1259 Explained

Year 1259 (MCCLIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

By place

Europe

• September  - Battle of Pelagonia: The Empire of Nicaea defeats the Principality of Achaea, ensuring the eventual reconquest of Constantinople in 1261.^{[1] [2]}
• December 4  - Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy), in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.^[3]
• The famous frescoes of the Boyana Church in Bulgaria are completed (the church and its murals are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site).^[4]
• The German cities of Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock enter into a pact to defend against pirates of the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Hanseatic League.^[5]
• Nogai Khan leads the second Mongol Golden Horde attack against Lithuania, and Poland.^[6]
• Epirote–Nicaean conflict.^[7]

Asia

• August 11  - While conducting a siege against the Song Dynasty city known as Fishing Town in the province of Chongqing, China, the Mongol Great Khan, Möngke Khan, dies in the nearby hills. Persian, Chinese, and Mongol records have different accounts of how he died, including succumbing to an arrow wound received by a Chinese archer in the siege, dysentery, and even a cholera epidemic. His death sparks a succession crisis in the Mongol Empire, while his brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai soon convene their own kurultai to elect themselves as the next Khan of Khans, opening the path to a four–year-long Toluid Civil War from 1260 to 1264. In the end, Ariq Böke surrenders to Kublai.^{[8] [9]}
• While engaged in a war with the Mongols, the Song Chinese official Li Zengbo writes in his Kozhai Zagao, Xugaohou that the city of Qingzhou is manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased gunpowder bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.^[10]
• Lannathai, a kingdom in the north of Thailand, is founded by King Mangrai.^{[11] [12]}
• The Goryeo Kingdom in Korea surrenders to invading Mongol forces.^[13]
• The Chinese era Kaiqing begins and ends, in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.^[14]
• The Japanese Shōka era ends, and the Shōgen era begins.^{[15] [16]}

Births

• February 25  - Infanta Branca of Portugal, daughter of King Afonso III of Portugal and Urraca of Castile (d. 1321)^{[17] [18]}
• March 25  - Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1332)^[19]
• Pietro Cavallini, Italian painter (d. 1330)^{[20] [21]}
• Demetre II of Georgia (d. 1289)^{[22] [23]}
• Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster (d. 1326)^[24]

Deaths

• January  - Matilda II, Countess of Boulogne, ruler of Boulogne, queen consort of Portugal (b. 1202)^[25]
• February 7  - Thomas, Count of Flanders^{[26] [27]}
• May 29  - King Christopher I of Denmark (b. 1219)^{[28] [29]}
• July 21  - Gojong of Goryeo^[30]
• August 11  - Möngke Khan of the Mongol Empire
• October 7  - Ezzelino III da Romano, Italian ruler^[31]
• November 18  - Adam Marsh, English scholar and theologian^{[32] [33]}
• date unknown  - Matthew Paris, English chronicler^[34]

