Timeline 1450-1499

The Fifteenth Century 1450-1475

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1450        May 8, Jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI.
    (HN, 5/8/98)

1450        Jul 12, Jack Cade was slain in a revolt against British King Henry VI.
    (MC, 7/12/02)

1450        Oct 5, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Ludwig IX.
    (MC, 10/5/01)

1450        Oct 23, Juan de Capistrano (70), Italian saint, died.
    (MC, 10/23/01)

1450        Johannes Gutenberg began printing a bible with movable type in Mainz. He perfected interchangeable type that could be cast in large quantities and invented a new type of press.
    (NG, March 1990, p. 117)(WSJ, 10/31/96, p.A21)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)
1450        Johannes Gutenberg was able to convince financier Johann Fust to loan him 800 guilders, a considerable sum. Gutenberg's experiments with printing were financed in large part by Fust, who later won a suit against Gutenberg to recoup his investment. Fust invested another 800 guilders in 1452, securing a partnership in Gutenberg's business. By 1455, impatient for results or perhaps simply due to estrangement from Gutenberg, Fust sued and won a settlement of just over 2,000 guilders: the sum of the two loans plus interest. Fust also gained control of Gutenberg's movable type and some of his printing equipment. Gutenberg was able to continue some printing and eventually was granted a pension by the archbishop of Mainz in 1465.
    (HNQ, 1/12/01)

c1450        In the mid 1400s Berbers took over the trade and learning centers of Timbuktu and Walata.
    (ATC, p.120)

1450        In Mexico City an Aztec cornerstone ceremony took place about this time intended to dedicate a new layer of building. In 2005 archeologists found a child found at the Templo Mayor ruins who was apparently killed as part of a ceremony dedicated to the war god Huitzilopochtli.
    (AP, 7/23/05)

c1450        The Portuguese brought slaves to the uninhabited Cape Verde Island.
    (SFC, 8/5/98, p.A8)

c1450        Legend has it that in the mid-15th century Vietnam, King Le Loi defeated Chinese invaders with a magic sword given to him by the gods. After the victory, the king was said to be boating on the lake when a giant golden turtle rose to the surface and grabbed the sword in its mouth before plunging deep into the water to return it to its divine owners. The lake was later renamed "Ho Hoan Kiem," which means "Lake of the Returned Sword."
    (AP, 11/3/03)

c1450        The chiefs of Zimbabwe's gold producing provinces declared independence from Great Zimbabwe. A northern group led by King Mwene Mutapa conquered neighboring kingdoms and a new empire called Monomutapa was formed.
    (ATC, p.148)

1450-1455    Dieric Bouts painted "The Annunciation." The Getty Museum later acquired it for $7 million, but its authenticity was controversial.
    (WSJ, 4/9/99, p.W16)

1450-1460    The German Master E.S. made his drawing "Girl With a Ring."
    (WSJ, 12/8/99, p.A20)

1450-1500    Bartolomeu Dias, Portuguese explorer. He discovered the Cape of Good Hope.
    (WUD, 1994, p.399)

c1450-1500    Nyatsimba, Mwene Matapa or Monomotapa (Lord of the Plundered People or Ravager of the Lands), Chief of the Zimbabwe Empire. He conquered the middle Zambezi Valley and built stone citadels at Great Zimbabwe. He was known to have a corps of over 100 female bodyguards.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)

c1450-1516    Hieronymus Bosch, painter was born. Hieronymous van Aken was born in the small Dutch Brabant city of 's-Hertogenbosch in Flanders.
    (AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.172)(WSJ, 8/25/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 10/11/01, p.A19)

1450-1532    The period of the Inca Empire. Inca mummies were later found on Mt. Ampato in 1995 and 1997. In 1998 archeologist found 6 frozen mummies sacrificed to Inca gods near the crater of the 19,100 foot El Misti volcano, 465 miles southeast of Lima, Peru.
    (SFEM, 4/13/97, p.16)(SFC,12/13/97, p.A14)(SFC, 10/3/98, p.C1)

1450-1650AD    The Venetians occupied the capital city Crete, Iraklion. The forests of Crete provided the Venetians with cedars and firs for their fleets.
    (SFEC, 8/17/97, p.T10)

1450-1890    The period of the Little Ice Age. Temperatures over this period were a few degrees lower than during the 1900s.
    (SFC, 11/29/02, p.J6)

1451        Feb 3, Murad II, Ottoman sultan (1421-51), died of apoplexy. Mehmet II (19) became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He ruled until 1481.
    (ON, 10/00, p.10)(Ot, 1993, p.7)(MC, 2/3/02)

1451        Mar 9, Amerigo Vespucci (d.1512), Italian navigator, was born in Florence.
    (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15384b.htm)

1451        Apr 22, Isabella I of Castile, Queen of Spain (1479-1504), patron of Christopher Columbus, was born in Madrigal, Spain.
    (HN, 4/22/98)(AP, 4/22/01)(MC, 4/22/02)

1451        Jun 28, An eclipse occurred that allegedly prevented the outbreak of war between the Mohawk and the Seneca Indians.
    (SCTS, p.6)

1451        Sep 21, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa ordered the Jews of Holland to wear a badge.
    (MC, 9/21/01)

