Timeline 1250-1260 (Interference)

1251-1255
1250-1254 

Southern Europe: Nicola Curzio, a wealthy merchant of Albanian origin, rebuilds the Republic of Bari and is named its first Catapano (leader): he'll manage to establish a dynastic succession as Dauge (Dux), though under strict control by the corporations' assembly.

ca. 1250-1350

Northern Hesperia (*OTL America): The Norsemen of Greenland explore the Arctic archipelago during hunting and fishing expeditions and contact the local Inuit people, then the severe cooling of the climate forces them to abandon these routes.

1251 Northern Europe: Norway formally renounces its self-asserted rights over Bjarmaland (*the area around the White Sea), which are ceded to the Novgorod republic.

British Isles: King Oswald the Hammer brings resurgent Northumbria to its heyday by routing the Alban-Scots at the battle of the Teviotdale: he recaptures Cumbria (*Cumberland) and conquers the Borders area.

Southern Europe: Pope-king Urban VI (*OTL Innocent IV) excommunicates Meinhard III of Gurizberg when he refuses to give back the former lands of the Aquileian Patriarchate to the new Patriarch, Gregorio da Montelongo. Meinhard however allows the Patriarch to reside in Zividal (*OTL Cividale), under close watch and limited to his spiritual duties. Genoa, helped by king Umberto IV of Lombardy, quells a rebellion at Savona. The Bosnian Bogomils get complete independence from Hungary under Matej II of the Ninoslavoviċ clan.

Central-Eastern Europe: Austria is made an appanage duchy for the heirs to the Bohemian crown. Berke Khan again plunges on Hungary as king Béla IV was building fortifications without the required permit to counter his rebel son, Stephen (*not OTL Stephen V: it's another person, though still in a fight with his royal father). This time the king is captured during his escape to Dalmatia, hauled up to Brasta/Berestye (*Brest-Litovsk) and executed: his son Stephen V gets the Hungarian throne, under close watch of his Cuman wife's relatives. Batu Khan comes from Mongolia with a huge army, but dies in Russia during a plague outbreak:cool:. The army, set up to march against the rebels in Lombardy and France, withdraws orderly to Karakorum for the solemn khuriltai to elect the next Great Khan. Berke Khan himself leaves his generals in charge and heads back to the Mongol capital.

Far East: The Khuriltai elects as the new Great Khan Sartaq, the Nestorian/Jacobite Christian son of Batu, after rejecting the name of Berke, unpopular as a new Muslim convert. Sartaq decides not to punish the rebellion of his fellow Christian subjects, granting western and southern Europe some respite. The Golden Horde throne in Sarai goes to Batu's older brother, Orda, already in charge of one of its main subdivision, the White Horde, in southern Siberia and the Central Asian steppe.

1251-1268 India: Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan brings the most ancient Pandya kingdom of southern Deccan to a new heyday, vassalizing its former overlords the Cholas and repeatedly defeating the Hoysalas; Pandya power briefly projects itself up to the Krishna river. Sundara Pandyana also manages to vassalize northern Ceylon/Sri Lanka, and establishes a precarious contact with Western tradesmen from Crusader Lower Egypt.

1252 Northern Europe: Birger Jarl, regent of Sweden, founds Stockholm to counter the piratical raids of the Teutonic Order :D and the Hansa. King Erik IV of Denmark dies during a failed expedition to subdue Frisia; he is succeeded by his younger brother Knut VII. Siegfrid I reunifies Brandenburg under the Anhalt branch of the Ascanian/Aschersleben house with its ducal title recognized by Berke Khan. The new duchy of Lebus on the Oder river is created for Nogai, Berke's young nephew.

British Isles: Alasdair I rises to the throne of Alba and Scotland after murdering his brother Duncan IV the Mad.

