1275

Events

Europe

War and politics

* April 22 - The first of the Statutes of Westminster are passed by the English Parliament, establishing a series of laws in its 51 clauses, including equal treatment of rich and poor, free and fair elections, and definition of bailable and non-bailable offenses.
* Eleanor de Montfort is captured by pirates in the employ of Edward I of England to prevent her marriage to Llywelyn the Last, prince of Wales; she is used as a bargaining chip over the coming years in Edward's attempts to subjugate Llywelyn and Wales.
* Scottish forces defeat the Manx of the Isle of Man in a decisive battle, firmly establishing Scottish rule of the island.
* The Mongol Golden Horde raids Lithuania for the third time.
* Around Ciney, in the future Wallonia, begins the fratricid war of the cow which will last until 1278.

Culture, religion, and science

* Jean de Meun completes the French allegorical work of fiction, "Roman de la Rose", with a second section; the first section was written by Guillaume de Lorris in 1230.
* The verge escapement, a simple type of escapement used in clocks, is invented (exact year unknown).
* Ramon Llull establishes a school in Majorca to teach Arabic to preachers in an attempt to aid proselytizing to Moors. He also discovers diethyl ether.
* The first main survey of the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, is finished; it began in 1274.

Asia

* March - The 200,000 multiethnic troops of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty, headed by the Turkish commander Bayan, face a Chinese Song Dynasty army of 130,000 led by the Song Chancellor Jia Sidao. The result is a decisive victory for the Yuan Dynasty, and soon after the much-vilified Jia Sidao is stripped of rank and title, and killed by one of his own guards as he is sent to exile in Fujian by the Song court.
* March 4 - Chinese astronomers observe a total eclipse of the Sun in China.
* Invading Mongol forces capture the Chinese city of Suzhou.
* Marco Polo purportedly visits Xanadu, Kublai Khan's summer capital of the Mongol Empire.
* The city of Kunming is made capital of the Yunnan province of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.
* Nestorian monk Rabban Bar Sauma begins his pilgrimage from China towards Jerusalem.

Eras and population estimates

* The era of the "tosafot" (medieval commentators on the Talmud) ends (began 1100).
* The population of Bushmen in Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho) is estimated at 125,000.
* The Japanese era Bun'ei ends, and the Kenji era begins.

Births

* September 27 - John II, Duke of Brabant (d. 1312)
* William of Alnwick, Franciscan theologian (approximate date; d. 1333)
* Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere (d. 1322)
* Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens (approximate date; d. 1311)
* Dnyaneshwar, Hindu saint and poet (d. 1296)
* Gediminas, Duke of Lithuania (approximate date; d. 1341)
* Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor (approximate date; d. 1313)
* Mondino de Liuzzi, Italian physician and anatomist (d. 1326)
* John Menteith, Scottish nobleman (approximate date; d. 1323)
* Giovanni Villani, Florentine writer (approximate date; d. 1348)
* Giovanni d'Andrea, Italian jurist

Deaths

* April 13 - Eleanor of England (b. 1215)
* September 24 - Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford, Constable of England (b. 1208)
* Bohemund VI of Antioch (b. 1237)
* Ferdinand de la Cerda, Infante of Castile, Crown Prince of Castile