1451        An Afghan named Buhlul invaded Delhi, and seized the throne. He founded the Lodi dynasty.
    (www.afghan, 5/25/98)

1451        In France Jacques Coeur was charged with poisoning Agnes Sorel, mistress to King Charles VII. Sorel had died in childbirth. Charles confiscated Coeur's property and put him in jail. Coeur escaped and fled to Rome. He died several years later fighting the Turks.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)

1451        The Vatican Library was founded.
    (WSJ, 3/2/00, p.W10)

1451-1506    Christopher Columbus, was born in Genoa. He was probably the child of Spanish-Jewish parents exiled by the Inquisition.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.174)

1451        March 9, The birthday of Amerigo Vespucci (d.1512). He was the Italian navigator after whom America was named. He explored the New World coastline after Columbus.
    (CFA, '96,Vol 179, p.42)(AHD, p.1425)

1452        Mar 10, Ferdinand II, the Catholic King of Aragon (1479-1516) and Sicily (1468-1516), was born. He bankrolled Columbus and expelled Jews.
    (WUD, 1994 p.524)(MC, 3/10/02)

1452        Apr 15, Leonardo da Vinci (d.1519), Italian painter, sculptor, scientist and visionary, was born in Vinci near Florence. He apprenticed to the painters Verrocchio and Antonio Pollaiuolo and was accepted to the Florentine painters' guild at twenty. Only seventeen surviving paintings can be attributed to him. These include: "The Last Supper" in Milan, the "Mona Lisa" and "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" in the Louvre. He tried to express his immense knowledge of the world by simply looking at things. The secret he said was "saper vedere," to know how to see. His final "Visions of the End of the World" was a sketchbook in which he tried to depict his sense of the forces of nature, which in his imagination he conceived of as possessing a unity that no one had ever seen before. His use of a smoky atmosphere (sfumato) helped create an impression of lifelikeness.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.137)(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A16)(HN, 4/15/98)

1452        Jul 27, Ludovico Sforza (Ludovico il Moro, "The Moor," d.1508), Italian duke of Milan (1494-1500), was born. He was the second son of Francesco Sforza, and was famed as patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludovico_Sforza)

1452        Sep 21, Girolamo Savonarola (d.1498), was born in Ferrara. He became a Dominican monk, reformer, dictator of Florence (1494-98) and martyr. He was best known for his bonfires of the vanities in which corrupt books and images were set alight.
    (Hem.,4/97,p.53)(WUD, 1994, p.1272,1672)(WSJ, 7/10/98, p.W11)(MC, 9/21/01)

1452        Oct 2, King Richard III, of England (1483-85), was born.
    (MC, 10/2/01)

1452        The first pawn lender was founded in Perugia (Italy) by Franciscan monks to combat usury.
    (Econ, 5/27/06, p.73)

1452        Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II began construction of a new fortress called Rumeli Hisar on the Constantinople side of the Bosporus. He engaged Urban, a Hungarian engineer, to build a large canon and put him in charge of the canon foundries at Adrianople.
    (SFC, 9/1/96, BR p.8)(ON, 10/00, p.10)

1452-1510    Liu Jin, a court eunuch of the Ming dynasty in China. He abused his office to amass a great fortune and was executed for treason.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)

1453        Apr 6, Ottoman forces under Mehmet II opened fire on Constantinople.
    (ON, 10/00, p.11)

1453        Apr 22-1453 Apr 23, The Ottomans hauled 76 warships out of the water and dragged them on wood rails to bypass the Greek blockade of the Constantinople harbor.
    (ON, 10/00, p.12)(Ot, 1993, p.13)

1453        May 29, Constantinople fell to Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire. The fall of the eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, to the Ottoman Turks was led by Mehmed II. Emperor Constantine XI Dragases (49), the 95th ruler to sit on the throne of Constantine, was killed. The city of Constantinople fell from Christian rule and was renamed Istanbul. The Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque. Spice prices soared in Europe. Nicolo Barbaro wrote his "Diary of the Siege of Constantinople." Manuel Chrysophes, court musician to Constantine XI, wrote a threnody for the fall of Constantinople. In 2005 Roger Crowley authored “1453 The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West.”
    (NH, 9/96, p.22)(Sky, 4/97, p.53)(SFC, 7/27/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)(ON, 10/00, p.12)(Ot, 1993, p.6)(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A15)(SSFC, 8/14/05, p.F4)
1453        May 29, French banker Jacques Coeurs had his possessions confiscated.
    (SC, 5/29/02)

1453        Jul 4, 41 Jewish martyrs were burned at stake at Breslau, Poland.
    (Maggio)

1453        Jul 17, France defeated England at the 1st Battle at Castillon, France, ending the 100 Years' War. [see Oct 19]
    (HN, 7/17/98)

1453        Oct 19, In the 2nd Battle at Castillon: France beat England, ending the hundred year war. [see Jul 17]
    (MC, 10/19/01)

1453        Piero della Francesca (1415/1420-1492) began work on the "Legenda della Vera Croce" (The Legend of the True Cross) at the church of San Francesco in Arezzo. He was commissioned by the Bacci family of Arezzo to complete the work begun by Bicci de Lorenzo.
    (WSJ, 6/02/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 2/2/08, p.W14)

