The principle of war as a noble and glorious thing is being adopted.
A belief that the bible alone has divine authority emerged as a heresy in England

EUROPEAN HISTORY 1400 - 1449

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Biological warfare (using the Black Death) is created
and will be used against the Indians of America in the future.
The doctrine is that if the last rights are not received your soul is lost to hell or purgatory.
The Black Death would destroy the Churches authority.
A new doctrine is created to say those who die of the Black Death are forgiven their sins.
The principle of self flagellation is the result of the Black Death.

1340  

King Alfonso XI (1312-1350) the avenger of Spain decisively defeated the Spanish and Moroccan Moslems ending the African threat to Spain forever.  He attempted to merge the brotherhood of the knights into a single Royal Military Order but their resistance forced him to place them under firm control.  His subjects feared him even more than the Moors as he used treachery and murder to intimidate the nobles, killing rebels without trial.

1342  

Clement VI alias Pierre Roger (1342-1352) is elected pope.  A Roman delegation begged the new pope to return the papacy to Rome.  The pope however took steps to entrench the church at Avignon.  The pope built a luxurious court and gorgeous retinue equal to a secular prince, not a prince of the church.  He delighted in banquets and colorful festivities declaring that his predecessors did not know how to live as a pope.  He lavished gifts and offices on relatives.  His sexual abuses cannot be explained away.

1343  

Reval on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, a Teutonic town, is attacked by the Estonians.  During their uprising they killed 1,800 German men, women and children.  The Teutonic Landmeister von Dreileve swiftly restored order.  Prussians are forbidden to live in German villages because they are considered poor farmers.  Intermarriage is prohibited because most remained pagan or Orthodox.

1346  

In compliance with their alliance with France, the King of Scotland attacked England and lost the battle.  The English raided as far north as Edinburgh, destroying and looting.  King Edward III (1327-1377) and his eldest son, the Black Prince created a code of chivalry to convince the Knights and people that war are a noble and glorious thing.  War is also very profitable to some Nobles, Lords and Knights.  Cruelty, death, destruction and theft are the reality of war.   Mariners returning to Europe from China and India reported a deadly plague is killing thousands.  Some blame the Black Plague on the Tartars (Mongols).  The traders themselves are likely the carriers.  The Black Death or bubonic plague killed about 1/3 of the population of Europe and Asia and then spread to Africa.

1347  

An Italian Christian trading post called Caffa on the northern shores of the Dead Sea are the first to experience the Black Death in Europe.  Their post is under siege when the attacking army contracted the Black Death.  This army catapulted their dead into Caffa so they also would suffer the Death.  The survivors of Caffa fled in ships back to Italy carrying the Black Death with them..  Italian ships swarming with infested rats imported the Black Plague into Sicily.

The Black Death or Bubonic Plague (Bacillus Yersinia Pestis) is estimated to have killed over 34 million people in Europe between 1347-1351.   It is believed to have originated in Asia.  Hitting Cyprus, Italy, then in 1348 France, England, Germany, 1349, Norway, 1350 eastern Europe , 1351 Russia, following the trade routes.

1348  

The Black Death (bubonic plague) arrived in France and a third of the population of Europe would die.  From 1347-51 some 75,000,000 people would died in Europe and Asia.  The population of England is reduced by one third during 1348-1349 period when the Black Death visited that country.  Christians blamed the Jews for causing the plague.  In Basel, on the Rhine River, Jews are burned alive in wooden buildings.  In Speyer (Germany) they are put into wine casks and rolled into the river.  Thousands of Jews are sacrificed to rid the country of the plague.  Other suggested that the Pope Clement VI (1342-1352) and the whores of his New Babylon Church have caused the plague.  By 1351 an estimated twenty five million people had died in Europe, about one third of the world's population.  The people of Europe were terrified because if one died without the last rights of the Roman Church their soul is lost to hell or purgatory.  The number of deaths precluded the possibility of last rights.  To avoid a complete breakdown of Religious authority Pope Clement VI (1342-1352) proclaimed that all those who died of the Black Death are forgiven of their sins.  Despite this precaution there is a rapid rise of a religious order called the flagellants.  The flagellants attempted to avoid the Black Plague by harshly scourging themselves so that God would forgive their sins.  The Flagellant blamed the Jews for the Black Death and burned down the Jewish communities killing the people.

