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Bohemia's Wenceslas I dies September 23 at age 48 after a 23-year reign in which he has protected his country from the Tatars of the Golden Horde (who ravaged Moravia), encouraged wide-scale German immigration, brought Austria under his control for a while, and antagonized the nobility by seeming to favor the Germans. He is succeeded by his son, the duke of Babenberg, now 23, who will open her silver mines, make Bohemia one of the richest countries in Europe, and reign until 1278 as Ottakar II.
Franciscan friar Guillaume de Roubrock arrives at Karakorum on a mission from France's Louis IX and finds a silver fountain built for the Mongol khan Möngke (Mungke, or Manga) by Frankish goldsmith Guillaume Boucher. The fountain's four spouts dispense wine, mead, rice wine, and kumyss (mead and kumyss are alcoholic beverages made, respectively, from honey and mare's milk).
The Japanese shōgun imposes price controls to halt inflation.
The Japanese Buddhist monk Nichiren denounces the traditional Jodo and Zen sects as blasphemous and establishes his own sect, requiring his followers to strengthen their faith by chanting, "I take my refuge in the Lotus sutra" ("Namu myoho renegekyo"). A fisherman's son, Nichiren antagonizes many with his zealotry.
English bishop and scholar Robert Grosseteste dies at Buckden, Buckinghamshire, October 9 at age 78 (approximate), having introduced Latin translations of Greek and Arabic philosophical and scientific literature into Europe. He has been bishop of Lincoln since 1235, and his work on optics has led to the invention of corrective eyeglass lenses that have made life easier for monks and other scholars who must labor for long hours in dim light.
The Sorbonne is founded as the first college in the University of Paris. Intended for indigent theological students, it opens under the name Community of Poor Masters and Scholars and has been started by Robert de Sorbon, 52, chaplain and confessor to Louis IX, who will return next year from the Seventh Crusade.
The Japanese philosopher Dogen (Jōyō Daishi) dies at his native Kyoto September 22 at age 53, having completed his 95-chapter Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Shōbōgenzō), an elaboration of Buddhist principles.
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