1390s

This is a list of events occurring in the 1390s, ordered by year.

1390

January–December

• January 19 – Treaty of Lyck confirms an alliance between Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights in the Lithuanian Civil War against Vytautas's cousin, Jogaila.
• April 14 – John VII Palaiologos overthrows his grandfather, John V Palaiologos, as Byzantine Emperor.
• April 19 – Robert III succeeds his father, Robert II, as King of Scotland.
• May 26 – Treaty of Königsberg signed in Königsberg during the Lithuanian Civil War between Samogitian nobles and representatives of the Teutonic Knights.^[1]
• September 11 – In the Lithuanian Civil War, the coalition of Vytautas and the Teutonic Knights begins a 5-week siege of Vilnius. The Duke of Hereford (the future King Henry IV of England) is among the western European knights serving with the coalition.^[2]
• September 17 – John VII Palaiologos seeks refuge with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I after John V Palaiologos is restored by his son, Manuel, and the Republic of Venice.
• October 9 – Henry III succeeds his father, John I, as King of Castile and León.

Date unknown

• The Ottomans take Philadelphia, the last Byzantine enclave of any significance in Anatolia.
• Barquq is restored as Mamluk Sultan of Egypt after overthrowing Sultan Hadji II.
• Nasir ud din Muhammad Shah III overthrows his brother, Abu Bakr Shah, as Sultan of Delhi.
• Manuel III succeeds his father, Alexios III, as Emperor of Trebizond (now north eastern Turkey).
• Sikandar But-shikan succeeds Sikandar Shah as Sultan of Kashmir.
• Ko Cheng succeeds Che Bong Nga as King of Champa (now eastern Vietnam).
• Mahmud succeeds Sandaki as Mansa of the Mali Empire.
• N'Diklam Sare succeeds Sare N'Dyaye as ruler of the Jolof Empire (now part of Senegal).
• The Kingdom of Kaffa is established in present day Ethiopia (approximate date).
• Templo Mayor, the main temple of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City), is built.
• The Candi Surawana Temple is built in the Majapahit Kingdom (now Indonesia).
• Construction begins on San Petronio Basilica in Bologna.

1391

January–December

• June 6 – Anti-Jewish riots erupt in Seville, Spain. Many thousands of Jews are massacred and the violence spreads throughout Spain and Portugal.
• July 18 – Tokhtamysh-Timur War: Battle of the Kondurcha River – Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present day southeast Russia.
• August 5 – Anti-Jewish riots spread to Toledo, Spain and Barcelona. Many Jews leave Barcelona after the following massacres, though a large number remain in the city.

Date unknown

• Manuel II Palaiologos becomes Byzantine Emperor after his father, John V Palaiologos, dies of a nervous breakdown due to his continued humiliation by the Ottoman Empire.
• Yusuf II succeeds Muhammed V as Nasrid Sultan of Granada (now southern Spain).
• Stephen Dabiša succeeds Stephen Tvrtko I as King of Bosnia.
• Shah Mansur becomes leader of the Timurid occupied Muzaffarid Empire in central Persia.
• A group of Muzaffarids under Zafar Khan Muzaffar establish a new Sultanate at Gujarat in western India.
• Vytautas the Great, claimant to the throne of Lithuania, forms an alliance with Muscovy.
• Roman I succeeds Petru I as Prince of Moldavia (now Moldova and eastern Romania).
• Konrad von Wallenrode succeeds Konrad Zöllner von Rotenstein as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
• Bridget of Sweden is canonized by Pope Boniface IX.
• Ushkuinik pirates from Novgorod sack the Muscovy towns of Zhukotin and Kazan.
• The Chinese invent toilet paper for use by their emperors.
• Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, takes control of the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands.
• The University of Ferrara is founded in present-day Italy.
• Ming government orders 50 million trees planted in Nanjing area.

1392

January–December

• June 13 - Failed assassination attempt by Pierre de Craon on Olivier de Clisson, Constable of France.
• August 5 - Charles VI of France (later known as "Charles the Mad") suffers a serious bout of psychosis which will continue throughout his life.
• August 5 - General Yi Seonggye crowns himself, ending the Goryeo Dynasty and establishing the Joseon Dynasty.
• December 16 – Emperor Go-Kameyama of Japan abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu, in order to end the nanboku-cho period of conflict between the Northern and Southern imperial courts.

