1305

1301 1302 1303 1304 1305 1306 1307 1308 1309 1310

political events

The Byzantine co-emperor Michael IX Palaeologus arranges the murder of Catalan Company leader Roger di Flor in the imperial palace at Adrianople April 4 (see 1303). The mercenaries had some success in a counterattack against the Turks in Anatolia, but Michael recalled Roger di Flor last year when it became evident that the young man intended to set up a principality of his own. The Catalans rebel in the wake of their leader's assassination at age 24 and begin to ravage the Thracian countryside from their base in Gallipoli, as they will continue to do for several years before moving on to Thessaly (see Athens, 1311).

Wenceslas II of Poland and Bohemia abdicates and then dies June 21 at age 34 after a 5-year reign as king of Poland and a 27-year reign as king of Bohemia. He had been planning to invade Austria and is succeeded by his 15-year-old son, who has renounced his hereditary rights to Austria and his Hungarian crown but will reign as king of Poland and Bohemia until his death next year as Wenceslas III. Otto of Bavaria assumes the Hungarian throne to begin a 2-year reign as Otto I.

The Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace is betrayed, Sir John Mentaith captures him near Glasgow August 5 and takes him in fetters to London. An English court at Westminster Hall tries Wallace on charges of treason (see 1299). Wallace protests that he cannot be a traitor since he has never been a subject. The court nevertheless finds him guilty, he is hanged the same day, and his body is drawn and quartered (see 1306).

commerce

The Byzantine government lowers the gold content of the hyperpyron to a mere 50 percent and increases taxes to meet the costs of paying the Grand Catalan Army and repairing the damage they have wreaked.

religion

The French prelate Raimond Bertrand de Got, 41, is elected to succeed the late Pope Benedict XII. Installed through the manipulation of France's Philippe IV at Perugia, he begins a 9-year reign as Clement V (but see 1309).

Barcelona's 70-year-old rabbi Solomon ben Abraham Adret issues a decree threatening to excommunicate any Jew under the age of 25 (medical students excepted) who studies philosophy or science. The anti-rationalist French Jewish zealot Astruc of Lunel, 55, has persuaded Rabbi Adret to issue the decree, arguing that Jewish faith is being undermined by followers of Maimonides, who interpret the Bible allegorically and even take the writings of Aristotle as their religious guide (see 1306).

art

Painting: The Life of Christ, The Last Judgment, Pietà, and other frescoes by Giotto for Padua's Church of Santa Maria dell' Arena, whose Arena Chapel is consecrated March 25 as work proceeds on the frescoes that Giotto will complete by 1309 with scenes from the lives of Saints Joachim and Anna, the life of the Virgin, the life and passion of Christ, and the Pentecost.

Sculpture: Madonna and Child by Italian Gothic sculptor-architect Giovanni Pisano, 55.

agriculture

Opus Ruralium Commodorum by Bolognese agriculturist Pietro Crescenzi (Petrus de Crescentiis), 75, is the first book on agriculture to appear in Europe since the 2nd century.

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