1259

Years: 1256 1257 1258 – 1259 – 1260 1261 1262
Decades: 1220s 1230s 1240s – 1250s – 1260s 1270s 1280s
Centuries: 12th century – 13th century – 14th century

1259 by topic
Politics
State leaders – Sovereign states
Birth and death categories
Births – Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments – Disestablishments
Art and literature
1259 in poetry

**1259 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1259 MCCLIX
Ab urbe condita	2012
Armenian calendar	708 ԹՎ ՉԸ
Bahá'í calendar	-585 – -584
Bengali calendar	666
Berber calendar	2209
Buddhist calendar	1803
Burmese calendar	621
Byzantine calendar	6767 – 6768
Chinese calendar	戊午年十二月初六日 (3895/3955-12-6) — to — 己未年閏十一月十六日 (3896/3956-intercalary 11-16)
Coptic calendar	975 – 976
Ethiopian calendar	1251 – 1252
Hebrew calendar	5019 – 5020
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	1315 – 1316
- Shaka Samvat	1181 – 1182
- Kali Yuga	4360 – 4361
Holocene calendar	11259
Iranian calendar	637 – 638
Islamic calendar	656 – 658
Japanese calendar
Korean calendar	3592
Thai solar calendar	1802

Portion of a fresco of the Boyana Church, completed in 1259

Events

The Oxford Parliament, led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, leads to the acceptance by King Henry III of England of the Provisions of Oxford.
September – Battle of Pelagonia: The Empire of Nicaea defeats the Principality of Achaea, ensuring the eventual reconquest of Constantinople in 1261.
December 4 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
The famous frescoes of the Boyana Church in Bulgaria are completed (the church and its murals are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site).
The German cities of Lübeck, Wismar, and Rostock enter into a pact to defend against pirates of the Baltic Sea, laying the groundwork for the Hanseatic League.
Nogai Khan leads the second Mongol Golden Horde attack against Lithuania and Poland.

August 11 – While conducting a siege against the Song Dynasty city known as Fishing Town in the province of Chongqing, China, the Mongol Khagan, Mongke Khan, dies in the nearby hills. Persian, Chinese, and Mongol records have different accounts of how he died, including succumbing to an arrow wound received by a Chinese archer in the siege, dysentery, and even a cholera epidemic. His death sparks a succession crisis in the Mongol Empire, while his brothers Ariq Böke and Kublai soon convene their own kuriltai to elect themselves as the next Khan of Khans, opening the path to a four–year-long civil war from 1260 to 1264. In the end, Ariq Böke surrenders to Kublai.
While engaged in a war with the Mongols, the Song Chinese official Li Zengbo writes in his Kozhai Zagao, Xugaohou that the city of Qingzhou is manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased gunpowder bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.
Lannathai, a kingdom in the north of Thailand, is founded by King Mengrai.
The Goryeo kingdom in Korea surrenders to invading Mongol forces.
The Chinese era Kaiqing begins and ends in the Northern Song Dynasty of China.
The Japanese Shōka era ends, and the Shōgen era begins.

March 25 – Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1332)
April 25 – Infanta Branca of Portugal, daughter of King Afonso III of Portugal and Urraca of Castile (d. 1321)
Pietro Cavallini, Italian painter (d. 1330)
Demetre II of Georgia (d. 1289)
Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster (d. 1326)
probable – John II of Jerusalem (d. 1285)