Date unknown

• King Jogaila of Poland and Lithuania appoints his cousin Vytautas the Great as regent of Lithuania in return for Vytautas giving up his claim to the Lithuanian throne. Vytautas replaces Jogaila's unpopular brother Skirgaila as regent.
• Muhammed VII succeeds Yusuf II as Nasrid Sultan of Granada (modern-day southern Spain).
• Franciscan friar James of Jülich is boiled alive for impersonating a bishop and ordaining his own priests.
• Maria, Queen of Sicily defeats an army of rebel barons.
• William le Scrope succeeds William II de Montacute as King of Mann.
• Seoan mac Pilib succeeds Tomas mor mac Mathghamhna as King of East Breifne in north-central Ireland.
• The city of Afyonkarahisar (in modern-day western Turkey) is conquered by Sultan Beyazid I of the Ottoman Empire.
• Louis de Valois is created first Duke of Orléans of the second creation.
• Erfurt University is founded in Erfurt, central Germany.
• Penistone Grammar School, later to be one of the first community comprehensive schools in England, is founded near Barnsley, England.

1393

• January 28 – Bal des Ardents: Four members of the court of Charles VI of France die in a fire at a masquerade ball.

Date unknown

• In central Persia, the Muzzafarid Empire, led by Shah Mansur, rebels against their Timurid occupiers. The rebellion is squashed and the Muzaffarid nobility are executed, ending the Muzaffarid Dynasty in Persia.
• George VII succeeds his popular father, Bagrat V, as King of Georgia.
• Abdul Aziz II becomes Sultan of the Marinid dynasty in present-day Morocco after the death of Sultan Abu Al-Abbas.
• Raimondo del Balzo Orsini succeeds Otto of Brunswick as Prince of Taranto (now south-eastern Italy).
• Samsenethai succeeds his father, Fa Ngum, as King of Lan Xang (now Laos).
• King James I of Cyprus inherits the title of King of Armenia after the death of his distant cousin Leo VI (although the Mamluk conquerors from Egypt remain the true rulers).
• A Ming Dynasty Chinese record states that 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (two by three ft. in size) alone have been produced for the various members of the imperial court at Beijing, while the Imperial Bureau of Supplies also reports that 15,000 sheets of toilet paper alone have been designated for the royal family (made of fine soft yellow tissue and perfumed).
• Bosnia resists an invasion by the Ottoman Empire.
• The Ottoman Turks capture Turnovgrad (now Veliko Tarnovo), the capital city of east Bulgaria. Emperor Ivan Shishman is allowed to remain as puppet ruler of east Bulgaria.
• Sikander Shah I succeeds Muhammad Shah III as Sultan of Delhi. Sikander Shah I is succeeded two months later by Mahmud II.
• Abu Thabid II succeeds Abu Tashufin II as ruler of the Abdalwadid dynasty in present-day eastern Algeria. Abu Thabid is succeeded in the same year by his brother, Abul Hadjdjadj I.
• Konrad von Jungingen succeeds Konrad von Wallenrode as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
• Maelruanaidh MacDermot succeeds Aedh MacDermot as King of Moylurg in north-central Ireland.
• King Stjepan Dabiša of Bosnia signs the Contract of Djakovice, establishing peace with King Sigismund of Hungary.
• Byzantium loses Thessaly to the growing Ottoman Empire.

1394

January–December

• June 11 – The Venetians take over possession of Argos from Despot Theodore I Palaiologos.
• September 17 – King Charles VI of France orders the expulsion of all Jews from France.
• September 28 – Pope Benedict XIII succeeds Pope Clement VII.
• October 10 – Battle of Karanovasa – Wallachia (now southern Romania) resists an invasion by the Ottomans and their Serb and Bulgarian vassals.
• November 29 – The capital city of the Joseon Dynasty in present-day Korea is moved from Gaegyeong (now Gaeseong) to Hanseong (now Seoul).

