Events, Verisoph

c. 1286 The Zohar appears in Castile 0 cit. Moses de Leon circulates the Zohar, the central text of Kabbalah, which tradition attributes to the second-century sage Shimon bar Yochai. Jewish mysticism gains its foundational book. culture / religion ●●●

c. 1286 Eyeglasses 0 cit. Unknown craftsmen near Pisa mounted two convex lenses in a frame to correct failing eyesight. Eyeglasses extended the working lives of scholars and artisans. science / technology ●●●

c. 1288 Founding of Stora Kopparberg 0 cit. A deed from 1288 records the sale of a share in the Falun copper mine, the oldest known share document in any company. The mining enterprise later becomes Stora, an ancestor of today's Stora Enso. economy ●●●

c. 1290 Joseph Gikatilla writes the Gates of Light 0 cit. Gikatilla's Sha'are Orah, or Gates of Light, offered a systematic guide to the ten sefirot and the divine names attached to each. It became one of the most widely used introductions to Kabbalistic symbolism. culture / religion ●●●

July 1290 Expulsion of the Jews from England 0 cit. King Edward I expelled the Jewish community from England in 1290. Jews were not formally readmitted until the 1650s. politics / religion ●●

July 1290 Edward I expels the Jews from England 0 cit. King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion, ordering every Jew out of England. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people were forced to leave, and Jews would not be legally readmitted until the 1650s. It was the first permanent expulsion of a Jewish community by a European kingdom, and it set a pattern that other states copied. politics / religion / society ●●

1290 The royal sponge and the expulsion from England 0 cit. For a century English kings taxed and squeezed their Jewish subjects as a private source of cash, a pattern historians call the royal sponge: rulers used Jewish lenders, absorbed their wealth, then wrung them out. In 1290 Edward I expelled the Jews from England entirely, cancelling debts owed to them and keeping their property. The expulsion shows Jews as victims of royal power, not its hidden masters. politics / society ●●●

c. 1290 Why the expulsions: religious zeal and fiscal need 0 cit. Historians see the recurring medieval expulsions of Jews as driven by a mix of religious zeal and fiscal need, the two reinforcing each other. Church teaching, the blood libels, and the pressure to convert supplied the hostility; rulers supplied the motive of profit, taxing their Jewish subjects as a 'royal sponge' and then expelling them to cancel their own debts and seize their property. Piety and plunder ran together. economy / politics / religion / society ●●●

July 1290 England expels its Jews 0 cit. King Edward I ordered every Jew out of England, ending a community that had lived there since the Norman Conquest. Around 2,000 to 3,000 people were forced to leave, and Jews were not legally readmitted until the 1650s. It was the first permanent expulsion of a Jewish community by a European kingdom and set a pattern others copied. politics / religion / society ●●

May 1291 Fall of Acre and the Crusader Kingdom 0 cit. In May 1291 the Mamluks captured Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Its fall ended nearly two centuries of Crusader states in the Holy Land. politics / religion / war ●●●

18 May 1291 Fall of Acre 0 cit. Mamluk forces captured Acre, the last major Crusader city in the Holy Land. The Templars lost their main base in the East and relocated their headquarters to Cyprus. religion / war ●●●●

May 1291 Fall of Acre ends Crusader rule in the Holy Land 0 cit. The Mamluks captured Acre, the last major Crusader stronghold, ending nearly two centuries of Christian rule in the Holy Land. The Templars lost their original purpose of defending pilgrims and the Crusader states, and relocated their base to Cyprus. religion / war ●●

c. 1 August 1291 The Federal Charter of the Old Swiss Confederacy 0 cit. The three cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore a defensive pact against outside rule, the document later treated as the founding charter of the Swiss Confederation. It bound the communities to help one another and to settle disputes among themselves rather than submit to foreign lords. The alliance grew over the following centuries into a loose federation of cantons. politics ●●●

1293 Founding of the Majapahit Empire 0 cit. Raden Wijaya founded Majapahit on the island of Java after repelling a Mongol invasion. It became the most powerful maritime empire of the Indonesian archipelago. economy / politics ●●●●

13 November 1295 The Model Parliament sets the pattern for later assemblies 0 cit. Edward I summons a parliament that includes lords, bishops, and elected representatives of the counties and towns, seeking broad consent for taxation to fund his wars. Later parliaments are modeled on its composition, which is why historians call it the Model Parliament. politics ●●

