1298

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political events

The bold German king Adolf, Graf von Nassau alarms the electors with his imperialist advances in Meissen and Thuringia. They depose Adolf, now 48, after a 6-year reign and kill him July 21 at the Battle of Göllheim, near Worms. His rival, Albrecht of Austria, now 48, takes over and will reign until 1308 as Albrecht I.

The Battle of Falkirk July 22 in Stirlingshire gives English archers a victory over Scotsmen led by William Wallace. Edward I has led an army of 2,500 cavalry and 16,000 infantry across the border to avenge last year's defeat at Stirling Bridge and found Wallace's 2,200 cavalry and 10,000 pikemen drawn up and ready to do battle. The longbow scores its first great triumph in pitched battle, taking a heavy toll of clansmen armed with swords and spears. The Scots lose 40 cavalry and 5,000 infantry dead and wounded, the English just 200 cavalry killed and wounded.

The Battle of Curzola September 7 gives Genoa a major victory over Venice, ending a conflict that began in 1293. A Venetian fleet commanded by admirals Ruggiero Morosini Malabranca and Giovanni Soranzo has menaced Constantinople, the Venetians have burned down an important Genoese alum plant on the Anatolian coast (alum is important for fixing colors in textiles), and also broken the chains of the slave trade and endangered Genoese trade routes. Genoa has responded with a massacre of Venetians in Constantinople. Both sides employ galleys equipped with rudders in the center of their sterns; 40 to 60 meters in length, they are propelled both by 50 to 120 oarsmen as well as sails. Commanded by Admiral Lambda Doria, the Genoese fleet comprises 85 ships and their crews sink 18 Venetian galleys, capture and burn 66, kill 7,000 Venetian soldiers, sailors, and oarsmen, and take 7,000 prisoners, among them Marco Polo, who has commanded a galley and is thrown into prison.

technology

The invention of the spinning wheel begins to revolutionize textile production, but women in most of the world will continue for 7 centuries to hold their distaffs (long sticks, sometimes of metal) in one hand and the spindles that they use as spools in the other as they spin raw wool or flax into thread. Wool or linen thread is usually left in its natural grey or brown but sometimes is dyed with roots, leaves, birch bark, madder, goldenrod, barberry, blackberry, woad, walnuts, flag iris, or lichens collected from the forest. Only the most sophisticated producers use alum to fix colors.

literature

The Dominican prelate Jacobus de Varagine, archbishop of Genoa, dies at Genoa in mid-July at age 68, having written The Golden Legend (Legenda aura, or Lombardica historia), a religious book that will be translated into all western European languages. Jacobus has also written a chronicle of the city-state up to the year 1296.

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