1400 to 1499: Notable Events, People and Literary Works

Society: Notable Events and People, 1400-1499

Incan terraces/ Quarantine/ Ptolemy: The world is round/ Henry V of England/ Henry the Navigator of Portugal/ Joan of Arc/ African slaves/ Cade's Rebellion/ Wars of the Roses/ Gutenberg's Bible/ Francois Villon/ Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille/ Primogeniture/ Columbus/ William Caxton/ The Inquisition/ Japanese Tea Ceremony/ Richard III/ Henry VII/ Anti-Semitism/ Sweating sickness/ Witch hunts/ Savonarola/ Smoking/ Amerigo Vespucci.

Literature: 1400 - 1499

The Second Shepherd's Play. Anon. 1400.
Paston Letters. 1422/1509.
"Dick Whittington and His Cat." Anon. 1423?
"Kingis Quair." King James I of Scotland. 1424.
Imitation of Christ. Thomas A' Kempis. 1426.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainment. Anon. 1450.
"Tales of the Calendars"; "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," etc.
Le Morte d' Arthur. Sir thomas Malory. 1460.
Il Morgante Maggiore ("The Great Morgante"). Luigi Pulci. 1470.
"Reynard the Fox." Anon. 1481.
The Golden Legend. William CAxton. 1483.
Till Eulenspiegel. Anon. 1483/1515 or later.
Orlando Innamorato (Roland in Love). Matteo Boiardo. 1487.
"The Nut-Brown Maid." Anon. 1490?
The Adventures of Robin Hood. Anon. 1490.

1387 to 1400

Literature

Canterbury Tales. Continued.

"Tale of the Melibee": Forgives his enemies who beat his wife and killed his daughter.

"Monk's Tale": The falls of illustrious men; examples of reverses of fortune from the Bible, myth and history.

"Nun's Priest's Tale": Chaunticleer persuades fox to open his mouth to taunt his pursuers and escapes.

"Second Nun's Tale": St. Cecilia, struck in the neck three times in her bath, continues to preach and convert for three days before dying.

"Canon's Yeoman's Tale": Canon, an alchemist, dupes a priest who helps him in converting quicksilver and copper to silver; he then disappears.

"Manciple's Tale": The white, sweet-singing crow tells his master of his wife's infidelity; the master turns the white crow black and raucous.

"Parson's Tale": Last tale. Long prose sermon on penitence; exposition of the seven deadly sins; ends with Chaucer's retraction.

Society

1388. The first complete English translation of the Bible is completed by John Purcey on the basis of work begun by the late John Wycliffe in an effort to reach the people directly with a bible they can read for themselves.

1391. Seville has a pogrom in June that spreads throughout Andalusia as Spaniards seek scapegoats for the Black Death. Castilian sailors set fire to the Barcelona ghetto, August 5, and for four days a mob rages out of control, killing hundreds. Many Spanish Jews will accept conversion in the next few years.

1392. Playing cards, designed by French court painter Jacques Gringonneur, will be employed for centuries to come in various games. The 52 cards are divided into four suits, each representing one of the four classes of French society: spades stand for pikemen or soldiery, clubs for farmers and husbandmen, diamonds evoke the diamond-shaped hats worn by artisans, and hearts represent the clergy, the word coeur evolving from the word chorus meaning the clergy.

1393. Baghdad falls to Tamerlane, whose Tatar horsemen overrun Mesopotamia.

1397. Parliament demands that England's Richard II submit a financial accounting.

1398. England's Richard II moves the country toward totalitarian government.

1398. Tamerlane leads his Tatar hordes through the passes into northern India after having conquered Persia, Mesopotamia and Afghanistan. He massacres 100,000 Hindu prisoners at Delhi, December 12, sacks Delhi, December 17, and moves on.

1398. Merchant Richard Whittington is made lord mayor of London.

1399. John of Gaunt dies at 59. Richard II confiscates his Lancaster estates, and John's son Henry of Bolingbroke returns from exile, landing at Ravenspur in July while Richard is in Ireland. When Rchard returns, he is defeated and captured by Bolingbroke and deposed by Parliament, which acclaims the usurper Bolingbroke king. He will reign until 1461 as Henry IV, founding the house of Lancaster. Richard is imprisoned in the Tower of London, In February of 1400, Richard II dies in the Tower, possibly at the hands of a murderer, but more probably of illness in the cold, damp tower.

