1345 Year 1345 ( MCCCXLV ) was a common year starting on Saturday ( link will display the full calendar ) of the Julian calendar . It was a year in the 14th century , in the midst of a period in world history often referred to as the Late Middle Ages . During this year on the Asian continent , the several divisions of the old Mongol Empire were in a state of gradual decline . The Ilkhanate had already fragmented into several kingdoms struggling to place their puppet emperors over the shell of an old state . The Chagatai Khanate was in the midst of a civil war and one year from falling to rebellion . The Golden Horde to the north was besieging Genoese colonies along the coast of the Black Sea , and the Yuan Dynasty in China was seeing the first seeds of a resistance which would lead to its downfall . Southeast Asia remained free from Mongol power , with several small kingdoms struggling for survival . The Siamese dynasty in that area vanquished the Sukhothai in this year . In the Indonesian Archipelago , the Majapahit Empire was in the midst of a golden age under the leadership of Gajah Mada , who remains a famous figure in Indonesia . England and France were engaged in the early stages of the Hundred Years ' War , with the Battle of Auberoche fought in Northern France in October of this year . In the Iberian Peninsula , Alfonso XI of Castile again besieged the Muslim city of Granada as part of the Reconquista , but without success . The Holy Roman Empire under Louis IV took control of Holland and the surrounding area , granting these lands to his wife Margaret II , Countess of Hainault in a move which angered many of his princes . Holland was also in the midst of the Friso - Hollandic Wars , engaging with the Frisians on 26 September in the Battle of Warns . Italy , which at the time was divided into several kingdoms , saw several power struggles including the Battle of Gamenario in the north , and the assassination of Andrew , Duke of Calabria in the Kingdom of Naples . In Northern Europe , Swedes continued early stages of their emigration to Estonia , which would continue in the coming decades . Estonian rulers also managed to crush the St . George ' s Night Uprising in 1345 after a two - year struggle . The Grand Duchy of Lithuania changed hands from Jaunutis to his brother Algirdas in a relatively bloodless shift of power , and Lithuania continued its skirmishes with its northern , Estonian neighbor . The main forces in the Balkans in the 1345 were Serbia , Bulgaria , and the Byzantine Empire . Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia proclaimed himself Tsar of the new Serbian Empire and continued his efforts at expansion , quickly conquering Albania and other surrounding areas within the year . The Byzantines , though powerful , were in a state of decline , with an ongoing civil war between emperors John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos , although in 1345 , the tide began to turn toward the latter . At the same time , the Zealot commune in Thessalonica entered a more radical phase . Turks clashed with Byzantines , Serbs , and Cypriots at sea and in the islands of Chios and Imbros . The Byzantine Empire ' s precarious situation at this time is evidenced by the fact that they did not have enough soldiers to protect their own borders , but hired mercenaries from the Serbs and the Ottoman Turks . Events . < onlyinclude > < / onlyinclude > Asia . Western Asia . The country of Georgia had been struggling for independence from the Ilkhanate since the first anti - Mongol uprising started in 1259 under the leadership of King David Narin who in fact waged his war for almost thirty years . Finally , it was King George the Brilliant ( 1314 – 1346 ) who managed to play on the decline of the Ilkhanate , stopped paying tribute to the Mongols , restored the pre - 1220 state borders of Georgia , and returned the Empire of Trebizond into Georgia ' s sphere of influence . Thus , in 1345 , Georgia was in the midst of golden age of independence , though its leader would die one year later . Trebizond had reached its greatest wealth and influence during the long reign of Alexios II ( 1297 – 1330 ) . Afterwards , however , it suffered a period of repeated imperial depositions and assassinations from the end of Alexios II ' s reign until the first years of Alexios III ' s , finally ending in 1355 , six years into his rule . The empire , however , never fully recovered its internal cohesion , commercial supremacy or territory . Its ruler in 1345 , Michael Megas Komnenos was crowned Emperor of Trebizond