1310
Giotto paints the Scrovegni Chapel frescoes
In Padua, the former shepherd Giotto di Bondone finished cycles of Joachim, Mary, and Christ on walls his patron had built to launder his father's usury. Figures stood on real ground, cast real shadows, felt real grief. Even the damned in his Last Judgment wore recognizable human expressions. Painting would not look the same again for a thousand years.
Mansa Sakura restores Mali's fortunes
A former royal slave who had seized the Mali throne made the long pilgrimage to Mecca, returning by the Red Sea caravan route only to be murdered by Afar raiders at Tadjoura. His reign briefly restored Mali's reach; the Keita dynasty would reclaim power and prepare the ground for Mansa Musa.
Hospitallers seize Rhodes from Byzantium
The Knights of St. John, homeless since the fall of Acre in 1291, stormed the island fortress after a two-year campaign against its Byzantine-Turkish garrison. Rhodes became their sovereign headquarters for two centuries, a crusader state adrift in the Aegean, raiding Muslim shipping, building imposing fortifications along the harbor, and minting its own coin.
Vita Edwardi condemns Gaveston
English barons led by Thomas of Lancaster drew up the Ordinances, a sweeping reform program aimed at curbing Edward II's favorite Piers Gaveston and requiring parliamentary consent for royal expenditures and appointments. The document listed forty-one specific grievances against royal misgovernment. It was an early written attempt to constitutionalize the English monarchy, though the king would resist its terms fiercely.