia Britannica)
1266
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III is on the Russian throne
1267
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III is on the Russian throne
The first directed mention of a castle complex, “Castro Zolre,” (now known as Hohenzollern Castle in Germany) occurs, it is praised as “the most fortified House in Germany” (now see 1423)
1268
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III is on the Russian throne
1269
RULERS & ROYALTY: Henry III is on the throne of England – Louis IX is on the French throne – Yaroslav III is on the Russian throne
“When Niccolò and Maffeo Polo finally reappeared in Acre in 1269, they had with them a magnificent gold tablet and a letter. The tablet, which granted the brothers provisions, lodging and safe passage anywhere they traveled in Mongol territory, came from the ‘Great Khan of all the Tartars, whose name was Kubilai.’ Kubilai presided over a vast and powerful kingdom known as Cathay (China), located at the very ‘ends of the earth, in an east-north-easterly direction,’ and the brothers claimed to have visited him there. The letter they carried also came from the Kubilai. In it he addressed the pope directly but made none of the customary Mongol demands for submission. Instead he sent greetings and requested a hundred learned Christians be dispatched to his court, where he hoped to see them ‘argue and demonstrate plainly to idolaters and those of other persuasions that their religion is utterly mistaken.’ He also made a memorable promise,” he promised that he and all his court would be baptized and become Christian
(The Fourth Part of the World pg. 66)