in 1344 after his son , John III , was deposed . He was forced to sign a document which gave the Grand Duke and his ministers almost all power in the Empire , promising to seek their counsel in all official actions . This constitutional experiment was short - lived , however , because of opposition from the people of Trebizond . They were infuriated to see the Emperor stripped of his effective authority and rose up in revolt against the oligarchy . Michael swiftly took advantage of his opportunity to regain power and arrested and imprisoned the Grand Duke in 1345 . He also sent his son John to Constantinople and then Adrianople , where he was to be kept prisoner to prevent him from becoming a further focus for the discontented nobles of Trebizond . Mongol khanates . The Mongol Empire had become fractured since the late 13th century . After the death of Kublai Khan in 1294 , it had already been divided into four khanate s : The Yuan Dynasty , the Ilkhanate , the Golden Horde , and the Chagatai Khanate . Ilkhanate . The Ilkhanate had been declining rapidly since 1335 , when Abu Sa ' id died without an heir . Since then , various factions , including the Chobanids and the Jalayirids , had been competing for the Ilkhan throne . Hasan Kucek , a Chobanid prince , was murdered late in 1343 . Surgan , son of Sati Beg , the sister of Abu Sa ' id , found himself competing for control of the Chobanid lands with the late ruler ' s brother Malek Asraf and his uncle Yagi Basti . When he was defeated by Malek Asraf , he fled to his mother and stepfather . The three of them then formed an alliance , but when Hasan Buzurg ( Jalayirid ) decided to withdraw the support he promised , the plan fell apart , and they fled to Diyarbakr . Surgan was defeated again in 1345 by Malek Asraf and they fled to Anatolia . Coinage dating from that year appears in Hesn Kayfa in Sati Beg ' s name ; this is the last trace of her . Surgan moved from Anatolia to Baghdad , where he was eventually executed by Hasan Buzurg ; Sati Beg may have suffered the same fate , but this is unknown . Golden Horde . In 1345 , the Golden Horde made a second attempt to lay siege on the Genoese city of Kaffa . ( An earlier attempt had failed because Kaffa was able to get provisions across the Black Sea . ) The 1345 siege would fail in the following year as the Mongols were struck with the Black Plague and forced to retreat . This siege is therefore noted as one of the key events that brought the Black Plague to Europe . The Kingdom of Hungary saw the threat of the growing power of the Golden Horde and as such , in 1345 it began a campaign against the Tatars and the Horde , in the area what would become a few years later Moldavia . Andrew Lackfi , the Voivode of Transylvania and his Szekely warriors were victorious in their campaign , decapitating the local Tatar leader , the brother - in - law of the Khan , Atlamïş and making the Tatars flee toward the coastal area . Chagatai Khanate . Amir Qazaghan ( d . 1358 ) was the leader of the Qara ' unas tribe ( 1345 at the latest – 1358 ) and the powerful de facto ruler of the Chagatai " ulus " ( 1346 – 1358 ) . In 1345 he revolted against Qazan Khan , but was unsuccessful . The following year he would try again and succeed in killing the khan . With this the effective power of the Chagatai khans would come to an end ; the khanate eventually devolved into a loose confederation of tribes that respected the authority of Qazaghan , although he primarily commanded the loyalty of the tribes of the southern portion of the " ulus " . He did not claim the khanship , but instead contented himself with his title of amir and conferred the title of khan on puppets of his own choosing : first Danishmendji ( 1346 – 1348 ) and then Bayan Quli ( 1348 – 1358 ) . Yuan Dynasty . By 1345 , the Yuan Dynasty in China was steadily declining . Chinese peasants , upset with the lack of effective policies by the government when they were facing droughts , floods , and famines , were becoming rebellious . The Yellow River flooded in Jinan in 1345 . The river had flooded previously in 1335 and in 1344 . There was also conflict between the rulers of the dynasty . Zhu Yuanzhang was about 16 years old in 1345 . His parents and brothers had died of plague or famine ( or both ) in 1344 , and he joined a Buddhist monastery . In 1345 he left the monastery and joined a band of rebels . He would lead a series of rebellions until he overthrew the Yuan Dynasty and became the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1368 . Japan and India . In India , Muhammad