1298 Host desecration charges spark the Rintfleisch massacres 0 cit. A new accusation claimed Jews stole and stabbed the consecrated communion host to torment Christ, a charge that made little sense even in Christian terms since Jews did not accept the doctrine behind it. In 1298 a nobleman known as Rintfleisch led mobs that destroyed scores of Jewish communities across German lands. The host desecration myth, like the blood libel, was invented and then used to justify slaughter. religion / society / war ●●

c. 1298 Host desecration charges fuel new massacres 0 cit. A second false charge accused Jews of stealing and torturing the consecrated communion wafer, which Catholics believe is the body of Christ. In 1298 a mob led by a knight called Rintfleisch used such a rumor to massacre Jews across Franconia, destroying scores of communities. Like the blood libel, the host desecration charge rested on a belief with no possible factual basis. religion / society / war ●●

c. 1299 Founding of the Ottoman Empire 0 cit. Osman I founded a small state in Anatolia that grew into the Ottoman Empire. Over centuries it came to rule southeastern Europe, the Near East, and North Africa. politics / war ●●●●●

c. 1299 Founding of the Ottoman beylik 0 cit. Osman I, leader of a small Turkish frontier principality, breaks with the declining Seljuk order and builds an independent state on the Byzantine border. The dynasty and empire take their name from him. The 1299 date is a traditional marker; the beylik grew over the following decades rather than being founded in a single year. politics / war ●●●

c. 1300 The Tree of Life as a map of the sefirot 0 cit. Kabbalists arranged the ten sefirot into a diagram known as the Tree of Life, joined by twenty-two paths corresponding to the Hebrew letters. The image became the master symbol of Kabbalistic cosmology and later Western esotericism. culture / religion ●●●●●

c. 1300 The doctrine of Ein Sof, the Infinite 0 cit. Kabbalists named the hidden and unknowable aspect of God as Ein Sof, meaning the Infinite or Without End. Creation is understood as a process by which Ein Sof emanates through the sefirot into the visible world. culture / religion ●●●●

c. 1300 The mechanical clock 0 cit. European tower clocks using a verge escapement measured time with gears and a swinging bar instead of water. Mechanical clocks brought regular hours to towns and reshaped how people organized work and life. technology ●●●●

c. 1300 Rise of the Oyo Empire 0 cit. The Yoruba state of Oyo grew into a major empire in West Africa. Its cavalry and trade networks gave it dominance over neighboring peoples. politics ●●●

c. 1300 'Ogre' comes from the god Orcus 0 cit. The fairy-tale ogre is thought to descend from Orcus, the Roman god of the underworld and devourer of the dead. A monster of children's stories is a forgotten god of death. culture / religion ●●

c. 1300 Expulsion becomes a recurring tool of medieval statecraft 0 cit. Across medieval Europe rulers expelled Jews again and again: England in 1290, France repeatedly through the 1300s, many German cities, and finally Spain and Portugal in the 1490s. Each expulsion let a ruler pose as a defender of the faith while canceling debts owed to Jews and taking their property. The pattern reflects persecution driven by a mix of religious zeal and fiscal need. Jews were often readmitted when a ruler wanted their trade and taxes, then expelled once more. economy / politics / religion ●●

c. 1300 The sefirot and the Ein Sof 0 cit. Kabbalists named the hidden, unknowable God as Ein Sof, the Infinite, and described creation as its emanation through ten sefirot arranged as a Tree of Life. This map of the divine gave Kabbalah a theology as ambitious as the philosophers', but reached by revelation rather than reason. culture / religion ●●

c. 1300 Italian merchants invent double-entry bookkeeping 0 cit. As trade, credit, and partnerships grew in the merchant cities of Florence, Genoa, and Venice, bookkeepers developed the method of recording every transaction twice, as a debit in one account and a credit in another, so the books always balanced. The technique spread with Italian commerce and let a merchant see at a glance whether he was solvent. It is often called the Venetian method, though it grew across several cities. economy / society ●●●

c. 1300 The River-Lake Nilotes in the Bahr el Ghazal 0 cit. Linguists trace the Luo back to a River-Lake Nilotic community living in the swampy grasslands of the Bahr el Ghazal, in what is now South Sudan. From this cradle a chain of related peoples spread out, including the Shilluk, Anuak, Acholi, Alur, Padhola, and the Kenyan Luo. The Kenyan Joluo are the southernmost branch of this long dispersal. society ●●●

