1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380
Contents: political eventscommerce religion food and drink population |
John Wycliffe and his Reform party win control of London and oppose ownership of property by clergymen.
England's Black Prince of Wales Edward Plantagent dies at Westminister Palace June 8 at age 46 of a disease contracted while fighting in Spain. He has married Joan, the "Fair Maid of Perth," but his only son is only 9 and his death leaves his father, Edward III, now 63, with no mature heir to the throne (it also robs the House of Commons of its greatest supporter); his brother John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, regains power and the Good Parliament removes his avaricious mistress Alice Perrers, who has exercised undue influence on the king, interfered in the courts of law, secured sentences in favor of her friends or of people who had purchased her favor, and received several grants of land to say nothing of jewels. Parliament forbids any woman to practice law in the courts (see 1377).
Denmark's tenants-in-chief meet at Odense in May and choose Margrethe as regent for her 6-year-old son Olaf, who is titular king of both Denmark and Norway (see 1375; 1380).
Joanna of Naples, now 50, marries the military adventurer Otto of Brunswick (see 1362; 1381).
The rebellious son of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaeologus gains help from Genoa to escape from the prison where he has been confined, enters Constantinople August 12, and takes his father prisoner (see 1377).
England's Good Parliament appeals to Edward III to exclude foreigners from London's retail trade; it asks the king to banish the Lombard bankers, enforce the 1351 Statute of Labourers, regulate fisheries, and ban export of English grain and yarn.
Pope Gregory XI at Avignon condemns the teachings of the late Catalan mystic-poet Ramon Llull, who died in 1316 (or a year earlier). Llull confused faith with reason, says the pope, but later popes will approve of Llull's veneration.
John Wycliffe expounds the doctrine of "dominion as founded in grace" by which all authority, both secular and ecclesiastical, is derived from God and is forfeited when its possessor falls into mortal sin. Wycliffe attacks the worldliness of the medieval Church and presents logical grounds for the refusal by England of certain tribute demanded by Rome.
John Wycliffe revises ordinances governing the sale of food and encounters opposition from London fishmongers and other victualers who depend on wines from France, spices from the Orient, and air-cured stockfish from Iceland (see Walworth, 1377).
The Laotian king Sam Saen Thai of Lan Xang compiles a population register containing the names of 300,000 able-bodied men available for military conscription, but people are tired of warfare and his administration will be a peaceful one.
1371 1372 1373 1374 1375 1376 1377 1378 1379 1380
