CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY
EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME
A.D. 1301-1438
JOHN RUDD, LL.D.
Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals following give volume and page.
Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of famous persons, will be found in the Index Volume, with volume and page references showing where the several events are fully treated.
A.D.
1301. In Hungary the crown becomes elective; end of the Arpad dynasty.
Dante begins writing his Divine Comedy, See "Dante Composes the Divina Commedia," [vii, 1.]
1302. Philip the Fair convenes the first meeting of the States-General of France. See "Third Estate Joins in the Government Of France," vii, [17.]
Dante and his party banished from Florence. See "Dante Composes the Divina Commedia," vii, [1.]
Comyn is appointed regent by the Scots, who make another effort to regain their independence.
Pope Boniface VIII issues a bull against Philip the Fair, who burns it, accuses him of simony and heresy, and refuses to acknowledge him as pope.
Battle of Courtrai; the Flemings defeat the French. See "War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair of France," vii, [23.]
1303. Pope Boniface VIII is surprised at Anagni by William de Nogaret, King Philip's adviser; after being kept for some days a prisoner he is rescued and allowed to return to Rome, where he dies.
Scotland submits to Edward I of England.
Andronicus Palæologus, the Byzantine Emperor, engages the Catalan Grand Company to aid him against the Turks.[85]
1304. Roger di Flor defeats the Mongols, enters Philadelphia, and stations himself at Ephesus.
1305. Wallace, "Hero of Scotland," is executed. See "Exploits and Death of William Wallace, the Hero of Scotland," [vi], [369.]
Beginning of the so-called Babylonish Captivity, being the establishment of the papal court at Lyons, France.
1306. A grandson of the first claimant, Robert Bruce, is crowned King of Scotland; he dispossesses the English of a great part of Scotland.
On complaint of the nobility and gentry the use of sea-coal is prohibited in London.
1307. Death of Edward I; his son, Edward II, succeeds to the English throne.
Charges against the Knights Templars. See "Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars," vii, [51.]
1308. Albert of Austria assassinated by his nephew; Henry VII, Count of Luxemburg, elected emperor of Germany.
Origin of the Swiss confederations according to common traditions.[86] See "First Swiss Struggle for Liberty," vii, [28.]
1309. Pope Clement V removes the papal court from Rome to Avignon, France.
Rhodes captured from the Turks by the Knights of St. John.
1310. Fifty Knights Templars are burned in Paris.
Expedition of Henry VII of Germany into Italy to restore the imperial authority. He obtains the throne of Bohemia for his son John, inaugurating the Luxemburg dynasty.
1311. Fifteenth general council (Council of Vienne); it suppresses the order of Knights Templars, and condemns the Beghards (Beguins), a begging order of monks and nuns.
Matteo Visconti secures the sovereignty of Milan.
Walter de Brienne quarrels with the Catalans and is defeated and slain by them; they conquer the duchy of Athens and appoint Roger Deslau grand duke.
1312. Henry VII unsuccessful in an attempt on Florence.
Gaveston, a foreigner and favorite of the King, and who for some years had made himself obnoxious to the barons and people of England, is made prisoner and beheaded; peace ensues between Edward II and his barons.
Robert, King of Naples, seizes the principal forts in Rome; Henry VII is, notwithstanding, crowned emperor in the Lateran Church by three cardinals.
1313. In conjunction with the Genoese and Sicilians, Emperor Henry VII prepares to attack Robert of Naples, but dies suddenly.
Birth of Boccaccio.
1314. Defeat of the English by the Scots under Robert Bruce. See "Battle of Bannockburn," vii, [41.]
Louis of Bavaria and Frederick, son of the late Albert of Austria, are elected by opposite parties to the crown of Germany; they make war on each other.
Ireland invaded by Edward Bruce, a Scottish adventurer, and a younger brother of Robert Bruce.
Louis X succeeds his father, Philip IV, in France.
Molay, grand master of the Knights Templars, is burned at the stake in Paris. See "Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars," vii, [51.]
1315. Louis Hutin, King of France, emancipates all serfs within the royal domains on payment of a just surrender charge.
A great victory achieved by the Swiss over the Austrians, under Leopold (brother of Frederick the Handsome) at Morgarten.
1316. Edward Bruce crowned king of Ireland.
Establishment of the Salic law excluding females and their descendants from the throne of France.
A predominance of French cardinals, created by Pope Clement V, secures the election of another French pope, and the continuance of the papal see at Avignon. The new pope, John XXII, appoints eight more cardinals, of whom seven are French.
1317. Birger, King of the Swedes, murders his two brothers and causes a rebellion of his people.
1318. Battle of Dundalk; Edward Bruce defeated and slain by Lord Birmingham; end of the war in Ireland.
Giotto, a friend of Dante, famous in Italy; he was the first painter of portraits from life.
1319. Pope John XXII excommunicates Robert Bruce of Scotland; the Scotch Parliament resists all papal interference in its affairs.
1320.[87] The Old English poem Cursor Mundi composed. It was founded on Cædmon's paraphrase of the book of Genesis.
1321. Death of Dante while in exile at Ravenna.
1322. Philip V dies; he is succeeded by his brother, Charles IV, on the throne of France.
Louis the Bavarian triumphs over his rival Frederick of Austria, who is captured.
