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Some Notable Events in 1325

7 January. Afonso IV becomes the new King of Portugal upon the death of his father, King Denis I.

9 March. Queen Isabella, wife of King Edward II of England and sister of King Charles IV of France, departs from England on a mission to Paris to mediate an end to the war between the two kingdoms. She is directed to return to England by midsummer.

31 March. A truce is signed between King Edward II of England (who is also Duke of Aquitaine) and King Charles IV of France to end the war of Saint-Sardoso under terms negotiated by England’s Queen Isabella; Edward cedes Agenais (part of modern-day Lot-et-Garonne) and pledges to swear homage to King Charles from then on as a condition of keeping the rest of Aquitaine. England is allowed to reclaim Ponthieu and the Duchy of Gascony if Edward will come to Paris to
pay him homage. Isabella, unhappy with her marriage to Edward, remains in France indefinitely.

20 April. Elizabeth de Comyn, daughter of the late Guardian of Scotland, John Comyn III of Badenoch, is forced to sign away title to her properties at Painswick and at Goodrich Castle to Hugh Despenser the Elder after being kidnapped in 1324 and imprisoned at Pirbright.

5 May. The Istrian Demarcation, setting out the boundaries of disputed Italian territories in the Adriatic Sea peninsula of Istria, 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).

14 June.(2 Rajab 725 AH). Ibn Battuta, Moroccan scholar and explorer, sets off from Tangier on a hajj to Mecca. En route, he travels to Tlemcen, Béjaïa and Tunis. For safety, Ibn Battuta joins a caravan to reduce the risk of being robbed. On the way, 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 73000 miles over 30 years, more than three times as much as Marco Polo.

12 September. Edward II is persuaded not to go to France by Hugh Despenser the Elder, his chief adviser. He decides to send his 12-year-old son, Prince Edward of Windsor, to Paris to pay homage instead. Before the young Edward departs, he is bestowed with the title of
Count of Ponthieu.

21 September. Isabella of France conspires with the exiled Roger Mortimer to have Edward II deposed. To build up diplomatic and military support, Isabella has Edward of Windsor engaged to the 12-year-old Philippa of Hainault. She is the daughter of Count William of Hainaut, who is married to Joan of Valois, granddaughter of the late King Philip III of France.

24 September. Edward, Prince of Wales pays homage to King Charles IV of France on behalf of his father, King Edward II of England.

10 October. King Edward II calls for representatives of the three estates (including the knights representative) to meet at Westminster for a session of the English Parliament, beginning on 18 November to discuss the matter of the failure of his wife, Queen Isabella, to return from France.

21 November. Yuri III Danilovich, Grand Duke of Moscow, is assassinated by Dmitry of Tver, Grand Duke of Vladimir. Yuri’s younger brother, Iván I Danilovich Kalitá, the Grand Duke of Vladimir, inherits Yuri’s throne and relocates the spiritual capital of the Russian people to Moscow by directing the Metropolitan Peter to move his episcopal see from Kiev. The decision gradually makes Moscow the political center of Russia.

1 December. King Edward II of England makes one final attempt to save his marriage to Queen Isabella, and sends her a letter ordering her to return from France to England immediately, writing that “Oftentimes have we informed you, both before and after the homage, of our great desire to have you with us, and of our grief of heart at your long absence,” and adds that he is aware of her affair with Roger Mortimer and that “ceasing from all pretenses, delays and excuses, you come to us with all the haste you can.” She declines to return.

Some Notable Events in 1425

9 December. The Old University of Leuven, Belgium is founded.

Unknown Date. Beijing, capital of China, becomes the largest city in the world, taking the lead from Nanjing.

Unknown Date. Paper currency in China is worth only 0.025% to 0.0l4% of its original value in the 14th century; this, and the counterfeiting of copper coin currency, will lead to a dramatic shift to using silver as the common medium of exchange in China.

