Spring –
Siege of Berat: A Byzantine relief force under
Michael Tarchaneiotes arrives at the strategically important citadel of
Berat. Tarchaneiotes avoids a confrontation with the Angevines and relies on ambushes and raids instead. He manages to capture the Angevin commander,
Hugh of Sully, a few of Sully's guards escape and reach their camp – where they report his capture. Panic spreads among the Angevin troops at this news and they begin to flee towards
Avlon. The Byzantines take advantage of their disordered flight and attacks, joined by the troops in the besieged citadel. Tarchaneiotes takes an enormous booty, a small remnant of the Angevin army manages to cross the
Vjosa River and reach the safety of
Kanina.[1]
October 18 – Emperor
Michael VIII (Palaiologos) is excommunicated by Pope
Martin IV without any warning or provocation. Martin authorizes
Charles I, king of
Sicily, to make a
Crusade against Michael, who has re-established his rule in
Constantinople. Charles prepares an expedition in Sicily and assembles a fleet of 100 ships, and 300 more in
Naples,
Provence, and the Greek territories, which carry some 8,000 cavalrymen.[2]
Europe
June – Castilian forces led King
Alfonso X (the Wise) and accompanied by his sons, the Infantes
Sancho,
Peter and
John, invade the lowlands of
Granada. Sultan
Muhammad II sends a Moorish army, supported by many archers and cavalry, to repel them. Alfonso defeats the Moors in a battle near Granada's walls on
June 25, but after the failure of the negotiations that follow, he leaves Granada.[3]
September – Two Mongol armies (some 50,000 men) advance into
Syria. One, is commanded by
Abaqa Khan – who attacks the Mamluk fortresses along the
Euphrates frontier. The second one, led by his brother
Möngke Temür makes contact with
Leo III, king of
Cilician Armenia, and then marches down through
Aintab and
Aleppo into the
Orontes valley. Where he is joined by knights of the
Hospitaller Order and some French mercenaries. Meanwhile, Sultan
Qalawun assembles his Mamluk forces at
Damascus.[5]
October 29 –
Battle of Homs: In a pitched battle, Mamluk forces (some 30,000 men) led by Qalawun destroy the Mongol center, Möngke Temür is wounded and flees. He orders a retreat, followed by a disorganized army. The Armenian-Georgian auxiliaries under Leo III fight their way back northwards. The Mongol army recrosses the Euphrates without losses, the river remains the frontier between the Mongols and the
Mamluk Sultanate.[6]
Osman I, founder of the
Ottoman Empire, becomes bey of the
Söğüt tribe in central
Anatolia after the death of his father,
Ertuğrul Ghazi. Osman's accession to power is not peaceful, as he has to fight his relatives before he gets hold of the clan's leadership. One of Osman's major rivals is his uncle
Dündar Bey, who rebels against him.[7]
Asia
August 15 –
Battle of Kōan (or Second Battle of Hakata Bay): A second Mongol
invasion of Japan is foiled, as a large
typhoon – famously called a kamikaze, or divine wind – destroys much of the combined Mongol and Chinese fleet and forces, numbering over 140,000 men and 4,000 ships. Later,
Kublai Khan begins to gather forces to prepare for a third invasion attempt, but is distracted by events in
Southeast and
Central Asia.[8]
Kublai Khan orders the burning of sacred
Taoist texts, resulting in the reduction in number of volumes of the Daozang (Taoist Canon) from 4,565 to 1,120.
Xu Heng, Chinese scholar, official and philosopher (b.
1209)
References
^Setton, Kenneth M. (1976). The Papacy and the Levant (1204–1571), Volume I: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, p. 137. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society.
ISBN0-87169-114-0.
^Geanakoplos, Deno John (1959). Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 1258-1282: A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations, pp. 341–42. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
OCLC1011763434.
^Joseph F. O'Callaghan (2011). The Gibraltar Crusade: Castile and the Battle for the Strait, p. 81.
ISBN978-0-8122-2302-6.
^Hywel Williams (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History, p. 149.
ISBN0-304-35730-8.