1387

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political events

Aragon's Pedro IV (the Ceremonious, or the Cruel) dies at Barcelona January 5 at age 69 (approximate) after a 51-year reign in which he has recovered the Balearic Islands and Roussilon by force, defeated rebellious noblemen, gained recognition as duke of Athens and Neoptras, but brought his country close to ruin by fighting off and on with Castile. Pedro is succeeded by his older son Juan, 36, whose wife, Violante, has made him a tool of French interests but who will reign until 1395 as Juan I. Sicily's queen Maria will be brought to Spain next year to marry the late Pedro's son Martin, now 30, who is some years her junior but who will become her husband in 1390 (see 1392).

Denmark's Olaf II Haakonsson (Norway's Olaf IV) dies suddenly August 23 at age 17 after a 12-year reign (7 as king of Norway) and is succeeded by his mother, Margrethe; now 34. She will unite Scandinavia under her rule. Olaf's burial stone is inscribed, "Here rests Olaf, son of Queen Margrethe, whom she bore to Norway's King Haakon." Daughter of the late Valdemar IV Atterdag and widow of Norway's Haakon VI Magnusson, Margrethe has served as regent of Denmark since her father's death in 1375. No Norwegian king will be born on Norwegian soil until 1937 (see 1388).

The Tatar-held Turkish city of Kars falls to Tamerlane, who extends his gains at the expense of the Golden Horde (see 1386; 1388).

literature

Poetry: Troilus and Criseyde by London poet Geoffrey Chaucer, 44 (approximate), whose patron, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, last year helped him secure election as one of the two knights of the shire of Kent. Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess was an elegy to John of Gaunt's first wife, Blanche, who died in 1369. Chaucer's own wife, Philippa, is a sister of Catherine Swynford, mistress to John of Gaunt, but Chaucer's connections have not sufficed to prevent him from losing his positions as controller of the customs for wool and controller of the petty custom on wines. Chaucer was stripped of both posts last year, but he represents Kent in Parliament and he begins work on the prologue to his great work The Canterbury Tales (see 1400).

food and drink

England's Richard II invites the country's rich barons to dine with him. The 200 cooks employed to feed his 2,000 guests have 1,400 oxen lying in salt, two freshly killed oxen, 120 sheep's heads, 13 calves, 12 boars, 110 marrow bones, 200 rabbits, 50 swans, 210 geese, 1,200 pigeons, 144 partridges, 720 hens, and 11,000 eggs. The cooks prepare mortrewes (a meat paste containing broth, ale, bread crumbs, egg yolks, salt, and spices). Minstrels and court musicians entertain the diners as they sit on backless benches called banquettes and eat gilded peacock, roasted boar, and venison off oak planks set on trestles, using half-loaves of bread as trenchers. Anise seed, borrage, fennel, garlic, leek, mint, nutmeg, parsley, purslane, rosemary, rue, saffron, sage, and watercress are used to flavor and color the dishes, among them a pie of smale briddes (small birds), and for salad. Beverages include claret, Rhenish, malmsey (the best grade of Madeira), ale, mead, and fermented ciders made of apples, pears, and raspberries. Dessert is a marzipan castle four feet square and three feet high, surrounded by a moat with two drawbridges made of hardened dough.

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