1347

The year 1347 was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Timeline of events

* 2 February - The Byzantine Empire's Second Civil War between Kantakouzenos and the regency ends with John VI Kantakouzenos entering Constantinople as the new Emperor.
* May - An agreement reorganizing the Byantine Empire's affairs is finalized as Anna of Savoy's son Michael Palaiologos marries Kantakouzenos' 15-year-old daughter.
* May - Genoese ships fleeing the Black Plague in Kaffa stop in Constantinople, contaminating the city
* 20 May - Cola di Rienzo, a Roman commoner, declares himself Emperor of Rome in response years of baronic power-struggles.
* 2 August - The Islamic Bahmani Kingdom is established on the Indian subcontinent.
* September - In the Hundred Years' War, the English win the city of Calais
* 1 September - The Black Plague reaches the French city of Marseilles
* October - Ships arrive in southern Italy with the Black Plague
* November - Pope Clement VI unites several of Rome's upper-class nobility, who drive Cola di Rienzo out of the city
* November - King Phillip of France meets with the Estates General to ask for funds to further the war effort against the English
* 1 November - Black Plague spreads to Aix-en-Provence in France
* December - Plague hits the island of Majorca
* 25 December - First cases of the plague recorded in the city of Split in the northern Balkans

Asia

Western Asia

The Mamluke Empire was hit by the plague in the autumn. [Watts, Sheldon. Epidemics and History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0300080875 pp. 25-26] Baghdad was hit in the same year. [Miller, Edward. The Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Cambridge: U.P, 1987. ISBN 0521087090 pp. 461]

Central and East Asia

After years of resistance against the Delhi Sultan Muhammud bin Tughluq, the Bahmani Kingdom, a muslim Sultanate in Deccan, was established on August 3, when King Ala-ud-din Hasan Bahman Shah was crowned in a mosque in Daulatabad. [ [http://www.indiancoins.8m.com/bahmani/BahmaniHist.html History of Bahmani Dynasty ] ] Later in the year, the Kingdom's capital was moved from Daulatabad to the more central Gulbarga. [ISBN 0761476350 pp. 335] [Britannica, Encyclopedia et.al. Students' Britannica India. New Delhi: Encyclopaedia Britannica (India), 2000. ISBN 0852297602 pp. 149] Southeast Asia suffered a drought which dried up an important river which ran through the capital city of the Kingdom of Ayodhya, forcing the King to move the capital to a new location on the Lop Buri River. [Beek, Van, Steve and Luca Invernizzi. The Arts of Thailand. Berkeley: Periplus Editions, 1999. ISBN 9625932623 pp. 139]

Europe

Eastern and Scandinavian

On 2 February the Byzantine Empire's civil war between Kantakouzenos and the regency ended with John VI Kantakouzenos entering Constantinople as the new Emperor. He arranged an with Anna of Savoy agreement whereby he and John V Palaiologos would rule jointly. The agreement was finalized in May when Anna's son Michael Palaiologos married Kantakouzenos' 15-year-old daughter. The war had come at a high cost economically and agriculturally, and much of the Empire was in need of rebuilding. [Mango, Cyril. The Oxford History of Byzantium. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0198140983 pp. 267] To make matters worse, also in May Genoese ships fleeing the Black Plague in Kaffa stopped in Constantinople. The plague soon spread from their ships to the rest of the city.Benedictow, Ole and Ole Benedictow. The Black Death, 1346-1353. Ipswich: Boydell Press, 2004. ISBN 0851159435 pp. 51-54] By autumn, the epidemic was in the Balkan and Greek region, possibly through contact with Venetian ports along the Adriatic Sea. [Benedictow, Ole and Ole Benedictow. The Black Death, 1346-1353. Ipswich: Boydell Press, 2004. ISBN 0851159435 pp. 74] Specific cases were recorded in the northern Balkan region on 25 December, in he city of Split.Benedictow, Ole and Ole Benedictow. The Black Death, 1346-1353. Ipswich: Boydell Press, 2004. ISBN 0851159435 pp. 75]

