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The former Portuguese king Sancho II dies at Toledo, Castile, January 4 at age 40, having failed in his efforts to regain the throne that Pope Innocent IV took away from him in 1245.
Lombards besieged at Parma break out in February while the deposed Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II is off on a hunting expedition (see 1248); they storm the imperial wooden town that Friedrich has built and named Vittoria in accordance with a prediction by his astrologers. The former emperor's forces are scattered or destroyed, and his harem and some of his most trusted officers fall into Lombard hands along with the treasury and the imperial insignia. The Lombards hack Thaddeus of Seussa to pieces, and they place the imperial crown on the head of a hunch-backed beggar, whom they carry back to the city in mock triumph.
Denmark's Erik IV Adraraha gives the Estonian town of Tallinin the Lübeck Rights May 15, binding its authorities to common legal space with the German merchant towns (see 1238).
Sweden's Erik Eriksson gives his brother-in-law Birger the title jarl (earl), makes him regent, and gives him command of the fleet. Birger has just married the king's sister Ingeborg Eriksdotter and as Birger Jarl will virtually rule the country until his death in 1266 (see 1249).
Pope Innocent IV crowns Count Wilhelm von Holland Holy Roman Emperor at Aachen November 1, but he will reign over only a minority of the German states until 1251.
Genoese forces take the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean (see 1306).
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, reluctantly accedes to a request by Henry III that he deal with a revolt in the English-held duchy of Gascony. Leicester has intended to join France's Louis IX on a Seventh Crusade, but Henry gives him full powers as regent for 7 years with full refund of any expenses that he may incur, and the earl will be ruthless in crushing the rebellion.
The Seventh Crusade embarks for Egypt in August under the leadership of France's Louis IX, who has taken 3 years to prepare the venture, which has required making peace with England, arranging with Genoa and Marseilles to provide transport, and raising money from the towns and from the king's own domains. Louis has amassed an army of perhaps 15,000 men and is accompanied by his wife, Marguerite de Provence, his brothers Robert d'Artois and Charles d'Anjou, and the chronicler Jean, sieur de Joinville, 24. He leaves his mother, Blanche of Castile, to rule France, arrives at Cyprus in September, and prepares to attack Egypt (see 1249).
Seville surrenders November 23 after a 2-year siege to a Christian army under León and Castile's Ferdinand III. Its Muslim inhabitants flee to Granada; many Muslims have anticipated the city's fall and crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to Sabtah (later Ceuta) on the northern coast of what later will be Morocco, where Spanish refugees enjoy a higher socio-economic status than the indigenes and will soon gain appointment to high administrative positions.
The Mongol khan Kuyuk (Güyük) dies at Samarkand at age 42 (approximate) while preparing to attack his cousin Batu Khan. The various descendants of Genghis Khan hold a great assembly to elect a successor, powerful commanders and officials participate in the election, and the choice falls upon a son of Tolui from the Mongol homeland who meets with Batu's approval. Möngke (or Mungke, or Manga) will head the Mongols until his death in 1259, working to make peace among the khanates while sending his brothers Kublai and Hülegü on expeditions of conquest.
