Middle Ages
Magna Carta (1215): King John, the Barons and the Rule of Law
King John granted a charter limiting royal power; it was annulled within weeks, but later reissues made it a lasting foundation of English law.
Region
Europe
Middle Ages
Fourth Lateran Council (1215): Innocent III Reshapes the Church
The council issued 71 decrees that shaped Catholic doctrine, pastoral care and law for centuries, including rules discriminating against Jews and Muslims.
Middle Ages
Dominican Order (1216): Saint Dominic and the Order of Preachers
The Order of Preachers became a leading religious order of educated mendicant friars, prominent in universities, missions and the medieval Inquisition.
Middle Ages
Fifth Crusade (1217-1221): The Siege of Damietta in Egypt
Crusader failure; Damietta was returned to the Ayyubids in 1221 in exchange for the crusaders' safe withdrawal and an eight-year truce.
Middle Ages
Battle of Lincoln (1217): William Marshal Saves Henry III
Royalist victory; the rebel barons' army was destroyed, opening the way to the Treaty of Lambeth and Prince Louis's withdrawal from England.
Middle Ages
Saint Sava (1219): Founding the Independent Serbian Church
The Serbian Church became autocephalous (self-governing) under its own archbishop, with its seat at Žiča, independent of the Archbishopric of Ohrid.
Middle Ages
Salisbury Cathedral: Early English Gothic and the Tallest Spire
A cathedral built almost entirely in one style within a generation, later crowned by the tallest church spire in Britain.
Middle Ages
Golden Bull of 1222: Hungary's Charter of Noble Rights
Andrew II granted a charter guaranteeing the rights of the royal servants and nobility; it remained a cornerstone of Hungarian constitutional law until 1848.
Middle Ages
Sixth Crusade (1228-1229): Frederick II Regains Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth were returned to Christian rule by the Treaty of Jaffa, with a truce of ten years, while the Temple Mount stayed under Muslim control.
Middle Ages
Medieval Inquisition (1231): The Papal Hunt for Heresy Begins
Heresy trials passed from local bishops to papally appointed inquisitors, chiefly Dominican and Franciscan friars, a system used for the rest of the Middle Ages.
Middle Ages
Mongol Invasion of Kievan Rus (1237-1240) and the Fall of Kyiv
Most Rus principalities were devastated and became tributaries of the Golden Horde, the beginning of more than two centuries of Mongol overlordship.
Middle Ages
Alhambra: The Nasrid Palace-Fortress of Granada
The Nasrid emirs built a walled palace-city that survived the fall of Granada in 1492 and is today the best-preserved palace of medieval Islamic Spain.