1338 CE
Hundred Years' War, English Channel naval campaign: Southampton is destroyed. Ashikaga Takauji is granted the title of shōgun by the emperor of Japan, starting the Ashikaga Shogunate. A Black Death plague strain originates near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern Kyrgyzstan, according to Syriac tombstone inscriptions and genetic material from exhumed bodies.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- Hundred Years' War: Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor appoints Edward III of England as a vicar-general of the Holy Roman Empire. Louis supports Edward's claim to the French throne, under the terms of the Treaty of Koblenz.source
Conflict & Security
- October 5 – Hundred Years' War, English Channel naval campaign: Southampton is destroyed.source
- Ashikaga Takauji is granted the title of shōgun by the emperor of Japan, starting the Ashikaga Shogunate.source
- Philip VI of France besieges Guienne in Southwest France, and his navy attacks Portsmouth, England.source
- Nicomedia is captured by the Ottoman Empire.source
Health & Medicine
- A Black Death plague strain originates near Lake Issyk-Kul in modern Kyrgyzstan, according to Syriac tombstone inscriptions and genetic material from exhumed bodies.source
Births
- January 13 – Chŏng Mong-ju, Korean civil minister, diplomat and scholar (d. 1392)source
- January 21 – Charles V of France (d. 1380)source
- February 3 – Joanna of Bourbon, queen consort of France (d. 1378)source
- March 23 – Emperor Go-Kōgon of Japan, Northern Court emperor during a conflict between two imperial lines (d. 1374)source
- October 5 – Alexios III of Trebizond (d. 1390)source
- November 29 – Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence (d. 1368)source
- Niccolò II d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara (d. 1388)source
- Muhammad V of Granada, Sultan (d. 1391)source
- George Dunbar, 10th Earl of March (d. 1420)source
- Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros (d. 1383)source
Deaths
- April 8 – Stephen Gravesend, Bishop of Londonsource
- April 24 – Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (b. c. 1270)source
- May 5 – Prince Tsunenaga, son of the Japanese Emperor (b. 1324)source
- May 23 – Alice de Warenne, Countess of Arundel, English noble (b. 1287)source
- May – John Wishart, Scottish bishopsource
- June 10 – Kitabatake Akiie, Japanese governor (b. 1318; d. in battle)source
- July – Muhammad Khan, Persian monarchsource
- August 4 – Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk (b. 1300)source
- August 17 – Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese samurai (b. 1301; d. in battle)source
- August 22 – William II, Duke of Athens (b. 1312)source
- December 21 – Thomas Hemenhale, Bishop of Worcestersource
- Marino Sanuto the Elder, Venetian statesman and geographer (b. c. 1260)source
- probable – Prince Narinaga, Japanese shōgun (b. 1325)source