Western Europe: A massive Arnaldist insurrection rocks central France and the Loire valley: the surviving feudatories are massacred or put to flight by peasant rebel armies and town militias. The rebels, loosely coordinated and recognizing the spiritual leadership of Jean Le Blanc, an old preaching monk from Burgundy, begin waging a chaotic three-sided conflict with emperor Stephen the Cruel of Greater Normandy and the many independent barons refusing to acknowledge his comeback in the continent.

Southern Europe: Umberto IV of Lombardy moves against the Ezzelinians but is defeated in the bloody battle of the Mella river and has to renounce his planned assault on Verona. With the bull “Ad exstirpanda” Pope Urban VI (*OTL Innocent IV) gives official sanction to the use of torture by the Inquisition:mad:. The republic of Nice gains the feudal submission of Ventimiglia, unwilling to bend to Genoa: by now Nice controls a sizable chunk of land under the Maritime Alps, from Provence to Liguria. Genoa, to counter Nice's ascent, allies with Marseille, a traditional rival. Naples frees herself from Lesser Norman control and proclaimes a Communal republic under elected consuls. Her fleet will prove a source of both wealth and strength.

Central-Eastern Europe: The elective prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevskij, a blood friend (“anda”) of the new Great Khan Sartaq, gets Tartar reinforcements to fight back the encroaching Swedes, again defeating them in the battle of the Vuoksi river. A Mongol punitive expedition under Nevruy plunders the towns of Suzdal and Pereyaslavl-Zalesskij and expels prince Andrey II Yaroslavich, Alexander Nevskij's “rogue” brother, from Vladimir: the Russian ruler is exiled to Sweden. Central Asia: Qara Hülëgü, ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, dies, succeeded by his young son Bahram Shah, grown as a Zoroastrian.

Far East: In Japan the shogunate, by now itself a puppet institution of the Hōjō shikkens (regents), is entrusted to the ten-years old imperial prince Munetaka. Henceonwards, shoguns will be imperial princes with no actual power.

1252-1253

Far East, SE Asia: Blocked by the Chinese in Sichuan, the Mongols, led by Great Khan Sartaq and general Kublai, a brother of khan Möngke of Persia, sweep down in the western mountains to outflank the enemy. In the process they destroy the old kingdom of Dali (Yunnan), triggering a massive southward and westward migration towards Siam and Burma; their raids reach down to Dai Viet (*north Vietnam).

1253

Northern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe: Mindaugas of Polotsk/Palteskei converts to Waliist Islam following the example of his patron Berke Khan of Berestia, and is made emir of Lithuania and White Ruthenia. The Lithuanians begin converting to the new religion, following their undisputed leader, and soon become the Mongol's elite guard in the region.

Northern Europe, Western Europe: The Count of Holland, Dirk VIII the Saint, free from any external authority, be it Mongol or other, defeats and kill at the battle of Moergestel Louis II of Flanders, Hainault and Champagne, who had tried to grab his lands. Emperor Stephen the Cruel of Greater Normandy takes advantage to wrest back some land between the Somme and Flanders proper, but his (mostly English) forces, tied down by neverending war against rebel nobles, cities and peasants, cannot advance much further. Stephen's rule is as much resented as the Mongols were:rolleyes:, expecially for his high taxation and his land grants for English barons. The French barons resisting him obviously play the national card.

Central-Eastern Europe: Ottokar/Otakar II, duke of Austria, ascends the throne of Bohemia as vassal of the khanate of Berestia; anyway, he's the most powerful man in central Europe, apart Berke Khan.

Southern Europe: Meinhard III of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) inherits the county of Tyrol from his childless father-in-law Albert IV, which in turn had five years before got Merania (the maritime lands north of Dalmatia) from Otto, last scion of the Andechs family. Thus Meinhard's Lurngau dynasty significantly increases its power, controlling a solid block of Alpine territories from Histria to the boundaries of Romancia. A unique situation is that now Meinhard is “partly” vassal of Bohemia:rolleyes:, being such in regards to Merania only. Marquis Peter III of Savoy subdues the Comune of Geneva to his high domain.

