1304
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization religion communications, media art |
Jan van Avesnes, count of Hainaut, drives Flemish forces out of Holland and Zeeland but dies at Hainaut in early September at age 57 (approximate), having united the Dutch provinces and prevented the northward expansion of the counts of Flanders.
John de Warrenne, 7th earl of Surrey, dies at Kennington, Surrey, September 27 at age 73 (approximate).
Persia's Mongol Il-Khan Mahmud Ghazan dies May 11 at age 32 after a 9-year Islamic reign in which he has converted the country to Islam, curbed the abuses of the military and bureaucrats, made serious efforts to regulate taxation, provided facilities for merchants, encouraged industry, brought wastelands under cultivation, had irrigation channels dug, built observatories to provide accurate calendars for the purpose of seasonal agricultural planning, imported medicinal and fruit-bearing plants, and helped his vizier Rash ad-Din compile a Mongol history. He is succeeded by his 23-year-old brother Uljaitü (Oljeitü, or Mohammad Khudabanda), who was baptized a Christian and given the name Nicholas by his mother, converted to Buddhism, has accepted Islam and taken a Muslim name. Uljaitü dispatches his rivals with little trouble and will reign until 1316.
Franciscan missionary Oderico da Pordenone, 18, sets out to retrace Marco Polo's journey to China in the 1270s. His Description of Eastern Regions in 1330 will corroborate Polo's accounts and will say that Guangzhou (Canton) is "three times as large as Venice" and that Hangzhou (Hangchow) is "greater than any [other city] in the world."
Pope Benedict XI dies suddenly at Perugia July 7 after a reign of less than 9 months in which he has reconciled France's Philippe IV with the papacy. He has been processing the case of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna, who seized his predecessor last year at Anagni (see 1305).
The German house of Taxis initiates a courier service for its rich European clients and will grow to have a monopoly on Prussia's postal service.
Painting: Florentine painter Giotto di Bondone, 38, decorates Padua's Arena Chapel and breaks from the flowing linear style of Byzantine painting that has prevailed for 500 years. The money-lender Enrico Scrovegni wants to atone for the sins of his father (who has been imprisoned for usury) and has commissioned Giotto to create frescoes for the chapel. Giotto portrays a genuine likeness of Scrovegni presenting a model of his chapel to three angels, and he accompanies it with scenes from the lives of the Virgin and Christ, including Wedding Procession, Noli Me Tangere, and Lamentations over Christ.
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