c. 1300 The Swahili city-states reach their height 0 cit. Between roughly the 12th and 15th centuries, towns like Mombasa, Malindi, Pate, and Lamu grew into wealthy, competing city-states of coral-stone houses and mosques. Each was run by its own patrician families and webs of trade rather than by one coastal kingdom. Kiswahili and Islam bound them into a shared coastal culture that reached across the Indian Ocean. culture / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1300 Islam and xeer shape Somali society 0 cit. Islam spread among the Somali through coastal trade and Sufi teachers, and holy men known by the title "aw" founded settlements and shrines. Alongside religious law, clans governed themselves by xeer, an oral customary law of contracts, compensation, and grazing rights agreed between elders. Faith and xeer together held a stateless society to shared rules. religion / society ●●

c. 1300 Slavery in the Swahili city-states before the Omani era 0 cit. Enslaved people were part of Swahili coastal life for centuries before the 19th-century boom. The stone-town merchant families of places like Mombasa, Lamu, and Kilwa held slaves as household servants, porters, boat crews, and some farm labour. The numbers were small next to what came later, but the institution was old and woven into coastal society. economy / society ●●

18 November 1302 Unam Sanctam declares papal supremacy 0 cit. Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull Unam Sanctam, declaring that submission to the Roman pontiff was necessary for salvation. It was one of the strongest claims of papal authority over secular rulers, made during his conflict with the king of France. politics / religion ●●●

1305 Renewed ban on philosophy under the Rashba 0 cit. Solomon ibn Adret, the Rashba, issued a ban forbidding the study of Greek philosophy and science before the age of twenty-five, aimed at curbing radical rationalist readings of scripture. Defenders of philosophy answered with bans of their own, reopening the rift over how far reason should reach into faith. religion / society ●●

1306 Philip IV expels the Jews from France 0 cit. King Philip IV had the Jews of his royal domains arrested, seized their property and debts owed to them, and expelled them. Jews were readmitted and expelled several more times over the next century. The final expulsion came in 1394 under Charles VI, ending organized Jewish life in medieval France. economy / politics / religion ●●

1306 France expels its Jews and seizes their assets 0 cit. Philip IV, deep in debt and short of money, arrested the Jews of France, expelled them, and confiscated their property and the loans owed to them. Jewish communities were readmitted and expelled again over the following decades as the crown's finances demanded. The same rulers who relied on Jewish credit turned on Jewish communities when it was profitable, the royal sponge at work. economy / politics ●●

1306 France expels its Jews 0 cit. King Philip IV had the Jews of his realm arrested, seized their property, and expelled them, partly to cancel the crown's debts to them. Jews were readmitted and driven out several more times over the next century. The final expulsion under Charles VI in 1394 ended organized Jewish life in medieval France and pushed families toward the German lands and beyond. economy / politics / religion ●●

13 October 1307 Mass arrest of the Knights Templar in France 0 cit. King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Templars, had hundreds of them arrested in a single coordinated sweep on Friday, October 13, 1307. They were charged with heresy, blasphemy, and corruption, confessions were extracted under torture, and this date is the origin of the modern superstition around Friday the 13th. politics / religion ●●●

November 1307 Pope Clement V orders Templar arrests across Christendom 0 cit. Under pressure from Philip IV, Pope Clement V issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, instructing Christian monarchs across Europe to arrest Templars and seize their assets. Not every kingdom carried this out with the same severity, but it extended the French crackdown into a continent-wide campaign against the order. politics / religion ●●

1309 to 1377 Avignon papacy begins 0 cit. Pope Clement V moves the papal court to Avignon under French influence, where seven successive popes reside. The long absence from Rome damages papal prestige and helps trigger the Western Schism. politics / religion ●●●

1309 to 1377 The papacy moves to Avignon 0 cit. For nearly seventy years the popes resided in Avignon under strong French influence rather than in Rome. Critics called it the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and saw it as a sign of the papacy's subjection to a rising monarchy. politics / religion ●●●

22 March 1312 Suppression of the Knights Templar 0 cit. Pope Clement V dissolves the Templar order under pressure from King Philip IV of France, who owed the order large sums and had arrested its members in 1307. The suppression destroys medieval Europe's leading financial institution. economy / politics / religion ●●●●

