1284

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political events

Castile and León's Alfonso X dies at Seville April 4 at age 63 after a 32-year reign in which he is reputed to have said, "Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe." Alfonso el Sabio (the Wise) is succeeded by his second son, Sancho, whom he has tried to exclude from the succession but who will rule through violence and strife until 1295 as Sancho IV (el Bravo).

Pisa elects the Guelph leader Ugolino della Gherardesca, conte di Donoratico, as podesta and captain of the people. Formerly a Ghibelline, Ugolino concludes a peace with Florence but will rule tyranically until 1288, using his position to exile his personal enemies and destroy their castles.

Genoa gives command of a fleet to merchant-diplomat Benedetto Zaccaria, who blockades Pisa's Porto Pisano on the Tyrrhenian Sea, maneuvers the Pisans into committing their fleet to combat, and defeats them in the Battle of Meloria, a loss from which Pisa will never recover. Named ambassador to the court of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Paleologus 20 years ago, Zaccaria and his brother Manuel were given the fief of Phocaea north of Smyrna and used its alum mines as the basis on which to build a commercial empire that has been trading in the Black Sea, in Constantinople, Flanders, France, North Africa, and Spain.

Persia's prince Arghun leads a revolt that unseats his uncle Tegüder, who is executed August 10. Formally enthroned August 11 as the fourth Mongol il-khan (subordinate khan), Arghun countermands Tegüder's Islamic policies, reinstates Buddhism as the state religion, and will rule until his death in 1291.

Kublai Khan leads a 500,000-man Chinese army into Vietnam (see 944). Guerrillas organized by military strategist Tran Hung Dao, 55, fall back along the valley of the Red River, follow a scorched-earth policy, and then launch a counterattack that frees the Vietnamese capital and expels the Mongol invasion force (see 1287).

commerce

Venice coins the first gold ducats, its merchants having prospered in trade with the East while those at Florence thrive on trade with the North (see florins, 1252). Made of 24-carat gold, the ducat weighs 3.5 grams, will serve as a standard of value throughout Europe, and will retain its gold content until 1797.

education

Cambridge University (the University of Cambridge) gets its first college as the Benedictine monk Hugh de Balsham, bishop of Ely, founds what later will be called Peterhouse with a view to increasing the supply of academically trained clergymen (see 1231). The bishop established the college 4 years ago for "studious scholars living according to the rule of the scholars of Oxford called of Merton," but although they were to reside in "the dwelling-place of the secular brethren of the Hospital of St. John" the scholars did not fit in with the others and have been relocated to two hostels near the church of St. Peter (see Clare, 1326).

environment

Rats are so prevalent in Europe that a story appears about a piper who leads children into a hollow because townspeople have refused to pay him for piping their rats into the river Weser. Rattenfänger von Hameln may also have reference to the Children's Crusade of 1212, but much distress is caused by rats, which not only consume grain stores, seeds, poultry, and eggs but also bite infants and spread disease (see 1484; Black Death, 1340).

food and drink

Ravioli gains popularity at Rome, where people have been consuming lagano cum caseo (fettucini) for years (see 1279).

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