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Contents: political eventscommerce science medicine religion |
The antipope Clement VII enlists the support of Amadeus VI, conte di Savoy, and the French prince Louis of Anjou in an effort to rescue Joanna of Naples from the rival pope Urban VI (who has excommunicated Joanna for providing Clement with shelter) and the new Neapolitan king Carlo di Durazzo; the expedition sets out in June, but Joanna has died in the castle of Muro at Lucania May 22 at age 55, having been smothered to death on orders from Carlo.
Mantua's Guido Gonzaga dies after a 13-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1407 as Francesco I.
The Venetian doge Andrea Contarini dies after a 14-year reign in which he has been the first to melt down his plate and mortgage his property for the benefit of the state.
Anne of Bohemia, 15, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, is married at Westminster Abbey to England's Richard II, also 15.
Hungary's Louis I (the Great) (Lajos Nagy) dies suddenly at Nagyszombat September 10 at age 56 after a 40-year reign that has included also nearly 12 years as king (Ludwik Wielki) of Poland. Louis has gained Dalmatia from Venice and an annual tribute of 7,000 ducats by the peace that last year ended the War of Chioggia. He is succeeded in Hungary by his daughter Maria of Anjou, whose husband, Sigismund of Luxembourg, will rule Hungary for 50 years beginning in 1387. Louis will be succeeded in Poland by his daughter Jadwiga (Hedwig), now 8 or 9 (see 1384).
Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello captures the rebel leader Kestutis and his 32-year-old son Vytautus, who have been competing with him for control of the country. Kestutis is murdered in captivity; Vytautus escapes; and he will make peace in 1385 with Jagiello, who will return the family lands that he has seized.
Tatar invaders sack and plunder Moscow under the command of their new leader, Toqtamish (see 1381). The Kremlin was enlarged in 1367 and given white limestone walls and towers, but the Tatars overcome its defenders. Reinforcements sent by their leader Tamerlane, now 46, help Toqtamish retaliate for the defeat of Mamai at the Battle of Kulikovo 2 years ago and restores control of Russian lands to the Golden Horde (see 1383).
Florence has a revolution as wool combers led by Michele di Lando seize the palace, but the labor government falls when the bourgeoisie objects to having rents from shops on the 37-year-old Ponte Vecchio assigned to the gonfaliere Salvestro de' Medici. Rival merchants and industrialists banish both Salvestro and Michele, they close their shops and factories, they persuade neighboring landowners to cut off the city's grain and food supply, and a half-century of oligarchy begins in Florence.
Moldavia's Bran Castle is completed on a hilltop site that gives it control of the only road through the Carpathian pass that connects Capulung in Wallachia and Brasov in Transylvania. All goods coming through the pass are subject to a 3 percent tax.
England repeals the reforms granted to Wat Tyler last year and reestablishes serfdom. "Villeins ye are and villeins ye shall remain," says Richard II. The common people have lost confidence in the crown's promises to protect them from aristocratic oppression, and the balladeered idolatry of the outlaw Robin Hood expresses their bitterness (see 1247). Richard's forces support those fielded by the landlords, who hunt down the last of the rebels in East Anglia, but unrest continues. The serfs will perform their feudal duties only with reluctance, and the landowners will have to hire "free" labor with money obtained from rents paid by the serfs for cultivating strips of land (see Jack Cade, 1450).
Bishop Nicole d'Oresme dies at Lisieux July 11 at age 57 (approximate), having contributed to the reform of French finances while developing some basis for modern mathematics and science. He has studied the mathematical properties of uniformly accelerated motion, found that if a particle is uniformly accelerated its speed increases in direct proportion to time, and that the distance it covers is proportional to the square of the time spent accelerating, discovered the logical equivalence between tabulation and graphing, and proposed the use of a graph for plotting a variable magnitude whose value depends on that of another.
The pestilence that will later be called the Black Death sweeps Europe in a weaker epidemic than that of more than 30 years ago. It will take an especially heavy toll in Ireland in the next few years, and by the end of the century it will have killed an estimated 75 million people, leaving some areas completely depopulated (see 1403).
William Courtenay, 40, archbishop of Canterbury, purges Oxford of Lollardy—the unorthodox religious and social doctrines of John Wycliffe. Elevated to archbishop last year following the murder of Simon Sadbury, Courtenay holds a council at Canterbury that condemns Wycliffe, who has been discredited by last year's peasant rebellion and condemned by the Church; Wycliffe withdraws to Lutterworth. The archbishop destroys academic freedom, separating the Lollard movement from the cultured elite. Parliament refuses to permit persecution of Wycliffe's followers, but Courtenay obtains permission from Richard II to imprison heretics, assembles a convocation at Oxford in November, and forces Lollard academics into submission (see 1409; Sawtrey, 1401).
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