1253

Events

Europe

War and politics

* July - William II, Count of Holland defeats the Flemish army at Westkapelle.
* July 6 - Mindaugas is crowned as King of Lithuania.
* A series of naval wars begins between the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice, which will continue sporadically until 1371.
* King Henry III of England meets with English nobles and church leaders to reaffirm the validity of the Magna Carta.
* Pope Innocent IV returns to Rome, having left 9 years earlier in 1244 to depose Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and being unable to return until after Frederick's death, due to the agitation throughout Europe caused by that action.
* Having rebuffed the armed forces of Conrad IV of Germany, Pope Innocent IV offers Sicily to Edmund, son of King Henry III of England.
* Halych-Volynia becomes a vassal state to the expanding Mongol Empire.

Culture

* Matthew Paris writes "Historia Anglorum", a work on English history.
* The Basilica of San Francesco, the earliest important structure in the Italian Gothic style of architecture, is completed in Assisi, Italy.
* Sligo Abbey is built in Sligo, Ireland.
* The Domus Conversorum, a building and institution in London for Jews who had converted to Christianity, is established by King Henry III of England.
* La Sorbonne is founded by Robert de Sorbon.

Asia

* April 28 - Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, declares his intent to preach the "Lotus Sutra" and "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" as the true Buddhism, thus founding Nichiren Buddhism.
* May - King Louis IX of France dispatches William of Rubruck from Constantinople on a missionary journey to convert the Tatars of central and eastern Asia. Later that year, William records the first meeting between European Christians and Buddhists.
* The Mongol Empire launches attacks on the Muslim cities of Baghdad and Cairo.
* The Mongol Empire destroys the Kingdom of Dali ("Yunnan") in Laos and incorporates the region into their empire.
* Kublai Khan introduces the "baisha xiyue" song and dance suite to the music of Yunnan.
* The Chinese era "Baoyou" begins in the Southern Song Dynasty of China.
* The Mongols defeat the Thai confederacy.

Births

* October 17 - Saint Ivo of Kermartin, French canon lawyer
* John I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1294)
* Hugh II of Cyprus (d. 1267)

Deaths

* January 19 - Dogen, Japanese founder of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism
* July 8 - Theobald IV of Champagne (b. 1201)
* August 11 - Clare of Assisi, Italian follower of Francis of Assisi (b. 1194)
* September 23 - Wenceslaus I, King of Bohemia
* October 9 - Robert Grosseteste, English statesman and theologian
* Saint Richard of Chichester
* King Henry I of Cyprus (b. 1217)
* Amadeus IV of Savoy (b. 1197)