Autumn - In response to the actions of new royal administrators in north and west Wales, Madog ap Llywelyn leads a revolt against his English overlords.
December 24 - Pope Boniface VIII succeeds Pope Celestine V as the 193rd pope after Celestine V abdicates the papacy on December 13, only 5 months after reluctantly accepting his surprise election on July 5, wishing to return to his life as an ascetic hermit.
Undated
The death of Kublai Khan allows the 4 khanates of the Mongol Empire (the Chagatai Khanate, the Golden Horde, the Ilkhanate, and the Yuan Dynasty of China) to formally become independent; they each had already been moving toward independence during Kublai's reign.
John Balliol, King of Scotland, decides to refuse King Edward I of England's demands for support in a planned invasion of France, and instead informs the French of Edward's plans and negotiates the Auld Alliance with France and Norway. These actions play a part in precipitating the Scottish Wars of Independence, which begin in 1296.
England and Portugal enter into the first iteration of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, the oldest alliance in the world still in force.
Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France declare war on each other. To finance this war, both kings lay taxes on the clergy. Pope Boniface VIII insists that kings gain papal consent of taxation of the clergy and forbids churchmen to pay taxes.