Arabia: The Saifid Arabs reconquer Bahrain from the Shabankarai princes of Fars (Mongol vassals).

Far East: The Japanese monk Nichiren establishes his own variant of Buddhism, a quite militant sect placing emphasis on the Lotus Sutras and, unusually, bent on conversion of other adherents of Buddhism and non-Buddhists as well.

1253-1256 Western Europe: Stephen the Cruel vainly tries to crush the Arnaldists in central France. They form in reaction the League of St.-Arnaud, despite receiving excommunication and major anathema by the Church; the moderate elements from the communal towns soon gains the upper hand and organize a disciplined peasant-based army around the minor nobles who sought refuge in the walled towns during the Mongol invasion and the subsequent unrest. In the end, the battles of Bois de la Beauce and Chambord result in stunning Arnaldist victories, though Stephen the Cruel manages to retake Orléans, massacring 5,000 inhabitants in anger:mad:.

Southern Europe: The suspect early death of emperor Alexander I (poisoned?) triggers the Second Curional (*Baronal) war in the Western “Roman” Empire of Sicily and Ifrigia (later Punia, OTL Tunisia). A long, drawn out conflict, the war pits one against the other two main claimants to the crown, Alexander's first cousins Conrad and Olympius, plus a wide array of rebel noblemen, peasant insurgents and Ifrigian secessionists. Olympius is eventually able to defeat his rival at Castropertuso (*not existing OTL) and later kill him by treason during peace talks; then he lands in Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) and proceeds to liquidate the last rebels, as the Genoese fleet wipes out their Pisan allies at the naval battle of Jarthousa (*OTL Bizerte).

Middle East: The Saifids of Medina raid in droves Palestine ad the Sinai, fighting both the Myriamites and the Crusaders, but fail in the sieges of Jerusalem and Gaza.

1253-1258

Far East: Final, devastating Mongol campaigns against Korea: king Gojong and the Goryeo court are eventually forced to yield, reset their capital in Songdo/Kaesong and send the crown prince as hostage in Karakorum.

1254

Northern Europe: Denmark expels the few Jews living there, deemed to be in favour of the Mongol domination:o.

Southern Europe: Ezzelino III da Romano dies in Verona, still excommunicated. Gravely weakened by his prisony in Canossa, he was unable to repeat his former exploits: only his cruelty, cunning and thirst for power remained the same – legendary and unsurpassed, at the time:cool:. His surviving son, Alberico, struggles to keep together what he has – mainland Veneto and little more, even that precariously – with a host of sworn enemies to face. In the meantime, Meinhard III of Gurizberg (*OTL Gorizia) and Tyrol has managed to appease the Berestian Mongols, avoiding Berke Khan's revenge, by casting a bad light on Ezzelino's heir and sending generous tributes:rolleyes:. The fleet of Nice captures Ajaccio from the Genoese, who are basically evicted from Corsica. Pistoia defeats Florence in the battle of Capalle. The Catholic Church declares purgatory a dogma.

Southern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe: The Byzantine army, with little Mongol and Cuman help, liquidates the last centers of Vlach and Bulgarian resistance and reconstitutes the Danubian border, completing the reconquest of most of former Bulgaria - the southern half of what was Megavlakia before the Mongols came.

Byzantine Empire: Despot George I Korizenos of Turcopolia dies, leaving a strong state to his son, Gabriel Ho Kyrios Megas (the Great Lord). The new ruler confirms the recognition of Anthemius II (*as Anthemius I was the last unlucky competent emperor in classical Western Rome) Megas Branas of Constantinople as legitimate basileus, though de facto keeping his independence. Central-Eastern Europe: The exiled Rurikid prince Rostislav of Černigov is enthroned by Berke Khan of Berestia as independent king of Slavonia and Mačva (NW Serbia). Swift Mongol raids punish the feeble protests of Hungary and Serbia. Genoa buys back Taurocherson (*OTL Sebastopol) from the Golden Horde.

