1249

By place

Africa

• King Louis IX of France captures Damietta in Egypt, in the first major military engagement of the Seventh Crusade.

  Asia

• Pho Khun Si Indrathit becomes the first king of the Sukhothai Kingdom, marking the founding of the modern Thai nation.
• The Hikitsuke, a judicial organ of the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates of Japan, is established.
• The Japanese Hōji era ends, and the Kenchō era begins.

  Europe

• February 16 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by King Louis IX of France as an ambassador, to meet with the Khan of the Mongols.
• May 26 - The Battle of Fossalta is fought between the Holy Roman Empire and the Lombard League. The Italians capture the German commander.
• July 13 - Alexander III is crowned as King of the Scots.
• August 15 - The First Battle of Athenry is fought in Galway, Ireland.
• The city of Stralsund is burned to the ground, by forces from the rival city of Lübeck.
• Swedish statesman Birger Jarl subjugates the province of Tavastia in Finland, securing Swedish power in Finland.
• Alphonse, Count of Poitiers orders the expulsion of Jews from Poitou, France.
• The Hungarian capital is moved from Esztergom to Buda.

  Mediterranean

• The Moors lose possession of Alicante in Al-Andalus.
• King Afonso III of Portugal recaptures Faro and Silves in the Algarve from the Moors, thus ending the Portuguese Reconquista.
• The city of Mystras, Greece is fortified, and a palace is constructed there by William II Villehardouin.

  By topic

Education

• Spring - University College, the first College at Oxford, is founded with money from the estate of William of Durham.

  Microhistory

• Jean Mouflet makes an agreement with the abbot of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in the Senonais region in France: in return for an annual payment, the monastery will recognize Jean as a "citizen of Sens". He is a leather merchant, with a leather shop that he leases for the rent of 50 shillings a year. The agreement is witnessed by Jean's wife, Douce, daughter of a wealthy and prominent citizen of Sens, Felis Charpentier.

  Science

• Roger Bacon publishes a major scientific work, including writings of convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness, and the first publication of the formula for gunpowder in the western world.