Timeline of Kings and Queens, page 9
1296
England and Scotland Edward I storms Berwick-upon-Tweed, slaughtering the inhabitants; he defeats the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar. Sicily James II, also king of Aragón, agrees with Charles II, king of Naples, to give up Sicily, but the Sicilians install James’s brother, Frederick II, as king. Poland King Premislas II is kidnapped and murdered by representatives of the electors of Brandenberg and Polish nobles; Wenceslaus II, king of Bohemia and son of Bohemian King Ottokar II the Great, also becomes High Duke Wenceslaus II of Poland; he is the first ruler for almost 500 years not to be a member of the Piast family.
King John Balliol abdicates and is imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1299, when he is released and goes into exile in France; there is an interregnum until 1306.
1297
Scotland William Wallace begins his revolt against the English, defeating them at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. France Louis IX is canonized as St Louis. Monaco gains independence from Genoa when it is captured by François Grimaldi; the Grimaldi family still rule the principality today.
1298
England Edward I defeats William Wallace in the Battle of Falkirk, reconquering Scotland. Germany The princes tire of Adolf of Nassau and elect Albrecht I, son of Rudolf I, as king; Adolf of Nassau dies in battle against Albert, never having been crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Bulgaria Ivan II succeeds his father Smilitz as tsar; he is still a child and a regent rules on his behalf.
1299
Norway Erik II dies without sons; his brother is crowned King Haakon V; he is the last king of the Fairhair dynasty, which has ruled for more than 400 years. Bulgaria Chaka, son of Mongol leader Nogai Khan, forces Ivan II and his regency to flee, and he becomes tsar.
1300
Poland High Duke Wenceslaus I is crowned king. Bulgaria Teodor Svetoslav, son of George I, deposes Tsar Chaka and becomes tsar; Chaka is strangled and beheaded in prison; Teodor stabilizes the country and ends Mongol involvement in its affairs.
1301
Wales Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II) becomes the first prince of Wales. Scotland Robert I makes peace with Edward I of England. Monaco The Genoese regain control; the Grimaldis go into exile. Hungary and Croatia On the death of Andrew III, the succession moves briefly to the Premyslid line, when Wenceslaus of Bohemia becomes king.
1302
Italy The war of the Sicilian Vespers over the rule of the Angevin king, Charles I, ends.
1303
Rome Niccolò Boccasini is elected pope as Benedict XI.
1304
England Edward I takes Stirling Castle, the last rebel stronghold in the war of Scottish Independence. Rome Pope Benedict XI dies after reigning for eight months. Russia Michael of Tver, second son of Iaroslav III, becomes grand prince of Vladimir.
1305
Navarre Joanna I dies; Louis I, who will be Louis X of France from 1314, becomes king. Rome After a year’s interregnum, caused by divisions between Italian and French cardinals, Raymond Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux, is elected pope as Clement V. Poland Wenceslaus III, also king of Bohemia and king of Hungary, becomes king of Poland.
1306
Scotland Robert the Bruce becomes king and begins the fight for Scottish independence from English rule; the earl of Pembroke defeats Bruce’s Scottish rebels at the Battle of Methven. Austria Rudolf III declares himself king and then ensures the election of his son-in-law, Henry V of Carinthia, but Henry is deposed. Poland, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia Wenceslaus III, king of Hungary and Croatia, becomes king of Bohemia and renounces the Hungarian throne in favour of Otto, duke of Lower Bavaria, a member of the House of Wittelsbach and descendant of Stephen V; he is not universally accepted as king; Wenceslaus III is assassinated in Poland; Władysław I the Short becomes high duke of Poland.
1307
England Edward I dies en route to fight Robert Bruce; Edward II becomes king.
“Try, try, try again.”
Robert the Bruce
1308
Rome The papal court moves to Avignon; the Great Schism follows. Hungary and Croatia Otto abdicates; Charles I becomes king, marking the beginning of the reign of the Angevin dynasty in Hungary. Germany Albrecht I is murdered by his nephew, Johann Parricida; Albrecht had deprived him of his inheritance; Henry VII becomes king.
