1251
Mongke elected Great Khan
Backed by Batu of the Golden Horde, Mongke the son of Tolui was raised on the felt as fourth Great Khan, ending a power struggle among Genghisid lineages. He purged the Ogedeid faction, reformed taxes, and dispatched his brothers Hulagu and Kublai to conquer west and south. His reign restored central authority and set the stage for the empire's greatest territorial expansion.
Aibek establishes Mamluk power in Egypt
The Turkic slave-soldier Aibek, first sultan of the Mamluk Bahri dynasty, consolidated his grip on Egypt by marrying the formidable Shajar al-Durr and eliminating Ayyubid loyalists. The new regime, built on the paradox of slaves ruling free men, proved more durable and effective than the dynasty it replaced. His marriage to Shajar al-Durr was purely political, and she would eventually have him murdered in his bath.
Shepherds' Crusade riots in France
A charismatic Hungarian preacher gathered tens of thousands of French peasants and shepherds under a banner of rescuing King Louis from captivity. The mob turned violently antisemitic and anticlerical before being suppressed by royal authorities at Bourges. The movement exposed the deep social tensions simmering beneath the surface of thirteenth-century France, where crusading fervor and class resentment fed on each other.
Sorghaghtani Beki maneuvers her sons to power
The Nestorian Christian princess and widow of Tolui, widely regarded as the most capable politician in the Mongol Empire, engineered the election of her son Mongke as Great Khan. Her statecraft ensured that Tolui's line, not Ogedei's, would dominate the empire, and that her other sons Kublai and Hulagu would conquer China and Persia.