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 First book printed with movable metal type. Johannes Gutenberg
printed 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. [see 1452]
(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)
c1450 The Portuguese brought slaves to the uninhabited Cape Verde
Island.
(SFC, 8/5/98, p.A8)
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.
(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, Italian navigator, was born. [1454
also given]
(HN, 3/9/98)(MC, 3/9/02)
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 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 Sep 30, The 1st book was published, Johannes Guttenberg's
Bible. [see 1450]
(MC, 9/30/01)
1452 Oct 2, King Richard III, of England (1483-85), was born.
(MC, 10/2/01)
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 22-23, 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.
(V.D.-H.K.p.67,142)(NH, 9/96, p.22)(Sky, 4/97, p.53)(HN, 5/29/98)(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)
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 began work on the “Legenda della Vera
Croce” 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)
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)
1455 Feb 18, Fra Angelico (b.1387, aka Giovanni da Fiesole), Italian
monk, Renaissance painter, died. Baptized Guido di Pietro, 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.
(HNQ, 3/6/01)(MC, 2/18/02)
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 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 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)
1455-1485 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, Hungarian Prince Janos Hunyadi (69) died of plague.
(PC, 1992, p.150)
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 VII, 1st Tudor king of England (1485-1509),
was born in Pembroke Castle.
(MC, 1/28/02)
1457 Nov 23, Ladislaus V (17), posthumous king of Hungary and
Bohemia, died.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1457 Aug 14, The first book ever printed was published by a German
astrologer named Faust. He was thrown in jail while trying to sell books
in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust
had dealt with the devil. This is the oldest known exactly dated printed
book. [see 1452]
(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 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, Henry the Navigator (66), prince of Portugal, died.
(MC, 11/13/01)
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)
1460-1464 Rogier van der Weyden painted "The Lamentation Over the Body
of the Dead Christ."
(SFEC, 12/26/99, p.C17)
1460?-1526? Pedro Alvarez Cabral, Portuguese navigator, discovered and
claimed Brazil for Portugal on April 22, 1500.
(AHD, p.185)(HFA, '96, 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.
(MC, 6/28/02)
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)
1462-1524 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)
1463-1494 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 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 (64), Italian condottiere ("Il Sforza
del Destino"), duke of Milan, died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1466 Oct 19, The peace of Torun ended the war between the Teutonic
knights and their own disaffected subjects in Prussia.
(HN, 10/19/98)
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 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)
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, who 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 Apr 14, Richard Neville Warwick (42), 2nd earl of Salisbury,
died.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1471 May 1, Thomas A. Kempis (91), spiritual writer, died.
(MC, 5/1/02)
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)(MC, 5/4/02)
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 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), monk, Florentine Renaissance
painter, was born. [see 1475]
(MC, 3/28/02)
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 In Siena the Monte dei Paschi began taking deposits and making
loans. By some accounts this was the oldest existing bank in 1999. 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)
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 Thomas a Kempis wrote his popular "Imitation of Christ."
It went through 99 editions by the end of the century.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)
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)
c1474 Ercole de' Roberti, Italian artist, painted "St. Jerome
in the Wilderness."
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.C1)
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 Fra Bartolommeo (d.1517), Baccio della Porta, Italian painter,
was born. He was a Dominican and painted a portrait of Savonarola. [see
Mar 28, 1472]
(WUD, 1994, p.123)(SFC, 5/13/96, p.D-5)(WSJ, 10/29/96, p.A21)
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 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)