bin Tughluq was reigning as Sultan of Delhi in 1345 . This year saw a revolt of Muslim military commanders in the Daulatabad area . In Bengal , on the eastern border of the Sultanate , a general named llyas captured East Bengal , and under him Bengal was again united . He established his capital at Gaur . In southern India , Harihara I had founded the Vijayanagara Empire in 1336 . After the death of Hoysala Veera Ballala III during a battle against the Sultan of Madurai in 1343 , the Hoysala Empire had merged with the growing Vijayanagara Empire . In these first two decades after the founding of the empire , Harihara I gained control over most of the area south of the Tungabhadra river and earned the title of " Purvapaschima Samudradhishavara " ( " master of the eastern and western oceans " ) . The Jaffna Kingdom , which encompassed the southern tip of India and parts of Sri Lanka , was constantly in conflict with both Vijayanagara and the smaller Kotte Kingdom of southern Sri Lanka during this time . From 1336 to 1392 , two courts claimed the throne of Japan . This was known as the Nanboku - chō , or the Northern and Southern Courts period . In the Northern Court , Emperor Go - Murakami claimed the throne . In the Southern Court , Emperor Kōmyō claimed the throne . Southeast Asia . In Southeast Asia , Sukhothai changed hands to a new Siamese dynasty in 1345 . A Buddhist work , the " Traibhumikatha " , was composed by the King of Siam in the same year . The Sukhothai Emperor also wrote a similar Buddhist work , the " Tri Phum Phra Ruang " . Both works describe Southeast Asian cosmological ideas which still exist today . Life is said in these books to be divided into 31 levels of existence separated between three worlds . Angkor was in a period of decline , forced to devote much of its resources to skirmishes with the Sukhothai and Siamese , which left Champa free to attack Đại Việt and opened the way for Lopburi to spring up , all of which happened right around this year . A Buddhist colony also existed to the west in the Mon Empire , which struggled to maintain its existence in the face of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate to the west and the Mongol Chinese to the north . The Majapahit Empire , which occupied much of the Indonesian Archipelago , was ruled by empress Tribhuwana Wijayatunggadewi . During Tribhuwana ' s rule , the Majapahit kingdom had grown much larger and became famous in the area . Gajah Mada reigned at the time along with the empress as " mahapatih " ( prime minister ) of Majapahit . It was during their rule in 1345 that the famous Muslim traveller Ibn Battuta visited Samudra in the Indonesian Archipelago . According to Battuta ' s report on his visit to Samudra , the ruler of the local area was a Muslim , and the people worshiped as Muslims in mosques and recited the Koran . Many Islamic traders and travelers had already scattered themselves along the major cities and coasts surrounding the Indian Ocean by this time . Western Europe . Hundred Years ' War . By 1345 , the Hundred Years ' War between France and England had been going on for only about eight years . The English claimed the right to the French throne , and the French refused to be ruled by foreigners . On 21 October the French and English met in one of the many battles fought in this war , the Battle of Auberoche . Earlier in the year , the area had been taken from the French by an English cavalry . The French retaliated by besieging the castle at Auberoche , but English reinforcements arrived and caught the French off guard during their evening meal . The battle ended in an English victory . This set the stage for English dominance in the area for several years . Previous to this , the French had been having success , and the English had even offered a treaty , but with this battle along with the English Earl of Derby ' s overrunning of the Agenais ( lost twenty years before in the War of Saint - Sardos ) and Angoulême , as well as the forces in Brittany under Sir Thomas Dagworth also making gains , the tide turned somewhat in this year . A new machine was introduced to this war in 1345 — cannon . " Ribaldis " , as they were then called , are first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the Battle of Crécy between 1345 and 1346 . These were believed to have shot large arrows and simplistic grapeshot , but they were so important they were directly controlled by the Royal Wardrobe . War of Succession . A kind of side conflict to the Hundred Years ' War was the Breton War of Succession , a conflict