Year 1342 (MCCCXLII) was a common year starting on Tuesday and current year of the Julian calendar.
upright=1.35|thumb|[[Pope Benedict XII]]
Events
January–December
- January 21–June 27 – An-Nasir Ahmad, Sultan of Egypt, rules prior to being deposed by his half-brother As-Salih Ismail.
- May 7 – Pope Clement VI succeeds Pope Benedict XII, as the 198th Pope.
- July 16 – Louis I becomes king of Hungary.
- July 18 – Battle of Zava: Mu'izz al-Din Husayn defeats the Sarbadars.
- July 22 – St. Mary Magdalene's flood is the worst such event on record for central Europe.
- August 15 – Louis "the Child", age 4, succeeds his father, Peter II, as king of Sicily and duke of Athens; he is crowned on September 15 in Palermo Cathedral.
- September 4 – John III of Trebizond (John III Comnenus) becomes emperor of Trebizond.
Date unknown
- Guy de Lusignan becomes Constantine II, King of Armenia (Gosdantin, Կոստանդին Բ).
- The Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch is transferred to Damascus, under Ignatius II.
- Kitzbühel becomes part of Tyrol.
- Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 – The Zealots seize power in Thessalonica, expelling its aristocrats and declaring themselves in favour of the regency.
Births
- January 17 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1404)
- April 6 – Infanta Maria, Marchioness of Tortosa (d. after 1363)
- November 8 – Julian of Norwich, English mystic (approximate date; d. 1413)
- date unknown
- Levon V Lusignan of Armenia (d. 1393)
- Avignon Pope Clement VII (d. 1394)
- Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford (d. 1373)
- John Trevisa, English translator (d. 1402)
Deaths
- March 31 – Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro, Italian Augustinian friar
- April 25 – Pope Benedict XII
- July 16 – King Charles I of Hungary
- September 4 – Anna Anachoutlou, Empress of Trebizond
- November 29 – Michael of Cesena, Italian Franciscan leader (b. 1270)
- date unknown
- Al-Jaldaki, Persian physician and alchemist
- Peter Paludanus, French bishop and theologian (b. c. 1275)
- William de Ros, 3rd Baron de Ros
- probable – Marsilius of Padua, Italian scholar (b. 1270)