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Some Notable Events in 1125

29 March. Reading School is founded in Berkshire, England.

23 May. Emperor Henry V dies of cancer in Utrecht after leading an expedition against King Louis VI of France and then against the citizens of Worms. Having no legitimate children, Henry leaves his possessions to his nephew, Frederick II, Duke of Swabia. At the Haftag diet in Regensburg, Lothair II (duke of Saxony) is elected King of Germany and crowned at Aachen on 13 September.

11 June. Battle of Azaz: The Crusader states led by King Baldwin II of Jerusalem defeat the Seljuk forces at Azaz and raise the siege of the town. Baldwin mobilizes a force of 1,100 armoured knights and 2,000 foot-soldiers. The Crusaders capture the Seljuk camp and Baldwin takes enough loot to ransom the prisoners taken by the Seljuk Turks.

Unknown Date. King Inge the Younger of Sweden is murdered, instigated by Queen Ulvhild Håkansdotter. Her cousin Magnus I proclaims himself ruler over the Lands of Sweden (Norrland, Svealand and Gothenland).

Unknown Date. The Venetians pillage the islands of Rhodes, ravage Samos and Lesbos, and occupy Chios. The Florentines sack and conquer the neighbouring independent republic of Fiesole in Italy.

Unknown Date. The first fair in Portugal is created in Ponte de Lima; it is an early sign of the commercialization and economic development.

Unknown Date. King Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre leads a Castellan raid in Andalusia.

Unknown Date. King Henry I arranges the marriage between his nephew Stephen of Blois and the 20-year-old Matilda, daughter and heiress of Eustace III, count of Boulogne. This gives Stephen control of the County of Boulogne and also lands in England that had belonged to Eustace (who dies on his return from the Holy Land).

Unknown Date. A collection of Zen Buddhist koans is compiled, in the Chinese Blue C1iff Record.

Unknown Date. Died. Harding of Bristol, English sheriff reeve (b.1048).

Unknown Date. Died. Robert de Mowbray, Norman Earl of Northumbria.

Some Notable Events in 1225

11 February. The Charter of the Forest is restored to its traditional rights by King Henry III. “Free men” are allowed to find pasture for their pigs, collect firewood, graze animals, or cut turf for fuel. At this time, however, only about 10 percent of the population is “free”, the rest are locked into service to a local landowner, some of them little more than slaves.

25 July. Emperor Frederick II takes an oath at San Germano (near Cassino) and promises to depart on a Crusade (the Sixth Crusade), for the Near East in August 1227. He sends 1000 knights to the Levant and provides Rome with 100,000 ounces of gold, to be forfeited to the Catholic Church should he break his vow. These funds will be returned to Frederick once he arrives at Acre.

9 November. Frederick II marries the 14-year-old Queen Yolande, heiress to the kingdom of Jerusalem, and adds the Crusader States to his dominions.

29 November. The 12-year-old Henry VII, by order of his father Frederick II, marries Margaret of Austria, daughter of Duke Leopold VI.

Unknown Date. Magna Carta is reaffirmed (for the third time) by Henry III, in return for issuing a property tax. It becomes the definitive version of the text.

Unknown Date. The 8-year-old Henry I is crowned as king of Cyprus in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia at Nicosia.

Unknown Date. Born. Thomas Aquinas, Italian friar and theologian (d.1274).

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Some Notable Events in 825

Unknown Date. Grimur Kamban allegedly becomes the first man to set foot in the Faroe Islands, and settles in Funningur, on the northwest coast of Eysturoy.

Unknown Date. Battle of Ellandun: King Egbert of Wessex defeats Beornwulf of Mercia near Swindon. The battle marks the end of the Mercian domination of southern England. The kingdoms of Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Essex submit to Wessex, and East Anglia acknowledges Egbert as overlord.

Unknown Date. Borobudur, a Mahayana Buddhist Temple, is completed in Central Java.

Some Notable Events in 925

15 May. Nicholas I Mystikos, twice the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, having reigned a second time since 912, dies at the age of 73.

