1337
Philip VI confiscates Aquitaine
The French king declared Edward III's continental fief forfeit because the English king had refused to perform homage as instructed. Edward replied by formally claiming the French crown himself in October, quartering the French lilies on his arms. By autumn, the longest war in European history had a casus belli though not yet a battle.
Ashikaga Takauji proclaims himself shogun
The Ashikaga warrior took the title of shogun in Kyoto and established his bakufu in the Muromachi district. Two emperors, two courts, two regimes overlapping in the same archipelago - a fractured polity that would take decades to resolve. The Muromachi shogunate would govern Japan, after a fashion, for the next two and a half centuries.
Mansa Musa commissions the Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu
The Malian emperor hired the Andalusian architect al-Sahili to build a great mud-brick mosque in his Saharan trading city. The Djinguereber became the crown of Timbuktu's skyline and the nucleus of a scholarly quarter that would house one of the world's great manuscript collections for the next three centuries, attracting students from across the Islamic world.
Edward III claims the French throne, Hundred Years' War begins
The English king, grandson of Philip IV through his mother Isabella, declared himself rightful king of France and quartered the French lilies on his arms. What began as a feudal dispute over Aquitaine would metastasize into 116 years of intermittent warfare that reshaped both kingdoms and birthed modern national consciousness.
Benedict XII begins the Palais des Papes at Avignon
The Cistercian pope ordered the old episcopal palace torn down and replaced with the largest Gothic palace in Christendom, a fortress-monastery looming over the Rhone. Its twelve-foot walls and crenellated towers told the world that the papacy was staying in France. The building itself was a political argument rendered in limestone, defying Italian demands for the curia's return.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1337?
Saeculum lists 5 curated events from 1337. The most significant is Philip VI confiscates Aquitaine: The French king declared Edward III's continental fief forfeit because the English king had refused to perform homage as instructed.
What era was 1337 part of?
1337 falls within the Late Middle Ages (1301-1500). Plague, papal schism, and the seeds of nation-states.
Which regions saw notable events in 1337?
The curated events from 1337 span Europe, East Asia and Africa.