1246
Year 1246 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
- February 28 - Siege of Jaén: Castilian forces, led by King Ferdinand III, manage to take the city of Jaén from the Andalucians. In a combined assault with the knights of the Order of Santiago, the city is handed over by Sultan Muhammad I, who accepts Ferdinand's overlordship in exchange for a 20-year truce. The Emirate of Granada becomes a vassal state of the Kingdom of Castile.
- May 22 - Henry Raspe is elected anti-king in Germany in opposition to Conrad IV of Germany and Conrad's father, the excommunicated emperor Frederick II.
- June 15 - Battle of the Leitha River: Hungarian forces, under King Béla IV, defeat Duke Frederick II at the banks of the Leitha River. Frederick is killed ; the House of Babenberg is dissolved. Emperor Frederick II places the fiefs of Austria and Styria under his rule. This ends the Austrian claims to the western counties of Hungary.
- November - Michael II Asen, ruler of the Bulgarian Empire, succeeds his brother Kaliman I. He confirms the reconquest of Bulgarian territories against John III, Byzantine ruler of the Empire of Nicaea.
- Frederick II suppresses a Sicilian revolt and deports the remaining Muslim inhabitants of Lucera.
Mongol Empire
- August 24 - Güyük Khan, eldest son of Ögedei Khan, is enthroned as the 3rd Great Khan of the Mongol Empire at Karakorum. Güyük reverses several edicts of his mother, Töregene Khatun, and orders Eljigidei, Mongol viceroy of Persia, to advance into Syria and prepare an attack on Baghdad.
- September 30 - Yaroslav II, father of Alexander Nevsky, is poisoned by Töregene Khatun, after he is summoned by Güyük Khan in Karakorum.
Levant
- Alice of Champagne, queen and regent of Jerusalem, dies after a 3-year reign. She is succeeded by her son, Henry I of Cyprus, who appoints Balian III of Beirut as his bailli and confirms Philip of Montfort in the possession of Tyre.
- 2 October – Damascus falls to the Ayyubid vizier Mu'in al-Din Hasan ibn al-Shaykh after a siege of some four months.
Asia
- February 16 - Emperor Go-Saga abdicates the throne in favor of his 3-year-old son, Go-Fukakusa, who becomes the 89th Emperor of Japan.
By topic
Arts
- Robert Grosseteste translates Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics from Greek into Latin, which marks the true start of the rediscovery of the philosopher by Medieval Europe.
Nature
- The perihelion of the Earth's orbit coincides with the December solstice.
Religion
- Beaulieu Abbey in England, founded earlier by King John, is dedicated in the presence of King Henry III, Queen Eleanor and 7-year-old Prince Edward.
- Katedralskolan in Uppsala is established beside Uppsala Cathedral as a seminary for the clergy.