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The 1320s

507 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 14th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1320 CE54 entries

  • January 20 – Duke Władysław I Łokietek ("Ladislaus the Short") becomes king of a reunited Poland, after receiving the approval from Pope John XXII. He is crowned, along with his wife Jadwiga of Kalisz, at the royal cathedral on Wawel Hill at Kraków. Wladysław's kingdom is surrounded by three hostile neighbors: Brandenburg, the Teutonic Order and Bohemia. Looking for allies, he makes an alliance with Charles I, ruler of Hungary.
  • March 20 (Easter Sunday) – Shepherds' Crusade (Le Pastoureaux): In France, a large group of common people band together in Normandy to begin a crusade, after a teenage shepherd says he was visited by the Holy Spirit. They march south to Aquitaine, attacking castles, royal officials, priests and lepers along the way. Jewish communes are attacked at Saintes, Cahors, Verdun-sur-Garonne, Albi and Toulouse. When they finally cross into Spain, Aragonese forces under Prince Alfonso halt their advance.
  • September 5 – Delhi's Sultan Khusrau Khan, who betrayed and murdered Qutbuddin Shah earlier in the year to become ruler in India, is himself betrayed and murdered by his governor, Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, who founds Delhi's Tughlaq dynasty. Sultan Ghiyath appoints military governors in Punjab and Sindh province, who manage to halt Mongol incursions towards the sultanate.

1321 CE61 entries

  • January 19 – King Edward II of England appoints the Archbishop of York; the Bishops of Carlisle, Worcester, and Winchester; the Earls of Pembroke, Hereford and Badlesmere; and six other people to negotiate with Scotland for a final peace treaty or an extension of the Pembroke treaty of 1319 before its expiration on Christmas Day.
  • April 19 – At Easter, the Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328 breaks out in the Byzantine Empire as Co-Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos flees Constantinople to Adrianople, where he sets up his court and initiates an uprising against his grandfather, the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. The 24-year-old Andronikos is joined by Theodore Synadenos and John Kantakouzenos in the rebellion. Syrgiannes Palaiologos leads an expeditionary army towards the capital, forcing the emperor to negotiate.
  • October 31 – Forces of Edward II of England capture Leeds Castle in Kent after Margaret de Clare, wife of Bartholomew Badlesmere, refuses Queen Isabella admittance in her husband's absence. When the Queen seeks to force an entry, Lady Badlesmere instructs her archers to shoot at Isabella and her party, six of whom are killed. After Edward occupies the castle, Lady Badlesmere becomes the first woman ever to be imprisoned in the Tower of London. She will be freed on November 3, 1322.

1322 CE56 entries

  • January 6 – Stephen Uroš III Dečanski becomes king of Serbia, having defeated his half-brother Stefan Konstantin in battle. He is crowned by Archbishop Nikodim I, and his 14-year-old son Stefan Dušan becomes co-ruler of Serbia. This is the first coronation for a "young king" in Serbia. Dečanski later grants him the province of Zeta as a fief, indicating his intention for Dušan to be his heir.
  • October 14 – "Great Raid": Battle of Old Byland – Scottish forces led by King Robert the Bruce defeat the English army in Yorkshire. During the battle, Robert and his highlanders charge themselves in a flanking position, from where the English troops are overrun, the most significant Scots victory over the English since Bannockburn in 1314. Edward II narrowly escapes capture and is forced to abandon his personal equipment, silver plate, jewelry and horse trappings. He flees with his retinue to Bridlington.
  • November 3 – Margaret de Clare, widow of the Contrariant Baron Baldesmere, is freed from incarceration after having spent more than a year as the first woman ever to be imprisoned in the Tower of London (having defied the queen). Margaret retires to a religious life at the convent of the Minorite Sisters (later known as the Poor Clares).

1323 CE43 entries

  • March 13 – Siege of Warangal: Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq sends an expeditionary army led by his son, Muhammad bin Tughluq, to the Kakatiya capital Warangal – after ruler Prataparudra has refused to make tribute payments. He besieges the city and finally, after a campaign of 8 months, Prataparudra surrenders on November 9.
  • May 15 – Marie of Luxembourg is formally crowned as Queen consort of France at Sainte-Chapelle after her September 21 marriage to King Charles IV.
  • June 28 – Siege of Villa di Chiesa: Aragonese forces under Prince Alfonso IV the Kind begin the siege at Villa di Chiesa. The fortified town is founded by Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, but is now under the control of the Republic of Pisa. Alfonso attacks the town with some 1,000 men and several siege engines, while the citizens are starved to death.