1309
Monaco Rainier I, lord of Cagnes, son-in-law of François Grimaldi, becomes the first sovereign ruler; he builds Château Grimaldi. Rome Pope Clement V settles the papal seat in Avignon; the Papal States are entrusted to three cardinals, but Rome, at this time, is ungovernable. Sicily Robert the Wise becomes king. Hungary and Croatia Otto is replaced as king by Robert of Anjou, great-grandson of Stephen V, as Charles I; he is also king of Naples and Sicily.
1310
Venice A failed rebellion against the doge and the Grand Council of Venice burns down the Rialto Bridge. Bohemia John the Blind becomes the first member of the House of Luxembourg to be elected king, assuming the throne in the right of his wife Eliška, sister of Wenceslaus III. Wallachia Basarab I is the first non-legendary ruler of the Principality of Wallachia.
1311
England A committee of 21 English barons draws up a series of ordinances, which replace the king with ordainers as the effective government of the country. Majorca James II’s oldest son, also called James, renounces his claim to the throne to become a monk; Sancho I, his second son, becomes king. Venice Marino Zorzi, considered a saint in his own lifetime, is elected as the 50th doge.
1312
León-Castile-Galicia Alfonso XI the Just becomes king of Castile and León. Venice Giovanni Soranzo is elected doge. Holy Roman Empire Henry VII is crowned emperor, the first to be crowned since Frederick II in 1220.
1313
Germany On the death of Henry VII, two rivals emerge for the German crown – Ludwig of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach, grandson of Rudolf I, and Frederick I the Fair of the House of Habsburg, king of Austria.
1314
Scotland Robert the Bruce routs the English at the Battle of Bannockburn, and Scotland regains its independence. France Louis X the Quarreller becomes king. Germany Ludwig IV is elected king, but Frederick the Fair remains a rival. Rome Clement V dies; a two-year papal interregnum ensues.
1315
Belarus Vainus, brother of Gaediminas, grand prince of Lithuania, becomes prince of Polotsk.
1316
Ireland The Second Battle of Athenry results in over 5,000 dead, and ends the power of the Ua Conchobair (O’Connor’s) as kings of Connacht. France Louis X dies of dehydration, or possibly poisoning; newborn John I the Posthumous becomes king, but dies five days later; Philippe V the Tall, Louis X’s uncle, succeeds him; barring the claims to the throne of Louis X’s daughter, Jeanne, he effectively establishes that, unlike other European monarchies, no woman could ever reign in France. Navarre John the Posthumous, king of France, is king for the five days he lives; Philippe V of France becomes King Felipe II of Navarre. Rome Frenchman Jacques Duèze is elected pope as John XXII; he continues the Avignon papacy. Lithuania Vytenis dies without an heir; his younger brother, Gediminas, becomes one of the nation’s greatest grand dukes, inheriting a huge territory including Lithuania, Samogitia, Red Russia, Polotsk and Minsk. Byzantine Empire Andronikos III becomes co-emperor.
1318
Scotland The Scots capture Berwick-upon-Tweed from the English. Russia Grand Prince Michael of Vladimir is executed by the Mongol khan; the unpopular Yuri of Moscow becomes grand prince.
1319
Norway and Sweden Haakon V of Norway dies and is succeeded by his grandson, the Swedish Prince Magnus – his daughter having married a son of Magnus I of Sweden; the two countries are united by Magnus.
“It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but life itself.”
Extract from the Declaration of Arbroath
1320
Scotland The Scots reaffirm their independence by signing the Declaration of Arbroath.
Denmark Following the death of Eric VI, violent civil war and a year-long interregnum, Christopher II, son of Eric V, becomes king in exchange for agreeing to the demands of the nobles; Denmark is virtually bankrupt and mortgaged to German and Danish nobles. Poland Władysław I the Short, already high duke, is crowned king. Byzantine Empire Co-emperor Michael IX Palaiologos dies after hearing that his son, Andronikos III, has killed another of his sons, Palaiologos.
Declaration of Arbroath
1320
The Declaration of Arbroath is undoubtedly the most famous document in the history of Scotland. To a certain degree, the American Declaration of Independence was based on it and it is seen by many as the founding document of the Scottish nation. It was written, in Latin, on 6 April 1320, in the form of a letter. Once completed, the Declaration was sent to Pope John XXII in May of the same year and is believed to have been scribed in the scriptorium of Arbroath Abbey by Abbot Bernard. The Abbot was chosen to act on behalf of the nobles and barons of Scotland.