1312 Council of Vienne dissolves the Knights Templar unproven 0 cit. Pope Clement V formally dissolved the Knights Templar at the Council of Vienne, citing the scandal around the order even though many charges against it were never proven in a fair trial. Templar property was largely transferred to the rival Knights Hospitaller. politics / religion ●●●

18 March 1314 Execution of Jacques de Molay 0 cit. Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314. The Templars had no organizational continuity into later Freemasonry. politics / religion ●●

18 March 1314 Burning of Jacques de Molay 0 cit. Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master, was burned at the stake after retracting his forced confession. His execution marked the definitive end of the medieval Templar order. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 1314 The Templar Survival Legend 0 cit. Later stories claimed that surviving Templars fled with hidden treasure or secret knowledge and carried the order on in secret. Historians regard these survival tales as legend, not documented history, since the order was suppressed in 1312. culture / society ●●●

c. 1320 The Kebra Nagast sets down the Solomonic legend 0 cit. The Kebra Nagast, or Glory of Kings, gathered the national epic into written form, telling how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon and bore a son, Menelik I, who brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia. The book made the case that Ethiopia was the true home of the Ark and its kings the heirs of Israel. It became the founding text of Ethiopian kingship and identity, and Ethiopian tradition still holds that the Ark rests in a chapel at Aksum. culture / politics / religion ●●

c. 1322 First European records of the Roma 0 cit. Some of the earliest firm written mentions of Roma in Europe come from the early 14th century, including a friar's note of a nomadic people on Crete around 1322 and records from Serbia and the Balkans soon after. These early notices are brief and often curious rather than hostile. They mark the point where the Roma enter the written history of Europe. society ●●

c. 1324 Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa 0 cit. Mansa Musa made a celebrated pilgrimage to Mecca, displaying the vast wealth of Mali. His reign marked the empire's height and drew wide attention to West Africa. economy / religion ●●●●

c. 1325 Founding of Tenochtitlan 0 cit. The Mexica founded their capital Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco. The city became the heart of the Aztec world and one of the largest cities of its era. politics / society ●●●●

1326 Capture of Bursa 0 cit. Orhan, Osman's son, takes the Byzantine city of Bursa after a long blockade and makes it the first Ottoman capital. The conquest gives the young state a real administrative center, a mint, and the resources to expand further. politics / war ●●

c. 1327 Learning thrives at Timbuktu and Sankore 0 cit. Timbuktu's mosques and the Sankore center grew into a hub for Islamic scholarship in West Africa, holding large collections of manuscripts. Scholars there taught law, astronomy, and theology during the Mali and Songhai empires. culture / religion ●●

17 March 1328 Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton 0 cit. Peace treaty in which England recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom and Robert the Bruce as its king. It ended the First War of Scottish Independence. diplomacy / politics / war ●●

1329 Gersonides pushes Jewish rationalism further 0 cit. Levi ben Gershom, known as Gersonides, completed the Wars of the Lord, a philosophical work that followed reason even where it strained tradition, including a bounded view of divine foreknowledge. His boldness marked the far edge of medieval Jewish philosophy and drew lasting criticism from more cautious scholars. religion / science ●●

1334 Casimir the Great confirms Jewish rights 0 cit. King Casimir III, remembered as the Great, confirmed the Statute of Kalisz and extended its protections across the whole Polish kingdom. Under his rule Jews gained a secure legal footing and their numbers grew as refugees arrived from the west. Poland-Lithuania was becoming the largest and most important Jewish community in the world. economy / politics / society ●●

1340 The Genoese city accounts show double-entry in full 0 cit. The surviving ledgers of the Genoa city treasury, the Massari accounts of 1340, are among the earliest documents that show a complete double-entry system with matching debits and credits. Fragments from Florentine merchant houses point to the method appearing decades earlier, so the exact birthplace and date remain debated among historians. economy ●●

c. 1341 Parliament divides into Lords and Commons 0 cit. By the mid-14th century, the English parliament settles into two houses meeting separately: the House of Lords for nobles and senior clergy, and the House of Commons for elected knights and burgesses. This two-chamber structure persists into the present. politics ●●