1453        In England Henry VI, of the house of Lancaster, suffered a nervous breakdown and Richard, the Duke of York, was named protector.
    (AM, 7/01, p.69)

1453        In Rome Agrippa’s Aqua Virgo was resuscitated as the Acqua Vergine Antica.
    (SFEC, 7/2/00, p.T4)

1454        Feb 17, At a grand feast, Philip the Good of Burgundy took the "vow of the pheasant," by which he swore to fight the Turks.
    (HN, 2/17/99)

1454        Mar 6, Casimir proclaimed the attachment of Prussia to Polish rule. This began a 13-year war over Prussia (1454-1466).
    (LHC,3/6/03)

1454        Apr 9, The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence signed a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.
    (HN, 4/9/99)

1454        Aug 22, Jews were expelled from Brunn Moravia by order of King Ladislaus.
    (MC, 8/22/02)

1455        Feb 23, Johannes Gutenberg (Johan Gensfleisch, c1400-1468) printed his 1st book, the Bible. Gutenberg printed Latin Bibles of which 11 were still extant in 1987. [see 1450]
    (SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(MC, 2/23/02)

1455        Mar 18, Fra Angelico, Italian monk and Renaissance painter born around 1387 as Guido di Pietro, died. Fra Angelico gained a reputation as a painter under that name before joining the Dominicans in the 1420s. However, much of the influence found in his work is thought to come from Dominican teachings. He stayed at Dominican monasteries in Florence for most of his life doing a variety of religious painting until being called to Rome in 1445 by Pope Eugene IV, where he completed several chapel frescoes. Returning to Florence in the early 1450s, he died on a return visit to Rome in 1455 and is entombed at the church of Santa Maria della Minerva. In 1984 Fra Angelico was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
    (HNQ, 3/6/01)(http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/a/angelico/biograph.html)(WSJ, 11/9/05, p.D16)

1455        Apr 8, Alfonso de Borgia was elected as Pope Callistus III.
    (MC, 4/8/02)

1455        May 3, Jews fled Spain.
    (MC, 5/3/02)

1455        May 22, King Henry VI was taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, the 1st battle in the 30-year War of the Roses. The army of the Duke of York met the army of Queen Margaret at the Battle of St. Alban’s. The 2nd Duke of Somerset was killed as Yorkists briefly took possession of King Henry VI.
    (MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/22/99)(MC, 5/22/02)

1455        Aug 2, Johan Cicero, elector of Brandenburg (1486-99), was born.
    (MC, 8/2/02)

1455        Dec 1, Lorenzo Ghiberti (77), Italian sculptor, died.
    (MC, 12/1/01)

1455        The young Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II mobilized his army to march on Belgrade--and from there, possibly move on to the European heartland.
    (HN, 6/15/98)

1455        Some Portuguese had come to The Gambia following the expeditions promoted by Prince Henry. They had introduced groundnuts, tie main cash crop of today, cotton, and some tropical fruits from Brazil. Their number, however, was never large and they were soon absorbed by intermarriage.
    (www.africanculture.dk/gambia/history.htm)

1455-1485    The War of the Roses. During the war Margaret of Anjou, wife of the feeble-minded King Henry VI, was head of the House of Lancaster whose heraldic badge was a red rose. She struggled against the House of York, whose badge was a white rose, for the control of the government.
    (MH, 12/96)

1456        Mar 1, Wladyslaw Jagiello, king of Bohemia (1471-1516), Hungary (1490-1516), was born.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

1456        Jul 7, Joan of Arc was acquitted, even though she had already been burnt at the stake on May 30, 1431.
    (MC, 7/7/02)

1456        Jul 14, Hungarians defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade, in present-day Yugoslavia. The 1456 Siege of Belgrade decided the fate of Christendom.
    (HN, 7/14/98)

1456        Jul 22, At the Battle at Nandorfehervar (Belgrade), the Hungarian army under prince Janos Hunyadi beat sultan Murad II. The siege of Belgrade had fallen into stalemate when a spontaneous fight broke out between a rabble of Crusaders, led by the Benedictine monk John of Capistrano, and the city's Ottoman besiegers. The melee soon escalated into a major battle, during which the Hungarian commander, Janos Hunyadi, led a sudden assault that overran the Turkish camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmet II to lift the siege and retreat.
    (MC, 7/22/02)(PC, 1992, p.150)(HNPD, 7/23/98)

1456        Aug 11, Janos Hunyadi (69), Hungarian Prince and general strategist died of plague at about age 49.
    (PC, 1992, p.150)(MC, 8/11/02)

1456        Nov 25, Jacques Coeur, French merchant and banker, died in battle.
    (MC, 11/25/01)

1456        Dec 5, Earthquake struck Naples and 35,000 died.
    (MC, 12/5/01)

1456        Pope Calixtus III appointed his nephew Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol, later Pope Alexander VI, a cardinal.
    (PTA, 1980, p.424)

1456        A comet in the sky caused the Pope to issue a catchall edict to his followers to pray for deliverance from "The Devil, the Turk, and the Comet."
    (SFC, 3/28/97, p.A12)

1456-1496    Ercole de' Roberti, Italian artist. He was the predecessor to Dosso Dossi at the Ferrara court.
    (SFC, 4/27/99, p.C1)

c1456-1856    Gypsies living in the principalities that today makeup Romania lived as slaves. [as stated in a work by Isabel Fonseca titled: "Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey."
    (WSJ, 10/19/95, A-18)

