1330s

Events

1330

January–December

• July 28 – Battle of Velbazhd: The Bulgarians under Tsar Michael Shishman (who is mortally wounded) are beaten by the Serbs. Bulgaria does not lose any territory to Serbia, but is powerless to stop the Serbian advance towards the predominantly Bulgarian-populated Macedonia.
• October 19 – King Edward III of England starts his personal reign, arresting his regent Roger Mortimer, and having him executed.
• November 9–12 – Battle of Posada: The Wallachians, under Basarab I, defeat the Hungarians, though heavily outnumbered, thus making a firm statement towards the independence of Wallachia.
• December 6 – The British Isles are hit by a great storm, creating large areas of sand dunes on Anglesey.
• Undated – Vilnius, Lithuania receives its coat-of-arms, granted to the city in the seventh year of its existence.
• Undated – Ivan Alexander becomes the despot of Lovech.

1331

September–December

• September 8 – Stefan Dušan declares himself king of Serbia.
• September 27 – Battle of Płowce: The German Teutonic Knights and the Poles battle to a draw.

Date unknown

• The Sieges of Cividale del Friuli and Alicante begin.
• The Genkō War begins in Japan.
• Ibn Battuta visits Kilwa.
• The first recorded outbreak of the Black Death occurs, in the Chinese province of Hubei.

1332

• February 18 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia, begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces (possibly in 1329).
• August 10–11 – Battle of Dupplin Moor: Edward Balliol rebels, and the English defeat the loyalists of David II in Scotland.
• September – Edward Balliol crowns himself King of Scotland.
• November 7 – Lucerne joins the Swiss Confederation with Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.
• December 16 – Battle of Annan: The loyalists of David II defeat Edward Balliol in Scotland.
• The city of Marosvásárhely (in Transylvania, today Târgu Mureș in Romania) is first documented in the papal registry, under the name Novum Forum Siculorum.

1333

January–December

• May 18 – Siege of Kamakura in Japan: Forces loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo, led by Nitta Yoshisada, enter and destroy the city, breaking the power of the Hōjō clan over the Kamakura shogunate. The Kamakura period ends, and the Kenmu Restoration under Go-Daigo begins.
• June 6 – William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster, is murdered as part of the Burke Civil War in Ireland.
• June 8 – King Edward III of England seizes the Isle of Man from Scottish control.
• June 19 – Ashikaga Takauji leads his army into Kyoto as part of the Kenmu Restoration.
• July 7 – The reign of Emperor Kōgon of Japan, first of the Northern Court (Ashikaga) Pretenders, ends.
• July 19 – Wars of Scottish Independence - Battle of Halidon Hill: Edward III of England decisively defeats Sir Archibald Douglas. Berwick-upon-Tweed returns to English control.
• November 4 – The River Arno floods, causing massive damage in Florence, as recorded by Giovanni Villani.

Date unknown

• A famine (lasting until 1337) breaks out in China, killing six million.
• A great famine takes place in Southern Europe. It is known to historians of Catalonia as Lo mal any primer, "the First Bad Year" (equivalent to the Great Famine of 1315–1317 further north), an early notice of the catastrophes of the second half of this century.
• Jan IV of Dražic, Bishop of Prague, founds a friary and builds a stone bridge at Roudnice in Bohemia.
• The Kapellbrücke wooden bridge over the Reuss in Lucerne (Switzerland) is built; by the 20th century it will be the world's oldest truss bridge and Europe's oldest covered bridge.
• The Venetian historian Marino Sanudo Torsello publishes his History of the realm of Romania (Istoria del regno di Romania), one of the most important sources on the history of Latin Greece.

1334

January–December

• July 18 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundational stone laid for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral (the tower was designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone).
• December 30 – Pope Benedict XII succeeds Pope John XXII, as the 197th pope.

Date unknown

• Autumn – Battle of Adramyttion: A Christian league defeats the fleet of the Turkish Beylik of Karasi.

1335

January–December

• May 2 – Otto the Merry, Duke of Austria, becomes Duke of Carinthia.
• July 30 – Battle of Boroughmuir: John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray defeats Guy, Count of Namur in Scotland.
• November 30 – Battle of Culblean: David Bruce defeats Edward Balliol in Scotland.
• December 1 – Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan dies, a victim of the plague that ravages the Ilkhanate. This is an early outbreak of the Black Death. His death without a clear heir causes the Ilkhanate to disintegrate.
• October 22 – Ex-emperor Hanazono (95th emperor of japan) becomes a Zen priest.

