1347

Political Events

England's Edward III assembles a great fleet to support his men in France, relying on merchants and fisherman to supply all but about 30 of the 700 ships that carry fresh troops to continue the siege of Calais that began in September last year. John de Warenne, 8th earl of Surrey and earl of Strathearn, dies childless at Conisbororough,Yorkshire, June 30 at age 59, having opposed the late Edward II's favorite Piers Gaveston but supported the king against the Lords Ordainer. His remaining estates pass to the crown. Edward III increases his siege force to 32,000 men in anticipation of an effort by Philippe IV to relieve Calais, and when Philippe arrives in July he finds the odds so overwhelming that he withdraws and disbands his army. The French port surrenders August 4; Edward expels its French population, repopulates it with English settlers, and makes it a military and commercial outpost that will remain English for 211 years. He celebrates by taking as servants six of the city's leading burghers, whose lives he has spared only at the request of his 33-year-old wife, Philippa of Hainaut (see art [Rodin], 1895).

Rome's dissolute plutocracy is overthrown in a revolt led by papal courtier Cola di Rienzo (Niccolo Gabrini, or Nicola di Lorenzo), 34, who heads a procession to the Capitol dressed in full armor and receives unlimited authority from the assembled multitude. Rome's nobles leave the city or go into hiding, Rienzo takes the title of tribune in late May, begins a government of stern justice in contrast to the license that has prevailed, is encouraged by the poet Petrarch, proclaims the sovereignty of the Roman people over the empire in July, is installed as tribune with great pomp in mid-August, but is obliged to impose heavy taxes in order to maintain his costly regime. Rienzo offends Pope Clement VI by proposing to set up a new Roman Empire based on the will of the people, he is ridiculed for his pretensions, the pope empowers a legate to depose Rienzo and bring him to trial, Rome's barons gather troops, but Louis of Hungary comes to Rienzo's aid, the barons are defeated November 20 outside the city gates, and Rienzo's noblest enemy Stephen Colonna is killed. Denounced by the pope as a criminal, pagan, and heretic, Rienzo devotes himself to feasts and pageants until mid-December, when he panics at some disturbance, abdicates, and flees the city (see 1350).

The Bohemian soldier Charles of Luxembourg is crowned king of Bohemia by the new archbishop of Prague. Now 31, he has persuaded Pope Clement VI to raise the bishopric to an archbishopric and will reign as Charles I until his death in 1378, going on meanwhile to wear even weightier crowns.

Joanna of Naples is married in August to the Neapolitan-born Luigi di Taranto (Louis of Taranto), who has been named count of Provence and becomes king of Naples (see 1345). Hungary's Louis I invades the kingdom of Naples to avenge the murder 2 years ago of his brother András. He occupies the city, and Joanna flees with her new husband, Luigi, to Avignon, where they receive the protection of Pope Clement VI. They will not be able to return on a permanent basis until 1352 (see 1348).

The Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV of Bavaria dies on a bear hunt outside Munich October 11 at age 60, his followers elect anti-kings, and a struggle ensues among those who would challenge the right of Bohemia's Charles I to be ruler of Germany (see 1346; Günther, 1349).

The 6-year civil war in the Byzantine Empire ends in victory for John Cantacuzene, who regains Constantinople in February with help from the Ottoman Turks, is crowned in May, and begins an 8-year reign as John VI Cantacuzenus, nominally as co-emperor with his ward, John V Palaeologus. He marries his daughter Helen to his co-emperor and agrees not to reign more than 10 years. Thrace and Macedonia have been ravaged by Serbs and Turks brought in to support the rival factions, and the new reign will be marked by attacks from these outsiders and also from the Genoese (see 1354).

A Bahmani sultanate is founded in India by Muslim noblemen who revolted 2 years ago at Daulatabad against Muhammad ibn Tughluq under the leadership of Hasan Gangu, who will soon move his capital to Gulbarga on the Deccan Plateau. He and his descendants will make war intermittently with Malwa and Gujarat in the north, Orissa and the Reddi kingdoms of Andhra in the east, and Vijayanagar in the south, using artillery and heavy cavalry against the fortified strongholds of Hindu and Muslim rivals.

Commerce

Florentine banker Andrea Strozzi buys up quantities of grain in the midst of a Tuscan famine and sells it at low prices to the popolo minuto in a bid for their allegiance, but the people see through Strozzi's scheme and refuse to follow him, following instead the cunning suggestions of the Medicis and the Capponi to attack the houses of prominent older bankers such as the Pazzi, Bardi, and Frescobaldi.

Medicine

The pestilence that will later be called the Black Death reaches Cyprus in late summer (see 1345). A fleet of 12 Genoese galleys lands at Messina, Sicily, in early October, local inhabitants die by the thousands, and by winter the plague has spread north, finding victims weakened and made vulnerable by famine (see 1348).

Joanna of Naples opens a house of prostitution at Avignon in an effort to reduce venereal disease. As queen of both the Sicilies and countess of Provence she "commands that on every Saturday the Women in the House be singly examined by the Abbess and a Surgeon appointed by the Directors, and if any of them has contracted any Illness by their Whoring, that they be separated from the rest, and not suffered to prostitute themselves, for fear the Youth who have to do with them should catch their Distempers."

Religion

The Franciscan friar Giovanni de Marignolli leaves China in December after a 6-year visit in which he and his companions have spread the Christian faith (see 1342). Marignolli will return to Avignon in 1353 by way of Hormuz, having visited Mesopotamia, Syria, and Jerusalem en route.

Education

Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge has its beginnings in a license granted by Edward III Christmas Eve to Marie de St. Pol, daughter of Guy de Chatillon and wife of Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke (see Clare, 1326). Originally called Marie Valence Hall, Pembroke will survive into the 21st century (see Gonville and Caius, 1348).

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