1457        Jan 28, Henry Tudor (later Henry VII), 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509), was born in Pembroke Castle, Wales.
    (www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_vii_king.shtml)

1457        Nov 23, Ladislaus V (17), posthumous king of Hungary and Bohemia, died.
    (MC, 11/23/01)

1457        Aug 14, Gutenberg's financier Johann Fust and calligrapher Peter Schoffer published the 2nd printed book. This is the oldest known exactly dated printed book.
    (HN, 8/14/00)(MC, 8/14/02)

1457        Koshamain, an Ainu chieftain on the island of Hokkaido, led a rebellion against Japanese encroachment, but it was put down by Nobuhiro Takeda.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

1457        Pattani, later southern Thailand, was declared an Islamic kingdom.
    (AP, 9/23/05)

1457        King James II of Scotland (James of the Fiery Face) banned "Futeball" on the grounds that it threatened national defense by drawing young men away from archery practice. He banned "Golfe" for the same reason. "Nocht usit and utterlie cryit doun."
    (SFC, 8/10/96, p.E4)(Hem., 1/97, p.47)

1458        Jan 24, Matthias Corvinus (1440-1490), the son of John Hunyadi, was elected king of Hungary. Under his rule Hungary was the most important state in central Europe. For his fighting force he ordered every 20 houses to provide one horse soldier. "Husz" is 20 in Hungarian and so the light cavalryman became know as a Hussar. His illuminated breviary is held by the Vatican library.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1672)(Sky, 9/97, p.26)(HN, 1/24/99)

1458        Mar 2, Hussite George van Podiebrad was chosen king of Bohemia.
    (SC, 3/2/02)

1458        Jun 27, Alfonso V of Aragon died. Ferdinand I succeeded to the throne of Naples, but Pope Calixtus III declared the line of Aragon extinct and the kingdom a fief of the church.
    (Wikipedia)

1458        Filippino Lippi, painter, was born. His father was the Carmelite friar Fra Filippo and his mother was a nun. His work includes the drawing "Kneeling Male Saint," and the color painting "Male Saint Holding the Body of the Dead Christ." One of his students was Raffaellino del Garbo.
    (WSJ, 12/3/97, p.A20)

1458        Benedetto Cotrugli published the first known work on double-entry bookkeeping. It was invented in Italy around 1340.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R55)(WSJ, 11/10/99, p.A20)

1459        Mar 2, Adrian VI [Adriaan F Boeyens], Netherlands, Pope (1522-23), was born.
    (SC, 3/2/02)

1459        Mar 3, Ausias March, Catalan poet, died.
    (SC, 3/3/02)

1459        May 2, Pierozzi Antoninus, Italian archbishop of Florence, saint, died.
    (MC, 5/2/02)

1459        May 12, Sun City, India, was founded by Rao Jodhpur.
    (MC, 5/12/02)

1459        Oct, The Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists at Ludford.
    (AM, 7/01, p.69)

1459        The Serbs fell under Turkish rule and all of Serbia became the property of the sultan and all Serbs became bond-slaves to the land. Serbian national identity survived with the restoration in 1557 of the Serbian patriarchate at Pec.
    (HNQ, 3/25/99)

1459-1519    Maximilian I. Holy Roman Emperor from 1493-1519.
    (WUD, 1994, p.886)

1459-1525    Jakob Fugger II, German banker. He minted his own money and maintained banks in every European capital. He held a contract for managing the Pope's money and collected cash for the remission of sins. He bankrolled the election of Charles V.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)

1459-1912    The Ottoman Empire ruled over the Kosova region of Serbia.
    (SFC, 3/3/98, p.A8)

1460        Apr 4, University of Basle, Switzerland, formed.
    (MC, 4/4/02)

1460        Apr 8, Ponce de Leon was born in Spain. He searched for fountain of youth and found Florida.
    (MC, 4/8/02)

1460        May 9, In the Netherlands the courtyard Episcopal palace at Atrecht had witch burnings.
    (MC, 5/9/02)

1460        Jun, English Yorkist earls returned and met Henry VI’s Lancastrian army at Northampton. Herny was captured and taken to London to serve as a figurehead.
    (AM, 7/01, p.69)

1460        Jul 10, Wars of Roses: Richard of York defeated King Henry VI at Northampton.
    (MC, 7/10/02)

1460        Sep, The Duke of York returned to England from Ireland. The nobility would not allow his usurption of the crown but agreed to pass it to him on Henry’s demise.
    (AM, 7/01, p.69)

1460        Nov 13, Prince Henry the Navigator (b.1394), Portuguese prince and patron of explorers, died.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_the_Navigator)

1460        Dec 30, The English Duke of York was killed by Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield and Queen Margaret hung his head over the gate of the city.
    (MH, 12/96)(HN, 12/30/98)

1460        The Ottomans conquered southern Greece.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)

1460s        Benozzo Gozzoli, a pupil of Fra Angelico, painted a portrait of Christ titled "The Holy Face."
    (SFEC, 8/8/99, p.D7)

