The Priory of St. Mary of Bethlehem…

The Mongol Empire's commanders in the Huai River area remain on the defensive, taking few major Song cities, although the regent Töregene and Güyük Khan order their generals to attack the Song.

Yaroslav, Grand prince of Vladimir, is summoned by Batu Khan to his capital Sarai in 1243.

After a lengthy conference, he returns to Vladimir with honors.

Seljuq autonomy is lost forever at the Battle of Köse Dag in 1243.

The defeat results in a period of turmoil in Anatolia and leads directly to the decline and disintegration of the Seljuq state.

The Empire of Trebizond becomes a vassal state of the Mongol empire.

Real power over Anatolia is exercised by the Mongols.

The Mongol invasion of Anatolia, which has meanwhile thrown the East into confusion, is of great benefit to Nicaea, for it isolates the rival Greek empire of Trebizond and …

…weakens the Seljuq sultanate of Rum in east central Anatolia.

The sultanate’s contemporaries consider it “Turkey”, although its population includes Christians, Armenians, Greeks, Syrians, and Iranian Muslims.

Commerce, agriculture, and art thrive in the kingdom, where a tolerance of races and religions has contributed to order and stability.

However, a war against the Khwarezm-Shah dynasty of Iran instigated in 1230 by Rüm’s sultan 'Ala' ad-Din Kay-Qubadh (Kaikobad) I leads ultimately to the disintegration of Rüm and of Seljuq power.

The loss of the Khorezmian buffer state means that when the invading Mongols reach Turkey's eastern frontiers, the Seljuqs cannot fend them off.

During the reign of Ögedei, the Seljuqs of Anatolia had offered friendship and a modest tribute to Chormaqan.

Under Kaykhusraw II, however, the Mongols began to pressure the Sultan to go to Mongolia in person, give hostages, and accept a Mongol darugachi.

Gujarat falls to the Delhi Sultanate in 1243.

The autonomous Muslim kingdom of Murcia submits during the campaigns of Ferdinand III,  almost without a struggle, to his son Alfonso; Ferdinand incorporates the province into the kingdom of Castile in this year.

The Knights had been able in December 1242 to capture Sartowice, Swantopolk's castle on the banks of the Vistula.

The ensuing five-week siege of Sartowice fails to recapture the fortress and Swantopolk loses nine hundred men.

Swietopolk, in the spring of 1243, also loses the castle at Nakel (Nakło nad Notecią), which dominates trade on the Noteć River.

In the face of these losses, the duke is forced to make short-lived truce.

A parliament at Acre in 1243 refuses homage to Frederick's son Conrad, German king from 1237, unless he appears in person, and names Alice, queen dowager of Cyprus, as regent.

Thus it is that baronial rule triumphs over imperial administration in the Levant.

Nevertheless, the victory of the barons brings to the kingdom not strength but continued division, the more serious as new forces appear in the Muslim world.