For broader historical context, see 13th century.

Events

Europe

• October 12 - A great storm shifts the mouth of the River Rother 12 miles (20 km) to the west; a battering series of strong storms significantly alter other coastal geography as well (see Romney Marsh).
• December 13 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies, beginning a 23-year-long interregnum known as the great interregnum. Frederick II is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs.
• The Lombard League dissolves upon the death of its member states' nemesis, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
• King Afonso III of Portugal captures the Algarve from the Moors, thus completing the expulsion of the Moors from Portugal.
• Valdemar I of Sweden, first Swedish king of the Folkung house, becomes King of Sweden
• Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic. He also first uses the word oriole to describe a type of bird (most likely the golden oriole of Great Britain).
• University of Valladolid is founded in Spain.
• The Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy is converted from a pontoon bridge to a permanent, raised wooden structure.
• Vincent of Beauvais completes his proto-encyclopedic work, The Greater Mirror .
• The Parlement law courts of ancien régime France are established.

Asia

• A kuriltai is called by Batu Khan in Siberia as part of maneuverings to eventually elect Möngke Khan as khan of the Mongol empire in 1251.

Africa

• July 3 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.
• The Bahri dynasty of Mamluks seize power in Egypt.
• The Walayta state is founded in present-day Ethiopia (see Rulers of Walayta)

Births

• Giovanni Pisano, Italian sculptor (d. 1314)
• Moses de Leon, compiler of the Zohar (d. 1305)
• Pietro d'Abano, Italian physician, philosopher, and astrologer (d. 1316)

Deaths

• February 2 - King Eric XI of Sweden
• February 8 - William II Longespee, noted English participant in the Seventh Crusade led by France.
• June 18 - Teresa of Portugal
• August 9 - King Eric IV of Denmark
• October 4 - Herman VI, Margrave of Baden
• December 13 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
• Leonardo of Pisa, better known as Fibonacci
• Turanshah , Ayyubid heir to the Sultanate of Egypt

Eras

Being a round number, the year 1250 is used to demarcate the beginning or ending of various eras or epochs. These include:

• Judaism's acknowledged center of Jewish thought and learning:
  • End of the Geonim era in Babylonia (from 650)
  • Beginning of the Rishonim era (until 1550)
• Medieval music - end of the Notre Dame school of polyphony

See also

• List of state leaders in 1250