between the Houses of Blois and Montfort for control of the Duchy of Brittany . The French backed Blois and the English backed Montfort in what became a miniature of the wider conflict between the two countries . The House of Blois had laid siege to the town of Quimper in early 1344 , and continued into 1345 . During the summer and autumn of 1344 , the Montfortist party had fallen apart . Even those who had been John of Montfort ' s staunchest allies now considered it futile to continue the struggle . It therefore mattered little that in March 1345 John finally managed to escape to England . With no adherents of note of his own , he was now little more than a figurehead for English ambitions in Brittany . Edward III decided to repudiate the truce in summer 1345 , a year before it was due to run out . As part of his larger strategy , a force was dispatched to Brittany under the joint leadership of the Earl of Northampton and John of Montfort . Within a week of their landing in June , the English had their first victory when Sir Thomas Dagworth , one of Northampton ' s lieutenants , raided central Brittany and defeated Charles of Blois at Cadoret near Josselin . The follow - up was less impressive . Further operations were delayed until July when Montfort attempted the recapture of Quimper . However , news had reached the French government that Edward ' s main campaign had been cancelled and they were able to send reinforcements from Normandy . With his strengthened army , Charles of Blois broke the siege . Routed , Montfort fled back to Hennebont where he fell ill and died 16 September . The heir to the Montfortist cause was his 5 - year - old son , John . During the winter , Northampton fought a long and hard winter campaign with the apparent objective of seizing a harbour on the north side of the peninsula . Edward III had probably planned to land here with his main force during summer 1346 . However , the English achieved very little for their efforts . Northern Brittany was Joanna of Dreux ’ home region and resistance here was stiff . The only bright spot for the English was victory at the Battle of La Roche - Derrien , where the small town was captured and a garrison installed under Richard Totesham . Other events . Also in England in 1345 , Princess Joan was betrothed to Pedro of Castile , son of Alphonso XI of Castile and Maria of Portugal . She would never marry him , however , but would die of the Black Plague on her journey to Spain to meet him . Spain , meanwhile , continued its struggle to regain Muslim territory on the Iberian Peninsula . In that same year Alfonso XI attacked Gibraltar as a part of the Reconquista , but was unable to conquer it . In 1345 Muhammud V was made its ruler . The York Minster Cathedral , the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe , was completed in this year as well . It remains the largest in the region to this day . England was still recovering from French occupation . Until 1345 , all school instruction had been in French , rather than English . Besides the War of Succession and the Hundred Years ' War , France was in the midst of an interesting period . Several decades earlier , the Roman Papacy had moved to Avignon and would not return to Rome for another 33 years . The Avignon Papacy was then ruled by Pope Clement VI , who was aiding the French in their war against the English with Church funds . Also , in the year 1345 , the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was completed after nearly two centuries of planning and construction . On 24 March , a man named Guy de Chauliac observed a strange astronomical sign : the planets Saturn , Jupiter , and Mars conjoined in the sky under the sign of Aquarius . That same day the area experienced a solar eclipse . This sign was interpreted as foreboding by many , and Chauliac would later blame it for the Black Plague , which arrived less than five years later . Central Europe . Holy Roman Empire . On 1 January , emperor Louis IV ' s son Louis VI the Roman married Cunigunde , a Lithuanian Princess . Besides this move , the emperor continued his policy of expansion by conferring Hainaut , Holland , Zeeland and Friesland upon his wife Margaret of Holland after the death of William IV at the Battle of Warns . The hereditary titles to these lands owned by Margaret ' s sisters were ignored . This widened a divide which had already been growing between himself and the lay princes of Germany , who disliked his restless expansion policy . His actions in this year eventually led to a civil war , which was cut short by