1343 Collapse of the Peruzzi Bank 0 cit. The Peruzzi company, one of Florence's great banking houses, declares bankruptcy after huge loans to King Edward III of England go unpaid and Florence's economy sours. Its fall opens a wave of Florentine bank failures. economy ●●●

c. 1345 Petrarch and the birth of humanism 0 cit. The poet Petrarch rediscovers lost letters of Cicero and champions the study of classical antiquity, becoming the father of Renaissance humanism. The movement sought to be reborn by reviving the learning of pagan Greece and Rome. culture / society ●●●

1346 Collapse of the Bardi Bank 0 cit. The Compagnia dei Bardi, the largest of the Florentine super-companies, goes bankrupt after Edward III of England defaults on massive war loans and Florence suffers internal crisis. Together with the Peruzzi failure it is often called the first international banking collapse. economy ●●●●

c. October 1347 Black Death reaches Europe 0 cit. Genoese ships carry plague from the Black Sea to Sicily, and within five years the disease kills perhaps a third to half of Europe's people. Labor shortages, social upheaval, and religious crisis follow, loosening the medieval order. environment / society ●●●●●

1348 to 1351 The Black Death Persecutions 0 cit. During the Black Death, Jews were falsely blamed for spreading the plague and many communities were massacred across Europe. Thousands were killed and many fled eastward. religion / society ●●

1348 Charles University is founded in Prague 0 cit. Charles IV founded the University of Prague in 1348, the first university in Central Europe. It spread the university model into the Holy Roman Empire. culture / society ●●

c. 1348 Edward III founds the Order of the Garter 0 cit. King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter, England's oldest and most senior order of chivalry, with the monarch as its Sovereign. Membership has always been in the monarch's personal gift, historically used to reward loyalty and cement alliances among the nobility. The order still exists, with the King appointing new Knights and Ladies of the Garter each year. politics / society ●●

c. 1348 Black Death pogroms sweep Jewish communities 0 cit. As plague killed a third of Europe, rumors spread that Jews had poisoned the wells. Mobs massacred Jewish communities across the Rhineland, Spain, and elsewhere, and many towns expelled survivors. The killings had no basis in fact, and even Pope Clement VI condemned them as slander. religion / society / war ●●

c. 1349 Black Death massacres devastate Rhineland Jewry 0 cit. As plague killed a third of Europe, rumors spread that Jews had poisoned the wells. Mobs destroyed the Ashkenazi communities of Strasbourg, Basel, Mainz, Cologne, and hundreds of other towns, burning thousands of people alive. The charge had no basis in fact, and Pope Clement VI condemned it in two bulls. The killings shattered the old Rhineland heartland and speeded the move eastward. religion / society / war ●●●

1351 Founding of the Ayutthaya Kingdom 0 cit. King Uthong founded Ayutthaya, which became the dominant Thai power for four centuries. It grew into a wealthy center of trade and diplomacy. economy / politics ●●●

1354 The hexagram becomes a recognized Jewish symbol, the Star of David 0 cit. King Charles IV grants the Jewish community of Prague the right to its own flag, which bears a hexagram, one of the earliest documented uses of the six-pointed star as a specifically Jewish communal emblem (Magen David, 'Shield of David'). Its adoption as the universal symbol of Judaism, comparable to the cross for Christianity, developed gradually over the following centuries and was formalized further by 19th-century Jewish organizations and the 1897 First Zionist Congress, which placed it on the Zionist flag. culture / religion ●●

1354 Ottomans cross into Europe at Gallipoli 0 cit. Ottoman forces seize Gallipoli and establish their first permanent foothold on European soil. From this base they begin a steady advance into the Balkans that would last for centuries. politics / war ●●

1354 The Ottomans cross into Europe 0 cit. The rising Ottoman Turks seized a foothold at Gallipoli and began expanding across the Balkans, encircling the remnants of the Byzantine state. Over the following century they reduced the empire to little more than Constantinople and a few scattered holdings. The city, once the head of a Mediterranean power, became an island in an Ottoman sea. politics / war ●●

1356 The Golden Bull fixes the seven prince-electors 0 cit. Emperor Charles IV issued a decree that named seven princes as the sole electors of the emperor: three archbishops and four secular rulers. It set the rules of election and cut the pope out of the process. The Golden Bull became a founding constitutional document of the empire and locked in its elective, decentralized character. diplomacy / politics ●●●

