1399

1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400

political events

John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, dies at London February 3 at age 59; Richard II confiscates his Lancastrian estates to prevent them from passing to John's son Henry of Bolingbroke, but Henry returns from exile, landing at Ravenspur in July while Richard is visiting Ireland in another futile effort to keep that country's great earls subservient to English rule (see 1398). When Richard returns, Bolingbroke defeats and captures him. Parliament deposes him, and its members acclaim the usurper Bolingbroke king in September. Bolingbroke will reign until 1413 as Henry IV, founding the house of Lancaster, but challenges to his rule quickly arise. Richard is imprisoned in the Tower of London. He signs a deed of abdication, and his supporters launch rebellions. The 40-year-old Welsh landowner and chieftain Owen Glendower (Owain Glen Dwyr [sic], originally Owain ab Gruffydd) proclaims himself prince of Wales and begins a revolt against the English, who levy more taxes on the Welsh than on their own people, forbid the Welsh to own land within 10 miles of a town, do not allow a Welshman to have weapons unless he swears allegiance to the king, and make it a capital offense for a Welshman to marry or consort with an Englishwoman (see 1400).

Scotland's heir apparent David Stuart, duke of Rothesay, succeeds his uncle Robert Stuart, duke of Albany, as governor (see 1390). The two soon have a falling out, and Albany has his nephew imprisoned (see 1402).

The marshal of France Jean II le Meingre Boucicaut heads a Western army and fleet that defeat a Turkish fleet at Gallipoli and prevent the Ottoman Turks from taking the Byzantine city of Galata. He will bar the Turks from taking Constantinople for a year before returning to France for volunteer reinforcements (but will be sent instead to strengthen the French administration at Genoa, see 1409).

The Polish queen Jadwiga dies at Kraków July 17 at age 25 (or 26), having founded a special college for Lithuanians at Prague.

The Battle of the Vorskla River August 12 ends in victory for the Golden Horde over the Lithuanian grand duke Vytautas, ending the duke's efforts to extend his rule over southern Russia. Toqtamish of the Golden Horde has sought Vytautus's help in regaining the authority that he lost 4 years ago. Vyatautas has gathered a well-organized army of Russians and Lithuanians, whose forces have reached the Dneiper River with cannon and joined with Teutonic Knights from Prussia and Toqtamish's Tatars. But Yedigei (Edigü) and Temür Kutlugh of the Golden Horde have advanced from the steppe, and the two sides meet on a tributary of the lower Dneiper. Vytautas puts up a good fight for several hours against Yedigei, but a reserve force under the command of Temür Kutlugh then attacks him from the rear. Vytautas barely manages to escape the ensuing slaughter. Temür Kutlugh dies of wounds sustained in battle. Toqmatish's surviving troops flee for their lives, Toqmatish himself is captured and put to death, and Yedigei's Tatars pillage the region around Kiev and in Podolia, reoccupying lands that Lithuania took in 1363 to gain access to the Black Sea (see Tatar siege of Moscow, 1408).

Tamerlane storms Meerut January 9 and fights his way back along the Himalayan foothills to the Indus River, which he reaches March 19 after having desolated the kingdom of Delhi. He is back at his own capital of Samarkand by April, followed by 90 captured elephants carrying stones with which to erect a mosque. Tamerlane embarks in the fall on a new campaign, this time to punish Egypt's Mameluke sultan and the Ottoman sultan Bayazid I for having taken the opportunity of his absence in India to seize Azerbaijan and some of his other territories (see 1400).

China's second Ming dynasty emperor Jianwen (Chien-wen) tries to reassert control over some princedoms that are ruled by his uncles, notably the Prince of Yen Zhu Di (Chu Ti), who was designated prince of Yen in 1370 when he was a boy of 10, took up residence at Beijing (Peking) 10 years later, and with his elder brother the Prince of Chin in the adjacent Shanxi (Shansi) Province has kept Mongol forces from penetrating south of the Great Wall. Acting on the advice of Confucian court scholars, Jianwen has instituted a series of reforms. Some of the other princes have been exiled, imprisoned, or driven to suicide, but the Prince of Yen rebels in August, saying that it is his duty to save the young emperor from his advisers. He gains military assistance from his onetime houseboy, a Muslim eunuch who now calls himself Zheng He (Cheng Ho), as his rebel forces engage imperial Ming forces (see 1402).

1391 1392 1393 1394 1395 1396 1397 1398 1399 1400