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1272–1307 |
Reign of King Edward I of England, ‘Hammer of the Scots’. |
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1302 |
King Philip IV of France convenes the first Estates-General, forerunner of the French parliament, in a bid to impose his power over the Church. Responding to the challenge, Pope Boniface VIII issues his Papal Bull Unam Sanctam, an assertion of papal supremacy in all matters spiritual and temporal. He is imprisoned by Philip IV. |
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1303 |
The University of Rome is founded. |
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1305 |
Sir William Wallace, the Scottish hero, is hanged, drawn and quartered after raising an army against the English king. |
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1306 |
27 March: Robert the Bruce is crowned King of Scotland at Scone. |
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1307–27 |
Reign of King Edward II of England. |
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1309–77 |
Period of the Avignon papacy. With war in Italy, the papacy withdraws to southern France, where a series of French popes hold sway until the Great Schism of 1378–1417. |
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1314 |
23–24 June: Robert the Bruce defeats the English army at the battle of Bannockburn. |
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1321 |
Death of Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy. |
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1327–77 |
Reign of King Edward III of England. |
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1337 |
Death of Giotto, the Florentine artist and architect, creator of the celebrated Scrovegni frescoes in Padua. |
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1337–1453 |
Hundred Years’ War between France and England. |
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1338 |
Edward III proclaims himself King of France. |
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1342 |
?Birth of Geoffrey Chaucer. He began writing The Canterbury Tales in the late 1380s, when Temur was at the height of his power. |
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1345 |
Completion of the Ponte Vecchio, Florence’s most famous bridge. |
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1346 |
26 August: King Edward III’s army defeats the French at the battle of Crécy. |
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1347 |
Spreading west from Asia, the Black Death reaches Constantinople, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily, Venice, Genoa and Marseilles. A year later, it ravages the rest of Italy and England, spreading into northern Europe in the early 1350s. |
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1350 |
Coronation of King John II of France. |
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1356 |
19 September: Edward the Black Prince leads the English army to victory over the French at the battle of Poitiers. King John II is taken prisoner and held for ransom. |
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1356 |
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV issues the Golden Bull, establishing rules for the election of German kings. |
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1360 |
8 May: France and England come to terms at the Peace of Brétigny. John II pays three million gold crowns for his ransom. Edward III renounces his claim to the French throne and is granted swathes of French territory. |
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1370 |
Completion of the Palace of Comares and the Sala de la Barca within the Alhambra, Granada. |
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1377–99 |
Reign of King Richard II of England. |
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1378–1417 |
The Great Schism. The Church splits over the election of Pope Urban VI. For three decades one pope presides in Rome while another, the anti-pope, is based in Avignon. |
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1381 |
Wat Tyler leads the Peasants’ Revolt in England against the hated poll tax. |
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1386 |
The University of Heidelberg, the oldest in Germany, is founded by Rupert I, Elector of the Palatinate. |
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1389 |
The Ottoman Sultan Murad I crushes a combined European army under the Serbian King Lazarus at the battle of Kosovo. |
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1396 |
The flower of European chivalry is cut down by the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I at the battle of Nicopolis, the last Crusade. |
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1399–1413 |
Reign of King Henry IV of England. |
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1400 |
Owen Glendower, last to claim the title of independent Prince of Wales, launches the Welsh Revolt against English rule. |