1330

Political Events

The Hapsburgs recognize Ludwig IV of Bavaria as Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of Friedrich the Handsome (der Schöne), duke of Austria, at Gutenstein January 13 at age 43.

Bohemia's king Johann gives up all claims to Pomerania and cedes it to the Teutonic Knights under terms of a March 12 deed of gift that says, "As God and your holiness wills it, King Johan relinquishes all claim to Pomerania and also to Pomerellen, which is the seat and the property of the Order of the Brothers" (see Poland, 1333).

Serbian forces defeat a Bulgarian army in the decisive Battle of Velbuzhd (Kyustendil), killing the czar Mikhail Shishman, making Serbia the dominant nation in the Balkans, and ending Bulgarian power for years to come (see 1326). Serbia's "young king" Stefan Dusan has a falling out with his father, and war breaks out between them in the fall (see 1331).

England's Edward III leads a baronial revolt against his regent Roger de Mortimer, 1st earl of March and 8th baron of Wigmore. At the instigation of his 30-year-old Welsh-born adviser Henry of Grosmont, earl of Derby (later 1st duke of Lancaster), Edward has the arrogant and avaricious 43-year-old Mortimer seized at Nottingham in October, taken to the Tower of London, and hanged as a traitor November 29 at Tyburn, outside London; Edward confiscates Mortimer's lands for the crown and at age 17 begins a personal rule that will continue until his dotage in the late 1360s and nominally until his death in 1377.

Religion

The last imperial antipope Nicholas V renounces his illegitimate claim to the papacy August 23 after being assured of a pardon by Pope John XXII.

Literature

Nonfiction: Opus Nonaginta Dierum by English logician William of Ockham (or Occam), 50, angers Pope John XXII at Avignon, who takes issue with Ockham's spiritual defense of the vow of absolute poverty. The Franciscan friar's philosophic writings include what will be called "Ockham's razor," previously invoked by the Dominican philosopher and theologian Durand de Saint-Pourçain, bishop of Meaux. It states that the simplest explanation of any phenomenon is usually the correct explanation: "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate," "Plurality should not be posited without necessity," or "Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity" (see 1343); The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight by Italian Franciscan friar and traveler Odoric of Pordenone, 44, who has been proselytizing through Mesopotamia, Persia, China, and India.

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