Date unknown

• Georgians under King George V (the Brilliant) finally defeat the Mongolians in a decisive battle. After that George V returns the Grave of Christ from the Muslims.
• Slavery is abolished in Sweden.
• Congress of Visegrád: The monarchs of Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland form an anti-Habsburg alliance.
• Carinthia and Carniola come under Habsburg rule. After the death of Duke Henry, the duchies are bestowed by Louis the Bavarian on the Dukes of Austria. From that time onwards, what is today Slovenia is ruled jointly with Austria until 1918.
• Pope Benedict XII begins to reform the Cistercians.
• The excommunication of Frederick III of Sicily and the interdict placed on Sicily end.
• Construction begins on the papal palace in Avignon.
• Aabenraa is chartered as a city.
• The School of Arts in Zaragoza, Spain is founded (later known as the University of Zaragoza in the 16th Century).

1336

• February 25
  • Rather than be taken captive by the Teutonic Knights, 4,000 defenders of Pilėnai, Lithuania commit mass suicide.
  • The Kenmu Restoration ends and the Muromachi period begins in Japan; start of the Nanboku-chō period.
• April 18 (unconfirmed) – Brothers Harihara and Bukka Raya found the Vijayanagara Empire on the southern part of the Deccan Plateau in South India.
• April 26 – The Ascent of Mount Ventoux is made by the Italian poet Petrarch: he claims to be the first since classical antiquity to climb a mountain for the view.
• May 19 – The governor of Baghdad, Oirat 'Ali Padsah, defeats Arpa Ke'un near Maraga, contributing to the disintegration of the Ilkhanate.
• July 4 – Battle of Minatogawa: Ashikaga Takauji defeats Japanese Imperial forces, under Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada.
• July 21–22 – Second War of Scottish Independence: Aberdeen, Scotland is burned by the English.
• September 20 – The reign of Emperor Kōmyō, second of the Ashikaga Pretenders to the Northern Court of Japan, begins.

1337

January–December

• March 16 – Edward, the Black Prince establishes the Duchy of Cornwall, becoming the first English Duke.
• May 24 – Philip VI of France confiscates Gascony from English control.
• August – Second War of Scottish Independence: English forces relieve Stirling Castle, ending Edward III of England's last campaign in Scotland.
• October – Hundred Years' War: Edward III of England formally rejects Philip VI's claim to the French throne, initiating hostilities between France and England.
• November – Battle of Cadzand: English troops raid the Flemish island of Cadzand.

Date unknown

• Bisham Priory is founded in England.
• The Scaligeri Family loses control of Padua; Alberto della Scala, patron of the music of the Trecento, moves to Verona.
• Petrarch, "father" of Renaissance humanism, first visits Rome to wander its mysterious ruins, with an eye for aesthetics as well as for history, exciting a renewed interest in Classical civilisation.
• The Sofia Psalter is produced in Bulgaria.
• The famine in China, which had lasted since 1332 and killed 6,000,000, comes to an end.

1338

• October 5 – Hundred Years' War, English Channel naval campaign: Southampton is destroyed.

Date unknown

• Hundred Years' War: Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor appoints Edward III of England as a vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire. Louis supports Edward's claim to the French throne, under the terms of the Treaty of Koblenz.
• Philip VI of France besieges Guienne in Southwest France, and his navy attacks Portsmouth, England.
• Ashikaga Takauji is granted the title of shōgun by the emperor of Japan, starting the Ashikaga Shogunate.
• Nicomedia is captured by the Ottoman Empire.
• A Black Death plague strain originates near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern Kyrgyzstan, according to Syriac tombstone inscriptions and genetic material from exhumed bodies.

1339

January–December

• June – Battle of Laupen: The Canton of Bern defeats the forces of Fribourg.
• September 18 – Emperor Go-Murakami accedes to the throne of Japan.
• September 24 (or 28) – Simone Boccanegra is elected, as the first Doge of Genoa.

Date unknown

• Shams-ud-Din Shah Mir, having defeated Kota Rani, Hindu queen regnant of Kashmir, in battle at Jayapur (modern Sumbal), asks her to marry him, but she commits suicide rather than do so; thus he takes over sole rule of Kashmir, beginning the Muslim Shah Mir Dynasty.
• All streets in the city of Florence are paved, the first European city in post-Roman times where this has happened.
• The Moscow Kremlin is first referred to as a kremlin.