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared in Prizren, Serbia.

1350  

The Black Death mysteriously disappeared but did return in smaller cases over the next few decades.  London England had a population of 50,000 people and now has a population of only 25,000 people.  Some estimate that 40,000,000 people died in a three-year period.  Montpellier, France 90% of the population died from the Black death caused by a Bacterium called Yersinia Pestis carried back to Europe by the returning crusaders.

1352  

December 3:   A thunderstorm hit Rome and St. Peter's basilica had suffered a direct hit, and the bells had melted.  In the market, everyone started celebrating Pope Clement VI (1342-1352) is dead.  The people said he is dead and buried deep in hell.  Innocent VI alias Etienne Aubert (1352-1362) is elected pope by 25 cardinals at Avignon.  Pope Innocent VI personally ordered some of the Spiritual Franciscans to prison and the stake under the Inquisition law.  The Saintly Bridget of Sweden (d-1373) publicly denounced the pope as a persecutor of Christ’s sheep.

1353  

There is a suggestion of a witch’s dance at Toulouse, France this year.

1354  

The Ottoman Turks acquired Gallipoli (Gelibolue, Turkey) from the Byzantines.

1356  

The Golden Bull of 1356 by Pope Innocent VI (1352-1362) that lasted until 1806 established the electors of the Holy Roman Emperor.  The electors are the Archbishops of Cologne, of Mainz, of Trier, count Palatine of the Rhine (the Palatinate), Duke of Saxony, King of Bohemia (Austria), Margrave of Brandenburg and in 1648 Duke of Bavaria and in 1692 added Elector of Hanover (Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg).  The Emperor however is a figurehead having no power or authority other than over his own hereditary lands.  Charles IV (1347-1378) is the present Emperor.

1357  

Janibeg (1342-1357) son of Uzbeg the Mongol died resulting in a protracted political crisis among the Golden Horde especially his sons.  Some mark this time as the beginning of the decline and fall of the European Mongol Empire and the true emergence of Russia.  The southern Mongolian Russia Empire however continued until 1480 AD.

1358  

King John (1350-1364) is King of France.  The peasants or Jacques Bonhomme, as the nobility of Northern France called them, revolted against the entire aristocracy vowing to exterminate them.  They committed horrible atrocities and the nobility responded with equally brutal atrocities.  In the town of Meaux, France, near Paris, it is said that seven thousand peasants died in one clash alone.  The revolt ended in June.

The Ottoman Turks gained their first foothold in Europe at Gallipoli, Anatolia (Turkey).

1360  

Paul Knutsson, by Royal command, sailed to Greenland, under reports that Greenlanders had fallen into paganism and to discover the whereabouts of the Godthaab Colony.  There is no record of the results of this expedition.
England King Edward III (1327-1377) re-established control over all Aquitaine, Gascony, parts of Normandy, Brittany, and the port of Calais.

1362  

Grand Duke Olgerd of Lithuania, son of Gedymin occupied Kiev.  Urban V alias Guillaume de Grimoard (1362-1370) is elected pope.  The popes desire to unite the east and west churches and to conduct a crusade influenced his moving the papacy to Rome.  He later changed his mind deserting the Imperial city.

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared in Dubrovnik, Crotia.

1363  

Grand Duke Olgerd of Lithuania combined with the Russian army and marched south to the Black Sea.  The Russian-Lithuania army defeated the Mongols at the mouth of the Bug River giving them control of a large part of Ukraine.  Olgerd the Mongol in alliance with Tver marched on Moscow against Grand Duke Dmitri (1362-1389) but failed on two attempts to storm the Kremlin.