his death by stroke two years later . On 12 March , a eucharist ic miracle occurred in Amsterdam , now called the Miracle of the Host . It involved a dying man vomiting upon being given the Holy Sacrament and last rites in his home . The Host was then put in the fire , but miraculously remained intact and could be retrieved from the fire in one piece without the heat burning the hand of the person that retrieved it . This miracle was later officially recognised as such by the Roman Catholic Church , and a large pilgrimage chapel was built where the house had stood . Every year , thousands of Catholics take part in the Stille Omgang , or procession to the place of the miracle . Holland , meanwhile , was in the midst of the Friso - Hollandic Wars , as the Counts of Holland continued their efforts to conquer nearby Friesland in the Battle of Warns . In 1345 William IV , Count of Holland , prepared a military action to conquer Middle Frisia , crossing the Zuiderzee with a large fleet and with the help of French and Flemish knights , some of whom had just returned from crusade . He set sail in Enkhuizen , together with his uncle John of Beaumont , and landed near Stavoren and Laaxum and planned to use the Sint - Odulphus monastery near Stavoren as a fortification . The Hollandic knights wore armour , but had no horses as there wasn ' t enough room in the ships , which were full of building materials and supplies . William ' s troops set fire to the abandoned villages of Laaxum and Warns and started to advance towards Stavoren . In the countryside around Warns the Hollandic count was attacked by the local inhabitants . With their heavy armour the knights were no match for the furious Frisian farmers and fishermen . As they fled they entered a swamp where they were decisively beaten . Their commander William IV of Holland was killed , and was succeeded by his sister Margaret of Holland , wife of Louis IV . When John of Beaumont heard what had happened , he ordered a retreat back to the ships . They were pursued by the Frisians and most did not make it back . Count William ' s death in this battle paved the way for the Hook and Cod wars , and 26 September , the day of the battle , remains a national holiday in Friesland today . Italy . The Battle of Gamenario , fought on 22 April , was a decisive battle of the wars between the Guelfs ( Angevins ) and Ghibellines ( Lombards ) . It took place in north - west Italy in what is now part of the commune of Santena about 15 km southeast of Turin . Reforza d ' Agoult was sent in the spring of 1345 by Joan of Anjou , viceroy to northern Italy in hopes of putting an end to the war with the Margravate of Montferrat . Reforza conquered Alba and besieged Gamenario , a castle in the neighbourhood of Santena . Lombard Ghibellines formed an anti - Angevin alliance , headed by John II of Montferrat . On 22 April , he confronted Reforza d ' Agoult and battle was joined . The meeting was brief and bloody . Initially uncertain , the outcome was a victory for the Ghibellines , who recovered the besieged fortress and dealt a sever blow to Angevin influence in Piedmont . To celebrate his victory , John built a new church in Asti in honour of Saint George , near whose feast day the battle was won . Saint George held a special place for the men of chivalry of the Medieval , because he was the Saint that killed the dragon and was therefor held in a warrior cult . In the aftermath , Piedmont was partitioned between the victors . John received Alba , Acqui Terme , Ivrea , and Valenza . Luchino Visconti received Alessandria and the House of Savoy ( related to the Palaiologos of Montferrat ) received Chieri . The Angevins lost almost complete control of the region and many formerly French cities declared themselves independent . The defeat of the Angevins was also a defeat for Angevin - supported Manfred V of Saluzzo and the civil war in that margraviate was ended at Gamenario . Andrew , Duke of Calabria , was assassinated by conspiracy in 1345 . He had been appointed joint heir with his wife , Joan I , to the throne of Naples by the Pope . This , however , sat ill with the Neapolitan people and nobles ; nor was Joan content to share her sovereignty . With the approval of Pope Clement VI , Joan was crowned as sole monarch of Naples in August 1344 . Fearing for his life , Andrew wrote to his mother Elizabeth that he would soon flee the kingdom . She intervened , and made a state visit ; before she returned to Hungary , she bribed Pope Clement to reverse himself and permit the coronation of Andrew . She also