Queen Isabella, while resident in the Tower of London, first sees Mortimer, who is brought there a prisoner.
Sir John Mandeville, an English exile in France, sets out on his eastern travels.
1323. Louis of Bavaria invests his son with the margraviate of Brandenburg.
1324. Commencement of Queen Isabella's guilty intimacy with Mortimer.
Birth of Wycliffe.[88]
Pope John XXII excommunicates Louis the Bavarian.
1325. Birth of John Gower, poet, and friend of Chaucer.
1326. Burgesses are first admitted into the Scotch Parliament.
Isabella, Queen of Edward II, and Earl Mortimer invade England; the King is captured and imprisoned in Kenilworth castle.
1327. King Edward II is deposed by parliament; Edward III, his son, succeeds. Edward II is brutally murdered by his keepers.
Louis V, the Bavarian, of Germany heads an expedition into Italy; he proclaims the deposition of Pope John XXII; he is forced to retreat after being crowned in Rome.
1328. Independence of Scotland recognized by Edward III of England.
Accession of Philip VI of France, the first of the house of Valois.
Birth of Chaucer.[88]
1329. Death of Robert Bruce; his infant son, David, succeeds to the Scotch throne.
1330. Orkham, Sultan of the Turks, captures Nicæa.
Queen Isabella and Mortimer are surprised in Nottingham castle[89]; he is executed at Tyburn; Isabella is confined during her life at Castle Rising.
1331. John Kempe takes his servants and apprentices from Flanders to join the weaving colony already founded at Norwich, England.
1332. Edward Balliol claims the crown of Scotland; he invades that country with an English army. The young King, David, takes refuge in France.
Lucerne joins the Swiss confederacy.
1333. Edward III of England invades Scotland; he defeats the Scotch at Halidon Hill and captures Berwick, which is annexed to England.
Casimir the Great, last king of the Piast line, succeeds to the throne of Poland.
1334. Denmark in a state of anarchy; Gerard, Count of Holstein, exercises a disputed power as regent.
1335. The house of Austria becomes possessed of Carinthia.
1336. Birth of Timur (Tamerlane) the Tartar.
1337. Edward III of England obtains the support of Van Artevelde; he obtains money by grants from parliament and confiscating the wealth of the Lombard merchants. See "James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt," vii, [68.]
Birth of Froissart, the chronicler, at Valenciennes.
1338. Beginning of the wars of Edward III against France; he sails with a fleet of five hundred ships; lands his army at Antwerp. See "Battle of Sluys and Crécy," vii, [78.]
Declaration of the Electors at Rense that Germany is an independent empire over which the Pope has no jurisdiction; the diet at Frankfort ratifies the manifesto.
1339. France invaded by Edward III of England; beginning of the Hundred Years' War.
Genoa elects its first doge, Simone Boccanera.
A body of disbanded mercenaries form themselves into the first condottiere company known in Italy. The word means a captain or leader, the condottieri those under the leader. They were free lances, open to serve under any flag.
1340. Edward destroys a large French fleet at Sluys; beginning of England's naval power. See "Battle of Sluys and Crécy," vii, [78.]
War between the Hanseatic League and Denmark; the Danes defeated.
1341. Death of John III of Brittany; his brother, John of Montfort, and his niece, Jeanne de Penthièvre, wife of Charles of Blois, contest the succession; England supports the former, France the latter.
Edward Balliol retires on the return of David II to Scotland.
Petrarch is crowned with laurel at Rome. See "Modern Recognition Of Scenic Beauty," vii, [93.]
1342. Edward III pursues his campaign in Brittany; he relieves Hennebonne, besieged by the French.
Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, becomes sovereign lord of Florence.
Accession of Louis, called the Great, to the throne of Hungary, on the death of King Charles Robert, his father.
1343. Expulsion from Florence of the Duke of Athens; popular government restored.
A truce of three years arranged between England and France by the mediation of the papal legates.
1344. Breach of the truce between England and France; Earl Derby defeats Count de Lisle and reduces a great part of Perigord.
A Turkish fleet is destroyed at Pallene by the Knights of Rhodes, who assist in the capture of Smyrna by the Venetians and the King of Cyprus.
Masham, an Englishman, first discovers the Madeira Islands.
In England, parliament, by the Statute of Provisors, forbids the interference of the pope in bestowing benefices and livings in England.
1345. Fall and death of James Van Artevelde at Ghent.
1346. Battle of Crécy; cannon said to have been first used by the English. See "Battles of Sluys and Crécy," vii, [78.]
At the instance of Pope Clement VI, Charles of Luxemburg (Charles IV) is elected emperor of Germany in opposition to Louis the Bavarian.
David Bruce invades England; he is vanquished and made prisoner at Neville's Cross.
Servia at the zenith of her power; the ruler, Stephen Dushan, assumes the imperial title.
1347. Calais captured by Edward III.
Death of Louis the Bavarian; he is succeeded by Charles IV, whose title is disputed until 1349.
Queen Joanna I of Naples has her dominions invaded by Louis the Great of Hungary to avenge the murder of her husband, Andrew, brother of Louis, supposedly at her instigation. See "Rienzi's Revolution in Rome," vii, [104.]
