1250.  Battle of Mansourah; total defeat of the crusaders by the Egyptians; King Louis IX captured with his army; they are released on restoring Damietta and promising to abstain from future hostilities.

Turan Shah, Sultan of Egypt, assassinated by the mamelukes.  See “MAMELUKES USURP POWER IN EGYPT,” vi, 240.

Death of Emperor Frederick II; his son Conrad succeeds as king of Italy; he is acknowledged as king of Germany by most of the temporal princes.  William II, Count of Holland, assisted by the ecclesiastical states and the papal party, contests the imperial dignity.

Waldeman, King of Sweden, introduces the mariner’s compass among the navigators of the Baltic.

Florence adopts a democratic government; peace obtained between the Guelfs and Ghibellines.

1251.  Ottocar, son of Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, acquires Austria.  Pope Innocent IV returns to Italy; he visits Genoa, Milan, and other cities, and fixes his residence in Perugia.

1252.  Crusading movement of the “Pastors.”  This originated in France on receipt of the news of St. Louis’ expedition; there occurred an outbreak of fanaticism as insensate as that of the Children’s Crusade.  A Hungarian, named Jacob, proclaimed that Christ rejected the great ones of the earth, and that the deliverance of the Holy City must be accomplished by the poor and humble.  Shepherds left their flocks, laborers laid down the plough, to follow his footsteps.  “Pastors” was the name given to these village crusaders.

1253.  Founding of the Sorbonne in Paris for secular ecclesiastics; its decisions on religious questions were deemed final.

1254.  Death of Conrad IV, last of the Hohenstaufen emperors; his heir is Conradin, his infant son.  In Germany, William is acknowledged; Pope Innocent IV attempts to wrest the Two Sicilies from the Hohenstaufens; he is defeated by the regent Manfred, uncle of Conradin.

Pope Innocent IV dies at Naples.  Alexander IV is elected.

1255.  Bills of exchange in favor of Italian merchants drawn at Rome on the English bishops and abbots, which they are compelled to pay.

1256.  Death of William of Holland in battle against the Frisians.

1257.  Rival election in Germany of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and Alfonso of Castile as kings of the Romans.  The reign of both is only nominal.

1258.  In England the barons form a council to advise or command the King.  See “THE MAD PARLIAMENT,” vi, 246.

Genoa and Venice engage in their first great conflict; the combined fleets of Venice and Pisa defeat the Genoese.

Manfred is crowned king of the Two Sicilies.

Hulaku Khan founds the Mongol empire of the Ilkhans and ends the caliphate of Bagdad.

1259.  Treaty of Abbeville between Henry III, King of England, and Louis IX (St. Louis) of France.

1260.  Ottocar II of Bohemia secures Styria by defeating Bela IV of Hungary.