Middle East, Byzantine Empire: Demetrios of Canossa-Novellara, king of Cyprus and Armenia Minor, dies with no male heirs, leaving the crown to his son-in-law Vartan (Bardas), scion of an Akrite Order military family of Greek Orthodox leanings. The Armenian Church accepts the succession, though; for them, after a Catholic king, an Orthodox one is definitely the lesser evil. Cyprus, though, crumbles in anarchy as Pisans, Venetians, Genoese and Neapolitans wrestle to gain the upper hand, allying with local feudatories, both Greek and Catholic.

Western Europe, Northern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Far East: The Flemish monk William of Rubrouck, sent to Karakorum by the court of Flanders to seek help against the resurgent Greater Normans and the Dutch, is appointed as the first Catholic bishop in the Far East and sent to Dadu/Khanbaliq for the needs of the tradesmen coming from Europe, North Africa and the Levant and the many prisoners and slaves hauled up to China by the Mongols. He'll be later sanctified as St. William of Cathay and Greater Tartary.

1255 Northern Europe: Zwanstenhafen (*OTL Königsberg) is founded at the mouth of the Pregla river as the Teutonic Order main fortress and base for piracy in the Baltic, in the service of the Mongol overlords. By now the Order has been opened to non-Germans, its ranks rapidly swelling with Poles and Baltic Prussians (!), keeping only a Catholics-only policy as a pale remembrance of its former mission. The first of many subdivisions of the county of Nassau (by now a Mongol vassal, as all of Germany except the coastal Hanseatic towns) happens as brothers Walram II and Otto I split the domain.

British Isles: The northern Irish tribal kings of Connacht, Tyrone/Aileach and Donegal/Tyrconnell launch a great nativist revolt against both the Alban-Scots, the Irish Normans and the earldom of Dublin. The Bourke/De Burgh clan holds his own in Connacht, whereas the Alban-Scot vassal princelings of Ulster are destroyed. Earl Maddox III of Dublin is defeated at Tassagh Glen while trying to stop the rebels. Owain IV of Wales (*OTL Llewellyn the Last) defeats his rebel younger brothers Ian and Dafydd, exiling them to Alba/Scotland. The promised Norman support for the rebels proved too little, too late. When proof of emperor Stephen's disloyalty is discovered, Owain solemnly rejects his feudal oath of vassalage proclaiming Wales a completely independent kingdom. Emperor Stephen the Cruel infamously reacts by starving to death in the London Tower his own wife, Owain's sister Senana,:mad: :mad: :mad: to later marry his French lover Isabeau de Verneuil. The disappearance of a child, likely victim of a brute, triggers a witchhunt in Lincolnshire: dozens of alleged witches and assorted heretics are hanged and burnt till serious unrest begins and the imperial Norman chancery stops the senseless carnage.

Western Europe: Young king John II of Portugal concedes the Cortes, the Portuguese Parliament, the right to assemble once a year in Coimbra.

Southern Europe: Urban VI (*OTL Innocent IV) dies in Rome. The Cardinals elect as the new Pope and king of Italy/Spoleto the French Jacques Pantaléon of Troyes, who takes the name of Urban VII (*OTL he was Urban IV). He at once launches again the hardest fight against heresy, Arnaldism first, and soon proves deeply hostile to the Mongols (who, years earlier, torched his hometown and killed most of his relatives). The Comune of Asti rejects Montferrat yoke and defeats margrave Gugliemo VII at Calliano (Piedmont). The other Piedmontese town of Alba rebels in turn against king Umberto IV and the Guidoni dynasts, proclaiming a free Comune.