1348. About this time begins the Renaissance in Italy. See "Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance," vii, [110.]
Founding of the University of Prague, the first in Germany.
Pope Clement VI purchases Avignon from Queen Joanna I of Naples.
The plague stalks in Europe. See "The Black Death Ravages Europe," vii, [130.]
1349. Institution (or revival, see A.D. 1192) of the Order of the Garter in England.
Dauphiny annexed to France on condition that the King's eldest son should be called the dauphin.
1350. Death of Philip VI; his son, John the Good, succeeds to the French throne.
1351. Zurich joins the Swiss confederation.
Paganino Doria, commanding the Genoese fleet, plunders many Venetian towns on the Adriatic.
1352. A statute of præmunire still further limits the papal power in England.
Naval battle in the Bosporus between the Genoese, under Paganino Doria, and the Venetians, Byzantines, and Catalans under Niccola Pisano; the latter are defeated, and concede the entire command of the Black Sea to the Genoese.
1353. Alliance of Genoa with Louis of Hungary; their fleet, under Antonino Grinaldi, defeated; in despair the Genoese place themselves under the protection of John Visconte.
Bern joins the league of Swiss cantons.
1354. Downfall and death of Rienzi. See "Rienzi's Revolution in Rome," vii, [104.]
Paganino Doria captures or destroys the Venetian fleet in the Morea; their admiral, Pisano, is captured.
Beginning of Turkish dominion in Europe. See "First Turkish Dominion in Europe," vii, [136.]
1355. King Charles of Navarre is treacherously seized and imprisoned in France; his brother Philip, and Geoffry d'Harcourt, make an alliance with Edward III; the war is renewed.
Marino Falieri, Doge of Venice, beheaded. See "Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice," vii, [154.]
1356. Battle of Poitiers; John II, King of France, taken prisoner by Edward, the Black Prince; the Dauphin, Charles, escapes and assumes the government of France during his father's captivity.
Emperor Charles defines the duties of the electors of Germany. See "Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull," vii, [160.]
Wycliffe publishes his Last Age of the Court.
1357. London enthusiastically welcomes the Prince of Wales (the Black Prince) on his return with his prisoners; King Edward III concludes a treaty with the captive French King, which the Dauphin rejects.
Popular movement in Paris under Stephen Marcel; meeting of the States-general of France.
1358. Violent commotions in France. See "Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France," vii, [164.]
By a treaty of peace the Venetians resign Dalmatia and Istria to the King of Hungary; they agree to style their doge Duke of Venice only.
1359. Edward III again invades France, his terms of peace not being accepted.
1360. England and France conclude the treaty of Bretigny; King John II is set at liberty on payment of a heavy ransom.
Outbreak of the Children's Plague in England.
1361. End of the first ducal house of Burgundy.
Adrianople is conquered by Sultan Amurath I of Turkey.
All military operations in Europe suspended by the virulence of the plague.
1362. Edward III grants Aquitaine to his son, the Black Prince; he also celebrates his fiftieth birthday by a general amnesty and a confirmation of Magna Charta.
Conjectured beginning of Langland's Vision of Piers Plowman, a noted allegorical and satirical poem.[90]
1363. Disbanded English soldiers enter the service of the Pisans, and obtain a victory for them over the Florentines.
1364. Death of King John the Good of France, in Savoy palace, London; his son, Charles V, succeeds; Du Guesclin, his general, defeats the English and the army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel. Du Guesclin is afterward defeated and captured by the English, under Sir John Chandos; besides the capture of Du Guesclin, Charles of Blois is slain. The house of Montfort secures Brittany.
Treaty of union between Bohemia and Austria.
Chaucer writes his Canterbury Tales.
1365. Pedro the Cruel, the epithet "cruel" being given him mainly for the murder of his brother, Don Fadrique, becomes so odious to his subjects that Henry of Trastamare, his brother, revives his claim to the throne of Leon and Castile; Du Guesclin takes command of his forces.
University of Vienna founded.
1366. Pedro the Cruel driven from his throne.
Pope Urban V claims the tribute which had previously been paid by England; an act of parliament resists the demand; it further declares the concessions made by King John to be illegal and invalid.
Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar), reviver of the great Mongol empire, inaugurates his conquests.
1367. Edward the Black Prince, having espoused the cause of Pedro the Cruel, attacks and dethrones Henry of Trastamare; Pedro is restored to the throne, but refuses the stipulated pay to his allies, who leave him to his fate.
Passage of the Kilkenny Statute; it forbade any Englishman to use an Irish name, to speak the Irish language, to adopt the Irish dress, or to allow the cattle of an Irishman to graze on his lands; it also made it high treason to marry a native.
1369. King Charles V breaks the Anglo-French treaty; the Hundred Years' War reopened.
1370. End of the Piast dynasty, Poland, caused by the death of Casimir the Great; Louis the Great, King of Hungary, succeeds.
Timur the Tartar extends his domains. See "Conquests of Timur the Tartar," vii, [169.]
1371. Robert II ascends the throne and founds the Stuart dynasty in Scotland, on the death of David Bruce.[91]
A petition of the English Parliament to the King that he employ no churchmen in any office of the state, and threatening to resist by force the oppressions of papal authority.
