1252
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Wilhelm of Holland receives recognition as German king March 25 from Albert, duke of Saxony, and John and Otto, margraves of Brandenburg (see 1251). Now 23, he will receive further support in 1254 from the Rhenish League of Cities.
Castile and León's Ferdinand III dies at Seville May 30 at age 50 (approximate) after a 35-year reign in which he has regained Córdoba from the Moors and obtained permission to establish a Christian church at Marrakah (his death aborts plans to invade Africa). Ferdinand is succeeded by his learned 24-year-old son, who will reign until his death in 1284 as Alfonso X.
Denmark's king Abel Valdemarsen is killed at Husumbro, Friesland, June 29 at age 34 during a war on the Friesians. Having ruled only 2 years, he is succeeded by Khristoffer I, who will reign until 1259.
France's queen mother Blanche of Castile dies in November at age 65, having seen her son Louis IX lead a Seventh Crusade against her advice (see 1250). In the absence of Louis, French magnates invite Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, to succeed Blanche as regent. Leicester is away on crusade, having been acquitted by English magistrates of charges by Gascon rebels that he used illegal procedures to suppress their revolt in 1248.
Aleksandr Nevski becomes grand duke of Vladimir by order of the grand khan, who replaces Nevski's elder brother Andrew. The new duke works to prevent any renewal of the Mongol invasion.
India's Ahom kingdom is founded in Assam.
A Hanseatic settlement in the Flemish harbor of Bruges is established by merchants from Lübeck and Hamburg, who have earlier taken joint action in England and in the Netherlands. They obtain common rights at Bruges (see 1250; 1259).
Florence issues 54-grain gold "florins" in an assertion of independence (see 1189). The city emerges as a major center for commerce and industry.
The Alfonsine Tables prepared at Toledo for Alfonso X of Castile and León are astronomical tables based on the Ptolemaic theory, which assumes that the Earth is the center of the solar system. Jehuda ben Moses Cohen and Isaac ben Sid have directed the work that will enable astronomers to predict solar and lunar eclipses and calculate the positions of the planets for any given time. The handier arrangement of the tables will be cast at Paris in about 1320 (see 1483).
France's Louis IX expels the country's Jews, who have been required since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 to wear yellow circles on their garments (see 1182; 1269).
Pope Innocent IV gives official sanction to the use of torture for exacting the "truth" from people suspected of heresy in the inquisition begun by the late Gregory IX in 1231 (see Spanish Inquisition, 1478).
The Kamakura Daibutsu is cast by Japanese sculptor Ono Goroemon 32 miles from Edo. The 40-foot tall, 100-ton statue of the Buddhist divinity Amida has a circumference of 96 feet at its base and portrays the divinity in the traditional meditative position with hands in lap, palms up, fingers touching.
England's Henry III orders the sheriffs of London to pay 4d per day to feed the king's polar bear at the Tower of London. The king has used the tower as a zoo, keeping three leopards given him by the late Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III; Norwegians have given him the polar bear, and the sheriffs are required to provide a long chain that permits the animal to catch salmon in the Thames.
The Japanese shōgun halts production of sake (rice wine) to conserve rice.
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