8 May 1360 Treaty of Bretigny 0 cit. Treaty between England and France during the Hundred Years' War, giving Edward III large territories in France in return for renouncing his claim to the French crown. It brought nine years of peace before war resumed. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

1366 The Statutes of Kilkenny 0 cit. Worried that the Anglo-Norman settlers were adopting Irish language, dress and customs, the colonial parliament passed the Statutes of Kilkenny. The laws banned intermarriage and Gaelic culture among the English of Ireland. They largely failed, but they show how English control had shrunk back toward the area around Dublin later called the Pale. politics / society ●

c. 1367 Founding of the Fugger Banking House 0 cit. Hans Fugger, a weaver, settles in Augsburg in 1367 and builds a textile trading firm. Under Jakob Fugger the Rich it becomes Europe's dominant banking house, financing Habsburg emperors and controlling copper and silver mining. economy ●●●●

c. 1370 Lamu town, the living Swahili stone town 0 cit. Lamu is the oldest continuously inhabited Swahili settlement, its coral-stone houses, carved doors and waterfront built up from the 14th century onward. Still lived in rather than ruined, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. ●●

16 June 1373 Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 0 cit. Treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance between England and Portugal. It underpins the oldest alliance still in force between two states. diplomacy / politics ●●●

1375 The Great Ming Treasure Note 0 cit. The Ming dynasty issued the Great Ming Treasure Note as a single national paper currency. Overissue without adequate backing led to steep loss of value over time. economy / politics ●●●

1375 Fall of the Kingdom of Cilicia 0 cit. The Mamluks of Egypt conquer Cilicia and capture its last king, Levon V, ending the final Armenian kingdom of the Middle Ages. With its fall, Armenians are left without a sovereign state of their own. From here on they live as subjects of larger empires until the twentieth century. politics / war ●●

1378 to 1417 Western Schism 0 cit. Rival popes in Rome and Avignon, later joined by a third line, each claim legitimacy and divide Catholic Europe. The Council of Constance ends the schism and strengthens the conciliar movement. politics / religion ●●●

c. 1378 to c. 1484 Christian Rosenkreuz, the legendary founder legendary 0 cit. The manifestos describe Christian Rosenkreuz as a German traveler who gathered esoteric wisdom in the East and founded the Rosicrucian brotherhood. He is a legendary and probably fictional figure, and the reported lifespan and tomb are symbolic rather than historical. culture / religion ●●●

1378 to 1417 Western Schism splits the papacy 0 cit. Rival popes in Rome and Avignon, and later a third claimant, each claimed to be the true head of the Church. The split divided Europe along political lines and damaged papal prestige for decades. politics / religion ●●●●

8 September 1380 Battle of Kulikovo 0 cit. Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a coalition to victory over a Golden Horde army, the first major Rus win over the Mongols. The battle boosted Moscow's prestige even though Mongol overlordship continued for another century. politics / war ●●●●

c. 1383 Ottoman Janissary corps organized 0 cit. The Ottoman sultans built the Janissary corps as an elite infantry force recruited through the devshirme system, which conscripted Christian boys from the Balkans, converted them to Islam, and trained them as soldiers personally loyal to the sultan. For centuries the Janissaries were the core of Ottoman military power and among the first standing armies in Europe to use firearms extensively. Over time they gained enormous political influence, repeatedly deposing sultans who threatened their privileges. religion / war ●●●

c. 1383 Ottoman Janissary Corps Founded 0 cit. The Ottoman sultans built the Janissary corps, an infantry force recruited chiefly through the devshirme system, which levied Christian boys from the Balkans, converted them to Islam, and trained them from childhood as soldiers directly loyal to the sultan. The Janissaries gave the Ottoman state a standing professional force independent of the feudal nobility, centuries before most of Europe developed comparable armies. They later became a powerful political faction in their own right, at times deposing sultans. politics / war ●●

14 August 1385 Union of Krewo 0 cit. Agreement under which Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania married Queen Jadwiga of Poland, converted to Christianity, and joined the two states under one crown. It began four centuries of Polish-Lithuanian union. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●

c. 1385 First record of Roma slaves in Wallachia 0 cit. The earliest documents that mention Roma in the Romanian principalities already describe them as slaves, including a grant of Roma to the monastery of Tismana confirmed around 1385. From the start, then, the Roma in Wallachia and Moldavia appear in the record as owned property rather than free people. This began roughly five centuries of Roma slavery in the region. economy / society ●●●