1373. Henry of Castile invades Portugal, besieges Lisbon, and compels Ferdinand to sign a treaty of peace.
Birth of John Huss.[92]
1374. A strange plague, the dancing mania, appears in Europe. See "Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages," vii, [187.]
Wycliffe is appointed one of the seven ambassadors to represent to the Pope the grievances of the Church of England.
1375. A general council of citizens of Florence declares "liberty paramount to every other consideration"; it appoints the "Seven Saints of War," which effectually resist aggression.
1376. Death of Edward the Black Prince. Gregory XI abandons Avignon as the papal residence.
1377. Rome again becomes the home of the papal court.
Gregory XI orders proceedings against Wycliffe, the English reformer.
Death of Edward III; his grandson, Richard II, succeeds to the English throne.
1378. Wenceslaus becomes emperor of Germany on the death of his father, Charles IV.
Rival popes elected. See "Election of Antipope Clement VII: Beginning of the Great Schism," vii, [201.]
1379. Pietro Doria, at the head of the Genoese fleet, defeats the Venetian fleet off Pola; Chioggia is captured and Venice threatened.
A poll-tax imposed on the people of England; this led directly to a revolution.
War of the rival papal factions in Rome.
Revolt of the White Hoods (Les Chaperons blancs) in Flanders; the workmen of Ghent, when they revolted against the Duke of Burgundy, adopted a white hood as their badge.
1380. Establishment in Germany of post messengers.
Surrender of the Genoese fleet and army at Chioggia. See "Genoese Surrender to Venetians," vii, [213.]
1381. Overthrow of Joanna I of Naples by Charles Durazzo (Charles the Little).
An act of parliament surreptitiously obtained against heretics in England.
Exasperated by the poll-tax the people of England revolt. See "Rebellion of Wat Tyler," vii, [217.]
Insurrection of the Maillotins against the new tax on bread in Paris. They were so called because they armed themselves with maillets de fer ("iron malls") when they attacked the arsenal, put to death the officers, and set the prisoners at large.
Philip van Artevelde rises to power in Flanders.
1382. Queen Joanna I of Naples is put to death in prison.
"Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English." See vii, [227.]
Led by Philip van Artevelde the people of Ghent triumph over their ruler, Count Louis II; Bruges is captured and looted by them; Artevelde is acclaimed governor; a French army advances and defeats the forces of Artevelde, who is slain, and Louis is restored.
1384. Flanders is incorporated in the dukedom of Burgundy; Artois and Franche Comté are also acquired by Philip the Bold of Burgundy.
1385. Scotland fruitlessly invaded by Richard II of England.
John the Great ascends the throne of Portugal; he defeats the Castilians at Aljubarota.
1386. Victory of the Swiss over the Austrians at Sempach. See "The Swiss Win Their Independence," vii, [238.]
Hedvige, Queen of Poland, marries Duke of Jagellon, of Lithuania, uniting the states and establishing the Jagellon dynasty; as sovereign of Poland he is styled Ladislaus II. The Lithuanians abandon paganism.
Founding of the University of Heidelberg.
A regency, that of the Duke of Gloucester, is imposed upon Richard II of England.
1387. Consultation of Richard II at Nottingham with the judges; the regency commission is declared a criminal act.
A brother of Emperor Wenceslaus, Sigismund, becomes king of Hungary.
Birth of Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietri), the great friar-painter.
1388. Battle of Otterburne (Chevy Chase); an English-Scotch encounter in a private feud, not a national quarrel; the Earl of Douglas slain; Henry Percy captured by the Scots.
At Naefels the Austrians are defeated by the Swiss.
1389. Bulgaria and Servia conquered by the Turks under Amurath I at the decisive battle of Kosovo; he is slain.
Death of Pope Urban VI; Boniface succeeds; the schism continues.
Albert, King of Sweden, defeated and made prisoner by Queen Margaret, who reigns over the three Scandinavian kingdoms.
1390. War of Florence with Milan.
Robert III ascends the throne of Scotland.
1392. Fits of insanity seize the young King of France, Charles VI; cards are invented, or introduced, to amuse him during his lucid intervals.
1394. Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the "Navigator."
1395. Milan is created a hereditary duchy by Emperor Wenceslaus for Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti.
1396. Battle of Nicopolis; the Christian defenders of Hungary suffer a great defeat at the hands of the Turkish sultan Bajazet I.
1397. Scandinavia united under one crown. See "Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway," vii, [243.]
1398. Mortimer, Earl of March, presumptive heir to the English throne and governor of Ireland, slain by a rebel force in that island.
Froissart writes his Chronicles.
1399. Deposition of Richard II of England; Henry Bolingbroke founds the house of Lancaster. See "Deposition of Richard II," vii, [251.]
After a long struggle for the possession of Naples between Ladislaus and Louis II of Anjou, it ends in the triumph of Ladislaus.
1400. A great revolt of the Welsh is headed by Owen Glendower.
Emperor Wenceslaus is deposed.
Rupert of the Palatinate elected to the throne of Germany.
