1247
Year 1247 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
- War of the Thuringian Succession: The claims on the Ludovingians' inheritance after the death of Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, leads to a dispute over the succession territories of Thuringia and Hesse, between his niece Sophie of Thuringia and her cousin Henry III, who claim the territories as fiefs of the Electorate of Mainz.
- Rome becomes 2,000 years old.
- July 2 - King Béla IV grants territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Hungarian Cumania, makes an early mention of Litovoi and other Vlach/Romanian local rulers, in Wallachia and Transylvania.
- Summer - Siege of Seville: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III begin to besiege Seville, the city is isolated and Ramón de Bonifaz sails with 13 galleys up the Guadalquivir River to scatter some 40 smaller Almohad ships trying to oppose him.
- December 1 - A rebellion arises among the Muslim subjects in the region of Valencia. As a punishment, King James I of Aragon, issues an order of expulsion of the Muslims from his realm, leading numerous people into exile in Andalusia and North Africa.
Levant
- June 17 - Egyptian forces under Sultan As-Salih Ayyub capture Tiberias and his castle. Mount Tabor and Belvoir Castle are occupied soon afterward. Next, Ayyub moves his army to siege Ascalon – which is defended by a garrison of Knights Hospitaller. They summon the help from Acre and Cyprus.
- Summer - King Henry I sends a Cypriot squadron of 8 galleys with 100 knights led by Baldwin of Ibelin, to Acre. With the support of the Italian colonists, they fitted out 7 more galleys and some 50 lighter ships, to relieve the siege at Ascalon – which is now blockaded by the Egyptian fleet.
- The Egyptian fleet confronts the Crusader ships led by Baldwin of Ibelin at Ascalon. But before contact is made, it is caught in a sudden Mediterranean storm. Many of the Muslim ships are driven ashore and wrecked; the survivors sail back to Egypt.
- October 15 - Egyptian forces under As-Salih Ayyub capture Ascalon by surprise – while a battering-ram forces a passageway under the walls right into the citadel. Most of the defenders are massacred, and the remainder of the garrison is taken prisoner.
British Isles
- Battle of Ballyshannon: Norman forces under Maurice FitzGerald defeat a Gaelic army near Ballyshannon in northern Ireland. After the battle, the entire country of Donegal is devastated and plundered by the Normans.
- The Bethlem Royal Hospital is founded in London during the reign of King Henry III.
- Romford is chartered as a market town.
Asia
- The Hōjō clan under Hōjō Tokiyori destroys the Miura family; and in doing so, the clan consolidates its authority as regents in Japan.
By topic
Mathematics
- Qin Jiushao, Chinese mathematician, writes the Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections.
Medicine
- Song Ci publishes the Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified, a book considered to be the first monographic work on forensic medicine.