1257

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political events

The English crusader Richard of Cornwall wins election as king of the Romans (but not Holy Roman Emperor), defeating Castile and León's Alfonso X, and is crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle May 17. His stepson Richard de Clare, 34, 7th earl of Gloucester, is England's most powerful noble and has worked with the German princes to obtain his election. Now 48 and reputedly the richest magnate in England, Richard has purchased four of the seven electoral votes (Alfonso has bought the other four but cannot go to Germany) and dispenses lavish bribes to establish his authority in the Rhine Valley, but he soon runs out of money, and when he asks England's great council to give Pope Alexander IV one-third of all English revenue, the request is refused.

Genoa has a democratic revolution; the Fieschi family participates in a plot against the popular leader Guglielmo Boccanegra but the Fieschis are toppled from power and driven into exile (see 1262).

Egypt's first Mameluke sultan al-Muizz izz ad-Din al-Mansur Aybak is assassinated in a palace intrigue April 10 after a despotic 7-year reign in which he has alienated virtually everyone, including his consort, Shajar ad-Durr (see 1250). She has had him murdered in a pique of jealousy, the slave women of his first wife batter her to death a few days later, and Aybak is succeeded by his son Ali.

commerce

Economic distress roils England.

literature

Poetry: The Orchard (Bustan) by the Persian poet Sadi (Musharirif ud-Din Muslih ud-Din), 44, who studied at Baghdad in his youth, traveled through Syria and Anatolia to Egypt, and was captured in North Africa by the Franks, who put him to work in the trenches of the fortress at Tripoli.

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