1361

1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370

political events

Henry of Grosmont, 1st duke of Lancaster, dies of plague at Leicester March 24 at age 60 (approximate) and England's Edward III loses his most trusted adviser. The duke's older daughter Maud inherits the Lancastrian titles and estates, which upon her death next year will pass to her sister Blanche and Blanche's husband, John of Gaunt (a corruption of Ghent), now 21, whose son Henry of Bolingbroke will become England's Henry IV.

Philip of Burgundy dies without issue in November and his death raises hopes by England's Edward III that one of his sons may marry Philip's widow, Margaret of Flanders, and secure her rich estates (see 1362).

Denmark's Valdemar IV Atterdag conquers Gotland, and by obtaining the town of Visby gains a foothold in the Baltic trade (see 1360). The Hanseatic League wins the support of Sweden, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and the dissident Jutland nobility in opposing the Danish action, and a 2-year war begins that will end with a sharp, but brief, curtailment of the Hansa's power (see 1362).

Hungarians select Buda as their capital (see 1247).

commerce

Parliament enacts England's first Corn Law, barring exports of wheat in order to keep domestic prices low (the English use the word corn to mean any kind of grain; see 1436).

medicine

The bubonic plague that will be called the Black Death strikes again in England, but less severely than in 1349, and rages also in France, Poland, and elsewhere, taking a terrible toll at Milan, especially among children (see 1371).

education

The University of Pavia has its beginnings in a school established by Galeazzo Visconti II, who has had a magnificent castle built for himself.

literature

Valenciennes-born poet Jean Froissart, 30, travels to England for the purpose of presenting to Queen Philippa d'Hainaut his account of the Battle of Poitiers. She accords him a gracious reception and inspires him with the idea of writing historical chronicles.

1361 1362 1363 1364 1365 1366 1367 1368 1369 1370