The Declaration of Arbroath just one of three letters sent to the Pope residing in Avignon, France. The other two letters were sent by King Robert the Bruce and four Scottish bishops, who were trying to appease the hostility shown towards the papacy. The Declaration was first sealed by 51 magnates and Scottish barons and then delivered to the papal court in Avignon by Sir Adam Gordon. The Declaration of Arbroath is the only letter to have survived of the original three.
1321
Serbia A short civil war follows the death of Stefan Uroš II Milutin; Stefan Uroš III Dečanski becomes king. Byzantine Empire Andronikos III, son of Michael IX Palaiologos, becomes a rival emperor to Andronikos II.
1322
France Philippe V dies without a male heir; his younger brother, Charles IV the Fair, becomes the last Capet king.
Germany Ludwig of Bavaria defeats Frederick the Fair at the Battle of Mühldorf – often called the last battle of knights – to become undisputed king as Ludwig IV. Bulgaria George Terter II becomes the last Terter tsar. Russia Grand Prince Yuri of Vladimir is killed by Dmitri the Terrible Eyes, son of the executed Michael of Tver; Dmitri takes his place.
Navarre Charles I of France becomes Charles I of Navarre.
1323
Bulgaria George II dies of natural causes, without issue; Michael Šišman becomes the first king of the Šišmanovich dynasty. Denmark Christopher II is overthrown by Danish nobles and forced into exile; Duke Valdemar of South Jutland becomes puppet king.
1324
Majorca Sancho I dies without a legitimate heir; he wills the throne to his nephew, James III, to prevent it falling into the hands of the king of Aragón.
1325
Portugal King Dinis dies, having established Portugal on equal footing with the other Iberian kingdoms; Afonso IV becomes king; his rival for the throne, his half-brother Afonso Sanches, is stripped of all his lands and fiefdoms and sent into exile.
1326
England Isabella, Edward II’s wife, invades England with her lover, Roger Mortimer, capturing the king. Russia Grand Prince Dmitri the Terrible Eyes is executed on the orders of the Mongol Uzbeg Khan for the murder, four years earlier, of Grand Prince Yuri; Dmitri dies childless and Grand Prince Michael’s second son, Alexander, takes the throne.
1327
England Edward II abdicates and is then savagely murdered by agents of his wife Isabella, and her lover Roger Mortimer, earl of March; Edward III becomes king, the first king to speak English as his chosen language. Aragón Alfonso IV the Kind becomes king.
The ‘She-Wolf’ of France
1292-1358
Isabella of France, dubbed the ‘She-Wolf of France’, was the Queen consort of Edward II of England and mother of Edward III. By the 1320s, Isabella and Edward were at loggerheads and they spent more and more time apart. It is believed that Edward had a homosexual affair with Piers Gaveston, while Isabella took her own lover, Roger Mortimer. Sick of Edward’s weak and foolish rule, the English people welcomed the rebel army that Queen Isabella and Mortimer led from France. Between them they arranged for the murder of Edward II in 1327, leaving Isabella’s son, Edward III, free to be crowned king of England.
When Edward III turned 18, he had both Isabella and Mortimer taken prisoner. Despite his mother’s pleas to save her beloved Mortimer, he was executed for treason in November 1330. Isabella, however, was spared the death sentence and allowed to retire to Castle Rising in Norfolk where she remained for the rest of her life.
1328
France Charles IV dies without a male heir; Philippe VI the Fortunate, nephew of Philippe IV, becomes the first king of France from the House of Valois. Navarre Joanna II, only daughter of Louis I of Navarre, denied the throne of France in 1316 because of her gender, becomes queen. Holy Roman Empire Ludwig IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Byzantine Empire Andronikos III becomes emperor, following an eight-year civil war against his grandfather, Andronikos II. Russia Ivan Kalita of Moscow leads an army against Grand Prince Alexander; Alexander flees and Ivan becomes Grand Prince Ivan I, nicknamed ‘the Moneybag’ because he is given the right, by the khan, to collect taxes from all Russian lands. Scotland England recognizes Scotland as an independent nation.
1329
Scotland King Robert the Bruce dies and is succeeded by his 5-year-old son, David II. Navarre Queen Joanna II marries Philippe of Évreux, who becomes de jure uxoris King Felipe III of Navarre, first Navarrese king of the House of Évreux. Denmark Christopher II is restored to the throne, but without much power. Venice Francesco Dandolo is elected doge; he institutes a policy of expanding Venetian territory on the mainland.