1460        Rogier van der Weyden painted his "Portrait of a Lady."
    (WSJ, 12/14/01, p.W20)

1460        In 2009 academic Julian Luxford found a note written in Latin by a medieval monk about this time that read when translated into English: "Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies."
    (AP, 3/14/09)

1460-1464    Rogier van der Weyden painted "The Lamentation Over the Body of the Dead Christ."
    (SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C17)

1460-1470     Machu Pichu was built under the Inca King Pachacuti in the Peruvian Andes. It was occupied for about 50 years before 180 Spanish conquistadors wiped out a 40,000-man Inca army. In 2003 a nearby complex of structures called Llactapata (high city) was discovered.
    (SFC, 11/8/03, p.A2)

1460?-1526?    Pedro Alvarez Cabral, Portuguese navigator, discovered and claimed Brazil for Portugal on April 22, 1500.
    (AHD, p.185)(HFA, '96, p.28)

1460-1550    Jack Eddy, solar physicist, examined tree ring data in the 1970s and found a dearth of solar activity during this period.
    (NG, 7/04, p.28)

1461        Feb 2-3, The English houses of York and Lancaster battled at Mortimer’s Cross, the Battle of the Three Suns. In the War of the Roses Edward of York defeated the Welsh Lancastrians in the 2nd battle of St Alban's.
    (MH, 12/96)(AM, 7/01, p.69)(MC, 2/2/02)

1461        Feb 17, The Houses of York and Lancaster battled again at St. Alban’s. Queen Margaret defeated the Earl of Warwick and freed Henry VI.
    (MH, 12/96)(AM, 7/01, p.69)

1461        Mar 4, Henry VI was deposed and the Duke of York was proclaimed King as Edward IV. He tried to settle once and for all the dynastic struggle between York and Lancaster. At the Battle at Towton Duke Edward of York beat English queen Margaretha.
    (HN, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)

1461        Mar 14, In Edward, son of the Duke of York, claimed the crown and was proclaimed King Edward IV in Westminster Abbey.
    (MH, 12/96)

1461        Mar 29, Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown in defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon (Towton). Some 50,000 fought and an estimated 28,000 were killed.
    (HN, 3/29/99)(AM, 7/01, p.69)(AM, 7/01, p.68)

1461        Jun 28, Edward IV was crowned king of England.
    (www.richardiiiworcs.co.uk/months/june.html)

1461        Aug 10, Alfonso ed Espina, bishop of Osma, urged an Inquisition in Spain.
    (MC, 8/10/02)

1461        The Pope's godson discovered a source of alum, used in dyes. This led to a booming business for the Catholic Church.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)

1462        Jun 27, Louis XII, King of France (1498-1515), was born.
    (HN, 6/27/02)

1462-1464    Piero della Francesca, Italian artist, painted “The Resurrection” about this time.
    (WSJ, 12/17/05, p.P14)

1462-1524    Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.174)

1463        Jan 5, French poet Francois Villon was banished from Paris.
    (MC, 1/5/02)

1463        Oct 29, Alessandro Achillini, Italian physician and philosopher, was born.
    (MC, 10/29/01)

1463        The Venetians regained southern Greece for a short period.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 p.56)

1463        The Ottomans conquered Bosnia.
    (www.bartleby.com/67/314.html)

1463-1494    Pico della Mirandola, born in the duchy of Ferrara and died in Florence. He studied Aristotelian philosophy at Padua, and canon law at Bologna. He learned Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic before he was twenty. He became acquainted with the Hebrew Kabbala and was the first to use cabalistic doctrine to support Christian theology.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.138)

1464        May 15, The English Houses of York and Lancaster battled at Hexham. Among the Lancastrians the 3rd Duke of Somerset was killed.
    (MH, 12/96)

1464        Jun 19, French King Louis XI formed a postal service.
    (MC, 6/19/02)

1464        Aug 1, Piero de Medici (1416-1469) succeeded his father, Cosimo, as ruler of Florence. He was nicknamed Il Gottoso (the Gouty One) and squandered the family fortune.
    (HN, 8/1/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)

1464        Mino da Fiesole sculpted the altar for Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore.
    (WSJ, 10/22/96, p.A20)
1464        Desiderio da Settignano (b.~1439), Renaissance sculptor, died in Florence.
    (WSJ, 9/11/07, p.D6)

1464        Under the guidance of Sunni Ali, the Songhai began to conquer their neighbors and expand their kingdom. Goa became the capital of the Songhai empire. When Sunni Ali died rule was passed to his son, a non-Muslim.
    (ATC, p.121)

1464-1471    Pope Paul II, Pietro Barbo, succeeded Pius II. He was responsible for a Papal Bull that established a 25-year interval between Holy Years.
    (PTA, 1980, p.418)(SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)

1465        Feb 11, Elizabeth of York, consort of King Henry VII, was born in London.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

1465        The Nevill Feast at Cawood Castle in Yorkshire, England. 2,500 people were entertained. The guests ate over several days, 113 oxen, sic wild bulls, 1,000 sheep, 2,000 each of geese, pigs, and chickens, 12 porpoises, and 4,000 cold venison pasties. Such a feast would show how many fighting men a family could muster.
    (N.G., Nov. 1985, M. Girouard, p.74)