Central-Eastern Europe: The Byzantines vainly assault the walls of Vidin, held by the local voivod Ivan Bojan. The imperial army is plagued by the desertion of the Turcopoles/Vardariotes who were forcibly deported from Anatolia with Mongol and Georgian help, and are now ready to offer their services to any warlord – or, even more, to sack for themselves from the Morava to the Black Sea, from the Danube to the Aegean.

Caucasus: Möngke, khan of Persia, entrusts Ahlat (*OTL historical Armenia), peopled by a majority of Muslim Turks, to the Christian princes of Loristan (*OTL northern Armenia, not to be confused with Iranian Luristan which is located far southwest). His brother Hulagu, with a powerful army, is to liquidate the remaining Muslim states of the Middle East, chiefly the defiant Saifids.

1256-1260
1256 British Isles: Extinction of the apEven dynasty of Cornwall with the death of queen Steren; Cornwall is directly annexed as a duchy of the Greater Norman Empire by emperor Stephen the Cruel, despite claims from Brittany based on earlier kinship though marriages. The Bretons seize the Scilly islands (also known as Lyonesse).

Western Europe: Bernard II of Aquitaine/Occitania defeats and kills his rebel brother Raymond the Young in the battle of Duras.

Southern Europe: The Ezzelinian lands begin to crumble. Trient (*OTL Trento) and a resurgent Padua free themselves from the yoke, the first under a new prince-bishop, the second as a Communal republic. Azzone VII d’Este reconquers Este and Monselice for his house. A precarious hold on Verona, Vicenza and Treviso is what remains to Alberico degli Ezzelini. The Augustinian order of preaching monks is officially established, the last great mendicant order after Dominicans and Franciscans. Their power, unshakable especially in native North Africa, will soon greatly expand to rival that of both orders.

Byzantine Empire: Constantine Tigomiritzes (*OTL Constantine I Tikh of Bulgaria) overthrows Turcopolian control over his native town of Skupiokastritsa (*OTL Skoplje), becoming the local independent despot and styling his domain Mikrovlakia (*OTL Slavic Macedonia). Prince Andrew I of Morea wrests the fortress port of Monemvasia from the Byzantines after a three-year long siege.

Central Asia, Middle East: Hulagu brutally crushes a Muslim rebellion in Samarkand (a half-ruined city by now) and parts of northern Persia/Iran. He then marches against Saifid Baghdad, which is taken after a two months siege and thoroughly destroyed, its Muslim inhabitants massacred or sold as slaves:eek: :eek:. Husayn ibn Khayun, the Turkic lord of Mosul, thwarts a minor Mongol force sent against his domains. When the Mongols are studying further moves, they are stopped by the news of the Great Khan's early death.

1256-1257

Far East: Sartaq Khan dies a premature death in Karakorum:( . At first his Khorezmian Muslim wife, Fatma Hatij Sultana, acts as regent for young Ulagchi, trying to favor her deceased husband's uncle Berke. Soon after, though, Ulagchi dies and even this time a clear patrilineal succession is not established. The Khuriltai again convenes and elects as the next Great Khan Möngke, the current khan of Persia, who entrusts his personal domain to his valiant brother, Hulagu. After holding in for years, Möngke's program is one of expansion and world domination; with his election the Mongol Empire comes in the hands of the Tuluids, one the branches of Genghis' heirs.

1257

Northern Europe: Berke Khan of Berestia campaigns in northern Germany, extorting tribute from the Hansa after the brutal destruction of Stralsund, Rostock and Bremen. He then plunders Frisia, but has to withdraw due to the marshy terrain, unsuited for his cavalry. Things go better however in Denmark, where Jutland is ravaged and king Knut VII forced to pay tribute and give independence to Nordalbingia (Schleswig-Holstein) under his brother Sven, who becomes a vassal of Berestia. Other Mongol detachments under the young duke of Lebus, Nogai, pass into France, adding chaos to chaos; after finding stiff resitance in the north, they descend to Burgundy, burning to ashes the venerable abbey of Cluny – by now an independent ecclesiastical principality - and massacring its monks, then besiege Lyon, which pays a huge ransom to be spared a sack. Coming back, this Mongol force sweeps through Alamannia, accepting the tributes and submission of duke Rudolph I of Habsburg.