gave a ring to Andrew , which was supposed to protect him from death by blade or poison , and returned with a false sense of security to Hungary . Thus , in 1345 , hearing of the Pope ' s reversal , a group of noble conspirators ( probably including Queen Joan ) determined to forestall Andrew ' s coronation . During a hunting trip at Aversa , Andrew left his room in the middle of the night and was set upon by the conspirators . A treacherous servant barred the door behind him ; and as Joan cowered in their bed , a terrible struggle ensued , Andrew defending himself furiously and shrieking for aid . He was finally overpowered , strangled with a cord , and flung from a window . The horrible deed would taint the rest of Joan ' s reign . Other events in Italy in 1345 include Ambrogio Lorenzetti ' s painting of a map of the world for the palace at Siena . The painting has since been lost , but the instruments which he used to make it still survive , giving insights into mapmaking techniques of the day . The Peruzzi family , a big banking family and precursor to the Medici family went bankrupt in 1345 , and in 1345 Florence was the scene of an attempted strike by wool combers ( " ciompi " ) . A few decades later they would rise in a full - scale revolt . In Verona , Mastino II della Scala began the construction of his Scaliger Tomb , an architectural structure still standing today . Northern and Eastern Europe . Sweden and the Baltic area . In Sweden and states bordering the Baltic Sea , the oldest surviving manuscript from the first Swedish law to be put to paper is from c . 1345 , although earlier versions probably existed . The law was created for the young town Stockholm ' s customs , but it was also used in Lödöse and probably in a few other towns , as well . No town was allowed to use the law without the formal permission by the Swedish king . Its use may have become more widespread if it had not been superseded by the new town law by King Magnus Eriksson ( 1316 – 1374 ) . The term " Bjarkey Laws " was however used for a long time for Magnus Eriksson ' s law in various locations . Records also exist for the emigration of Swedes to Estonia in this year . Early mentions of Swedes in Estonia came in 1341 and 1345 ( when an Estonian monastery in Padise sold " the Laoküla Estate " and Suur - Pakri Island to a group of Swedes ) . During the 13th through 15th centuries , large numbers of Swedes arrived in coastal Estonia from Finland , which was under Swedish control ( and would remain so for hundreds of years ) , often settling on Church - owned land . 1345 marked the end of a series of skirmishes begun in the 1343 St . George ' s Night Uprising . The rebellion , which was by this time limited to the island of Saaremaa , was stifled in 1345 . After the rebellion Denmark sold its domains in Estonia to the Teutonic Order in 1346 . The fighting had started as a protest by indigenous Estonians to Danish and German rule . Parts of Estonia such as the city of Valga suffered raids from the nearby Lithuanian rulers . In Lithuania in 1345 Grand Duke Jaunutis was deposed by his brothers . Very little is known about years when Jaunutis ruled except that they were quite peaceful years , as the Teutonic Knights were led by ineffective Ludolf König . The Bychowiec Chronicle mentions that Jaunutis was supported by Jewna , presumed wife of Gediminas and mother of his children . She died ca . 1344 and soon after Jaunutis lost his throne . If he was indeed protected by his mother , then it would be an interesting example of influence held by queen mother in pagan Lithuania . However , a concrete stimulus might have been a major " reise " planned by the Teutonic Knights in 1345 . South - eastern Europe . Balkans . In 1345 , the Byzantine civil war continued . Having exploited the conflict to expand his realm into Macedonia , following the conquest of Serres Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia proclaimed himself " Tsar of the Serbs and Romans " . By the end of the year , his Serbian Empire included all of Macedonia , except for Thessalonica , and all of Albania , except for Dyrrhachium , held by the Angevins . The first known line of Serbian text written in the Latin alphabet is dated to this year . Serbia was recognized as the most powerful empire in the Balkans for the next several years . The Byzantine civil war also allowed the emergence of a local quasi - independent principality in the Rhodope , headed by the Bulgarian brigand Momchil , who had switched his allegiance from John VI Kantakouzenos to the regency in