28.3 Europe: a.d. 1301 to 1400  (Page 7/12)

In Aragon territories, James II held Sardinia and Corsica, while giving Sicily to his brother Frederick. There was continued turmoil among the nobility, however, with Alfonso IV ruling from 1327 to 1336 and then giving way to Pedro IV who ruled from 1336 to 1387. He was virtually a prisoner of the nobility for much of that reign and was eventually succeeded by a nephew, John I of Aragon. Pedro's daughter, Eleanor, married another John, son of Enrigue of Castile, so that these two communities became reconciled. Granada remained under Moslem rule, tolerant and prosperous. The physician Ibn-a Khatib described the contagious aspect of the Black Death, in contrast to the general concept of the times, which was that it was due to divine vengeance.

Portugal

The great king Diniz was succeeded in 1325 by his son, Afonso IV. The latter had a troubled reign, including civil war with the opposition led by his son, Pedro (Peter) I. Under Ferdinand I further war with Castile occurred as Castile's Juan (John) claimed the throne because of his marriage to a Portuguese princess,- Beatrix, but the Castilians were beaten at the battle of Aljubarrota on August 14, 1385, which became Portuguese Independence Day. Under the Avis Dynasty, with John I the Great, Portugal entered the greatest period of its history. John married John Gaunt's daughter, Philippa, thus making the subsequent Avis family part English. (Ref. 119 , 222 )

France

The States-General met for the first time in 1302. Everywhere the new monarchies were finding a powerful aristocratic reaction and it was a particularly bad century for France. In addition to the revolt of the nobles there were labor-employer troubles and then England's attempt to conquer France, which began the Hundred Years' War in 1331. This came close to initial success with victories for England at Crecy in 1346 when Edward III's 4,000 knights and 10,000 English and Welsh longbowmen defeated Philip VI's 38,000 assorted heavily armored men and again at Poitiers in 1356, when the Black Prince of Wales took France's Jean II (John) prisoner. (Ref. 8 , 222 ) Cannon were first used at Calais, in 1347. (Ref. 260 ) Unrest in Paris in that same year was led by Etienne Marcel and eventually led to violence. French expansion eastward was checked by the expanding Duchy of Burgundy. As can be noted on the accompanying small maps, by 1360 England controlled all of the southwestern portion of modern day France. By 1380, however, Charles V had retaken most of that territory. The devastation of the crops was responsible for more deaths in that war than the battles themselves. When Genoa, reeling from a final defeat by Venice in 1396, accepted French protection, the stage seemed set for a full-scale French intervention in Italy, but this was not yet to be as Charles VI, inheriting the throne, became insane and the French government was paralyzed. (Ref. 8 , 213 )

France had other problems in this century. Four general famines occurred and there was a crisis in north European salt production, partly because of the Hundred Years' War and partly because of economic conditions. The chief source of salt then became the beach pans of Bouigneuf Bay in southern Brittany, but this was of poor quality. Other problems were religious in nature. Early in the century Philip IV, wanting the Knights Templars' property, forced Pope Clement to allow the Grand Inquisitor, Guillaume of Paris, to prosecute the Templars as heretics. De Molay was burned at the stake in this activity and thus became a martyr. Since the Knights, originally an ascetic Catholic order, had over the years become very wealthy and were serving as the bankers of civilization, their prosecution could not help but interfere with the country 's economic as well as religious activities. France expelled all Jews in 1394. (Ref. 49 , 211 , 260 )