The Charter of the Forest is restored to its traditional rights by King Henry III. ‘Free men’ are allowed to find pasture for their pigs, collect firewood, graze animals, or cut turf for fuel. At this time, however, only about 10 percent of the population is ‘free’, the rest are locked into service to a local landowner, some of them little more than slaves.[2]
The Magna Carta is reaffirmed (for the third time) by Henry III, in return for issuing a property tax.[3] It becomes the definitive version of the text.[4]
March 3 – As the envoy of Pope Honorius III, Romanus, Cardinal-deacon of San Angelo, leaves Rome to travel to France to the court of King Louis XIII.[5]
April 15 – Pope Honorius III issues the papal bull Magistro Andree canonico Palentino, granting the Andree, a former Jew who converted to Christianity, the title of canon of Palencia, with full eccleastical dignities.[7]
May 30 – King Louis VII of France meets in Péronne with a hermit who claims to be Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders and the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, who had not been seen in public since being taken a prisoner in Bulgaria. Concluding that the hermit is an impostor, King Louis gives the man three days to leave France, and the “false Baldwin” instead leads a rebellion, eventually losing and being executed.[10]
Emperor Frederick II takes an oath at San Germano (near Cassino) and promises to depart on a Crusade (the Sixth Crusade), for the Near East in August 1227. He sends 1000 knights to the Levant and provides Rome with 100,000 ounces of gold, to be forfeited to the Catholic Church should he break his vow. These funds will be returned to Frederick once he arrives at Acre.[12]
July 25 – The Agreement of San Germano is signed between the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Pope Honorius III, with the Emperor Frederick agreeing to lead the Sixth Crusade to recapture Jerusalem and the rest of the Christian Holy Land in the Middle East from the Muslims. In return for the financing and the provision of soldiers by the Catholis Church in Syria, Frederick agrees to launch the Crusade on or before August 15, 1227.[13]
September 11 – The Republic of Massa is founded in Central Italy with Bernardino del fu Losco as its first podesta appointed by the council of nine lords to serve as executive of the independent state.[15][16]
November 17 – After being taken prisoner of war at the Battle of Mölln in January, the Danish governor Albrecht signs the Peace of Bardowick in order to obtain his freedom, ceding Holstein to Adolf of Schauenberg, in addition to releasing King Valdemar II of Denmark and his son Valdemar the Younger, who both had been kidnapped in 1223 and held as prisoners.[1]
Autumn – Subutai is assigned a new campaign by Genghis Khan against the Tanguts. He crosses the Gobi Desert with a Mongol army and advances south into the Western Xia (or Xi Xia). Meanwhile, Genghis, in his mid-sixties, becomes wounded during hunting. His injury – a dislocated shoulder, perhaps, or a bruised rib – forces him to take some rest.[18]
Iltutmish, Ghurid ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, repels a Mongol attack and invades Bengal. His rival, Ghiyasuddin, leads an army to halt Iltutmish’s advance, but decides to avoid a conflict by paying him tribute and accepting his suzerainty.[19]
The 8-year-old Henry I (the Fat) is crowned as king of Cyprus in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia at Nicosia. His uncle Philip of Ibelin orders the coronation, so that when Henry comes of age at fifteen a regency could not be prolonged on the ground that he is not yet crowned.[20]
^The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens: The Albigensian Crusade and Its Aftermath (2003) p.70
^Sir James H. Ramsay of Bamff, A History of the Revenues of the Kings of England, 1066-1399 (Clarendon Press, 1925) pp.279-281
^“Michael Scot in Spain”, by Charles H. Haskins, in Estudios Eruditos in Memoriam de Adolfo Bonilla Y San Martin (1875-1926) (University of Madrid, 1950) p.152
^Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus, (Edward Arnold Ltd, 1977) p.143
^Jeanne de Constantinople face aux fantômes du père (“Jeanne of Constantinople facing the ghosts of her father”), by Gilles Lecuppre, in Jeanne de Constantinople, comtesse de Flandre et de Hainaut, ed. by Nicolas Dessaux (Somogy, 2009), pp. 33–40