Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1300s

This is a quiz about the DECADE of the 1300s.  If you want a quiz about the CENTURY of the 1300s, that means you're probably pretty cool.  What you can do is, take this quiz and the subsequent nine; that will constitute a nice, long, cozy quiz about the Fourteenth Century.     

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1. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio (which includes Rome), Marche, Umbria and Romagna, and portions of Emilia.  In 1300, they were fully independent of the Holy Roman Empire to the north, and of the kingdoms of Sicily to the south. And they would stick around until 1871. These (or arguably "it") were (or arguably "was") the _________________.

2. The Tabula Rogeriana world map was compiled in the 1150s by al-Idrisi, but this version from about 1300 is the oldest surviving copy. What direction is up, and how can you tell?

3. Around this decade, the Avoirdupois system was taken up in Britain. What’s the Avoirdupois system?

4. In or around the 1300s, the Tuareg established a state centered on Agadez. Agadez would become an important destination for salt caravans, from its founding all the way up until… well, it still is, to an extent. About where is Agadez? Full marks for the region, bonus marks for the modern country.

5. Roger de Flor, one of the first prominent Condottieri, founded the Catalan Company in the first half of the decade. What must have been the business of the Catalan Company?

6. Robert the Bruce became King on March 25, 1306. King of where?

7. On July 7, 1307, Edward II became King of England. One of the first things he did was to appoint his best friend Piers Gaveston as Earl of Cornwall. Then he arranged for Gaveston to marry his niece, and threw a big tournament in Gaveston’s honor! How did this all work out for Mr. Gaveston?

8.

Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. ...In their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, [they] were among the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking, and building fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land.

[Their] existence was tied closely to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. ....King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Shortly thereafter, the order was disbanded.

That’s a thumbnail history of the _______________.

9. In 1309, Pope Clement moved his operations from Rome to another city, thus throwing a monkey wrench into the gears of European political life for decades to come. In what city did Clement V set up shop?

10. In the 1300s, the tallest human-built structure in the world had held its record for 3860 years. It’s still around today, and you’ve certainly heard of it. But, wow, 3860 years! What is this very tall building?

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Through History with The New Monday Quiz: the 1290s

1. Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden joined to become the nucleus of Switzerland.
2. Al-Ashraf Khalil's rampage wasn't so much the end of the crusading so much as the end of The Crusader Kingdoms, including The Kingdom of Jerusalem.  (As a chunk of land, anyway: titular Kings of Jerusalem would knock around for ages to come.)
3. That mosaic is an Annunciation.  Gabriel is giving Mary the big news, while the Holy Spirit (usually shown as a dove, occasionally as a sparkle) descends on a cartoon-like line from God (shown here underwhelmingly as the little guy on the top margin).
4. Ngoen Yang, Hariphunchai, and Lanna are pretty tough if you aren't up on medieval Southeast Asian history, but Chiang Mai is in Thailand!
5. The Majapahit Empire is pretty tough if you aren't up on medieval Southeast Asian history, but Java is the core island of Indonesia!
6. After Celestine V, the next time a Pope resigned was 2013.
7. La Vita Nuova was the first big hit for Dante.
8. The Grimaldis are the sovereigns of Monaco.
9. The Battle of Stirling Bridge put Scotland up 1-0 over England.  But there was a lot of time left on the game clock.
10. Osman I was firing up The Ottoman Empire.

EVERYBODY WAS SO RIGHT!!!  Christine M and gS49 were the very rightest.  The Owl is going to kick himself.