1372

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political events

France's Charles V regains Poitou and Brittany from the English and regains control of the Channel after 32 years by defeating the English at La Rochelle (see 1370). Charles has received help from Louis II, 3rd duc de Bourbon, and enjoys support also from a Castilian fleet that blocks English transport in the North (see 1373).

Gaston III, comte de Foix, defeats the comte d'Armagnac and settles a long-standing feud by arranging the marriage of his only son to one of the count's daughters.

The Channel island of Guernsey falls to the self-styled prince of Wales Owen-ap-Thomas.

Pope Gregory XI declares war on Milan's tyrant Bernabo Visconti (see 1371). The White Company of English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood (Giovanni Acuto) joins in August with Enguerrand de Coucy, now 32, to fight for Visconti (see 1364; Coucy, 1356). Hawkwood fought for Perugia in 1369 against the forces of the late Pope Urban V, and last year fought Bernabo's enemies in Florence, Pisa, and elsewhere. Coucy has accepted 6,000 florins for his services; Hawkwood has his pages burnish the company's white armor to a mirror-like brilliance that makes the men look more fierce, they fight on foot while the pages hold their horses, but Hawkwood resigns his command after defeating the marquis of Monferatto, taking umbrage at having a council of war interfere with his plans, and he accepts an offer to serve the pope, who has obtained support from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, Joanna of Naples, and the Hungarian Hapsburgs. Hawkwood and Coucy join forces to take the city of Mantua (see 1373).

commerce

France's Charles V introduces financial reforms on the basis of suggestions by his chaplain Nicole d'Oresme, 47 (year approximate). An Aristotelian scholar and economist as well as a clergyman, Oresme has developed theories on the lawfulness and need of a permanent taxation system and a stable system of coinage, with coins having a fixed weight of gold or silver whose fineness is guaranteed by the issuing authority (see politics, 1355).

religion

The Swedish visionary Birgit, now 69, makes a pilgrimage to Cyprus and Jerusalem (see 1349; 1373).

everyday life

The Vatican asks an astronomer to correct the Julian calendar in use since 46 B.C. because it is too long by 11 minutes and 15 seconds each year, but the astronomer will die before he can reform the calendar (see Gregorian calendar, 1582).

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