1364  

King Charles V (1338-1380) Charles Le Sage (The Wise) King of France (1364-1380) prepared for war with the English driving them from France into their coastal enclave in Aquitaine.

1368  

Chinese rebels drove the Mongol outside the Great Wall and established the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) thus ending the Yuan dynasty.  The Ming Dynasty retained the Mongol city of Beijing alias Daidu as their capital city.

1369  

The last recorded regular run from Norway to Greenland by the Royal Norwegian monopoly belonging to the town of Bergen is this year.  When Bergen suffered the black death, in 1349, one in three of the population died.  The harbor town is burned and sacked and Greenland lost its lifeline to the motherland.

1370  

The Hanseatic League is form by a group of Germanic merchants from the cities of Hamburg, Leipzig, Bremen, Danzig, Stettin and Lubeck that achieved official standing this year.  Gregory XI alias Pierre Roger de Beaufort (1370-1378) is elected pope by 17 cardinals at Avignon.  He is particularly active in repressing heresy in Provence, Germany and Spain.  In France he used the Inquisition ruthlessly calling on King Charles V (1364-1380) to help fill the prisons who escaped the stake.

1373  

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared on the Island of Corfu. 

1375  

John Wyclif (1328-1384) of England advocated the laity had the right to control the property of the church.  He wanted to restore a pure early church unencumbered by complex organization or doctrinal accretions of dubious origins and equally dubious worth.  He contended the Bible alone has divine authority.  The supremacy of the Bible means the fallibility of all clerical institutions, including the papacy.  The papacy naturally condemned his doctrines as heretical but could not arrest him.  After his death his bones are dug up and burned in effigy.

1377  

Robert of Geneva a legate of Pope Gregory XI ordered a blood bath at Cesena raising hostility in Rome against the papacy.  This pope however did return the papacy to Rome.

1378  

The election of the next Pope drew a crowd of 30,000 Romans who demanded they pick a Roman or an Italian.  The French naturally are determined to keep the papacy to themselves.  Rioting broke out and the conclave is invaded and the cardinals pacified the crowd by telling them an elderly Roman had been elected.  However Bartolomeo Prignano is selected by sixteen cardinals to become Pope Urban VI (1378-1389), he is not Roman.  He turned out to be a vile-tempered, spiteful alcoholic pontiff.  Many believed he is deranged and incapable of being pope.  The cardinals slowly abandoned him meeting in Anagni and published a declaration that his election is invalid being under the fear of mob violence.  The cardinals elected Robert of Geneva as pope taking the name Clement VII alias Robert Amadeus (1378-1394) creating what some refer as the Great Schism (1378-1417).  Europe divided into two religious churches, the Clement's being France, Burgundy, Savoy, Naples and Scotland.  The Urban's being England, Germany, most of Italy and other countries of central Europe.  Catherine of Siena, Spain remained neutral.  The whole curia defected to Pope Clement so Pope Urban created a new one naming 29 new cardinals.  Each church excommunicated the others members.

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared in Rila Monastery, Bulgaria.  

1379  

The Clement Church army met the Urban Church army at Marino and Clement's army is crushed.

1381  

A rebel priest in England, because of the cruelty and greed of the Church, called for the removal of all Bishops, Archbishops and Nobles.  It is believed the Pope Urban VI (1378-1389) is taxing the English to support the French in their war against England.  The sixty to one hundred thousand peasants under the loose leadership of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw and Jogn Ball stormed London and executed the Archbishop of Canterbury who is also the Kings Chancellor and therefore one of the oppressive establishment.  Wat Tyler is treacherously killed while negotiating with the King Richard II (1377-1399), and not long after, King Richard gained the upper hand and executed fifteen hundred peasants as an example.

1382  

Tokhtamysh led a Mongolian army on Moscow looting and burning the city in retaliation for there failed battle of 1380.

1383  

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared in Hungary.

