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The 1390s

420 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.

1390 CE49 entries

  • February 16 – At Heidelberg (now in Germany) Ruprecht II of the House of Wittelsbach becomes the new Elector of the Palatinate in the Holy Roman Empire upon the death of his uncle, Rupert I.
  • March 20 – Manuel III succeeds his father, Alexios III, as Emperor of Trebizond (now north eastern Turkey).
  • May 26 – Lithuanian Civil War: The Treaty of Königsberg is signed in Königsberg, between Samogitian nobles and representatives of the Teutonic Knights.

1391 CE38 entries

  • February 16 –Manuel II Palaiologos becomes Byzantine emperor after his father, John V Palaiologos, dies from a nervous breakdown, due to his continued humiliation by the Ottoman Empire.
  • June 6 – Massacre of 1391: Anti-Jewish pogroms erupt in Seville, Spain. Many thousands of Jews are massacred, and the violence spreads throughout Spain and Portugal, especially to Toledo, Barcelona and Mallorca. This event marks a turning-point in the history of the Spanish Jews, with most of the survivors leaving the Iberian Peninsula or being forced to convert.
  • November 2 – Al-Nasir Muhammad Salah al-Din, Imam of the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam in Yemen, dies at San'a from injuries sustained from being thrown off of his mule. Nasir's death is not announced for two months while his son Al-Mansur Ali bin Salah ad-Din becomes the new Imam but three other claimants attempt to claim the office as well.

1392 CE49 entries

  • August 5 – King Charles VI of France (later known as "Charles the Mad") first displays symptoms of psychosis while crossing through the forests of Le Mans, attacking his own soldiers with his sword while under the delusion that they are enemy troops from the Duchy of Brittany. Charles' madness enables Philip II, Duke of Burgundy, to strengthen his power in the French court.
  • August 5 – At Gaegyeong, General Yi Sŏng-gye crowns himself King Taejo of Korea, ending the Goryeo dynasty in the Korean Peninsula, and establishing the Joseon dynasty, which will last for more than 500 years.
  • September 24 – Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor of Ming dynasty China, declares that all males must wear the queue hairstyle.

1393 CE19 entries

1394 CE53 entries

  • January 15 – Grand Prince Chinan of the Joseon kingdom in Korea, eldest son of King Taejo and heir to the throne, dies at the age of 39 from complications of alcoholism.
  • August 15 – Two months after being captured by King Zsigmond of Hungary, the Serbian rebel Janos Horvati, is brutally executed at Pécs by dismemberment to avenge the 1387 execution of the former Queen consort of Hungary, Elizabeth of Bosnia.
  • November 29 – The capital city of the Joseon dynasty (in present-day Korea) is moved from Gaegyeong (now Gaeseong) to Hanseong (now Seoul).

1395 CE31 entries

  • May 17 – Mary of Hungary dies, ending of the reign of Hungary by the Capet-Anjou family. Her co-reigning estranged husband, King Sigismund, becomes sole ruler of Hungary.
  • June 3 – Sultan Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire has the former Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Shishman beheaded after Shishman is accused of collaborating with the Principality of Wallachia during the 1394 Battle of Karanovasa.
  • September 8 – The death of King Stjepan Dabiša leads to the election of his wife Jelena Gruba as Queen of Bosnia. However, most of the Bosnian land is soon appropriated by King Sigismund of Hungary.

1396 CE48 entries

  • September 12 – The Crusaders, with more than 17,000 troops from France, Hungary, the Knights Hospitaler, Wallachia and the Holy Roman Empire , arrive at the outskirts of Nicopolis (now Nikopol in Bulgaria).
  • September 25 – Battle of Nicopolis: The Ottomans defeat a joint crusade by Hungary, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Wallachia, led by King Sigismund of Hungary. This is the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages.
  • November 24 – The Transit of Venus, the last not to be part of a pair, is possibly observed by Aztec astronomers.

1397 CE49 entries

  • April 20 – At Kalaburagi in the Bahmani Kingdom (now in India's state of Karnataka) Ghiyath-ad-din Shah becomes the new Shah upon the death of his father, Mohammed Shah II.
  • September 9 – While under house arrest at Calais, awaiting trial for treason against his nephew, King Richard II of England, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester is assassinated.
  • December 31 – The Peace of Breno is signed in Val Camonica to temporarily halt the fighting between the Guelphs (who favor the Republic of Venice) and the Ghibellines (who favor the Duchy of Milan) in the fighting between the two nations.

1398 CE45 entries

1399 CE39 entries

  • January 13 – In the Delhi Sultanate in what is now the Uttarakhand state of India, Timur the Lame captures and sacks Haridwar.
  • August 12 – At the Battle of the Vorskla River, Golden Horde forces, led by Mongol Khan Temür Qutlugh and Emir Edigu, annihilate a crusading army led by former Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh, and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania..
  • August 19 – Richard II of England is taken prisoner by Henry Bolingbroke upon his return from Ireland and surrenders at Flint Castle in return for his life.