1295
Ghazan converts the Ilkhanate to Islam
The Mongol Ilkhan of Persia, Ghazan, formally converted to Islam and ordered his army to follow. The ruling house that had sacked Baghdad forty years earlier now patronized mosques and madrasas. Persian culture absorbed the Mongols as it had absorbed earlier invaders. Ghazan's conversion completed the Islamization of the western Mongol khanates and reconciled Iran's population to their foreign rulers for the first time.
Marco Polo returns to Venice
After twenty-four years abroad, the Polos staggered back into Venice in travel-worn Tartar robes. Legend holds that they sewed gemstones into the lining of their clothes and amazed their relatives by cutting the seams open. Within three years Marco would dictate his book from a Genoese prison. His account of paper money, coal, and asbestos struck European readers as so fantastic that many refused to believe him.
Edward I convenes the Model Parliament
Facing wars on multiple fronts, Edward I summoned representatives of clergy, barons, knights, and burgesses to Westminster. The assembly's composition became a template for later parliaments. His famous writ declared that what touches all should be approved by all. The principle that taxation required consent from all social orders, not merely the great magnates, became a cornerstone of English constitutional development.
Auld Alliance struck between Scotland and France
Facing Edward I's overbearing interference, the Scottish government of John Balliol negotiated a treaty of mutual defense with Philip IV of France. The alliance, periodically renewed for centuries, would shape European diplomacy and bedevil English foreign policy until the sixteenth century. The treaty bound two kingdoms separated by the entirety of England, ensuring that any English war on one front risked attack on the other.