1387 Lithuania, the last pagan state in Europe, converts 0 cit. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania adopts Christianity, the last pagan state in Europe to do so. Organized European paganism as a public religion survived a full thousand years after Rome fell to the Church. politics / religion ●●●

15 June 1389 Battle of Kosovo 0 cit. Ottoman and Serbian-led armies fight to mutual devastation; Sultan Murad I is killed, but the battle breaks Serbian power and opens the Balkans to Ottoman control. The event became a central myth in later Serbian national identity. politics / war ●●●

c. 1390 The Regius Manuscript 0 cit. The Regius Poem, also called the Halliwell Manuscript, is the oldest known document of the masonic craft, written in verse around 1390. It sets out legendary history and rules of conduct for stonemasons. culture / religion / society ●●●●

c. 1390 Founding of the Kingdom of Kongo 0 cit. The Kingdom of Kongo formed in central Africa through the union of local chiefdoms. It became a centralized state that later engaged directly with Portugal. politics ●●●

c. 1390 So mote it be: the oldest Masonic amen 0 cit. So mote it be means so may it be, using mote, an Old English form of may that was already archaic by the later Middle Ages. It closes the Regius Manuscript, the oldest known Masonic document, dated to about 1390, and it still ends prayers in lodge ritual. The phrase later spread beyond Masonry into modern Wiccan and neo-pagan practice, which borrowed it in the twentieth century. culture / religion ●●

1391 Anti-Jewish riots in Spain force mass conversions 0 cit. Riots that began in Seville spread across the Iberian kingdoms, killing thousands of Jews and destroying whole communities. To survive, tens of thousands accepted baptism. This wave created the large class of conversos, or New Christians, whose sincerity later rulers and the Inquisition would question for generations. politics / religion / society ●●●

1391 Vincent Ferrer and the 1391 massacres in Spain 0 cit. In 1391 a wave of massacres swept Jewish communities across Castile and Aragon, beginning in Seville, killing thousands and forcing many survivors to accept baptism. The Dominican preacher Vincent Ferrer, later canonized as a saint, toured the peninsula urging Jews to convert and is widely blamed for inflaming the violence, though he insisted he sought conversion rather than killing. The pogroms created a large population of conversos. politics / religion / society ●●●

1391 The massacres of 1391 and mass forced conversion 0 cit. Riots that began in Seville, stirred by the preaching of Ferrand Martinez, spread across Castile and Aragon and killed thousands of Jews. To survive, tens of thousands accepted baptism. This wave of forced conversion created a large new class of Christians of Jewish origin, the conversos, and reshaped the whole Sephardic world. religion / society / war ●●●

1392 Founding of the Joseon Dynasty 0 cit. Yi Seong-gye overthrew the Goryeo dynasty and founded Joseon. The dynasty ruled Korea for over five centuries and shaped its Confucian culture. politics ●●●●

1396 Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire 0 cit. By 1396 the Ottomans had conquered the remaining Bulgarian lands after taking the capital Tarnovo. The Second Bulgarian Empire ended, and Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule for centuries. politics / war ●●

25 September 1396 Battle of Nicopolis 0 cit. Sultan Bayezid I destroys a large crusader army drawn from across Latin Christendom. The defeat ends the last major western effort to roll back the Ottoman advance in the Balkans for generations. religion / war ●●

13 July 1397 Kalmar Union 0 cit. Union letter joining the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden under a single monarch, Eric of Pomerania. The union dominated Scandinavia until Sweden left in 1523. diplomacy / politics ●●●

1397 Founding of the Medici Bank 0 cit. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici moves his bank's headquarters to Florence, founding the Medici Bank. It becomes the largest and most respected bank in fifteenth-century Europe and bankrolls the family's rise to power. economy ●●●

1397 Giovanni di Bicci founds the Medici Bank 0 cit. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founded the Medici Bank in Florence in 1397. It grew into one of the largest and most respected banks in Europe. economy ●●●●

1397 The Medici and the Church's own banking machine 0 cit. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founded the Medici Bank, which grew into the most powerful bank in Europe and the main banker to the Papacy itself. Christian bankers dressed interest up as exchange fees and gifts to stay within canon law, and the Church happily used their services. The greatest financial house of the age was Christian and served Rome, a fact the later myth of Jewish financial control simply erases. economy / religion ●●