Western Europe: The fleets of Marseille and Genoa oust the Pisans from the Balearic islands. The power of the Norman barons is broken: the elective king Humbert I of St.-Jerome is killed and replaced with the Provençal Arthur Ludovic count of Aigües (*OTL Aix-en-Provence), of remote Anscarid ancestry, who establishes his own dynasty.

Southern Europe: The count of Seprio, Enrico I, is made margrave of a vast area centered on the upper Ticino river, with domain over Valsesia, Ossola, the entire lake Maggiore basin and upper Ticino, plus his ancestral lands in NW Lombardy proper. Pietro Guglielmo, a descendant of the former counts of Ventimiglia, founds the county of Tenda, a close Genoese ally hampering Nice's control of the Maritime Alps.

Byzantine Empire: The Genoese and Byzantines finally evict the Venetians from Smyrna, which is made a condominium of the empire and Genoa.

1257-1258

SE Asia: The Mongols try to conquer Dai Viet (*northern Vietnam) from Dali (Yunnan) so as to surround Song China, but are turned back by determined resistance.

1257-1266

North Africa: Alphonse I the Good, king of Mauretania/Mornavia (*OTL Morocco) conquers one by one the Canary Islands, again returned to anarchy and piracy after the death of their ruler Cauta the Maurian. Despite hard resistance, the local warlords and Menceys (Guanche chieftains) are subdued.

1258

Southern Europe: A powerful Mongol army, some 50,000 men led by Berke Khan and Nogai, enters the Italian peninsula from Friul and, after leaving a screening force to plunder the Lombard plain, heads right down to Rome:eek: :eek: :eek:. On the route terrorized cities open the gates without a fight and pay huge tributes: in Rome the populace and the Papal court simply flee in advance, leaving a half-void city to be throughly sacked and burnt: many of the city's ancient monuments are especially targeted for destruction and crumble consumed by the flames, including the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica:eek: :eek: :eek:. The Mongols then kill anyone in sight over a day's journey, leaving a path of destruction. After that, they proceed to raid deep into southern Italy, sacking and extorting ransoms from cities, before leaving for the long ride back to their bases in Poland and Russia. The sack of Rome is a most great shock for Christianity, and in reaction Crusader armies are soon levied in areas untouched by the Mongol conquest – Burgundy, Spain, North Africa. The Papacy moves to Naples, and thence to Palermo, in search of a safe haven against the Mongol rage. Count-margrave Enrico I del Seprio is made lord of Como after local families' infighting had gone too far. The Flagellant movement appears in Lombardy in response to the chaos of the period; in southern Italy, instead, bands of vagrant peasants incensed by Joachimite preachers (followers of the long deceased Calabrian monk Gioacchino da Fiore, who prophesied the advent of an Era of the Spirit in the year 1260) sack the countryside and kill feudatories, adding havoc to anarchy. The Pisans and the Sardinians of the Arborea judicate (kingdom) raze Santa Igia forever ending the judicate of Cagliari, the last Genoese supporter in the island. Aimes I de Claret, a local warlord, founds the Duchy of Lesser (or eastern) Occitania, controlling the Durance valley and some Alpine areas of western Piedmont with the important Maddalena Pass.

