/year

The 1340s

436 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.

1340 CE34 entries

  • March – Edmond Albanach de Burgh is granted a royal pardon for the murder of his cousin in 1338 and returns from exile in the western isles of Connacht.
  • June 24 – Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys – The English fleet, under the command of Edward III of England, battles the French fleet, under that of Admiral Hugues Quiéret and treasurer Nicolas Béhuchet, assisted by Genoese mercenary galleys under Egidio Bocanegra, on the Low Countries coast. The French fleet is virtually destroyed, and both of its commanders are killed.
  • October 30 – Battle of Río Salado in Spain: The kings of Castile and Portugal defeat the Nasrid ruler of Granada and his Moroccan allies.

1341 CE49 entries

  • January 18 – The Queen's College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, is founded.
  • September–October – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 (between John VI Kantakouzenos and the regency for the infant John V Palaiologos) breaks out.
  • October – parliament at Dublin is adjourned to Kilkenny (held in November). Petitions critical of administration are sent to Edward III.

1342 CE37 entries

  • January 21–June 27 – An-Nasir Ahmad, Sultan of Egypt, rules prior to being deposed by his half-brother As-Salih Ismail.
  • 16 July – 4 September – Deputy justiciar campaigns in Wicklow against the Ó Broin.
  • August 15 – Louis "the Child", age 4, succeeds his father, Peter II, as king of Sicily and duke of Athens; he is crowned on September 15 in Palermo Cathedral.

1343 CE36 entries

  • May 4 – St. George's Night Uprising: The "Four Estonian kings" are murdered, at the negotiations with the Livonian Order.
  • August 31 – A naval league is formed between the Pope, the Republic of Venice, the Knights Hospitaller and the Kingdom of Cyprus, to prepare the Smyrniote Crusades.
  • November 25 – A tsunami, caused by an earthquake, devastates the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places.

1344 CE38 entries

  • March 26 – Reconquista: The Siege of Algeciras (1342–44), one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder is used, ends with the Muslim city of Algeciras surrendering and being incorporated into the Kingdom of Castile.
  • April 23 – The St. George's Night Uprising: The Livonian Order hangs Vesse, the rebel Estonian Elder of Saaremaa Island.
  • October 21 – Pope Clement VI issues dispensation for marriage between Maurice fitz Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare, and Joan, daughter of the Earl of Desmond.

1345 CE53 entries

  • August 9 – Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Derby arrives in Bordeaux with 500 men-at-arms, 500 mounted archers and 1,000 English and Welsh foot archers.
  • August – Gascon campaign of 1345 - Battle of Bergerac, Gascony: English troops are victorious over the French.
  • October 21 – The Battle of Auberoche is fought between an Anglo-Gascon force of 1,200 men under Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Derby, and a French army of 7,000 commanded by Louis of Poitiers. It was fought at the village of Auberoche near Périgueux in northern Aquitaine resulting in an Anglo-Gascon victory.

1346 CE53 entries

  • 23 April (until April 29) – the castles of Lea, Kilmohide and Balylethan in Leinster captured by Uí Mhórdha, Uí Chonchobair (Ó Conchubhair Fáilghe) and Uí Dhíomusaigh [3].
  • 24 June – "Around the Feast of the Baptist, four hundred of the men of Uriel and Dundalk were killed by the Irish." [7].
  • 27 July – Roger de la Freigne, Sheriff of Kilkenny, "seized a great prey over Cearbhall Mac Giollaphádraig and over his men such as had rearely been taken in those parts, remembered by men for many years." [8].

1347 CE61 entries

  • February 2 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 between John VI Kantakouzenos and the regency for John V Palaiologos ends with Kantakouzenos entering Constantinople.
  • 25 March – Lord Nicholas de Verdun is buried at Drogheda "with great splendour and solemn rites and with many in the procession to the convent."
  • December 25 – The first cases of the plague are recorded in the city of Split, in Croatia.

1348 CE39 entries

  • April 23 – Edward III of England creates the first English order of chivalry, the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
  • July 6 – A papal bull is issued by Pope Clement VI, protecting Jews against popular aggression during the Black Death pandemic.
  • November 1 – The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro because they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists".

1349 CE36 entries

  • January 22 – An earthquake affects L'Aquila in southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), causing severe damage, and leaving 2,000 dead.
  • August 24 – The Black Death breaks out in Elbing (Poland).
  • October 20 – Pope Clement VI publishes a papal bull that condemns the Flagellants.