1290s

1290s: events by year

Contents: 1290 1291 1292 1293 1294 1295 1296 1297 1298 1299

1290

By place

Europe

• Year without winter – Exceptionally rare instance of uninterrupted transition from autumn 1289 to following spring in Britain and mainland western Europe.
• March 1 – The University of Coimbra is founded in Lisbon, Portugal by King Denis of Portugal; it moves to Coimbra in 1308.
• July 18 – King Edward I of England orders all Jews (then numbering around 16,000) to leave England by November 1 (All Saints Day); on the Hebrew calendar this is Tisha B'Av, a day that commemorates many calamities.
• August 1 – The country of Wallachia is founded (traditional date).
• December – The twelve Eleanor crosses are erected between Lincolnshire and London in England as King Edward I mourns the death of his queen consort Eleanor of Castile.
• December 18 – Upon the death of Magnus III, he is succeeded by his 10-year-old son Birger as king of Sweden. Although Sweden is an elective monarchy at this time, Birger has been appointed heir to the throne already in 1284.
• Construction of Llandaff Cathedral is completed in Cardiff, Wales, 170 years after it was begun.
• The Mongol Golden Horde invades the Bessarabia region of Moldavia.
• The second of the Statutes of Mortmain are passed under King Edward I of England, which prevents land from passing into possession of the church. The statute Quia Emptores is also passed, reforming the feudal system of land leases and allowing the sale of fee simple estates.
• King Denis of Portugal decrees that Portuguese be the official language of Portugal, replacing classical Latin in that capacity.
• Construction on the Akershus Fortress of Oslo, Norway is begun.

Asia

• September 27 – An earthquake in the Gulf of Chili, province of Hebei, China, kills an estimated 100,000.
• The founding Mamluk dynasty of the Sultanate of Delhi is overthrown by Jalal-ud-din Feroz Khalji of the Khilji dynasty.

1291

By place

Europe

• Spring – Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi set sail from Genoa with the goal of reaching India; they never return.
• May 10 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England in mediating resolution of the succession crisis created by the death of King Alexander III of Scotland five years earlier.
• August 1 – According to tradition, the Swiss Confederation is formed by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, the "three forest cantons", at Rütli by the Federal Charter.
• Sancho IV of Castile captures Tarifa from the Moors.
• The Habsburgs acquire the Swiss city of Lucerne.
• Pope Nicholas IV confirms the independence of San Marino via papal bull.
• All glassmakers in Venice are forced to move to the island of Murano in order to contain the risk of fire, thus establishing the glass industry there.
• Klenová Castle is constructed in southern Bohemia as part of a frontier defense system.
• King Andrew III of Hungary gives royal town privileges to Bratislava, the present-day capital of Slovakia.

Asia

• May 18 – Al-Ashraf Khalil of Egypt captures Acre, thus exterminating the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (the final Christian landholding remaining from the Crusades), and ending the Ninth Crusade and effectively all Crusades, by eliminating the possibility of further attacks on the Holy Land (see Siege of Acre (1291)).
• The artificial Kunming Lake is constructed as a reservoir for Dadu in Yuan Dynasty in China by famous engineer and astronomer Guo Shoujing.
• Emperor Kameyama of Japan establishes the Zen Buddhist temple of Nanzenji in Kyoto.

1292

• November 17 – (Julian calendar) John Balliol is selected by King Edward I of England as King of Scotland from among 13 candidates; Edward then treats John as a puppet ruler and Scotland as a vassal state, eventually provoking the Wars of Scottish Independence, commencing in 1296.
• King Mangrai the Great of Ngoen Yang conquested and annexed the Mon kingdom of Haripunchai, created a political union in the form of the Lanna kingdom.
• The Vaghela dynasty in Gujarat is subjugated by the Deccan Yadava dynasty of Daulatabad.
• Mamluk sultan of Egypt Khalil invades the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.
• The Jandarid dynasty is founded in the Kastamonu Province.
• The Mongols land on Java, taking the capital, but it proves impossible to hold.^[1]

1293

• May 20 – King Sancho IV of Castile creates the Studium General, forerunner to the modern Complutense University of Madrid.
• May 26 – An earthquake in Kamakura, Japan kills an estimated 30,000.
• December – Mamluk sultan of Egypt Khalil is assassinated by his regent Baydara, who briefly claims the sultanate before being assassinated himself by a rival political faction.
• Torkel Knutsson leads Sweden in beginning the Third Swedish Crusade against unchristianized Finnish Karelia.
• Dante Alighieri completes the book of verse La Vita Nuova.
• Khubilai sends a fleet to the islands of Southeast Asia, including Java.
• The Hindu Majapahit Empire of the Malay archipelago is founded by Kertarajasa, who exploits internal conflict and Mongol intervention to defeat the Singhasari kingdom and establish the empire.
• The Japanese era Shōō ends, and the Einin era begins.
• Enactment of the Ordinances of Justice in the Commune of Florence.
• The Isle of Wight was sold to King Edward I by Countess Isabella De Fortibus for six thousand marks.