1399. London's population reaches 50,000.

1387 to 1400 The Canterbury Tales

Literature

The Canterbury Tales
"Knight's Tale": Palamon, Arcite and Emily. Arcite wins battle, but dies, leaving Palamon to wed the lady.

"Miller's Tale": Nicholas convinces John, the miller, that the second flood is coming. He suspends three tubs from the ceiling. Alison offers her rump for Absolon to kiss. Absolon returns with a red-hot ppoker, scorches Nicholas's substitute rump. Nicholas yells for water. John thinks the flood has come, cuts loose his tub, which comes crashing to the ground.

"Reeve's Tale": Young scholars catch the miller cheating on their grain. They swive his wife and daughter and escape.

"Cook's Tale": Roger the Cook tells of Perkin, an apprentice too fond of dice and women. Unfinished.

"Man of Law's Tale": Constance represents the extreme degree of resignation. Evil mothers scheme against her. Finally, she is reunited with the king, her husband.

"Wife of Bath's Tale": What do women really want? Sovereignty over their husbands. Tale makes the point. Argues against virginity. Uses her life with five husbands as example of happy marriage if the wife has sovereignty. One of Arthur's knights ravishes a maid. Given a year to find out what women most desire. Hag offers answer if he will marry her. She offers haggishness and fidelity or beauty and cuckoldom. The knight lets her make the choice, thus giving her sovereignty. She becomes both beautiful and faithful.

"Friar's Tale": Friar and the Summoner. A true curse sends the Summoner to Hell.

"Summoner's Tale": Sick Thomas donates "gift" to be divided equally among the friars; discussion of how to divid the gift, a fart.

"Clerk's Tale": Patient Griselda. Marquis Walter marries, tests Griselda who submits to extremely harsh conditions. The Clerk's reply to the "Wife of Bath's Tale."

"Merchant's Tale": May, a young maiden, sports with a squire in a tree. Blind old husband January's sight is restored and he sees what is going on. May says she restored his sight by struggling with the man in a tree. January believes her.

"Squire's Tale": Medieval romance. Magical ring, brass horse, mirror, sword. Female falcon tells of desertion. Unfinished.

"Franklin's Tale": Dorigen, Averagus, Aurelius. Rash promise is forgiven.

"Physician's Tale": Judge lusts for Virginia. She accepts her father's decision to kill her. People revolt and the judge commits suicide.

"Pardoner's Tale": By stabbing and poison, three revelers find "Death" after plotting to kill each other for a pile of gold.

"Shipman's Tale": Monk borrows from miserly merchant and sleeps with the merchant's wife; he says he repaid wife who says she thought the money was a gift.

"Prioress's Tale": Christian boy singing hymn to Mary is slain by the Jews. Sings until his body is found and the murderers are hanged.

"Tale of Sir thopas": Parody of minstrel romances is interrupted by Host. Exemplary knight resolved to love no one but an elf-queen.

To be continued.

1374 to 1387

Society

1374. A dancing mania sweeps the Rhenish city of Aix-la-Chapelle in July and sends hordes of men and women into a pathological frenzy of dancing in the streets. The dancing continues for hours until the crowds are too exhausted or too injured to continue; the phenomenon will never be fully explained.

Literature

The Bruce. John Barbour. Scotland. 1375. Epic poem. Deeds of Robert Bruce, James Douglas, and the struggle for Scottish independence.

Society

1377. Richard II becomes king of England.

1377. The Babylonian Exile of the Papacy that began in 1306 has ended January 17.

1378. A Great Schism that will divide the Catholic Church for 39 years begins as a pope reigns in Rome and an antipope reigns in Avignon.

Literature

Speculum Meditantis. John Gower. British. 1378. Poetry. Contest for men's souls between the seven vices and the seven virtues. "Mirror of Men" of all classes in contemporary life.

The House of Fame. Chaucer. British. 1379. Poetry. Unfinished dream. Capriciousness of Lady Fame. House of Rumor, Gossip; each retelling results in greater falsity.

