1275

Political Events

Bavaria's duke Ludwig III is appointed an elector of the Holy Roman Empire May 15 as count palatine of the Palatinate (the complexity of ducal dynasties that will control upper and lower Bavaria make it difficult to follow their rise and fall, but Bavaria will remain an important part of the empire for centuries).

The brothers of Sweden's Valdemar Birgersson rebel against the king for the concessions that he made last year to Pope Gregory X (see religion, 1274). Defeated in battle, Valdemar goes into exile in Norway; his eldest brother becomes king and will reign until his death in 1290 as Magnus I Ladulás (see 1279).

Exploration, Colonization

Amsterdam has its beginnings as Floris V, count of Holland, exempts "those who reside near the Amstel dam" from paying duties. Now 21, Floris was born at Leiden, inherited his title from his father in 1256 before he was 2, and will rule until his murder in 1296, enlarging his Dutch county by subjugating its neighbors (see 1289).

Commerce

London erects its first customs house on the banks of the Thames. England has been levying customs duties since 979.

Medicine

Chirurgia by William of Saliceto contains the earliest record of human dissection, a practice discouraged by the Church since 1163.

Religion

Zohar by the Jewish theologian Moses de León will endure as the fundamental work on Jewish mysticism.

Constantinople's anti-unionist Greek Orthodox patriarch Joseph I abdicates and is succeeded in May by his Nicaean-born archivist who will reign until 1282 as John XI Becchus, who initially follows the lead of his predecessor but will be won over by the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus and sent on diplomatic missions designed to produce a reunion between the Greek and Roman churches.

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