Jews were first accused of ritual murders in Poland in 1347. [Weinryb, Bernard. The Jews of Poland. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1973. ISBN 082760016X pp. 27] Casimir III of Poland issues Poland's first codified collection of laws after the diet of Wiślica. Separate laws are codified for greater and lesser Poland. [Fisher, HH. America and the New Poland. City: Fisher Press, 2007. ISBN 1406750840 pp. xv] [Morfill, William. Poland. London: T. F. Unwin, 1893. ISBN 0836999193 pp. 42]

Central

On 20 May Cola di Rienzo, a Roman commoner, declared himself Emperor of Rome in front of a huge crowd in response to what had been several years of power struggles among the upper-class barony. Pope Clement VI, along with several of Rome's upper-class nobility, united to drive him out of the city in November. [Garwood, Duncan. Lonely Planet Rome: City Guides. Hawthorn: Lonely Planet Publications, 2006. ISBN 1740597109 pp. 70] In October, Genoese ships arrived in southern Italy with the Black Plague, beginning the spread of the disease in the region. [Corporation, Marshall. Exploring the Middle Ages. New York (Box 410: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2006. ISBN 0761476156 pp. 99]

Western Europe

In the continuing Hundred Years' War, the English won the city of Calais in a treaty signed in September. In a meeting with the Estates General in November, the French King Phillip was tole that in the recent war efforts they had "lost all and gained nothing." [Fraioli, Deborah. Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 0313324581 pp. 106] Phillip, however, was granted a portion of the money he requested and was able to continue his war effort.Neillands, Robin. The Hundred Years War. New York: Routledge, 1990. ISBN 0415071496 pp. 109-110] The English King Edward offered Calais a package of economic boosts which would make Calais the key city connecting England with France economically. [Corfis, Ivy and Michael Wolfe. The Medieval City under Siege. Ipswich: Boydell Press, 1999. ISBN 0851157564 pp. 55] Edward returned to England at that height of his popularity and power and for six months celebrated his successes with others in the English nobility. Although the Kingdom's funds were largely pushed towards the war, building projects among the more wealthy continued, with, for example, the completion of Pembroke College in this year. The French city of Marseilles recognized the plague on 1 September and by 1 November it had spread to Aix-en-Provence. The earliest recorded invasion of the plague into Spanish territory was in Majorca in December 1347, probably through commercial ships.

Births

* 6 February - Dorothea of Montau, German hermitess and visionary (d. 1394)
* 27 February - Alberto d'Este, Lord of Ferrara and Modena (d. 1393)
* 25 March - Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (d. 1380)
* 28 July - Margherita of Durazzo, Queen consort of Charles III of Naples (d. 1412)
* 29 August - John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, medieval English nobleman and soldier (d. 1375)
*"date unknown"
**Eleanor of Arborea, ruler of Sardinia (d. 1404)
**Elizabeth of Pomerania, fourth and final wife of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1393)
**Frederick III, Duke of Austria, second son of Duke Albert II of Austria (d. 1362)
**Emperor Go-Kameyama, 99th Emperor of Japan (d. 1424)
**Richardis of Schwerin, queen consort of Sweden (d. 1377)

Deaths

* February 2 - Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, was the bishop of Lincoln (b. 1282)
* May 30 - John Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Knayth, English peer (b. 1290)
* June - John de Warenne, 8th Earl of Surrey, 8th Earl of Surrey (b. 1286)
* June 11 - Bartholomew of San Concordio, Italian Dominican canonist and man of letters (b. 1260)
* September 7 - Margaret de Audley, daughter of Hugh de Audley, 1st Earl of Gloucester (b. 1318)
* October 11 - Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1282)
*November - Richard de Pilmuir, bishop of Dunkeld
*November 12 - John of Viktring, Austrian chronicler and political advisor in Carinthia (b. 1270-1280)
*November 15 - James I of Urgell, Prince of Aragon (b. 1321)
*"date unknown"
**Hazrat Shah Jalal, sufi saint of Bengal (b. 1271)
**William of Ockham, English Philosopher (b. 1288)
**Blanca de La Cerda y Lara, Spanish nobelwoman (b. 1317)
**John de Egglescliffe, English bishop
**Adam Murimuth, English ecclesiastic and chronicler (b. 1274)
**Peter III of Arborea, Judge of Arborea
**Lamberto II and Pandolfo da Polenta, brothers and lords of Ravenna and Cervia
**Kokan Shiren, Japanese Rinzai Zen patriarch and celebrated Chinese poet (b. 1278)

References