Dashed left edge = started before this timeline ·
Dashed right edge = still ongoing
Events in the 1260s 6
1025 – 1261Decline & The Crusades (1025–1261)The period from Basil II's death to the Nicaean reconquest of Constantinople spans the catastrophic defeat at Manzikert (1071), the loss of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks, the complex and often damaging relationship with the Crusader states, and the catastrophe of 1204 when the Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople and establishes the Latin Empire. The Nicaean Empire -- the Byzantine government in exile -- reconquers Constantinople in 1261 under Michael VIII Palaiologos, but the empire it restores is a shadow of its former self.
1260 – 1315Pierre de la CroixFrench composer and theoristPierre de la Croix was a French composer known for his motets featuring extremely fast upper voices, a technique that influenced later Ars Nova rhythmic developments.
1261 – 1453The Final Century (1261–1453)The Palaiologan period (1261-1453) is the last chapter of Byzantine history -- a twilight of extraordinary cultural flowering (the Chora Church mosaics, the Hesychast controversy, the Council of Florence) alongside relentless territorial contraction. Civil wars, the Black Death, Serbian and Ottoman pressure reduce the empire to Constantinople and a few scattered territories. Constantine XI, the last emperor, dies fighting on the walls on 29 May 1453 as Mehmed II's army enters the city. The empire of Constantine the Great ends 1,123 years after its foundation.
1261Nicaean reconquest -- Constantinople restoredMichael VIII Palaiologos of the Nicaean Empire reconquers Constantinople from the Latin Empire on 25 July 1261. The restoration of the Byzantine Empire is celebrated as a triumph, but the empire Michael restores is a pale shadow of its former self -- territorially diminished, economically exhausted, and permanently weakened by the Latin occupation. The Palaiologan dynasty rules for the final 192 years of Byzantine history.
1261 – 1325King Denis of PortugalPortuguese troubadour kingKing Denis I of Portugal was himself a gifted troubadour who wrote over 130 surviving poems. He founded the University of Lisbon and was a major patron of arts and learning.
1267 – 1337Giotto di BondoneProto-Renaissance · ItalyGiotto di Bondone (c. 1267 – January 8, 1337) was an Italian painter and architect from Florence, considered the first great artist of the Western tradition and a forerunner of the Renaissance.