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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization medicine religion education everyday life |
Parma falls to Lombard Guelphs, who surprise the city while its imperial garrison is off guard. The deposed Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II concentrates a large army outside Parma and lays siege to the town (see 1248).
The French crown confiscates the possessions of the viscounts of Béziers and Carcassonne, who have defended the Cathar "heretics" in the Albigensian Wars. The first French royal commission of investigation is appointed to provide for means of redress following complaints that the king's baliffs, seneschals, and subordinate officers have abused their authority, either for the king's benefit or their own.
The German king Henry Raspe dies at Wartburg February 16 at age 44. The deposed Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II announces in April that he will capture the pope. The papal party elects Count Wilhelm von Holland, 18, as anti-king October 3 in opposition to the deposed Conrad IV (see 1248).
Aragon's Code of Huesca is promulgated by Jaime I. Written in Latin at the northeastern city of Huesca by Bishop Vidal de Canellas, it collects the franchises or laws known as fueros and arranges them in eight volumes that delineate the territorial borders of Aragon and will serve as the country's most important civil and criminal code until the 15th century.
The city of Buda is founded by Hungary's Belá IV to replace the city of Pest destroyed 6 years ago by invading Mongols. Belá repopulates the city with foreign colonists, mostly Germans.
England's St. Mary of Bethlehem hospital for the insane has its beginnings. The word bedlam will be derived from its name and will be applied to situations such as those that will prevail in the new hospital.
Pope Innocent IV sends a diplomatic and proselytizing mission to the Mongols of Persia and Armenia. His emissaries depart from Acre and travel for 59 days until they reach the camp of Bachu (Baiju) between the Aras River and Lake Gotchka (later Lake Sevan), but they offer no gifts, try to convert the "heathen," and refuse to visit the great khan Güyuk. An order for their execution is issued three times, but they are permitted to leave after 9 weeks with a letter from Bachu ordering the pope to visit and submit to the Master of all the Earth (meaning Güyuk Khan). French Dominican friar Simon of Saint-Quentin accompanies the group; his account of the mission will be recorded 3 years hence by the encylopaedist Vincent of Beauvais in his Mirror of History (Speculum historiale).
Siena University has its beginnings south of Florence in Tuscany.
A gravestone erected in Yorkshire bears the inscription, "Hear underneath dis laihl stean/ las Robert earl of Huntingtun/ neer arcir yer az hie sa geud/ And pipl kauld im Roben Heud/ sick utlawz as he an iz men/ il england nivr si agen/ Obiit 24 kal Decembris 1247."
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