Date unknown

• The Ottomans begin an eight-year siege of Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire.
  • The Anadoluhisarı fortress is built by the Ottomans to defend themselves during the siege.
• Ashikaga Yoshimitsu retires as shogun of Japan and is succeeded by his son, Ashikaga Yoshimochi.
• Gyeongbokgung Palace and the Jongmyo royal ancestral shrine are built in Hanseong (now Seoul).
• After the death of Sultan Mahmud II, civil war breaks out in the Delhi Sultanate, splitting the state between east and west.
• Battle of Ros-mic-Triuin: The Kingdom of Leinster, led by King Art mac Art MacMurrough-Kavanagh, defeats an invading army from England, led by King Richard II of England and Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March.
• Ştefan I succeeds Roman I as Prince of Moldavia (now Moldova and eastern Romania).
• Abu Zayyan II succeeds his brother, Abul Hadjdjadj I, as ruler of the Abdalwadid dynasty in present-day eastern Algeria.
• Yûsuf I succeeds Abd ar-Rahmân II as ruler of the Ziyanid Dynasty in present-day western Algeria.
• The Ottomans conquer Thessaly (now eastern Greece).
• Abd al-Aziz II succeeds Abu al-Abbas Ahmad II as ruler of the Hafsid dynasty in present-day Tunisia.
• Richard II of England grants Geoffrey Chaucer 20 pounds a year for life for his services as a diplomat and Clerk of The King's Works.
• The Allgäuer Brauhaus brewery is founded in present-day Germany.
• The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty in China orders the Ministry of Public Works to issue a public notice that every 100 households in the lijia system are to set aside 2 mu (1,390 m²) of land for planting mulberry and jujube trees.

1395

January–December

• April 15 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Terek River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde at the Volga. The Golden Horde capital city, Sarai, is razed to the ground and Timur installs a puppet ruler on the Golden Horde throne. Tokhtamysh escapes to Lithuania.
• May 17
  • Battle of Rovine: With the help of the Hungarians, Wallachia resists an invasion by the Ottomans and their Serb and Bulgarian vassals.
  • 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 beheads Emperor Ivan Shishman of Ottoman-occupied eastern Bulgaria after Shishman is accused of collaborating with the Wallachians during the 1394 Battle of Karanovasa.

Date unknown

• Jelena Gruba is elected as Queen of Bosnia after the death of her husband, King Stjepan Dabiša. However, after Stjepan's death most of the Bosnian land is taken by King Sigismund of Hungary.
• Albert IV succeeds his father, Albert III, as Duke of Austria.
• The Principality of Monaco expels its Genoese occupiers and Jean I and Louis are crowned as joint Lords of Monaco. Later in the year, the Genoese regain control and depose the Lords.
• Rama Ratchathirat succeeds Ramesuan as ruler of the Ayutthaya kingdom in present-day southern Thailand.
• Muhammad II succeeds Yûsuf I as ruler of the Ziyanid Dynasty in present-day western Algeria.
• The Duchy of Milan is created after Lord Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan buys the title of Duke from Wenceslaus, the Holy Roman Emperor.
• Battle of Cruachain: The Kingdom of Ui Falighe in Ireland resists an English invasion.
• The Gwanghwamun gate and the Jogyesa temple are built in present-day Seoul.
• The Theotokos of Vladimir icon is moved to Moscow.
• John Rykener, known also as Johannes Richer and Eleanor, a transvestite prostitute working mainly in London (near Cheapside), but also active in Oxford, is arrested for cross-dressing and interrogated. The records have survived, the only surviving legal records from this age which mention same-sex intercourse.

1396

January–December

• May 19 – Martin I succeeds his brother, John I, as King of Aragon (now north-east Spain).
• July 23 – Queen Margaret of Norway, Denmark and Sweden makes her adopted son Eric of Pomerania joint ruler of Sweden. Eric had already been made joint ruler of Norway.
• September – The Battle of the North Inch takes place in Perth, Scotland.
• September 25 – Battle of Nicopolis: The Ottomans defeat a joint crusade by Hungary, France, the Holy Roman Empire, England and Wallacia, ^[3] led by King Sigismund of Hungary. This is the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages.
• November 24 – Transit of Venus – the last not to be part of a pair. Possibly observed by Aztec astronomers.
• November 29 – Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, marries Joan Beaufort.