Society

1381. Wat Tyler's Rebellion creates anarchy in England as farm workers, artisans and city proletarians stage an uprising against the 1351 Statute of Laborers. Mobs sack palaces and castles, take hostages and choose Wat (Walter) Tyler as their leader in June. They converge on London. On June 13, they present a list of demands to Richard II, 14 years of age. He makes empty promises for the abolition of serfdom, restrictions on labor and trade and game laws, with ceiling on land rents and road tolls. The next day, Tyler is betrayed and killed.

1382. England repeals the reforms granted to Wat Tyler and reestablishes serfdom.

1382. The Black Death sweeps Europe. It will take an especially heavy toll in Ireland. By the end of the century it will have killed an estimated 75 million people, leaving some areas completely depopulated.

Literature

The Parliament of Fowls. Chaucer. British. 1382. Poetry. Does the lovely lady eagle choose the tercel who loved her longest, the tercel who loved her more truly, or the royal eagle who had Nature's approval?

Vox Clamanti. John Gower. British. 1382/84. Latin poetry. Vivid description of Tyler's Rebellion of 1381.

Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer. British. 1385. Poetry. Chaucer's version has considerable individual characterization and humor.

The Legends of Good Women. Chaucer. British. 1386. Poetry. Stories about women who suffered and died because they were faithful in love while the men were treacherous.

The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer. British. 1387-1400. Tales. April pilgrimage to Becket's shrine. 30 pilgrims. Varying classes, occupations. Two stories going, two coming back. 24 tales completed with prologue. Style matches the teller; interaction of characters. Interludes.

1351 to 1371

Literature

The Decameron. Boccaccio. Italian. 1351/53. Stories. The year of the Black Death. 1348. Seven ladies and three men escape from the city to the hills of Fiesole. Ten days of stories. 100 anecdotes, fabliaux, folk tales, fairy tales. Bernabo. Isabella. Calandrino. Titus. Gisipus. Griselda.

Society

1352. The Black Death reaches Moscow and spreads eastward back to India and China.

1354. England resumes the Hundred Years' War after an interruption by the Black Death.

1356. The Battle of Poitiers, Sept. 19, ends in defeat for France's John II.

1361. The Black Death strikes again in England, France, and Poland, especially among children.

1362. English is made the language of pleading and judgment in England's courts of law, but legal French continues to be used for documents.

Literature

Piers Plowman. William Langland. British. 1362/87. Poetry. Langland was a contemporary of Chaucer. Alliterative. Piers, Peter/Jesus urges people to work toward salvation.

Society

1366. Europeans commonly eat the main meal of the day at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Literature

The Golden Lotus. Anonymous. Chinese. 1368? Novel. Life and loves of Hsi-men Ch'ing and his six wives. Naturalism. Realistic. Explicit eroticism.

Society

1369. Tamerlane (Timur the Lame, or Tamburlaine) makes himself master of Samarkand in Turkestan. A descendant of Genghis Khan, the lame leader will conquer much of the world.

Literature

The Book of the Duchess. Chaucer. British. 1369. Poetry. Elegy on the occasion of the death of Blanche, the first wife of John of Gaunt. Narrator reads Halcyon and Ceyx and then dreams. Black Knight laments that he met, married, lived in bliss, and lost in death the most perfect lady.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Pearl Poet. British. 1370. Poetry. Alliterative. Beheading game and temptation to adultery. Greatest single Arthurian legend in English. Green Knight challenges knights to lop off his head. Gawain accepts. In return, he must accept a return blow a year later. Stays at castle. Twice resists temptation from his host's wife. Fails to mention the green sash to his host. The host is, in reality, the Green Knight, who misses twice to represent the two times Gawain has resisted temptation. Third time, he is nicked on the neck. Gawain wears the green sash forever after to remind him of his moral lapse.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. French/English? 1371. Travel. Book of travels filled with fictitious marvels.

1340 to 1351

Literature

Il Filocolo. Boccaccio. Italian. 1340? Romance. Travails of lovers Florio and Biancofiore. (French version was Flores and Blanchefleur.) Episodes and digressions, the most famous of which is the Thirteen Questions of Love.