1465        King Henry VI was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London.
    (MH, 12/96)

1465-1487    In China during the Chenghua reign blended enamels over a blue underglaze decoration reached a classic stage of development. Lady Wan, consort of the emperor, was intimately associated with porcelains and their design.
    (SFEC, 10/6/96, DB p.37)

1466        Mar 8, Francesco Sforza (b.1401), Italian condottiere, duke of Milan, died. He was the founder of the Sforza dynasty in Milan, Italy, and the brother of Alessandro, with whom he often fought.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Sforza)

1466        Oct 19, The peace of Torun ended the 13-year War of the Cities (1454-1466), between the Teutonic knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia. The Peace of Thorn (Torún) ended the war between the Teutonic knights (a German military and religious order) and their subjects in Prussia, led by King Casimir IV (1427-1492) of Poland. Poland was given Pomerelia and West Prussia, and the knights retained East Prussia, with a new capital at Königsberg (Kaliningrad). The knights, formerly strictly a German order, were forced to accept Poles as members and their grand master became a vassal of the Polish king.
    (HN, 10/19/98)(http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/T/TeutonKn.html)

1466        Oct 26, Desiderius Erasmus (d.1536), scholar and author (In Praise of Folly), was born in Rotterdam. He was of illegitimate birth, but became a priest and a monk. He excelled in philology, the study of ancient languages, namely Latin and Greek and worked on a new translation of the New Testament. The more he studied it, the more he came to doubt the accuracy of the Vulgate, St. Jerome's translation into Latin, dating from around 400. "In Praise of Folly" is his most famous work... In it Erasmus had the freedom to discourse, in the ironic style of Lucian (the Greek author whose works he translated), concerning all the foolishness and misguided pompousness of the world.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.159-160)(MC, 10/26/01)

1466        Nov 30, Andrea Doria, Genoese statesman and admiral, was born.
    (MC, 11/30/01)

1466-1520    Montezuma II, Aztec emperor. He amassed great wealth through taxation in Mexico and Central America. He used his wealth to build his capital at Tenochtitlan.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R8)

1466?-1530    Quentin Massys, Flemish painter. He painted "The Moneylender and His Wife."
    (AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.882)

1466-1772    Danzig (Gdansk) was occupied by German religious-knights.
    (Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.10)

1467        May, In Japan the 11-year Onin War began in Kyoto. In 1967 H. Paul Valery authored "The Onin War."
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 215)(ON, 7/01, p.5)

1467        Jun 15, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, died.
    (HT, 6/15/00)

1468        Feb 3, Johannes Gutenberg (Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg b.c1400), German inventor of movable type, died.
    (SFC, 2/15/97, p.D1)(WSJ, 9/14/00, p.A24)

1468        Feb 29, Pope Paul III was born.
    (SFC, 2/29/00, p.A1)

1468        Dec 3, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano succeeded their father, Piero de Medici, as rulers of Florence, Italy.
    (HN, 12/3/98)

1468        Juan Reixach created his panel of St. Vincent Ferrer in the Hispano-Flemish style.
    (WSJ, 3/2/05, p.D9)

1468        Skanderbeg of Albania died and the Turks absorbed Albania into the Ottoman Empire. Over the next five centuries most Albanians converted to Islam.
    (CO, Grolier’s / Albania)(www, Albania, 1998)

c1468        The area around Bosnia was occupied by the Turks in the late 15th cent.
    (SFC, 4/15/97, p.A10)

1469        Apr 15, The guru Nanak (d.1539), 1st guru of Sikhs, was born to Hindu parents in Lahore. Nanak assimilated tenets of pantheistic Hinduism and monotheistic Islam and founded Sikhism in the Punjab. He refused to accept the caste system and the supremacy of the Brahmanical priests and forbade magic, idolatry and pilgrimages. Brahma is the Hindu god of creation. Turbaned followers would sport the main of the lion, Singha or Sikh. The sacred Sikh book, Granth Sahib, was compiled by the 5th guru, Arjun, in 1605.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1326)(Hem., 3/97, p.28)(SFEM, 9/19/99, p.74)(SFC, 9/22/99, p.E1)(WSJ, 10/12/01, p.W17)(MC, 4/15/02)

1469                May 3, Nicolo Machiavelli (d.1527), political advisor and author, was born. He was a historian and author of "The Prince." He saw in Cesare Borgia, the bastard son of Pope Alexander VI, the prospect of an Italy free of foreign control. "Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations."
    (V.D.-H.K.p.109)(AP, 11/15/98)(HN, 5/3/99)

1469        May 19, Giovanni della Robbia, Italian sculptor, was born.
    (MC, 5/19/02)

1469        May 31, Manuel I, king of Portugal (1495-1521), was born.
    (HN, 5/31/98)

1469        Oct 17, Crown prince Fernando of Aragon married princess Isabella of Castile.
    (MC, 10/17/01)

1469        Dec 3, Piero de' Medici (53), ruler of Florence, died.
    (MC, 12/3/01)

1469        Fra Filippo Lippi, a Carmelite friar and painter and father of Filippino Lippi, died. Sandro Botticelli was one of his students.
    (WSJ, 12/3/97, p.A20)

1469-1472    The islands of Sao Tome and Principe were discovered by Portuguese navigators and settled by 1500.
    (AP, 7/18/03)