1330
Bulgaria The Bulgars, under Michael III, are beaten by the Serbs, led by Stephen Urosh, at the Battle of Velbuzhd; Michael III Šišman is killed; large parts of Bulgaria fall to Serbia; the balance of power shifts in the Balkans; Michael III’s son, Ivan Stephen, becomes tsar for only a few months. Wallachia Prince Basarab I defeats his Hungarian overlord, Charles I of Anjou, at the Battle of Posada, gaining independence for Wallachia.
1331
Monaco After 30 years of Genoese control, Charles I Grimaldi retakes the Rock of Monaco. Serbia Stefan Uroš III is imprisoned by his son, Dušan, and strangled; Dušan becomes Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, known as Dušan the Mighty; he is, perhaps, the greatest of all Serbian leaders, with the Serbian Empire growing to be one of the largest states in Europe during his reign. Bulgaria Ivan Alexander becomes tsar, sharing his throne with his son for part of his reign.
1332
England The first record of the division of the English parliament into two houses. Scotland Edward Balliol is crowned king of Scots by the English and his own supporters, but later flees to England. Denmark An interregnum begins. Bulgaria Ivan Alexander begins the process of splitting the country up between his sons, leaving it weak and divided in the face of the imminent Ottoman conquest. Albania Robert of Taranto succeeds Philip II; he swaps the Kingdom of Achaea with his uncle, John, count of Gravina, in exchange for 5,000 ounces of gold and the rights to the Kingdom of Albania; John styles himself duke of Durazzo.
1333
Scotland Edward III of England and Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, beat the Scots at Halidon Hill; David II and his queen, Joan of the Tower, are sent to France for safety. Poland Casimir III the Great becomes king; during his reign, he doubles the size of the country and restores its prosperity.
1334
Rome Cardinal Jacques Fournier is elected pope as Benedict XII.
1336
Aragón Pedro IV, a stickler for etiquette, becomes king. Albania Charles becomes duke of Durazzo, ruler of Albania.
1337
England Edward III claims the French throne and the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) begins. Sweden and Norway Magnus IV is crowned joint ruler in Stockholm, causing resentment among Norwegian nobles wanting a separate Norwegian coronation. Sicily Peter II becomes king.
1339
Venice Bartolomeo Gradenigo is elected doge.
1340
England Edward III is declared king of France. Denmark Valdemar III becomes king and ends the country’s eight-year interregnum and its internal conflicts; Denmark becomes the leading Baltic state during his reign.
1341
Scotland King David II returns from France. Lithuania Jaunutis, Gediminas’s middle son, becomes grand duke. Byzantine Empire John V Palaiologos becomes emperor under the regency of his mother, Anna of Savoy; a civil war breaks out with administrative leader John Kantakouzenos, lasting until 1347.
1342
Rome Cardinal Pierre Roger is elected pope as Clement VI. Sicily 5-year-old Louis the Child becomes king, his mother and uncle act as regents. Hungary and Croatia Louis I the Great becomes king; he extends his kingdom to the Adriatic, securing Dalmatia and taking part of Bosnia and Bulgaria; much of his reign is spent in wars with the Republic of Venice and in competition for the throne of Naples. Belarus Narimont has been prince of Polotsk at an unknown date; Prince Lubart dies; Wigund becomes prince of Polotsk. Russia Simeon of Moscow, son of Ivan Kalita, becomes grand prince of Vladimir.
1343
Navarre Charles II the Bad becomes king, allying himself with England and trying to enlarge his kingdom; he is deeply untrustworthy. Norway Three-year-old Haakon VI takes the throne, with his father, King Magnus IV, acting as regent. Venice Law professor Andrea Dandolo is elected doge. Sicily Robert the Wise dies; he has been nicknamed ‘the peacemaker of Italy’ and has been a notable patron of the arts; Joan I, daughter of Charles, duke of Calabria, eldest son of King Robert, becomes queen.
1344
Aragón Pedro IV captures Majorca from James III.
1345
Lithuania Jaunutis is overthrown by his brothers, Algirdas and Kęstutis; Algirdas becomes grand duke, while Kęstutis rules in the west of the country; Algirdas makes Lithuania Europe’s largest state and one of its most powerful.
