1340

1340 (MCCCXL) was a leap year beginning on a Saturday of the Julian calendar.

Events

• January 26 - Edward III of England is declared king of France. This fact will trigger the Hundred Years War.
• June 26 - Naval Battle of Sluys, first great armed confrontation between English and French in the framework of the Hundred Years War.
• 1 September- Petrarca receives from the Senate of the city of Rome the Crown of laurel.
• October 30 - King Alfonso XI of Castile beats the Muslims in the battle of Salado.

Double entry probably originated in the Tuscany region before the end of the 13th century and the earliest example of its use is the public accounts of the city of Genoa in the year 1340.9

Births

• Pedro González de Mendoza, a Spanish military and poet.
• Theophanes the Greek Byzantine Greek artist
• Juan Alfonso de Castilla, illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile and Leonor de Guzmán.
• Geoffrey Chaucer, Writer and Poet English

Deaths

• Bahya ben Asher located in Zaragoza also called Rabbeinu Behaye was a rabbi and Jewish scholar.