Constantinople . On 7 July , the army of Umur Bey , the Turkish emir of Aydin and Kantakouzenos ' chief ally , met and defeated Momchil ' s forces at Peritheorion . Momchil himself was killed in the battle . On 11 June , Alexios Apokaukos , the driving force behind the Constantinopolitan regency and main instigator of the civil war , was murdered . His demise led to a wave of defections to the Kantakouzenist camp , most prominently his own son , John Apokaukos , the governor of Thessalonica . He plotted to surrender the city to Kantakouzenos , and had the leader of the Zealots , a certain Michael Palaiologos , killed . The Zealots however reacted violently : in a popular uprising , led by Andreas Palaiologos , they overpowered Apokaukos and killed or expelled most of the city ' s remaining aristocrats . The events are described by Demetrius Cydones : . . . one after another the prisoners were hurled from the walls of the citadel and hacked to pieces by the mob of the Zealots assembled below . Then followed a hunt for all the members of the upper classes : they were driven through the streets like slaves , with ropes round their necks - here a servant dragged his master , there a slave his purchaser , while the peasant struck the strategus and the labourer beat the soldier ( i . e . the pronoia r ) . In 1345 , the Greek island of Chios fell to the Genoese Giustiniani . The Genoese also sacked the city of Dvigrad in Istria in this same year . Aquileia n patriarchs had for some time fought fiercely against Venitians which had already gained considerable influence on the west coast of Istria . It was during these confrontations that the town fell . Anatolian Peninsula . In 1344 , Hugh IV of Cyprus joined a league with Venice and the Knights Hospitallers which burnt a Turkish fleet in Smyrna and captured the city . In 1345 the allies defeated the Turks at Imbros by land and sea , but Hugh could see little benefit for his kingdom in these endeavors and withdrew from the league . Meanwhile , Umur Bey transformed the Beylik of Aydınoğlu into a serious naval power with base in İzmir and posed a threat particularly for Venetian possessions in the Aegean Sea . The Venetians organized an alliance uniting several European parties ( " Sancta Unio " ) , composed notably of the Knights Templar , which organized five consecutive attacks on İzmir and the Western Anatolian coastline controlled by Turkish states . In between , it was the Turks who organized maritime raids directed at Aegean islands . John XIV sparked the civil conflict when he convinced the Empress that John V ' s rule was threatened by the ambitions of Kantakouzenos . In September 1341 , whilst Kantakouzenos was in Thrace , Kalekas declared himself as regent and launched a vicious attack on Kantakouzenos , his supporters & family . In October Anna ordered Kantakouzenos to resign his command . Kantakouzenos not only refused , he declared himself Emperor at Didymoteichon , allegedly to protect John V ' s rule from Kalekas . Whether or not Kantakouzenos wished to be Emperor is not known , but the provocative actions of the Patriarch forced Kantakouzenos to fight to retain his power and start the civil war . There were not nearly enough troops to defend Byzantium ' s borders at the time and there certainly was not enough for the two factions to split – consequently , more foreigners would flood the Empire into a state of chaos – Kantakouzenos hired Turks and Serbs – his main supply of Turkish mercenaries came from the Umur of Aydin , a nominal ally established by Andronikos III . The Regency of John V relied on Turkish mercenaries as well . However , Kantakouzenos began to draw support from the Ottoman Sultan Orkhan , who wed Kantakouzenos ' daughter in 1345 . By 1347 , Kantakouzenos had triumphed and entered Constantinople . However , in his hour of victory , he came to an accord with Anna and her son , John V . John V ( now 15 years of age ) and Kantakouzenos would rule as co - emperors , though John V would be the junior in this relationship . The unlikely peace would not last long . The Turks attacked Smyrna on January 17 and the Ottomans annexed Qarasi in west Asia minor . Later , Pope Clement urged further attacks on the Levant . Africa . Pope Clement IV said in 1345 : " the acquisition of the kingdom of Africa belongs to us and our royal right and to no one else . " Ironically , in the same year , trade was established between Italy and the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt . This marked the beginning of reliable trading of spice to the Adriatic Sea .