Events of 1291

Europe

• Spring: Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi set sail from Genoa with the goal of reaching India; they never return.

• May 10 – Scottish nobles recognize the authority of King Edward I of England in mediating resolution of the succession crisis created by the death of King Alexander III of Scotland five years prior.

• August – According to tradition, the Swiss Confederation is formed by Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, the "three forest cantons" when they enact the Federal Charter of 1291.

• Sancho IV of Castile captures Tarifa from the Moors.

• The Habsburgs acquire the Swiss city of Lucerne.

• Pope Nicholas IV confirms the independence of San Marino via papal bull.

• All glassmakers in Venice are forced to move to the island of Murano in order to contain the risk of fire, thus establishing the glass industry there.

• Klenová Castle is constructed in southern Bohemia as part of a frontier defense system.

• King Andrew III of Hungary gives royal town privileges to Bratislava, the present-day capital of Slovakia.

Asia

• May 18 – Al-Ashraf Khalil of Egypt captures Acre, thus exterminating the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (the final Christian landholding remaining from the Crusades), and ending the Ninth Crusade and effectively all Crusades, by eliminating the possibility of further attacks on the Holy Land (see Siege of Acre (1291)).

• The artificial Kunming Lake is constructed as a reservoir for Beijing in Yuan Dynasty China by famous engineer and astronomer Guo Shoujing.

• Emperor Kameyama of Japan establishes the Zen Buddhist temple of Nanzenji in Kyoto.

Births

• February 8 – King Afonso IV of Portugal (d. 1357)

• October 31 – Philippe de Vitry, French composer (d. 1361)

• Pope Clement VI (d. 1352)

• Theodore I of Montferrat (d. 1338)

• Aimone of Savoy (d. 1343)

Deaths

• March 10 – Arghun, Mongol ruler

• June 18 – King Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)

• June 26 – Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III of England

• July 15 – Rudolph I of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1218)

• Hong Dagu, Korean military leader (b. 1244)

• Talabuga, khan of the Blue Horde