1294

• July 5 – Pope Celestine V succeeds Nicholas IV as the 192nd pope.
• Autumn – In response to the actions of new royal administrators in north and west Wales, Madog ap Llywelyn leads a revolt against his English overlords.
• December 24 – Pope Boniface VIII succeeds Pope Celestine V as the 193rd pope after Celestine V abdicates the papacy on December 13, only five months after reluctantly accepting his surprise election on July 5, wishing to return to his life as an ascetic hermit.
• The death of Kublai Khan. By this time the separation of the four khanates of the Mongol Empire (the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Golden Horde in Russia, the Ilkhanate in Persia, and the Yuan Dynasty in China) had deepened.
• John Balliol, King of Scotland, decides to refuse King Edward I of England's demands for support in a planned invasion of France, and instead informs the French of Edward's plans and negotiates the Auld Alliance with France and Norway. These actions play a part in precipitating the Scottish Wars of Independence, which begin in 1296.
• The Strata Florida Abbey is rebuilt; it had been destroyed some years earlier in King Edward I of England's conquest of Wales.
• Architect Arnolfo di Cambio designs the Florentine cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore, better known simply as Il Duomo. He also begins work on the Basilica di Santa Croce di Firenze, also in Florence.
• England and Portugal enter into the first iteration of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, the oldest alliance in the world still in force.
• Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France declare war on each other. To finance this war, both kings lay taxes on the clergy. Pope Boniface VIII insists that kings gain papal consent of taxation of the clergy and forbids churchmen to pay taxes.

1295

• October 23 – The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England is signed in Paris.
• Mongol leader Ghazan Khan is converted to Islam, ending a line of Tantric Buddhist leaders.
• Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII begin having disagreements.
• Jayavarman VIII of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia abdicates; Srindravarman succeeds him.
• Marco Polo returns to Italy from his travels to China.
• Edward I summons the Model Parliament.
• Work begins on construction of Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey, last of the ring of castles built by Edward I of England to subdue Wales.^[2]

1296

• March 30 – Edward I storms Berwick-upon-Tweed, sacking the then Scottish border town with much bloodshed. He slaughters most residents, including those who flee to the churches.
• April 12 – King Mangrai the Great of Ngoenyang established a new capital by founding Chiangmai and founded the Mangrai Dynasty that ruled the Lanna Kingdom of Chiangmai from 1296 to 1578.
• April 27 – Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.

• The Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan spends a year at the court of the Khmer King Indravarman III at Angkor and pens a journal setting forth his observations.
• Jalal ud din Firuz Khilji dies and Ala-Ud-Din-Khilji comes to the throne of the Delhi Sultanate in Hindustan.

1297

• January 8 – Monaco gains independence.
• August 28 – Edward I of England unsuccessfully invades Flanders.
• September 11 – Battle of Stirling Bridge: The Scottish armies of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeat the English.
• September 12 – King Denis of Portugal and King Ferdinand IV of Castile sign the Treaty of Alcanizes. The geographic limits of Portugal are fixed permanently, with the exception of São Félix de Galegos, lost in 1640 and Olivenza, lost in 1801.
• King Louis IX of France is canonized.
• A Portuguese Water Dog is first described in a monk’s report of a drowning sailor who had been pulled from the sea by a dog.^[3]

1298

• April 20 – beginning of the Rintfleisch-Pogrom, the Jews of Röttingen burned en masse, other Jewish communities destroyed later in the year
• June 1 – residents of Riga and Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Livonian Order in the Battle of Turaida
• July – Emperor Go-Fushimi succeeds Emperor Fushimi on the throne of Japan.
• July 2 – Battle of Göllheim: Albert I of Habsburg defeats and kills Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
• July 22 – Battle of Falkirk: King Edward I of England defeats a Scottish army led by William Wallace.
• September 9 – Battle of Curzola: the Genoese fleet defeats the Venetians. Marco Polo is one of the prisoners taken, and while in prison in Genoa, he begins dictating his Travels to a local writer.
• The Chinese governmental minister Wang Zhen (official) invents wooden movable type printing (Bi Sheng invented ceramic movable type in the 11th century).
• Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I are named the first Doctors of the Church. They are known collectively as the Great Doctors of the Western Church.

1299

• April – Scots take Stirling Castle from the English after a siege.
• April 1 – Kings Towne on the River Hull (Kingston upon Hull) is granted city status by Royal Charter of King Edward I of England.
• November 1 – Håkon V Magnusson becomes king of Norway.
• December 1 – Battle of Falconaria: Frederick II of Sicily defeats Philip I of Taranto.
• Osman I declares the independence of the Ottoman Principality.
• The House of Holland becomes extinct. The County of Holland becomes part of a personal union with the County of Hainaut.
• A serious fire occurs at Westminster Palace.
• The first (and largest) of the institutions that were to become Ipswich School was established.
• A Mongol khan launches a campaign into India with 200,000 men, but the sultan of Delhi defeats them.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References