1220 - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1220 (MCCXX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1220th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 220th year of the 2nd millennium, the 20th year of the 13th century, and the 1st year of the 1220s decade. As of the start of 1220, the Gregorian calendar was 7 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was the dominant calendar of the time.

• Middle Ages in Europe
• Fifth Crusade (1217-1221)
• Battle of Lihula in Estonia between Estonians and Swedes.
• Mongols first invade Abbasid caliphate – Bukhara and Samarkand taken
• End of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, destroyed by Genghis Khan's Mongolian cavalry
• Dominican Order approved by Pope Honorius III
• Frederick II crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Honorius III
• Conrad of Masovia drives out the heathen Prussians from a Masovian territory of Chelmno Land
• Trial by ordeal abolished in England
• The German Hohenstaufen dynasty which had ruled Sicily since 1194, adopts Palermo as its principal seat
• Dordrecht receives city rights, making it the oldest city in the present-day Netherlands
• Ljubljana receives its town rights
• The Islamic lands of Central Asia are overrun by the armies of the Mongol invader Genghis Khan (ca. 1155-1227), who laid waste to many civilizations and created an empire that stretched from China to the Caspian Sea. However, he failed to destroy the strength of Islam in Central Asia.

• Gothic architecture in Europe
• Rebuilding of the Cathedral of Chartres, which had been destroyed by a fire in 1194, is completed
• Rebuilding of the York Minster begins
• Building of the Salisbury Cathedral begins

• April 1 – Emperor Go-Saga of Japan (died 1272)
• November 11 – Alphonse of Toulouse, son of Louis VIII of France (died 1271)
• Thomas Ercildoun, Scottish minstrel (died 1297)
• Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir
• Przemysł I of Poland (died 1257)
• Yaroslav of Russia, Grand Duke of Vladimir
• Walter de Burgh, 1st Earl of Ulster (died 1271)

• February 17 – Theobald I, Duke of Lorraine
• April 15 – Adolf of Altena, Archbishop of Cologne
• Michael Choniates, Byzantine writer and ecclesiastic
• Farid od-Din Mohammad ebn Ebrahim 'Attar, Persian mystical poet
• Saxo Grammaticus, Danish historian (born 1150)
• Henry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford (born 1176)
• Mestwin I of Pomerania
• Queen Urraca of Portugal spouse of King Afonso II of Portugal (born 1186)

• List of state leaders in 1220
• List of religious leaders in 1220