1254
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Contents: political eventsreligion |
The acting English regent Richard, earl of Cornwall convenes an Easter Parliament during the visit of his brother Henry III's visit to Gascon and summons to represent the shires. Richard last year refused Pope Innocent IV's offer of the Sicilian crown.
Eleanor of Castile, 9-year-old daughter of the late Ferdinand III, is married to England's 15-year-old heir apparent, who will become Edward I in 1272 (see 1265)
The deposed German king Conrad IV dies at Lavello in Italy May 21 at age 26, and election of his 2-year-old son Conradin is barred by German and papal opponents of Conrad and of the late Friedrich II. The death of the last Hohenstaufen king begins a 19-year Great Interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire (see 1273; Conradin, 1258).
France's Louis IX returns after an absence of 6 years in Egypt and the Holy Land; he uses moral suasion to end the dissension that has engaged his nobles in petty civil wars since the death late in 1252 of his mother (and regent), Blanche of Castile. The commission of investigation that has been operating since 1247 continues to hear complaints about abuses of power by local officials, and the king issues an ordinance for administrative reforms. Louis will be the first French monarch to express his will in statutory form on a regular basis as he tries to curb private wars among the barons and promote the use of royal funds while limiting baronial expenditures.
Egypt's tyrannical Mameluke sultan Aybak kills one of his commanders September 18 after the man has suppressed an Arab rebellion in the south (see 1250). Ill equipped to rule, Aybak has antagonized the emirs, and many Mamelukes escape his wrath by fleeing to Syria (see 1257).
The Nicaean emperor John III Ducas Vatatzes dies November 3 after a 32-year reign in which he has improved agriculture and stockbreeding, made the empire economically self-sufficient, built hospitals and poorhouses, and sponsored a revival of Greek studies while expanding the size of his realm. He is succeeded by his 32-year-old son, who will reign until his death in 1258 as Theodore II Lascaris. Crowned previously as co-emperor, he renews his father's alliance with the Seljuk sultan of Rum.
Pope Innocent IV dies at Naples December 7 at age 54 (approximate) after an 11-year reign in which the papacy has blocked the Hohenstaufen attempt to create a centralized state by uniting the family's northern Italian holdings with Sicily. Innocent is succeeded December 12 by Reinaldo dei Conti Cardinal di Segni, a nephew of the late Gregory IV, who will reign until 1261 as Alexander IV.
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