1401. Parliament ordains the burning of Lollards in England. Barcelona bank (earliest existing bank) established.
1402. Battle of Homildon Hill; victory of the Percys, a noble northern English family, over the Scots.
License by royal letters-patent given to the "Confrerie de la Passion" to exhibit sacred dramas, or Mysteries, in France.
"Discovery of the Canary Islands and the African Coast." See vii, [266.]
Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar) defeats and captures Bajazet at Angora.
1403. Battle of Shrewsbury; Henry IV defeats the Percys, who had allied themselves with Glendower to place the Earl of March on the English throne; Harry Percy (Hotspur) slain.
1404. Queen Margaret of Sweden claims Schleswig and Holstein on the death of Gerard VI.
1405. Pisa sold to Florence by the Visconti.
An English act of parliament prohibits anyone not possessing twenty shillings a year in land from apprenticing his sons to any trade.
Venice conquers Verona and Padua.
Prince James Stuart, afterward James I, heir to the crown of Scotland, captured by the English.
1406. Pisa compelled to submit to Florence after a year of war.
Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, proposes a general council to terminate the schism in the Church.[93]
1407. France distracted by the animosities of her leading families; Louis, Duke of Orleans, is assassinated by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy.
1408. Valentina, widow of the Duke of Orleans, demands justice on her husband's assassins; the Duke of Burgundy declared an enemy of the state; he occupies Paris and drives out the royal court.
1409. Council of Pisa; both popes refuse to appear; they are deposed and Alexander V is elected.
University of Leipsic founded.
1410. Death of Rupert of the Palatinate, Emperor of Germany.
Jagellon (Ladislaus II), King of Poland, vanquishes the Teutonic Knights.
1411. Battle of Harlow; defeat of the Scotch Lord of the Isles and the highland clans.
Sigismund elected emperor of Germany.
John Huss excommunicated and forbidden to preach.
University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, founded.
1412. For insulting the chief justice of England the Prince of Wales is committed to prison.
Birth of Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans.
1413. Death of Henry IV; Henry V ascends the English throne; he discards his dissolute associates and reforms his conduct.
Ladislaus takes forcible possession of Rome and most of the papal states.
1414. The Seventeenth general council. See "Council of Constance," vii, [284.]
Joanna II succeeds her brother Ladislaus of Naples on his death.
1415. "Trial and Burning of John Huss." See vii, [294.]
John the Great of Portugal conquers Ceuta; he discards the use of the Julian period and introduces the computation of time from the Christian era.
Brandenburg is acquired by the house of Hohenzollern. See "The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg," vii, [305.]
"Battle of Agincourt." See vii, [320.]
1416. Jerome of Prague burned.
Alfonso the Wise, so called for his patronage of letters, ascends the throne of Aragon on the death of his father, Ferdinand the Just.
1417. Pope Martin V elected by the Council of Constance; end of the schism.
Sir John Oldcastle, the "Good Lord Cobham," after four years' hiding is captured and burned as a heretic in London.
Gypsies appear in Transylvania; they are believed to have been low-caste Hindus expelled by Timur in the fourteenth century.
1418. Close of the Council of Constance. See "Council of Constance," vii, [284.]
A great massacre in Paris of the Armagnacs by the populace, the partisans of John the Fearless of Burgundy; the Dauphin and his adherents transfer their seat of government to Poitiers.
1419. Surrender of Rouen to the English.
John the Fearless, beguiled by a treaty, meets the Dauphin, who has him assassinated.
Storming of the town-hall of Prague by the Hussites; outbreak of the Hussite wars.
Madeira first reached by the Portuguese, who sail under the command of Henry the Navigator.
1420. Henry V, King of England, made successor to the French throne. See "Battle of Agincourt," vii, [320.]
Sigismund besieges the Hussites in Prague; he is defeated by them, led by John Ziska.
Joanna II of Naples, who summons to her aid Alfonso V of Aragon, is attacked by Louis III of Anjou.
1421. Second crusade against the Bohemian Hussites.
1422. Death of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France; the former is succeeded by his infant son; he is proclaimed King of England and France; his uncles, the Duke of Gloucester, regent in England, and the Duke of Bedford in France; Charles VII, son of Charles VI, is proclaimed by the French.
Constantinople besieged by Amurath II, Sultan of Turkey.
1423. Frederick the Warlike, Margrave of Misnia, assumes the electorate of Saxony and establishes the house of Wettin.
1424. James I of Scotland, released after a captivity of nineteen years, marries a daughter of the Earl of Somerset; he assumes the government of Scotland.
John Ziska is succeeded by Procopius the Great as head of the Taborites, a division of the Hussites.
1425. Accession of John Palæologus II as emperor of Byzantium.
John and Hulbert van Eyck, masters of the early Flemish school, invent painting in oil.
1426. Lubeck and the Baltic Hanse Towns support the Duke of Holstein against Eric XIII of Sweden.
Great Hussite victory at Aussig.
1427. The Hussites extend their conquests in Saxony and Meissen; they gain a victory at Mies.
1428. Orleans, France, besieged by the English.
Death of John de' Medici, founder of the illustrious family at Florence.
1429. Coronation of Charles VII of France at Rheims.
Jeanne d'Arc relieves Orleans. See "Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans," vii, [333.]
Refusal of the Hussites to treat for peace with Emperor Sigismund.