29 June. Stephen II becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, succeeding Nicholas I.

Unknown Date. A Fatimid expeditionary force led by Jafar ibn Obeid lands in Abruzzo, Southern Italy. They overrun Apulia all the way to the city of Otranto. After defeating the Byzantine garrisons, the Arabs lay siege to the castle of Oria. The defenders are massacred and the remainder (mostly women and children) are taken as slaves back to North Africa.

Some Notable Events in 1025

18 April. Boleslaw I the Brave is crowned in Gniezno as the first king of Poland. He takes advantage of the interregnum in Germany and receives permission for his coronation from Pope John XIX; however, he dies on 17 June.

15 December. Byzantine Emperor Basil II dies in Constantinople after a 50 year reign. Never married, he is succeeded by his brother and co-emperor Constantine VIII, who becomes sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

Unknown Date. Completion and publishing of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine.

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Some Notable Events in 525

Unknown Date. King Theodoric the Great sends Pope John I to Constantinople, to negotiate a withdrawal of Byzantine emperor Justin’s edict against Arian Christianity.

Unknown Date. The Daisan river floods Edessa. The Shroud of Turin is allegedly discovered during the rebuilding of the city.

Unknown Date. Cosmas Inidicopleustes, Alexandrian explorer-geographer, travels up the Nile. He will venture as far to the east as Ceylon, become a monk, and write “Topographia Christiana” to vindicate the biblical account of the world.

Unknown Date. Dionysius Exiguus, Scythian theologian-mathematician, inaugurates the practice of using AD (Anno Domini) in Rome for calendar dates after the birth of Jesus Christ. Dionysius also produces his tables for computing the date of Cyclus Paschalis (Easter Tables).

Some Notable Events in 625

25 October. Died. Pope Boniface V dies at Rome after a 6 year reign. He is succeeded by Honorius I as the 70th pope.

Unknown Date. King Edwin of Northumbria marries Æthelburga of Kent. As a Christian, she brings her personal chaplain, Paulinus, and encourages her husband to convert to Christianity.

Unknown Date. Born. Hasan ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad (d.670).

Some Notable Events in 725

23 April. King Wihtred of Kent dies after a 35 year reign. The kingdom is divided between his three sons: Æthelbert II as overking, Eadbert I in West Kent and Alric.

Unknown Date. Muslim forces under Anbasa ibn Suhaym al-Kalbi capture Carcassonne, which has been under Siege, as well as Nimes.

Unknown Date. Vi Xing, Chinese Buddhist monk and astronomer, applies a clockwork escapement mechanism, to provide rotating motion to his astronomical armillary sphere.

Unknown Date. Bede, Northumbrian monk-historian, writes The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione), explaining how to calculate medieval Easter.

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Some Notable Events in 225

Unknown Date. Emperor Alexander Severus marries Sallustia Orbiana, and possibly raises her father Seius Sallustius to the rank of Caesar.

Unknown Date. The first Christian paintings appear in Rome, decorating the Catacombs.

Some Notable Events in 325

20 May. First Council of Nicaea. Constantine I summons an ecumenical Council of bishops in Nicaea (Turkey). .

19 June. First Council of Nicaea adopts the Nicene Creed and declares that the members of the Trinity are equal. The council also decides that Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Unknown Date. Gladiatorial combat is outlawed in the Roman Empire.

Unknown Date. The Church of the Nativity is built in Bethlehem.

Some Notable Events in 425

27 February. The University of Constantinople is founded by emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocias.

Summer. Roman civil war: Joannes, Roman usurper, is defeated at Ravenna and brought to Aquileia and executed.

23 October. Valentinian III, six-year-old son of Galla Placidia, is installed as emperor (Augustus) of the Western Roman Empire.

Unknown Date. Last known usage of Demotic script in Egypt.

Unknown Date. Buddhism begins to spread to Southeast Asia.