1324 CE69 entries

  • July 19 – (26 Rajab 724 AH) Mansa Musa, the extraordinarily-wealthy Emperor of Africa's Mali Empire, arrives in Cairo after three days of camping by the pyramids of Giza, and brings with him a large entourage of fellow Muslim pilgrims and a vast supply of gold. Musa, who is making the pilgrimage to Mecca, meets with Egypt's Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad and stays in Cairo for three months before departing with the pilgrims on October 18.
  • August 16 – In Italy, Pagano della Torre, Patriarch of Aquileia, is defeated in battle at Vaprio d'Agogna in Piedmont in his attempt to reclaim Milan from the Visconti family, and abandons further crusades.
  • November 10 – Pope John XXII issues the papal bull Quia quorundam, his third major statement concerning apostolic poverty and the Fraticelli, in response to a claim that an earlier bull by Pope Nicholas III had implied that Christ and the apostles had lived without possessions. In addition, Pope John restates the doctrine of Papal infallibility, declaring that "What the Roman pontiffs have once defined in faith and morals with the key of knowledge stands so immutably that it is not permitted to a successor to revoke it."

1325 CE53 entries

  • May 5 – The Istrian Demarcation, setting out the boundaries of disputed Italian territories in the Adriatic Sea peninsula of Istria (part of the modern-day Republic of Croatia), and confirms the agreement between the independent Italian states of Aquileia, Gorizia, and the Venetian Republic. The document is published in three languages (Latin, German and Croatian).
  • June 14 – (2 Rajab 725 AH) Ibn Battuta, Moroccan scholar and explorer, sets off from his hometown of Tangier on a hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca. En route, he travels to Tlemcen, Béjaïa and Tunis, where he stays for two months. For safety, Ibn Battuta joins a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed. Underway, he takes a bride in Sfax, but soon leaves her due to a dispute with her father. Traveling more than any other explorer before the modern era, he will travel an estimated 73,000 mi over the next 30 years, more than twice as much as Zheng He in the 15th century and three times as far as Marco Polo in the 14th century.
  • July 8 – (26 Rajab 725 AH) Sultan Ismail I is murdered in his palace, the Alhambra, after an 9-year reign. The attackers are captured and beheaded. Ismail is succeeded by his 10-year-old son Muhammad IV, who becomes the new ruler of the Emirate of Granada. Vizier Muhammad ibn al-Mahruq, serving as wakil (or regent), quarrels for control of the young sultan's government.

1326 CE55 entries

  • January 21 – The foundation of Oriel College (as King's College), the University of Oxford's fifth oldest (still surviving) college, is confirmed by royal charter.
  • October 26 – After eight days, the castle of Bristol is captured by Queen Isabella, and Hugh Despenser the elder is taken captive. With Bristol secured, Isabella moves her base of operations to Hereford, near the Welsh border. There, she orders Henry of Lancaster to locate and arrest Edward II.
  • November 16 – King Edward II of England is captured at Neath Abbey in Wales and brought to England, where he is imprisoned at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.

1327 CE50 entries

  • February 5 (1st waning of Kason 684 ME, Burmese calendar) – In Burma (modern Myanmar), Tarabya I becomes the new King of Sagaing, located in northern Myanmar on the Irrawaddy River with a capital in the city of Sagaing. Tarabya succeeds his brother, upon the death of his brother, King Saw Yun, despite the fact that Saw Yun has an heir, Prince Kyaswa.
  • February 13 – King Charles I of Hungary and King John of Bohemia sign an alliance agreement at Nagyszombat in Bohemia (modern Trnava in the Republic of Slovakia), to proceed against the Austrian Habsburgs who occupy Pressburg (modern Bratislava, capital of Slovakia).
  • April 6 (Good Friday) – Francesco Petrarca, Italian scholar and poet, sees a woman he names Laura (possibly Laura de Noves) in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon, which awakes in him a lasting passion. He writes a series of sonnets and other poems in Italian dedicated to her, which are collected into Il Canzoniere, an influential model for Renaissance culture.

1328 CE31 entries

  • May 1 – Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton: England recognises Scotland as an independent nation, after the Wars of Scottish Independence.
  • May 29 – King Philip VI of France is crowned, founding the House of Valois, after the death of King Charles IV of France, who has no sons to inherit.
  • August 23 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.

1329 CE35 entries

  • March 27 – Pope John XXII issues a bull condemning some teachings of Meister Eckhart (who died last year) as heretical.
  • June 7 – David II becomes King of Scots at age 5; he will rule Scotland for nearly 42 years.
  • June 10 – Braganstown massacre, County Louth, Ireland: Over 160 are killed.