Antipope Clement VIII abdicates and ends the Great Schism.
1430. Institution of the Golden Fleece by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, on his marriage with Isabella, daughter of King John of Portugal, and in commemoration of the manufacturing prosperity of the Netherlands.
1431. Jeanne d'Arc dishonorably and inhumanly burned at Rouen. See "Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc," vii, [350.]
Council of Basel. Pope Martin V succeeded by Eugenius IV.
1432. Prince Henry's navigators discover and take possession of the Azores for the Portuguese.
Opening of the trade of the north to the English and Dutch by the wars of the Hanse Towns, and Holstein, with Denmark.
1433. Treaty of the Council of Basel with the section of the Hussites called Calixtines; this satisfies them and they secede from the Hussite league.
1434. Cosmo de' Medici recalled to Florence; his party triumphant.
Organization of the national church (Utraquist) in Bohemia.
First exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese.
The Calixtines join the imperial army and defeat the Taborites at Bohmisch-Brod.
1435. Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy; the latter withdraws from the English party.
Death of the Duke of Bedford.
1436. A settlement effected between Emperor Sigismund and the Hussites by the treaty of Iglau; he is recognized as king of Bohemia.
Charles VII, the French King, recovers Paris from the English.
Eric, by a treaty of peace, relinquishes the greater part of Schleswig to the Duke of Holstein and makes concessions at Stockholm which restore tranquillity in Sweden.
1437. Death of Emperor Sigismund; election of Albert of Austria to the throne of Hungary.
Murder of James I; his son, James II, succeeds him on the throne of Scotland.
Pope Eugenius IV is summoned to appear before the Council of Basel to answer various charges brought against him; he issues a bull dissolving the council; he calls another at Ferrara, whither he invites the Greek Emperor to attend and arrange for the union of the two churches.
1438. Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII; it secures the liberty of the Gallican Church. See "Charles VII Issues His Pragmatic Sanction," vii, [370.]
Coronation of Albert II, King of Hungary; recognized by the Diet of Frankfort.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See Dante Composes the Divina Commedia, [page 1.]
[2] See Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars, [page 51.]
[3] See The Third Estate Joins in the Government of France, [page 17.]
[4] See War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair, [page 23.]
[5] See First Swiss Struggle for Liberty, [page 28.]
[6] See The Swiss Win Their Independence, [page 238.]
[7] See Battle of Bannockburn, [page 41.]
[8] See Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance, [page 110.]
[9] See Crowning of Petrarch at Rome, [page 93.]
[10] See Rienzi's Revolution in Rome, [page 104.]
[11] See Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice, [page 154.]
[12] See Genoese Surrender to Venetians, [page 213.]
[13] See Rise of the Hanseatic League, vol. vi, [page 214.]
[14] See Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, [page 243.]
[15] See Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull, [page 160.]
[16] See The Black Death Ravages Europe, [page 130.]
[17] See Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages, [page 187.]
[18] See James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt, [page 68.]
[19] See Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King of France, [page 68.]
[20] See Battles of Sluys and Crécy, [page 78.]
[21] See Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France, [page 164.]
[22] See Rebellion of Wat Tyler, [page 217.]
[23] See Turks Seize Gallipoli, [page 147.]
[24] See Conquests of Timur the Tartar, [page 169.]
[25] See Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English,[ page 227.]
[26] See Election of Antipope Clement VII, [page 201.]
[27] See Trial and Burning of John Huss, [page 294.]
[28] See Council of Constance, [page 284.]
[29] See The Hussite Wars, [page 294.]
[30] See The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg, [page 305.]
[31] See Deposition of Richard II, [page 251.]
[32] See Battle of Agincourt, [page 320.]
[33] See English Conquest of France, [page 320.]
[34] See Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans, [page 333.]
[35] See Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc, [page 350.]
[36] See Charles VII Issues his Pragmatic Sanction, [page 370.]
[37] See Discovery of the Canary Islands: Beginning of Negro Slave Trade, [page 266.]
[38] "I am not going to lose the men for the old women."
[39] "The coward who the great refusal made."
"The beams on the low shores now lost and dead."
"A death-like shade— Like that beneath black boughs and foliage green O'er the cold stream in Alpine glens display'd."
"O'er all the sandy desert falling slow, Were shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow On Alpine summits, when the wind is low."
"So will a greater fame redound to thee, To have formed a party by thyself alone."
[44] Translated by Charles Leonard-Stuart.
[45] This Emperor was Albert I, son of Rudolph I.
[46] James van Artevelde was called "the Brewer of Ghent," because, although born an aristocrat, he was enrolled in the Guild of Brewers.
[47] Translated from the French by Thomas Johnes.