Il Filostrato ("A Man Overwhelmed by Love," Troilus). Boccaccio. Italian. 1340? Romance. Troiolo, Criseida and Pandarus. When Criseida leaves Troiolo, he is stunned by grief. Source for Chaucer.

Society

1343. Dialogues by William of Occam lays the foundations of the modern theory of independence of church and state.

1346. The Battle of Crecy, August 26, establishes England as a great military power, reorients English social values by its joint participation of yeomanry and aristocracy, and begins the end of an era of feudal cavalry that has dominated warfare since the barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire. France's Philip VI meets with disaster from the quick-shooting English archers and spearmen who make short work of the heavily armored knights who cannot remount once their horses go down.

1347. The Black Death reaches Cyprus, whence it will spread to Florence.

1348. The Black Death that will devastate Europe reaches Florence in April and spreads to France and England. French surgeon Guy de Chauliac writes: "So contagious was the disease especially that with blood spitting that no one could approach or even see a patient without taking the disease. The father did not visit the son nor the son the father. Charity was dead and hope abandoned."

1348. Jews are blamed for spreading the Black Death. The Jews are persecuted first at Chillon on Lake Geneva and then at Basel and Freiburg where all known Jews are herded into wooden buildings and burned alive. At Strasbourg more than 2,000 Jewish scapegoats are hanged on a scaffold erected at the Jewish burying ground.

1328. The Black Death will extinguish nearly two-thirds of the population in some parts of Europe.

1349. English landlords offer high wages to field hands, reapers and mowers spared by the Black Death.

1349. The Black Death kills from one-third to one-half the population of England.

1349. The Black Death reaches Scotland and Wales.

Literature

Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Anonymous. Chinese. 1350? Novel. Historical novel. Endless episodes and stratagems. Personalities of generals and kings.

Society

1351. An English Statute of Laborers fixes wages at their 1346 levels.

1300 to 1340

Literature

Guy of Warwick. Anonymous. British. 1300. Romance. Non-Arthurian hero. Adventures. Married. Adventures again. Hermit. Beggar. Reveals identity on deathbed.

Society

1306. France arrests her Jews, strips them of their possessions and expels them.

1306. England whips and expels some 100,000 Jews who remained after expulsion order of 1290.

1306. A Londoner is tried and executed for burning coal in the city.

1309. The "Babylonian Exile" of the Papacy begins at Avignon.

1314. The Battle of Bannockburn, June 24, assures the independence of Scotland.

1314. St. Paul's Cathedral is completed at London.

1315. First public systematic dissection of a human body supervised by Italian surgeon Mondino de Luzzi.

1315. Disastrous famine strikes large parts of western Europe.

1317. France adopts the Salic Law to exclude women from succeeding to the throne.

1320. Paper will soon be made at Cologne, Nuremberg, Ratisbon and Augsburg. Perfected by the Chinese in AD 105, replaces the vellum that has given monasteries a monopoly on manuscripts and on written communication.

Literature

The Divine Comedy. Dante. Italian. 1321. Poetry. Actually a realistic picture and analysis of every aspect of earthly human life. Allegory of individual soul's progress toward God. Progress of political, social mankind toward peace on earth. Beatrice represents divine revelation. Compassionate evaluation of human nature; mystic vision of Absolute toward which it strives. The day is Good Friday in 1300. Virgil takes Dante through Hell. He ascends the mountain of Purgatory. Beatrice takes him through Paradise to God. Virgil is the incarnation of the highest knowledge attainable by the human mind unaided by God's revelation. Dante goes through Hell to free him of temptation of sin. The purpose of his trip through Purgatory is to purify Dante's soul of even the capacity for error. The closer to God, the greater the bliss. Purified, Dante is able to gaze on the Trinity.

Society

1324. Defensor Pacis is a juridical treatise against the temporal power of the pope.

1325. Mexico City has its beginnings in the city of Tenochititlan founded by Aztecs in Lake Texcoco.

1333. The Black Death begins in China as starvation weakens much of the population.

1337. A "Hundred Years' War" between England and France begins as Philip VI contests English claims to Normandy.

1340. Travelers on the road from China will return with rat-borne ticks or fleas that will bring the Black Death to Europe. The plague is called bubonic because of its characteristic bubo or enlarged lymph glands.