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Contents: political eventsreligion literature art |
England's Henry III declares himself of age and begins a personal rule that will continue for 45 years, but he remains under the influence of Hubert de Burgh.
Aragon's Jaime I turns 19 on February 1, begins a personal rule that will continue until his death in 1276, and embarks on a campaign to reconquer the Balearic Islands (see 1229).
The landgrave of Thuringia Louis IV dies; his brother Henry Raspe, 25, makes himself landgrave and drives out Louis's 20-year-old widow, Elizabeth, daughter of Hungary's András II, along with her infant son Hermann.
Denmark's Valdemar II invades northern Germany in an effort to regain the territories he has lost to Heinrich, count of Schwerin, but his forces suffer a disastrous defeat July 22 at the Battle of Bornhöved. Danish domination of the Baltic ends, but the Danes retain possession of Estonia; the Order of the Brotherhood of the Swords gains power over the Danes in parts of Estonia and will rule until 1234 (see 1219). The Brotherhood will invite German merchants in Gothland to settle at Tallinn.
Friedrich II embarks September 8 from Brindisi on a new crusade to the Holy Land, but his army is stricken with fever. He lands at Otranto 3 days later, is suspected of malingering by the new pope Gregory IX, is excommunicated September 29, and spends the rest of the year in violent quarrels with the pope.
Genghis Khan dies August 18 at age 65 while leading a campaign against Hsi Hsia, and his vast empire is divided among his three surviving sons (his eldest, Juchi [Jöchi], has died in February). A supreme military strategist but also a master politician with a talent for gathering intelligence, he has forged alliances, humiliated his enemies, and ruled over nearly 5 million square miles of territory—most of the lands between the Sea of Japan and the Caspian Sea, two-thirds of the known world—while his Mongol tribespeople developed a rich culture. "The greatest joy," he has proclaimed, "is to conquer one's enemies, to pursue them, to seize their property, to see their families in tears, to ride their horses, and to possess their daughters and wives," but the fact that he has controlled so many people with so few men suggests that he has found ways to give his subjects what they wanted (see 1233).
Pope Honorius III dies at Rome March 18 after an 11-year reign in which he has authorized the Dominican order, nurtured the zealous Franciscan order, directed the Fourth and Fifth crusades, encouraged the persecution of "heretics," and allowed the papacy to be drawn into Italian politics. A great administrator, he is succeeded March 19 by the canon lawyer Ugo (or Ugolino) di Segni, 58, a nephew of the late Innocent III, who will reign until 1241 as Gregory IX.
Sunday crowds gather April 25 on the mainland near Venice to watch a procession advertised in advance by a messenger bearing an open letter to the effect that the goddess Venus would arise from the sea April 24 near Venice and begin to travel north toward Bohemia, breaking lances with any who would meet her in the lists. Preceded by a dozen squires dressed in white, two maids in waiting, and half a dozen musicians, the knight errant and minnesinger Ulrich von Lichtenstein, 26, rides up dressed as a woman, heavily veiled in a white gown with pearl headdress. He learned his knightly skills from Heinrich, margrave of Austria, was made a knight in 1222, and took a secret vow to devote his newly-won knighthood to serving a woman whom he had never met but whom he had seen during the wedding festival of the duke of Saxony. She has spurned his offer to be her secret knight but he challenges all the knights of Lombardy, Austria, and Bohemia to break lances with "Venus." It will take Ulrich 15 years to win the lady's love, and 2 years later she will hurt him in some cruel way, after which he will continue to find new women to whom he can play the courtly lover, the ideal knight (see Dante, 1307).
Nonfiction: General Teachings for the Promotion of Zazen (Fukan zazen gi) by the Japanese philosopher Dogen (Jōyō Daishi), 27, who was ordained a Buddhist monk at age 13 and has studied Zen meditation in China for 4 years. He gives a brief introduction to Zen philosophy, teaching the shikan taza (zazen only) practice of meditating in the lotus (cross-legged) position.
The potter Toshiro returns after 4 years in China and pioneers Japanese porcelain production.
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