[48] Lord Berners' account of the advance of the Genoese is somewhat different from this; he describes them as leaping forward with a fell cry. The whole passage is so spirited and graphic that we give it entire:
"Whan the genowayes were assembled toguyder and beganne to aproche, they made a great leape and crye to abasshe thenglysshmen, but they stode styll and styredde nat for all that. Than the genowayes agayne the seconde tyme made another leape and a fell crye and stepped forwarde a lytell, and thenglysshmen remeued nat one fote; thirdly agayne they leapt and cryed, and went forthe tyll they came within shotte; than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes. Than thenglysshe archers stept forthe one pase and lette fly their arowes so hotly and so thycke that it semed snowe. Whan the genowayes felte the arowes persynge through heedes, armes, and brestes, many of them cast downe their crosbowes and did cutte their strynges and retourned dysconfited. Whan the frenche kynge sawe them flye away, he said, Slee these rascals, for they shall lette and trouble us without reason; than you shoulde haue sene the men of armes dasshe in among them and kylled a great nombre of them; and euerstyll the englysshmen shot where as they sawe thyckest preace, the sharpe arowes ranne into the men of armes and into their horses, and many fell horse and men amonge the genowayes, and whan they were downe they coude nat relyne agayne; the preace was so thycke that one ouerthrewe a nother. And also amonge the englysshemen there were certayne rascalles that went a fote with great knyues, and they went in among the men of armes and slewe and murdredde many as they lay on the grounde, both erles, barownes, knyghts, and squyers, whereof the kyng of Englande was after dyspleased, for he had rather they had been taken prisoners."
[49] His blindness was supposed to be caused by poison, which was given to him when engaged in the wars of Italy.
[50] The following is Lord Berners' version of this narration: "In the mornyng the day of the batayle certayne frenchemen and almaygnes perforce opyned the archers of the princes batayle, and came and fought with the men at armes hande to hande. Than the second batayle of thenglyshe men came to socour the prince's batayle, the whiche was tyme, for they had as than moche ado, and they with the prince sent a messangar to the kynge who was on a lytell wyndmill hill. Than the knyght sayd to the kyng, Sir therle of Warwyke and therle of Cafort [Stafford] Sir Reynolde Cobham and other such as be about the prince your sonne are feersly fought with all, and are sore handled, wherefore they desire you that you and your batayle woll come and ayde them, for if the frenchemen encrease as they dout they woll your sonne and they shall have moche a do. Than the kynge sayde, is my sonne deed or hurt or on the yerthe felled? No, sir, quoth the knight, but he is hardely matched wherfore he hath nede of your ayde. Well sayde the kyng, retourne to hym and to them that sent you hyther, and say to them that they sende no more to me for any adventure that falleth as long as my sonne is alyve; and also say to them that they suffer hym this day to wynne his spurres, for if God be pleased, I woll this iourney be his and the honoure therof and to them that be aboute hym. Than the knyght retourned agayn to them and shewed the kynges wordes, the which greatly encouraged them, and repoyned in that they had sende to the kynge as they dyd."
[51] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.
[52] Thucydides, in his account of the earlier plague in Athens, B.C. 430, says, "It was supposed that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the cisterns."
[53] Translated from the French by Charles Leonard-Stuart.
[54] Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been corrupted into Othman. The descendants of his subjects style themselves Osmanlis—corrupted into Ottoman.
[55] Edebali, a Mussulman prophet and saint, whose daughter Osman married.
[56] A criminal tribunal, of which Steno himself was president.
[57] "Jacques Bonhomme." Froissart takes this for the name of an individual, but it is the common nickname—like "Hodge" or "Giles"—of the French peasantry. It is said that the term was applied by the lords of the manor to their villeins or serfs, in derision of their awkwardness and patient endurance of their lot. The "King who came from Clermont"—the leader of the Jacquerie—was William Karl or Callet.
[58] A most wonderful scene. The B'hagiratha or Ganges issues from under a very low arch at the foot of the grand snow-bed. The illiterate mountaineers compare the pendent icicles to Mahodeva's hair. Hindoos of research may formerly have been here; and if so, one cannot think of any place to which they might more aptly give the name of a cow's mouth than to this extraordinary débouché.
[59] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.
[60] "Chorus Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus' dance; the lascivious dance, Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken with it can do nothing but dance till they be dead or cured. It is so called for that the parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help; and, after they had danced there awhile, they were certainly freed. 'Tis strange to hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms, and tables. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick above all things they love; and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire musicians to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions to dance with them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those relations of Schenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of madness, who brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Platerus (de Mentis Alienat. cap. 3) reports of a woman in Basel whom he saw, that danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind of palsie. Bodine, in his fifth book, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius, in his last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may read more of it."—Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.
[61] The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria states that, at the festival of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through which men, women, and children jumped; and that young children were carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, in II Kings, xvi. 3. Zonaras, Balsamon, and Photius speak of the St. John's fires in Constantinople, and the first looks upon them as the remains of an old Grecian custom. Even in modern times fires are still lighted on St. John's Day in Brittany and other remote parts of Continental Europe, through the smoke of which the cattle are driven in the belief that they will thus be protected from contagious and other diseases, and in these practices protective fumigation originated. That such different nations should have had the same idea of fixing the purification by fire on St. John's Day is a remarkable coincidence, which perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to baptism.
[62] Beckmann makes many other observations on this well-known circumstance. The priest named is the same who is still known in the nursery tales of children as the Knecht Ruprecht.
[63] Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme ("May you be seized with St. Vitus' dance").
[64] "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his, but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by means of wax figures (peri cunculas). The witches made a wax image of the person who was to be bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck it full of pins, or melted it before the fire. The books on magic, of the Middle Ages, are full of such things; though the reader who may wish to obtain information on this subject need not go so far back. Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth century."—Treatise on the Diseases of Children.