Date unknown

• The Ottomans capture the Bulgarian fortress of Vidin and Tsar Ivan Sratsimir, ending the Second Bulgarian Empire. The Bulgarian state is reestablished in 1878 as the Principality of Bulgaria.
• Temporary peace is declared between England and France with the marriage of Richard II of England and Isabella of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI of France.
• France conquers the Republic of Genoa.
• After a 14-year period of interregnum, Peter of Saint Superan is declared as ruler of the Principality of Achaea (now Peloponnese, southern Greece).
• In the "Battle of the Thirty", a mass trial by combat, the Clan Cameron defeat the Clan Mackintosh on the North Inch of Perth, Scotland.
• Abu Amir succeeds Abdul Aziz II as ruler of the Marinid dynasty in present-day Morocco.
• Timur appoints his son Miran Shah as Timurid viceroy of present-day Azerbaijan.
• The Kartid Dynasty is brought to an end in east Persia after its remaining rulers are murdered at a banquet by Miran Shah, son of Timur Lenk.
• Philibert de Naillac succeeds Juan Fernández de Heredia as Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.
• Huitzilíhuitl succeeds his father, Acamapichtli, as ruler of the Aztecs.
• The Ulu Camii mosque is built in Bursa by the Ottomans.
• The Ming Dynasty court of China sends two envoys, Qian Guxun and Li Sicong, to the Ava Kingdom of Burma and the Tai polity of the Mong Mao in order to resolve a dispute between these two. The travels of the Chinese ambassadors are recorded in the historical text of the Bai Yi Zhuan.
• Timur orders the construction of a garden in a meadow, House of Flowers.
• Peasants in the present-day provinces of Hunan and Hupeh in the east plant 84 million fruit trees.
• Taejo of Joseon ends to rule.
• The University of Zadar is founded, the first University in Croatia.

1397

January–December

• February 10 – John Beaufort becomes Earl of Somerset.
• June 6 – Richard Whittington is nominated as Lord Mayor of London for the first time.
• July 20 – Queen Margaret forms the Kalmar Union, uniting the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland and Greenland) and Sweden (including Finland).
• September 29
  • John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon is created Duke of Exeter by his half-brother King Richard II of England.
  • Thomas Holland, 3rd Earl of Kent, John's brother, is created Duke of Surrey by King Richard.
• November 8 – Thomas Arundel, accused of high treason by King Richard II of England, is replaced by Roger Walden as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Date unknown

• The Ottomans capture the Vidin Empire, the only remaining independent Bulgarian state. Emperor Ivan Sratsimir of Vidin is taken prisoner and later disappears.
  • Constantine II becomes Emperor of Vidin after his father's imprisonment.
• Richard II of England attempts to reassert authority over his kingdom by arresting members of a group of powerful barons known as the Lords Appellant.
• Temur Qutlugh is crowned as the Khan of Golden Horde with the help of general Edigu, although Edigu continues to hold the real power.
• Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery is founded in north-west Russia.
• Sretensky Monastery is founded in Moscow.
• Establishment of the Università, a form of local government, in Malta.
• Creation of the first hospital of al-Andalus, in Granada.^[4]

1398

January–December

• June 25 – Jianwen succeeds his grandfather, Hongwu, as Emperor of Ming Dynasty China.
• September
  • King Richard II of England exiles his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV of England) for 10 years in order to end Henry's feud with Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, who is also exiled.^[5]
  • As France withdraws its support for Antipope Benedict XIII, an army led by Geoffrey Boucicaut occupies Avignon and starts a 5-year siege of the papal palace.
• October 12 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed by Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Konrad von Jungingen, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, an attempt to cede Samogitia to the Knights.
• November 11 – Janus succeeds his father, James I, as King of Cyprus and claimant to the throne of Armenian Cilicia.
• December 17 – Timur defeats the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, which had been weakened after 4 years of civil war. Following his victory, Timur's Islamic troops sack the city of Delhi and proceed to massacre hundreds of thousands of the state's Hindu inhabitants.

