Timeline March 1401

Events in March 1401 3

• 1401 Burning of Damascus by Timur Timurid forces destroy much of the city after a prolonged occupation Timur occupied Damascus from late 1400 and extracted a huge ransom before his troops looted and burned the city in January 1401. Skilled craftsmen were deported east to Samarkand, permanently weakening the city's economy. During the occupation Timur held a famous series of meetings with the historian Ibn Khaldun.
• 1401 Union of Vilnius and Radom Lithuania and Poland renew their dynastic union under Vytautas and Jogaila Lithuanian nobles meeting at Vilnius on 18 January 1401 confirmed Vytautas as Grand Duke under the ultimate authority of King Jogaila of Poland, with Lithuania reverting to Poland if Vytautas died without an heir. Polish nobles ratified the agreement at Radom in March. The union strengthened cooperation between the two states ahead of renewed conflict with the Teutonic Knights.
• 1401 First burning of a Lollard heretic in England William Sawtrey is executed under a new statute authorising death for heresy The priest William Sawtrey was burned at the stake in London on 2 March 1401 after being condemned for Lollard heresy, the first person executed this way in England. Parliament shortly afterward passed the statute De Heretico Comburendo, formally authorising burning as the punishment for heresy. The law remained a tool for suppressing religious dissent in England for more than a century.