1469        Apr 15, The guru Nanak (d.1539), 1st guru of Sikhs, was born to Hindu parents in Lahore. Nanak assimilated tenets of pantheistic Hinduism and monotheistic Islam and founded Sikhism in the Punjab. He refused to accept the caste system and the supremacy of the Brahmanical priests and forbade magic, idolatry and pilgrimages. Brahma is the Hindu god of creation. Turbaned followers would sport the main of the lion, Singha or Sikh. The sacred Sikh book, Granth Sahib, was compiled by the 5th guru, Arjun, in 1605.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1326)(Hem., 3/97, p.28)(SFEM, 9/19/99, p.74)(SFC, 9/22/99, p.E1)(WSJ, 10/12/01, p.W17)

1470        Mar 2, In England at Lose Coat Field, canon under Edward IV turned a group of Lincolnshire rebels into a panicked mob.
    (MH, 12/96)

1470        Jun 30, Charles VIII, King of France (1483-98), invaded Italy, was born. One of his feet had 6 toes which prompted his wearing broad, square tip shoes.
    (HN, 6/30/98)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.E6)

1470        Oct 9, Henry VI of England was restored to the throne.
    (HN, 10/9/98)

1470        Nov 1, Edward V, King of England, was born. [see Nov 3]
    (HN, 11/1/98)

1470        Nov 3, Edward V, King of England (Apr 9-Jun 25 1483), was born. [see Nov 1]
    (MC, 11/3/01)

1470        The earliest documented work by Botticelli was made. "Fortitude" was an allegory portraying a woman who embodies the virtue of inner strength.
    (SFC, 6/20/97, p.A9)

1470        The first book printed in France was an ornate ninth-century transcript produced for the grandson of Charlemagne. It is held by the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
    (WSJ, 9/26/95, p.A-20)

1470        In Portugal Princess Juana popularized the farthingale, a wide-hipped skit stiffened by whale bone.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)

c1470        The Quechua-speaking Incas came to dominate what is now Bolivia a mere 75 years before the Spaniards arrived.
    (NH, 11/96, p.37)

1470-1650    The period of the second of four waves of rising prices over the last 800 years as described by David Hackett Fisher in his 1996 book: "The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History."
    (WSJ, 12/19/96, p.A16)

1471        Mar 22, George van Podiebrad, king of Bohemia (1458-71), died.
    (MC, 3/22/02)

1471        Mar, Edward IV returned to England.
    (MH, 12/96)

1471        Apr 11, King Edward IV of England captured London from Henry VI in the War of the Roses.
    (MC, 4/11/02)

1471        Apr 14, On Easter Sunday Edward IV led an army of mercenaries and Yorkists at the Battle of Barnet and defeated the Lancastrians under the Earl of Warwick. Richard Neville Warwick (42), 2nd earl of Salisbury, was killed in battle. Margaret of Anjou returned from France. With her son, the Prince of Wales, she planned to join with Jasper Tudor, a Welsh ally, and attack Edward west of London.
    (MH, 12/96)(HN, 4/14/00)

1471        May 4, The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians in the Battle of Tewkesbury between the English House of Lancaster and House of York. King Edward IV routed the forces of ex-queen Margaret. The Lancastrian forces were led by Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset. Edward, the 17-year-old prince of Wales, was killed at the battle of Tewkesbury.
    (MH, 12/96)(HN, 5/4/99)(www.britainexpress.com/History/battles/tewkesbury.htm)

1471        May 6, The 4th Duke of Somerset and other Lancastrian nobles were beheaded at the Tewkesbury marketplace after trial presided over by the Duke of Gloucester, Constable of England.
    (MH, 12/96)

1471        May 21, Henry VI, king of England (1422-61, 70-71) and France (1431-71), was killed in the tower of London and Edward IV took the throne.
    (HN, 5/21/98)

1471        Jul 25, Thomas A. Kempis (91), [Thomas Hammerken von Kempen], German writer, monk, died. His popular "Imitation of Christ" went through 99 editions by the end of the century.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(Internet)

1471        Jul 26, Pope Paul II died.
    (PTA, 1980, p.418)

1471        Aug 7, Francesco Della Rovere succeeded Paul II as Pope Sixtus IV.
    (PTA, 1980, p.420)

1471        In Pec, Kosovo, the Qarshise Mosque was built. It was destroyed by Serbs in 1999.
    (SFC, 9/7/99, p.A12)

1471-1474    A particular Spanish, copper-based coin called a blanca was issued.
    (NH, 10/96, p.24)

1471-1528    Albrecht Durer, German artist. He is particularly known for his woodcuts for book illustrations.
    (SFEC, 2/9/97, DB p.6)(WSJ, 11/7/00, p.A24)

1472        Mar 28, Fra Bartolommeo (d.1517), Florentine Renaissance painter, was born.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Bartolommeo)

1472        Apr 15, Leon Battista Alberti (b.1404), Italian humanist, architect (Philodoxis), died. He wrote the 1st Italian grammar, the 1st theory of painting as an art, and the treatise "On the Art of Building." In 1970 Joan Gadol authored a biography. In 2000 Anthony Grafton authored the biography "Leon Battista Alberti."
    (WSJ, 11/30/00, p.A20)(MC, 4/15/02)