[65] Some authorities give twenty-nine.
[66] Selden, in his Table Talk, says: "There was once, I am sure, a parliamentary pope. Pope Urban was made pope in England by act of parliament, against Pope Clement: the act is not in the Book of Statutes, either because he that compiled the book would not have the name of the Pope there, or else he would not let it appear that they meddled with any such thing; but it is upon the rolls."
[67] A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents.
[68] In Walsingham may be seen a long account of the death of the Archbishop, page 250. His head was carried in triumph through the streets on the point of a lance, and fixed on London bridge. That it might be the better known, the hat or bonnet worn by him was nailed to the skull.
[69] When Tresilian, one of the judges, tried the insurgents at St. Alban's, he impanelled three juries of twelve men each. The first was ordered to present all whom they knew to be the chiefs of the tumult, the second gave their opinion on the presentation of the first, and the third pronounced the verdict of guilty or not guilty. It does not appear that witnesses were examined. The juries spoke from their personal knowledge. Thus each convict was condemned on the oaths of thirty-six men. At first, on account of the multitude of executions, the condemned were beheaded: afterward they were hanged and left on the gibbet as objects of terror; but as their bodies were removed by their friends, the King ordered them to be hanged in chains, the first instance in which express mention of the practice is made. According to Holinshed the executions amounted to fifteen hundred.
[70] The readers, as might be expected, often surreptitiously copied portions of special interest. One is reminded of the story in ancient Irish history of a curious decision arising out of an incident of this kind nearly a thousand years before, which seems to have influenced the history of Christianity in Britain. St. Columb, on a visit to the aged St. Finian in Ulster, had permission to read in the Psalter belonging to his host. But every night while the good old saint was sleeping, the young one was busy in the chapel writing by a miraculous light till he had completed a copy of the whole Psalter. The owner of the Psalter, discovering this, demanded that it should be given up, as it had been copied unlawfully from his book; while the copyist insisted that, the materials of labor being his, he was entitled to what he had written. The dispute was referred to Diarmad, the King at Tara, and his decision (genuinely Irish) was given in St. Finian's favor. "To every book," said he, "belongs its son-book [copy], as to every cow belongs her calf." Columb complained of the decision as unjust, and the dispute is said to have been one of the causes of his leaving Ireland for Iona.
[71] Oliver Wendell Holmes: Autocrat of the Breakfast-table.
[72] A town in Schwyz. The name means a "hermitage." St. Meinrad, according to legend, lived there (ninth century) as a hermit. It is a celebrated pilgrim resort.—Ed.
[73] He descended from Henry III both by father and mother. But he could not claim by the father's side, because the young Earl of March was sprung from the Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John of Gaunt; nor by the mother's side, because she was sprung from Edmund of Lancaster, a younger brother of Edward I. It was pretended that Edmund was the elder brother, but deformed in body, and therefore set aside with his own consent. If we may believe Hardyng, Henry on September 21st produced in council a document to prove the seniority of Edmund over Edward, but that the contrary was shown by a number of unanswerable authorities.
[74] Charles IV.
[75] Allusion to John Ziska, leader of the Hussites, who waged a fierce war against Wenzel and the empire.
[76] Head of the House of Hohenzollern, Burggraves of Nuremberg.
[77] This was the Dauphin, afterward Charles VII, whose brother Jean, Duke of Burgundy, had, in 1407, procured the murder of the Duke of Orleans.
[78] To houspiller is to maul, pull about, abuse, "worry like a dog"; hence the name houspilleur.
[79] The English cardinal, most powerful ecclesiastic of the time.
[80] Assistant judges.
[81] Tipstaffs, constables.
[82] The Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster), third son of Henry IV of England, was regent of England and France, which office he assumed on the death of Henry V, in 1422.
[83] The memory of Jeanne d'Arc was long and shamefully traduced by descendants of those enemies of France whom she baffled. Even Shakespeare (Henry VI) is so unjust to her—refining upon the brutal calumnies of the historians—as to grieve his most loving critics. It remained for the opening years of the twentieth century to see the Maid canonized by the Church which, as the agent of her country's foes, was instrumental in her destruction.—Ed.
[84] Translated by Chauncey C. Starkweather, M.A., LL.B.
[85] The Catalan Grand Company was a formidable body of mercenary soldiers; it arose in Sicily during the wars that followed the Sicilian Vespers.
[86] See 1291.
[87] Date uncertain.
[88] Date uncertain.
[89] A specimen of an early speaking-tube exists, connecting the room said to have been occupied by Isabella with the old brewhouse, now a tavern, by means of which Mortimer was wont to communicate with his mistress. The castle stands upon a mount of 280 feet, sheer rock, and the brewhouse is at its base. A peculiarity of the tube, bored through the live rock, is an elbow-joint, which is a puzzle to scientists.
[90] Date uncertain.
[91] Often erroneously given as 1370, neglecting the fact that, by the old manner of reckoning, the year began on March 25th.
[92] Date uncertain.
[93] By the French it is claimed that Jean Charlier de Gerson was the author of de Imitatione Christi, usually attributed to Thomas à Kempis.