Notes and References

1. Book: David, Brewer. Greece, the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek. I.B.Tauris. 2011. 9780857730046. New York. 17. en. 2010.
2. Book: Geanakoplos, Deno John. Byzantium: Church, Society, and Civilization Seen Through Contemporary Eyes. University of Chicago Press. 1984. 9780226284606. Chicago and London. 106. en.
3. Book: Events that Changed the World Through the Sixteenth Century. Thackeray. Frank W.. Findling. John E.. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2001. 9780313290794. Westport, CT and London. 52. en.
4. Book: Head and Neck: Morphology, Models and Function. Marani. Enrico. Heida. Ciska. Springer. 2018. 9783319921051. Cham, Switzerland. 167. en.
5. Book: Hammel-Kiesow, Rolf. https://books.google.com/books?id=sfhyBgAAQBAJ&q=1259+hanseatic+league&pg=PA56. A Companion to the Hanseatic League. BRILL. 2015. 9789004284760. Harreld. Donald J.. Leiden and Boston. 56. en. The Early Hansas.
6. Book: Sedlar, Jean W.. East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500. University of Washington Press. 2013. 9780295800646. Seattle and London. 379. en. 1994.
7. Book: Tucker, Spencer C.. A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. 2010. 9781851096725. I: ca. 3000 BCE - 1499 CE. Santa Barbara, CA, Denver, CO and Oxford. 283. en.
8. Book: Rossabi, Morris. Khubilai Khan: His Life and Times. University of California Press. 2009. 9780520261327. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London. 96–97. en.
9. Book: Kolbas, Judith. The Mongols in Iran: Chingiz Khan to Uljaytu 1220–1309. Routledge. 2013. 9781136802898. New York and London. 160. en.
10. Book: Andrade, Tonio. The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Tonio Andrade. Princeton University Press. 2016. 9781400874446. Princeton, NJ. 48. en.
11. Book: London, Ellen. Thailand Condensed: 2,000 Years of History & Culture. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. 2008. 9789812619761. Singapore. 32. en.
12. Book: Asia and Oceania: International Dictionary of Historic Places. Ring. Trudy. Watson. Noelle. Schellinger. Paul. Routledge. 2012. 9781136639791. 5: Asia and Oceania. New York and London. 182. en. 1996.
13. Book: Pre-Modern East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Volume I: To 1800. Ebrey. Patricia Buckley. Walthall. Anne. Cengage Learning. 2013. 9781133606512. Boston, MA. 169. en.
14. Book: Mostern, Ruth. "Dividing the Realm in Order to Govern": The Spatial Organization of the Song State (960-1276 CE). Harvard University Press. 2011. 9780674056022. Cambridge, MA and London. 83. en.
15. Book: Griffis, William Elliot. The Mikado's Empire. Cambridge University Press. 2014. 9781108080507. Cambridge Library Collection. Cambridge and New York. 613. en.
16. Book: Adolphson, Mikael S.. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan. University of Hawaii Press. 2000. 9780824823344. Honolulu, HI. 398. en.
17. Book: Carvalho e Araújo, Alexandre Herculano de. Historia de Portugal. Casa de Viuva Bertrand e Flihos. 1849. Lisbon, Portugal. 73. pt.
18. Book: de Pinho Leal, Augusto Soares de Azevedo Barbosa. Portugal Antigo e Moderno: Diccionario Geographico, Estatistico, Chorographico, Heraldico, Archeologico, Historico, Biographico E Etymologico De Todas as Cidades, Villas E Freguezias De Portugal E De Grande Numero De Aldeias .... Mattos Moreira & Companhia. 1876. Lisbon, Portugal. 221. pt.
19. Book: Russell, Eugenia. Literature and Culture in Late Byzantine Thessalonica. Bloosmbury. 2013. 9781441155849. London, New Delhi, New York, Sydney. 159. en.
20. Book: Early Italian Painting. Crowe. Joseph Archer. Cavalcaselle. Giovanni Battista. Jameson. Anna. Parkstone International. 2014. 9781783103928. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 118. en.
21. Book: Kurian, George Thomas. A Quick Look at Christian History. Harvest House Publishers. 2015. 9780736953788. Eugene, OR. 82. en.
22. Book: Mikaberidze, Alexander. Historical Dictionary of Georgia. Rowman & Littlefield. 2015. 9781442241466. Lanham, MA. 260. en.
23. Book: Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Making of the Georgian Nation. Indiana University Press. 1994. 9780253209153. Bloomington, IN and Indianapolis. 41. en. 1988.
24. Book: Lacey, Gerry. The Legacy of the de Lacy, Lacey, Lacy Family, 1066-1994. Mashue Printing. 1994. Midland, MI. 59. en.
25. Book: Tanner, Heather J.. Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100--1400: Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate. Springer. 2019. 9783030013462. The New Middle Ages. Columbus, OH and Cham, Switzerland. 304. en.
26. Book: Phillips, Lawrence Barnett. The Dictionary of Biographical Reference: Containing One Hundred Thousand Names, Together with a Classed Index of the Biographical Literature of Europe and America. 1259 thomas flanders.. S. Low, Son, & Marston. 1871. London. 903. en.
27. Book: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Longman, Brown. 1843. II. London. 385. en.
28. Book: Dunham, Samuel Astley. History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans and John Taylor. 1839. II. London. 223. en.
29. Book: Rosse, J. Willoughby. An Index of Dates: Comprehending the Principal Facts in the Chronology and History of the World, from the Earliest to the Present Time. G. Bell and Sons. 1877. I: A - J. London. 178. en.
30. Book: Park, Sang-jin. Under the Microscope: The Secrets of the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2014. 9781443867320. xii. en. Kim. Ji-hyun Philippa.
31. Book: The New Cambridge Medieval History. McKitterick. Rosamond. Abulafia. David. Fouracre. Paul. Reuter. Timothy. Allmand. C. T.. Luscombe. David Edward. Jones. Michael. Riley-Smith. Jonathan. Cambridge University Press. 1995. 9780521362894. V: c. 1198 - c.1300. Cambridge and New York. 460. en.
32. Book: Power, Amanda. https://books.google.com/books?id=W6y8DgAAQBAJ&q=1259+Adam+Marsh&pg=PA36. The English Province of the Franciscans (1224-c.1350). BRILL. 2017. 9789004331624. Robson. Michael J. P.. Leiden and Boston. 36. en. The Friars in Secular and Ecclesiastical Governance, 1224–c. 1259.
33. Book: Historical Dictionary of Medieval Philosophy and Theology. Brown. Stephen F.. Flores. Juan Carlos. Rowman & Littlefield. 2018. 9781538114315. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London. 46. en.
34. Book: Jefferson, Melvin. https://books.google.com/books?id=07Ie_O-Oa7AC&q=1259+Matthew+Paris&pg=PA69. Care and Conservation of Manuscripts 9: Proceedings of the Ninth International Seminar Held at the University of Copenhagen 14th-15th April 2005. Museum Tusculanum Press. 2006. 9788763505543. Fellows-Jensen. Gillian. Copenhagen. 69. en. The Conservation of Parker MSS 16 and 26 "The Chronica Majora". Springborg. Peter.