1258-1259

Middle East: In the winter months a strong Mongol cavalry army from Iraq plunges on Hijaz from Jordan after sending a lesser force to sack (mostly unsuccessfully) Syria and Palestine. The Mongol force, equipped for a campaign much like the one who destroyed the Khorezmian empire, soon blockades Medina; and when the city falls, the carnage is appalling. The old sultan, Muhammad Nasir-ud-Din, who refused to bow to the invaders, is caught alive and trampled under horses, miserably ending the Saifid sultanate. The horde then heads straight to Mecca, where another horrible sack happens, thousands of pilgrims are slain or made into slaves:eek: :eek: :eek:, and the holiest Muslim religious shrines are profanated and destroyed – the Ka'aba is infamously chipped and grinded to dust on orders from Hulagu Khan. Hundreds of thousands flee south into Yemen from the Mongol assault, which however goes no further; as they came, the Mongols withdraw without even bothering to leave puppet rulers in place. Soon the Hashemite Banu Qatada clan manage to reoccupy the Holy Cities and reinstall Wali (*Sunni “Pope”) Suleyman II in Mecca, but the Bedouin tribes of the Arab interior now have fallen into total anarchy.

1258-1278

Southern Europe: Long, drawn out conflict over Valais and Aoste between the counts of Savoy and the counts of Sion. The former ones impose their high domain over Aoste, the latter side preserves independence and expands to Geneva lake's eastern shore.

1259

British Isles: The Irish revolt against Norman and Welsh presence extends down to the Siennories (*OTL southern Leinster and western Munster), where local Irish chieftains rise against the foreign feudatories but are defeated in the battle of Norebridge. After that the rebels lose cohesion, lacking a unified leadership. Their final assault on Dublin's walls is bloodily and decisively repulsed by earl Maddox III.

Western Europe: Portugal conquers Laobrivia (*OTL Algarve) from Andalusia.

Southern Europe: A Sicilian force with Crusaders from Spain and North Africa lands in Ostia and marches on to reoccupy a desolate, ruined Rome; there the officer and great poet Stiennu Lugudita will find inspiration to write its “Rroma ca fusti” (*a sort of Divine Comedy for importance, only centered on history rather than religion), the foundation stone of Sicilian language and a masterpiece of Medieval European literature. Nogai Khan is sent again down to Lombardy with Bohemian reinforcements for a punitive campaign. Milan is sacked and torched, many inhabitants are killed and count-archbishop Peter of Inverigo is carried away in prisony; count Enrico I of Seprio instead puts up a legendary resistance to the Mongol siege of his main fortress in Castelseprio. Then the Crusader army led by prince Paul II of Valencia and Western imperial reinforcements arrive, join forces with the (mostly Piedmontese) Lombard army and together route the Bohemians at the Agogna river, before inflicting a heavy defeat upon the Mongol horde of Nogai at the battle of Santa Maria dei Crociati (*OTL Buscate, Lombardy). After that the Mongols withdraw, leaving the Cumans of western Friul as screening and raiding force.

Southern Europe, North Africa: The Papacy, barred from reentering Rome, a ghost city almost erased from history, is trasferred in Bardapolis (*OTL Tunis) :confused: by the Western Roman emperor of Sicily and Ifrigia (*later Punia, OTL Tunisia) Olympius, who reimposes a measure of imperial authority over the Papal court.

Byzantine Empire: A Mongol expedition from Persia/Iran exacts tribute from the Akrite Order after torching Melitene (*OTL Malatya).

India: Failed expedition against the Burman Ahoms of Assam by the Dharma Empire. No victory of sort is achieved, but Buddhism is introduced among the tribal peoples of the area.

Far East: Great Khan Möngke then dies in battle against the Chinese at the impregnable fortress of Diaoyucheng in Sichuan. He is the first notable victim of firearms, having been killed by a cannon ball. His brother and expected successor Kublai Khan, instead of hurrying back to Karakorum to be elected as the new Great Khan, carries on with his siege of the triple city of Wuhan on the Yangtze river, in central China, till its final surrender. Kublai's other brother Ariq Boke, instead, usurps the throne in the Mongol capital. King Gojong of Goryeo/Korea dies just after surrendering to the Mongol might as a vassal.

SE Asia: The Thai chieftain Mengrai founds at Chiang Mai (northern Siam) the kingdom of Lanna.

