1270

Events

Africa

The Eighth Crusade

* Before August - King Louis IX of France launches the Eighth Crusade in an attempt to recapture the crusader states from the Mamluk sultan Baibars; the opening engagement is a siege of Tunis.
* August 25 - King Louis IX of France dies while besieging the city of Tunis, possibly due to poor quality drinking water.
* October 30 - The siege of Tunis and the Eighth Crusade end by an agreement between Charles I of Sicily (Louis IX's brother) and the sultan of Tunis.

Other events in Africa

* Yekuno Amlak overthrows the Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty, claims the throne and establishes the Solomonic dynasty.

Asia

* In Korea, the Sambyeolcho Rebellion begins against the Goryeo Dynasty, a puppet government of the Mongol Empire.
* The ancient city of Ashkelon is captured from the crusader states and utterly destroyed by the Mamluk sultan Baibars, who goes so far as to fill in its important harbor, leaving the site desolate and the city never to be rebuilt.
* The city of Tabriz, in present-day Iran, is made capital of the Mongol Ilkhanate Empire (approximate date).
* The independent state of Kutch is founded in present-day India.
* A census of the Chinese city of Hangzhou establishes that some 186,330 families reside within it, not including visitors and soldiers. (Historian Jacques Gernet argues that this means a population of over 1 million inhabitants, making Hangzhou the most populous city in the world.)

Europe

* December - Crucial aspects of the philosophy of Averroism (itself based on Aristotle's works) are banned by the Roman Catholic church in a condemnation enacted by papal authority at the University of Paris.
* The "Summa Theologica", a work by Thomas Aquinas that is considered within the Roman Catholic Church to be the paramount expression of its theology, is completed (year uncertain).
* Witelo translates Alhazen's 200-year-old treatise on optics, "Kitab al-Manazir", from Arabic into Latin, bringing the work to European academic circles for the first time.
* The Sanskrit fables known as the "Panchatantra", dating from as early as 200 BCE, are translated into Latin from a Hebrew version by John of Capua.
* Construction of the Old New Synagogue in Prague is completed.
* The cathedral on the Rock of Cashel in Ireland is completed.

Births

* March 12 - Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France (d. 1325)
* Jacob ben Asher, Spanish rabbi and religious writer
* Theodore Metochites, Byzantine statesman and author
* Michael of Cesena, Franciscan theologian (d. 1342)
* Marsilius of Padua, Italian scholar (d. 1342)
* Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (d. 1324)
* Cino da Pistoia, Italian poet (d. 1336)
* Ma Zhiyuan, Chinese poet
* Namdev, Marathi saint and poet (d. 1350)
* William Wallace, Scottish patriot (d. 1305)

Deaths

* February 23 - Saint Isabel of France, daughter of Louis VIII of France (b. 1225)
* March 17 - Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre
* May 3 - Béla IV of Hungary (b. 1206)
* July 14 - Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury
* August 25
**King Louis IX of France (b. 1214)
**Alphonso of Brienne (b. c. 1225)
* September 24 - Philip of Montfort, Lord of Castres
* December 4 - Theobald V of Champagne, King of Navarre (b. c. 1238)
* Mansa Wali Keita, second mansa of the Mali Empire
* Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk (b. 1212)
* David VII Ulu, King of Georgia (b. 1215)
* Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, Jewish rabbi and scholar (b. 1200)