1303

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political events

France's Philippe IV sends Guillaume de Nogaret to seize Pope Boniface VIII and fetch him back to France to face trial by a general council. On the "Terrible Day at Anagni" September 8, Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna gain entrance to the papal apartment, find Boniface in bed, and take him prisoner after threatening to kill him. Nogaret and Colonna are forced to flee, but Boniface is taken to Rome and confined by the Orsini family in the Vatican, where he dies humiliated in October at age 68 (approximate).

The French return Gascony in southern France to England's Edward I (see 1297; but see also1337).

The Byzantine emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus and his co-emperor son Michael IX employ the Grand Catalan Company as mercenaries. Headed by the Sicilian-born military adventurer and former Knight Templar Roger di Flor, 22, the 6,500 almogávares (Spanish mercenaries) have previously served Sicily's Aragonese king Frederick III in his war with the House of Anjou, but they are an unruly lot and begin attacking Byzantines as well as Turks (see 1305).

Delhi's second Khalji sultan Ala-ud-Din (Juna Khan) captures Chitor as he expands his realm (see 1301). He will conquer Mandu in 1305 and annex the rich Hindu kingdom of Devagiri (see 1308).

commerce

The merchant's charter (carte mercatoria) granted by England's Edward I allows foreign merchants free entry with their goods and free departure with goods they have bought or have failed to sell (with the exception of wine, which is too much in demand to be allowed to leave the country). English merchants and certain towns will force some modifications on Edward's policy, which will otherwise endure for nearly 2 centuries.

Florentine banker Filippo di Amedeo de Peruzzi dies bankrupt, having been exiled from Florence by France's Philippe IV. His family has underwritten business ventures throughout Europe; loaned enormous sums of money to monarchs and popes; purchased jewelry, silk, spices, and wool wholesale; and opened branches at Naples, Paris, and London. But the default of their loan to England's Edward I has ruined them, and Philippe has confiscated their goods.

religion

Treviso-born Cistercian prelate Niccolo Boccazini is elected October 22 to succeed the late Pope Boniface VIII and will reign until next year as Benedict XI.

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