1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390
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Thomas of Woodstock, earl of Buckingham, returns to England early in the year after an unsuccessful siege of Nantes and finds that his nephew Henry, son of his older brother John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, has married his (Buckingham's) sister-in-law Mary Bohun. Now 26, Buckingham is the youngest of the late Edward III's seven sons, he has been earl of Buckingham since the coronation of his nephew Richard in 1377, and he had hoped to retain Mary's estates for himself.
Edmund de Mortimer, 3rd earl of March, dies of natural causes at Cork December 26 at age 30 while serving as lord lieutenant of Ireland. His 14-year-old son Roger by Philippa Plantagenet (the late Lionel of Antwerp's daughter) has married the 16-year-old Alianor Holland (daughter of Thomas, 2nd earl of Kent) in October and inherits the title (but see 1398).
Sweden's Albrecht of Mecklenburg makes a third effort to conquer the Danish province of Skania but encounters a stubborn defense and is no more successful than he was 2 years ago (see 1434).
The Peace of Turin removes Genoa's political influence from the Mediterranean and the East, leaving Venice with mastery over the sea routes by ending hostiities between the two great maritime powers in their 3-year War of Chioggia (see 1380).
The Angevin prince Carlo di Durazzo, 36, has himself crowned king of Naples by Pope Urban VI at Rome, captures Naples in June, proclaims himself monarch of the realm, and imprisons Joanna of Naples, now 54, in the castle of Muro at Lucania. Carlos is a protégé of Hungary's Louis I, who has helped him acquire Naples.
Hungary's Louis I acquires virtually all of Dalmatia under terms of the Treaty of Turin signed August 18 with Venice (see 1358).
Tatars overthrow their khan Mamai in the wake of his defeat last year in the Battle of Kulikovo; they replace him with his rival Toqtamish, who will be more effective against Muscovy's Dmitri II Donskoi (see 1382).
A Peasants' Revolt (Wat Tyler's rebellion) creates anarchy in England beginning in June as farm workers, artisans, and city proletarians protest the 1351 Statute of Labourers and the poll tax imposed last year. Yeomen veterans of the war with France join with peasants, some 5,000 men arm themselves, and they attack the king's tax collector at Brentwood, Essex, under the leadership of Jack Straw, Kentish rebels burn records, open prisons, and release the defrocked priest John Ball from a Maidstone prison (Ball preached at York and Colchester in the 1360s before being excommunicated in about 1366 for delivering inflammatory sermons favoring a classless society and continued thereafter to preach in marketplaces and elsewhere, demanding that the land be shared in common). Mobs assemble throughout much of Essex, Kent, and Norfolk. They sack palaces and castles at Norwich and Canterbury, take hostages, kill landlords and officials they particularly dislike, choose Wat (Walter) Tyler as their leader in June, and converge on London. Some 30,000 rioters enter London over a drawbridge, burn John of Gaunt's Savoy Palace, the Temple used by London's lawyers, and the building at Clerkenwell of the Knights Hospitallers. Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor of England, is beheaded by the mob at Tower Hill June 14, and Hanseatic traders are chased into their fortified Steelyard (see 1250).
Wat Tyler presents Richard II with a list of demands at Mile End June 14; now 14, the king replies with empty promises to demands for abolition of serfdom, the poll tax, restrictions on labor and trade, and game laws, with a ceiling of fourpence per acre on land rents and a ceiling on road tolls. Fresh demands are made at Smithfield next day, and Wat Tyler is betrayed and killed with a cutlass by William Walworth, now lord mayor of London, during a conference with the young king. The rebellion collapses, and John Ball goes to the gallows after a trial July 15 at St. Albans, Hertfordshire. Jack Straw and more than 100 others are slaughtered (see 1382)
Peasant revolts similar to the one in England occur in Languedoc as France suffers economic distress and the Tuchins rebel against tax collectors. Labor shortages that developed some decades after the Black Death in the late 1340s have undermined the manorial system, and workers have demanded large wage increases from landlords.
Parliament passes England's first Navigation Act as the country begins her rise as a mercantilist power.
The Swedish abbess of Valdstena Katarina Ulfsdotter dies at Valdstena March 24 at age 48 or 49 after 28 years as superior of the Brigittines.
French printers at Limoges use movable type (see 1313; Korea, 1234; Korea, 1403; Antwerp, 1417).
Ghent comes under siege and food stocks dwindle away. Half-starved by the time Lent comes, the people have no fish appropriate for Lenten meals.
1381 1382 1383 1384 1385 1386 1387 1388 1389 1390
