1261
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Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice religion education |
The Latin empire founded in 1204 ends July 25 as Constantinople falls to a Greek army under Alexius Stragopulos and the Nicaean emperor Michael, who have taken advantage of the absence of the Venetian fleet to cross the Bosphorus and drive out the emperor Baldwin II Porphyrogenitus, now 44 (approximate), who has reigned since 1228 but now flees through Greece to Italy and France. The Nicaean emperor, now 27, takes power and begins a 21-year reign as Michael VIII Palaeologus, restoring Greek control of the Byzantine empire after 57 years of Latin control. The Palaeologi family will rule until 1453.
Bohemia's Ottakar II (the Great) annexes Styria despite efforts by Hungary's Béla IV to retain it (see 1269). Béla turns back a second Mongol invasion (see 1241).
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, flees to the Continent in October with his wife, Eleanor, after being isolated from the other barons by England's Henry III (see 1260; 1262).
English women gain improved rights to control their own lands and money but do not have the same rights as men by any means (see 1215).
Pope Alexander IV dies at Viterbo May 25 after a 6½-year reign in which Carmelite monks have defied his order to give up wearing their striped cloaks (see 1155; 1295). He is succeeded August 29 by the patriarch of Jerusalem Jacques Pantaléon, 61, who will reign until 1264 as Urban IV.
Balliol College is founded at Oxford, England, where a school has existed since the 9th century (see 1249). Founder John de Balliol heads a landowning family that has been prominent in England and France for several generations (see Merton, 1264).
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