1379
John Wycliffe questions transubstantiation
The Oxford theologian, already known for his attacks on church wealth and clerical immunity, now denied that the substance of the bread changed in the Eucharist. The doctrinal radicalism cost him his university post but inspired a generation of itinerant preachers, the Lollards, to translate the Bible and challenge Roman authority.
Timur besieges and takes Urgench
After a punishing siege, Timur razed the great Khwarezmian trading city and deported its artisans to Samarkand to beautify his own capital. The deliberate destruction of irrigation systems turned fertile oasis into wasteland. Timur's method was emerging clearly: terror as policy, artisan deportation as cultural theft, and scorched earth as strategic doctrine.
Jean Froissart begins the Chronicles
The Hainaut priest, having ridden with Edward III's court in youth, began writing his great prose chronicle of the Hundred Years' War. Froissart would spend forty years revising, interviewing knights, and celebrating feats of arms with vivid narrative color. He left behind the most vivid and unreliable source for chivalric fourteenth-century warfare.
Venetian-Genoese War of Chioggia reaches its crisis
Genoese galleys penetrated the Venetian lagoon and seized Chioggia, bringing the Republic of St. Mark closer to destruction than at any point in its history. Venice counterattacked with desperate brilliance, trapping the Genoese fleet behind sandbars. The war's outcome confirmed Venice as the dominant maritime power of the eastern Mediterranean.
William of Wykeham founds New College, Oxford
The wealthy bishop of Winchester endowed an Oxford college whose innovation was linking a dedicated grammar school, Winchester, to a university college for graduates. The model created a single educational ladder from boy to bachelor of theology, and its architectural plan - a quadrangle with chapel, hall, and chambers - would be copied across England and eventually across the world.