1472        Hans Memling painted “The Virgin and Child With St. Anthony Abbot and Donor.”
    (SFC, 10/18/05, p.D2)

1472        In Siena the Monte dei Paschi began taking deposits and making loans to the poor at better rates than the moneylenders. As of 2009 this was the oldest existing bank. Clerical groups had already established "monti di pieta" (mounds of money for charity). In Siena the original capital came from taxes.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R48)(Econ, 11/3/07, p.101)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.74)

1472        The Orkney Islands were part of Norway until this year.
    (SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)

1472-1553    Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter and graphic artist. He painted "Cardinal Albrecht as St. Jerome."
    (AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.339)

1473        Feb 19, The astronomer Copernicus (1473-1543) was born in Torun, Poland. He promulgated the theory that the earth and the planets move around the sun.
    (WUB, 1994, p. 322)(HN, 2/19/98)(AP, 2/19/98)

1473        Lorenzo de Medici, Italian banker and poet, wrote: "It is hard to live in Florence if you do not control the state."
    (WSJ, 1/19/04, p.A12)

1473        The game of golf was played in Scotland at the Old course at St. Andrews.
    (SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)

1473-1474    The book "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye" was translated and printed from the French by William Caxton. A copy sold in 1998 for $1.2 million.
    (SFC, 7/9/98, p.A12)

1474        Mar 21, Angela Merici, Italian monastery founder, saint, was born.
    (MC, 3/21/02)

1474        May 9, Peter van Hagenbach, Elzasser knight, land guardian, was beheaded.
    (MC, 5/9/02)

1474        Sep 8, Ludovico Ariosto, Italy, poet (Orlando Furioso), was born.
    (MC, 9/8/01)

1474        Nov 27, Guillaume Dufay (b.1399), French-Flemish composer, died. His work included "Ecclesiae militantis," a 5-part motet on Pope Eugenius IV’s short-lived supremacy over the Eastern Orthodox Church.
    (WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A15)(MC, 11/27/01)

1474        Dec 12, Isabella crowned herself queen of Castilia & Aragon.
    (MC, 12/12/01)

1474        Bartolome de Las Casas (d.1566), “Apostle to the Indians,” was born in Seville, Spain.
    (http://tinyurl.com/brzzu)

c1474        Ercole de' Roberti, Italian artist, painted "St. Jerome in the Wilderness."
    (SFC, 4/27/99, p.C1)

1474        Venice introduced the 1st modern patent law.
    (Econ, 10/22/05, Survey p.5)

c1474-1478    Leonardo da Vinci created his portrait "Ginevra de Benci."
    (WSJ, 12/14/01, p.W20)

1474-1515    Mariotto Albertinelli, painter. He painted "The Visitation."
    (AAP, 1964)

1474-1556    Bartolome de Las Casas, a Dominican priest, made a copy of the original log of Columbus’ voyage from a copy given to Columbus before his 2nd voyage. It is the only surviving copy.
    (NH, 10/96, p.23)

1475        Mar 6, Michelangelo Buonarroti (d.1564), painter, sculptor and architect, was born. His early mentor was Bertoldo di Giovanni, a pupil of Donatello. His work included "The Creation of Adam" and the "Pieta Rondanini." He at one time proposed to sculpt the 5,000 foot Monte Sagro in Carrara into the statue of a giant.
    (WUB, 1994, p. 904)(WSJ, 2/29/96, p.A-14)(AAP, 1964)(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T11)(SFEC,10/19/97, p.T4)(HN, 3/6/98)

1475        Cesare Borgia, illegitimate son of Rodrigo Borgia Lanzol, later Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), was born. He was made a church cardinal before his 20th birthday.
    (SFC, 3/16/02, p.A3)

c1475        Andrea del Verrochio created his sculpture "Sleeping Youth."
    (WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A18)

c1475        Dieric Bouts, Flemish painter, created his painting "Virgin and Child."
    (SFEC, 12/19/99, DB p.42)

1475        Pope Sixtus IV celebrated the Holy Year by building the Sistine Chapel and the Sixtus Bridge over the Tiber River.
    (SFC, 12/24/99, p.A15)

1475-1476    Petrus Christus (b. c1415), Netherlandish painter, died in Brugge.
    (www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/art.asp?aid=2806)

1475        In China’s Yunnan province the old Jihong Bridge over the Lancang River was reinforced with 18 iron chains over the 280-foot chasm.
    (SFEC, 10/6/96, T5)

1475        British fishermen lost access to fishing grounds off Iceland due to a war in Europe. The cod catch did not go down and it is presumed that they had discovered the cod-rich waters off Newfoundland, whose discovery was later attributed to John Cabot.
    (SFEM, 11/15/98, p.23)

1475        The Olavinlinna castle was founded by the governor of Viipuri on the border between Sweden-Finland and Russia.
    (SFEC, 4/11/99, p.T4)

1475-1495    An 11-piece set of tapestries were created with scenes from the Trojan War. They included "The Death of Troilus, Achilles and Paris." They were later housed at the Museo Catedralicio, Zamora, Spain.
    (WSJ, 4/11/02, p.AD7)

1475-1509    Italian architects invited by Ivan III built the Kremlin Cathedrals of the Assumption and the Archangel.
    (DVD, Criterion, 1998)

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