1337
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Contents: political eventscommerce art |
A "Hundred Years' War" between England and France begins as the Valois family challenges England's Plantagenet family's claim to be the rightful rulers of France. Philippe VI has announced that he is seizing Gascony (see 1303) and contests English claims to Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and other French territories. Basing his claim either on the possibility of an alliance with Flemish rebels or a desire to free Aquitaine from any obligation to pay homage to the French crown, England's Edward III denies Philippe's legitimacy, assumes the title King of France, and orders Philippe to yield his throne. Edward gains support from the townspeople of Flanders, who depend on English wool for their industry, and from the City of London, whose officials are concerned about French influence in its Flemish market (see 1338; wool embargo, 1336).
Poland's Casimir III swears an oath relinquishing Pomerania and Pomerellen for all eternity in a conference held at Leslau (see 1335). Those attending include Bohemia's king Johann, the Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig II, and the grand master of the Teutonic Knights Dietrich von Altenburg, but once again the Polish bishops and nobility reject their king's cession of territory, and the pope is asked to decide the issue (see 1343).
Nicomedia (Ismid) falls to the Ottoman Turks.
Mali's Mansa Musa I dies after a 30-year reign in which he has amassed a fortune in gold, commissioned great mosques (whose architects were paid in gold dust), been entertained at his court by poets dressed in thrushes' feathers with wooden heads and red beaks, and ordered the execution of anyone who wore sandals or sneezed in his presence.
English merchants contribute 20,000 sacks of wool as a gift to pay the expenses of Edward III. The merchants depend on receipts from the sale of their wool at Bruges and Ghent to pay for the casks of wine they import from Bordeaux.
Painter Giotto di Bondone dies at Florence January 8 at age 69.
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