1384  

Pope Urban VI (1378-1389) imprisoned and brutally tortured six cardinals who conspired against the deranged pope claiming incapacity.  Five of the cardinals mysteriously disappeared and foul play is suspected.

1385  

A treaty of union is signed between Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland.  Queen Jadwiga of Poland wed the Grand Duke of Lithuania creating an empire from the Baltic to the Black sea.  This empire reached its maximum size by the fifteenth century.

The Gypsy (Roma) appeared in Romania as slaves. 

1386  

Grand Duke Iogaila of Lithuania became Roman Catholic, married the Polish Queen Jadwiga and is crowned King Wladyslaw II of Poland and Lithuania.  He thereby extinguished the Holy War forever.  The Teutonic Order claimed that many of his subjects are still heathen or Orthodox schismatic's.  As late as 1413 it is noted that some still burnt their dead, splendidly dressed, on oak pyres within the sacred groves.

1389  

The Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbian Empire (Yugoslavia) at the battle of Kosovo where Serbian independence is lost for the next five hundred years.  The Slavs of Bosnia-Herzegovina (Yugoslavia) are slowly converted to Islam (Muslim) during this period.  Pope Urban VI (1378-1389) died as a result of poisoning.  His temperament alienated the population, the treasury is empty and several of his own appointed Roman cardinals deserted him for the Clement Church.  Boniface IX alias Pietro Tomacelli (1389-1404) a Roman is elected Pope of the Urban Church.

1390  

The old Anglo-Saxon language continued to be spoken by ordinary people but is no longer written for the past three hundred years.  The new English that borrowed so much from the Norman French began to be used by the ruling and literate class in England.

1391  

March 15:  An Archdeacon named Martinex incited his congregation to riot and led the march against the Jews.

1394  

Under King Charles VI (1380-1422) the French banished all Jews from France.  Benedict XIII alias Pedro de Luna (1394-1423) is elected pope of the Clement Church by 21 cardinals.

1395  

After an eight-year war Tamerlane of Samarkand defeated the Mongol Tokhtamysh and during the course of the war destroyed most of the major cities of the Golden Horde.  Tamerlane then marched on Moscow but after observing the Russian army led by Basil I (1389-1425) retreated deciding the encounter would be costly and not worth the trouble.  The Russians ascribed the unexpected retreat to the miraculous intercession of the Holy Virgin.  Moscow became a semiautonomous state.

1398  

Pope Boniface IX of the Roman Urban Church made himself the undisputed master of Rome by appointing the Senators.  He exercised no serious steps to eliminate the schism spending his time consolidating his power.  All offices of the papacy or Imperial offices are for sale to the highest bidder.  Indulgences are extended to cities far beyond Rome for a price.  Future Pope John XXIII is assigned to assist in the Papal financial business.  Pope Benedict XIII (1394-1423) is urged to abdicate by Charles VI of France as well as the English and Germans.  The pope stated that the abdication of a lawful pope is sinful.  To end the stalemate the French court and a national synod withdrew French support and revenue from their pope.  The cardinals with no incoming funds withdrew support from Pope Benedict and deserted him.  Pope Benedict XIII is imprisoned but he escaped and regained French support.

The Ming Emperor Hung Wu (1368-1398) is considered the harshest and most unreasonable tyrant in all of Chinese history.

1399  

The death of King Richard II (1377-1399) ends the Angevins dynasty in England.  Before the end of the fourteenth century the Viking settlements in America are fading into legend to be passed among the sailors, traders and explorers of Europe.

The Teutonic Hochmeister Konrad von Juningen (1394-1407) encouraged the Grand Duke Vitautas to wage war against the Golden Horde to the East.  He assembled a great army of Lithuanian and Ruthenian Boyars along with exiled Tartar Khan (Lord), Toktamish and 500 Teutonic Knights.  Edegey Khan (Lord) slaughtered 2/3 of Vitautas army pursuing him mercilessly over the steppes.
 

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