1259-1262

Caucasus: David VI Narin, co-ruler of Iberia/Georgia together with his cousin David VII Ulu, rebels against the Mongol yoke; defeated, he takes refuge in Kutaisi, whence he manages to reign over western Georgia (Imereti). David VII also rebels the next year, and, hunted fiercely by the Mongols, reaches his cousin. In the end, David VII is forced to swallow the murder of his wife by the Mongols and accept back vassal status as a sub-king in eastern Georgia.

1259-1264

Far East: Song China, already on the ropes, is saved by the war of succession between Kublai Khan, brother and appointed successor to Möngke as Great Khan, and his other brother Ariq Boke who usurped the throne in Karakorum. The civil war de facto severs contacts betwen the eastern and western khanates, only partly involving the Chagatai khanate (as the local pretender, Alghu, a grandson of Chagatai, allies with Ariq Boke against Bahram Shah Khan, aligned with Kublai). In the end the legitimate ruler Kublai is finally able to prevail and capture his rebel brother, keeping him in honorable prisony up to his death.

1260

Northern Europe: Emir Mindaugas of Lithuania and White Ruthenia founds Sambisarai (*OTL Memel/Klaipeda) on the border with the detested Teutonic Knights, populating the town with captive fellow Muslims from former Volga Bulgaria. He then defeats the rebellious Curonians, a fiercely independent pagan tribe dwelling in Courland.

Western Europe: Nogai Khan plunges in France with a fresh army from the Russian steppes (courtesy of khan Orda of the Golden Horde), sacking randomly; emperor Stephen the Cruel flees back to England with his English army, as Paris and Rouen are left to the renewed Mongol rage. This time also Brittany is plundered and forced to pay tribute to Berke Khan of Berestia, then the Mongols withdraw leaving behind a vanguard in Lorraine, the Ograinese (mostly Cumans and eastern Kipchaks), as the French and Burgundian will nickname them. France crumbles to purely local authority, apart the central areas loosely coordinated by the League of St.-Arnaud, which were mostly spared by this last invasion. The only major feudal power surviving is Anjou, under duke Alain IV, a first cousin of Greater Norman emperor Stephen the Cruel by motherly line, but also a bitter enemy when the sovereign tried to regain France by force.

Southern Europe: The Crusader armies still extant in Lombardy and the royal forces led by king Umberto IV invade Ezzelinian Veneto and take Verona after a brief, sharp siege. Alberico degli Ezzelini flees with his young sons in Hungary after a defeat on the battlefield at the Illasi river. Verona is added to the royal domain, Vicenza and Treviso are made into free cities. The Communal militia of Siena defeats the Pisan (mostly mercenary) army at the battle of Volterra, marking the beginning of the most splendid (and war-ridden) era for the Tuscan Comuni, who managed to avoid the worst of the Mongol invasions.

Middle East: A Mongol army razes Mosul after annhilating the forces of the aged Khayun Beg, a Khorezmian refugee as many of his men. Led by Hulagu Khan and his Christian Turk general, Kedburka/Kitbuga, the Mongols then head for Syria and clash with the local Sungurid Turkmen in the battle of Ath-Thadhyayn on the Euphrates, an extremely bloody draw, after which the new emir of Syria, Lalak ibn Sungur, accepts a weak vassalage to the Mongols retaining life and a considerable independence.

1260 ca.

Southern Europe: Gherardo Segarelli, a poor young man from Parma, refused admission into the Franciscan order, establishes the Apostolic movement, a heretic sect fighting Church corruption and wealth which will gain importance in Lombardy, especially among the peasantry.

Caucasus: The tenacious Muslim Laks of eastern Caucasus (Daghestan) are finally vassalized by the Golden Horde.

Black Africa: The powerful kingdom of Kanem, after the death of mai (king) Dunama Dabbalemi, enters a long phase of decline caused by internal rivalries and raids by Berbers and Arabs from the north.