Eastern and Scandinavian bury plague victims. Miniature from "The Chronicles of Gilles Li Muisis" (1272-1352). Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, MS 13076-77, f. 24v. On February 2 the
Byzantine Empire's
civil war between
John VI Kantakouzenos and the regency ended with John VI entering Constantinople. On February 8, an agreement was concluded with the empress
Anna of Savoy, whereby he and
John V Palaiologos would rule jointly. The agreement was finalized in May when John V married Kantakouzenos' 15-year-old daughter. The war had come at a high cost economically and territorially, and much of the Empire was in need of rebuilding. To make matters worse, in May Genoese ships fleeing the
Black Death in Kaffa stopped in Constantinople. The plague soon spread from their ships to the city. By autumn, the epidemic had spread throughout the
Balkans, possibly through contact with Venetian ports along the Adriatic Sea. Specific cases were recorded in the northern Balkans on December 25, in the city of
Split. After being proclaimed
Tsar of Serbia in the previous year by the newly promoted
Serbian Patriarch Joanikije II,
Stefan Dušan continued his southern expansion by conquering
Epirus,
Aetolia and
Acarnania, appointing his half-brother, despot
Simeon Uroš as governor of those provinces.
Central On May 20
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. In October, Genoese ships arrived in southern Italy with the Black Plague, beginning the spread of the disease in the region. Jews were first accused of ritual murders in Poland in 1347.
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.
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 told that in the recent war efforts they had "lost all and gained nothing." Phillip, however, was granted a portion of the money he requested and was able to continue his war effort. The English King Edward offered Calais a package of economic boosts which would make Calais the key city connecting England with France economically. 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. == Births ==