1371

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political events

Scotland's David II dies at Edinburgh February 22 at age 46 after a 40-year reign of which 18 were spent in prison or in exile (see 1363). Having antagonized much of the country by his financial extravagance in recent years, he is succeeded by Robert the Steward, 54, whose maternal grandfather was Robert I the Bruce and who was recognized by the Scottish Parliament as David's successor in 1326, 3 years before David became king. The new king will reign until his death in 1390 as Robert II, beginning the Stuart (or Stewart) dynasty.

Castile's Enrique Trastámara takes Zamora February 26 and makes Portugal's Fernãndo I renounce his claims to Castile in the Treaty of Alcoutin. Fernão agrees to marry Enrique's daughter Leonora (Enrique's daughter Constance marries the English prince John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster).

Milan's tyrant Bernabo Visconti antagonizes the Vatican by making himself master of Reggio and other areas that pay feudal dues to the Holy See at Rome. The new pope Gregory XI places him under the ban, but when he sends legates with a bull of excommunication Bernabo makes them eat the parchment and subjects them to other insults (see 1372).

The Battle of Chernomen (Chirmen) on the Maritsa River September 26 ends in victory for the Ottoman sultan Murad I, whose armies have swept northward through Thrace to the Balkans in the past 5 years and conquered Adrianople 9 years ago. The southern Serbian king Vukasin has gathered a 70,000-man Christian army to oppose the Turks, and although Murad's forces are much smaller he takes Vukasin by surprise as the Serb king stops to rest between Philippopolis and Adrianople; great numbers of Serbs are slaughtered, and many of the survivors are driven into the river, where they drown. Murad forces the rulers of Bulgaria, Macedonia, and the Byzantine Empire to recognize his suzerainty. The Serbian king Vukasin is killed in battle and succeeded by his 36-year-old son, who will reign until 1395 as Marko Kraljevic (Mark, the King's son), albeit as a vassal of the Ottoman Turks (see Kosovo, 1389).

medicine

The bubonic plague that will be called the Black Death reappears in England, but the outbreak is milder than in 1361 (see 1382; 1406).

religion

Pierre Roger de Beaufort is ordained a priest at Rome January 4 and is crowned pope January 5 (see 1370); he will reign until his death in 1378 as Gregory XI.

1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380