Date unknown

• The Teutonic Knights recommence their raids of Lithuania.
• The Bosnian nobility dethrone Queen Jelena Gruba and replace her with King Stjepan Ostoja.
• Abdullah succeeds Abu Amir as ruler of the Marinid dynasty in modern-day Morocco.
• The Teutonic Knights conquer the island of Gotland, near Sweden, which had previously been run by a group of pirates.
• Martin I of Aragon launches a crusade against the Moors in North Africa.
• Yi Bangsuk, heir to the throne of the Joseon Dynasty in modern-day Korea, is murdered during a coup by his older half-brother, Yi Bangwon.
  • King Taejo of Joseon abdicates in disgust at his sons' rivalry. Taejo's eldest son Jeongjong succeeds to the throne.
• Trần Ngung is forced to abdicate as ruler of the Tran Dynasty in modern-day Vietnam. Trần An succeeds as ruler.
• Bunei succeeds his father, Satto, as King of Chūzan (modern-day central Okinawa, Japan).
• The Stecknitz Canal is completed between the rivers Elbe and Trave (at Lübeck) in modern-day north Germany, one of the earliest navigable summit level canals in the world.
• Glendalough monastery in Wicklow, Ireland is destroyed by English troops.
• Ferapontov Monastery is built in modern-day north-west Russia.
• The Munmyo Confucian shrine and Sungkyunkwan University are built in modern-day Seoul.
• Mount Grace Priory is established in Yorkshire, England.
• According to some historians, the Scottish explorer Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney reaches North America.

1399

January–December

• January – Timur the Lame captures and sacks Haridwar.
• February 3
  • John of Gaunt, uncle of King Richard II of England and father of Henry Bolingbroke, dies.
  • Richard II cancels the legal documents allowing the exiled Henry Bolingbroke to inherit his father's land.
  • While Richard II is away on a military campaign in Ireland, Henry Bolingbroke, with exiled former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Arundel as an advisor, returns to England and begins a military campaign to reclaim his confiscated land.
• After regaining his power, Henry Bolingbroke is urged to take the crown from the unpopular Richard II. Richard is taken prisoner upon his returns from Ireland and eventually forced to abdicate. Parliament then charges Richard with committing crimes against his subjects.
• August 6 – Prince of Yan(Zhu Di) of China started rebellion in Beijing
• August 12 – Battle of the Vorskla River: Mongol Golden Horde forces led by Khan Temur Qutlugh and emir Edigu annihilate a crusading army led by former Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh and Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania.
• September 30 – Parliament accepts Henry Bolingbroke as the new king of England.
• October 13 – Henry IV of England is crowned.
• October 19 – Thomas Arundel is restored as Archbishop of Canterbury, replacing Roger Walden.
• November 1 – John VI, Duke of Brittany begins his reign.

Date unknown

• Faraj succeeds his father, Barquq, as Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.
• Sultan Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire invades Mamluk-occupied Syria. A rift forms between Sultan Bayezid and Timur of the Timurid Empire, who also wanted to conquer Syria.
• Ladislaus regains the throne of Naples after overthrowing King Louis II.
• King Jogaila becomes sole ruler of Poland after the death of his co-ruling wife, Queen Jadwiga.
• Abu Said Uthman III succeeds Abdullah as ruler of the Marinid dynasty in present-day Morocco.
• The Principality of Achaea (now southern Greece) resists an invasion by the Ottoman Empire.

Births

1390

• Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaeologus

1391

• King Duarte of Portugal (d. 1438)
• Gedun Drub, the first Dalai Lama

1393

• John Capgrave, Augustinian theologian

1394

• Prince Henry the Navigator, explorer (d. 1460)
• Ulugh Beg, Timurid astronomer.

1396

• Alfonso V of Aragon

1397

• King Sejong the Great of Joseon, the humane scientist ruler of Korea
• August 10 – Albert II of Habsburg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

Deaths

1393

• Emperor Go-En'yu of Japan, fifth and last of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders

1394

• Emperor Chōkei of Japan
• Anne of Bohemia

1397

• Thomas of Woodstock (son of King Edward III of England)

1398

• Emperor Sukō, third of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders.
• Hongwu Emperor of China, founder of the Ming Dynasty.

References