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Scotland's heir apparent David Stuart (or Stewart), duke of Rothesay, dies March 27 at age 24, having been imprisoned at Falkland by his uncle Robert Stuart, duke of Albany, and Archibald Douglas, 4th earl of Douglas (see 1399). Albany draws suspicion of involvement in his nephew's death, which may have been due to starvation; Douglas is tried on charges of murder, wins acquittal, and leads Scottish forces into England sacking Newcastle. Welsh rebel Owen Glendower (Owain Glyn Dwr) leads his men into Radnorshire in June. An English force of several thousand men under the command of Edmund de Mortimer, 5th earl of March, intercepts the Welsh, but Glendower has taken the high ground and hidden a large group out of sight in a valley, his archers have the advantage June 22 at the Battle of Pilleth (Bryn Glas), they take a heavy toll on the English, whereupon the Welsh foot soldiers come out of hiding and slaughter most of the survivors. Between 200 and 1,100 Englishmen die (reports quickly circulate that the women accompanying Glendower have mutilated the bodies of the English dead, cutting off their penises and stuffing them in the corpses' mouths). The Welsh capture Mortimer and hold him for ransom.
Edmund of Langley, duke of York, dies at his native Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, August 1 at age 62; fifth son of the late Edward III, he has absented himself from court since the accession of the Lancastrian Henry IV Plantagenet.
English forces stop the Scots September 14 at Homildon Hill in Northumberland under the leadership of Edmund de Mortimer's brother-in-law Sir Henry Percy, 3rd Baron Percy (Harry Hotspur), now 60, and his brother Sir Thomas Percy, now 58 (see Otterburn, 1388). Archers take a heavy toll of Scottish noblemen, there is no hand-to-hand fighting, and the English recover vast quantities of plunder that the Scots had taken at Durham. Henry IV forbids any effort to ransom the 26-year-old Mortimer, whom he regards with suspicion as a rival to the throne. Mortimer marries Glendower's daughter Catrin November 30; Glendower, Percy, and Mortimer agree to divide England and Wales amongst themselves, with Mortimer to rule southern England (see Shrewsbury, 1403; Harlech, 1409).
French soldiers Jean de Béthencourt, 41, and Gadifer de La Salle set out from La Rochelle May 1 to occupy the Canary Island of Lanzarotte. The two met 12 years ago on a crusade against Tunish, Béthencourt has borrowed money on his lands to finance their expedition, he leaves in June for Cádiz to procure reinforcements from the Castilian court, and Gadifer proceeds to explore the archipelago. Less than 70 miles off the northwest coast of Africa, the Canaries consist of seven volcanic peaks that rise out of the Atlantic to snow-covered peaks as high as 12,250 feet (see 1404).
Milan's duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti dies of plague September 3 at age 51 while besieging Florence (see 1401). His death saves Florence but plunges Milan into anarchy as his son Giovanni Maria, 13, is proclaimed duke while his son Filippo Maria, 10, is made nominal head of Pavia. In addition to reforming and centralizing Milan's government and promoting its arts and industries, Gian Galeazzo has allied himself with France's ruling family by marrying Isabella, daughter of Jean II; his widow serves as regent for Giovanni Maria (see 1412).
The Battle of Angora (Ankara) July 28 ends in victory for Tamerlane over the Ottoman sultan Bayazid I, whose army of 120,000 is no match for Tamerlane's 800,000 Tatar warriors (see 1401). Tamerlane has drawn Bayazid east by spreading stories that his mother was a prostitute; he captures the sultan (see 1403), restores many Turkish emirs, takes Smyrna by assault after a 2-week siege, and massacres the Knights of Rhodes along with the other inhabitants, but his victory over the Ottoman Turks has brought elation to Christian Europe. Giving his enemies no quarter, Tamerlane has bombarded ships with human heads shot from cannons and cemented entire populations into towers, leaving them to starve. The sultan of Egypt offers submission, as does the 12-year-old Byzantine co-emperor John VII Paleologus (see 1404).
Forces of China's rebellious Prince of Yen break through imperial Ming armies in the north early in the year and move down the Grand Canal almost without opposition after a stalemated war that has devastated much of western Shandong (Shantung) Province and the northern part of the Huai River Basin (see 1399). The second Ming dynasty emperor Jianwen (Chu Yün-wen) at Nanjing (Nanking) has failed to muster sufficient men and matériel to oppose his uncle, whose admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) accepts surrender of the imperial fleet on the Yangtze River. Court defectors open the gates of Nanjing's walls to the rebel army in July. The rebels set fire to the palace July 13. It is announced that Jianwen has died in the flames at age 24 after a 4-year reign (although rumors will persist that he escaped in disguise), and his uncle, now 43, will ascend the imperial throne next year to begin a 21-year reign as the Ming emperor Yong Le (Yung-lo). Great violence marks the start of the new reign. The 45-year-old Confucian scholar Fang Xiaoru declines to express loyalty to Yong Le, who cuts him to pieces in Nanjing's main square and executes more than 900 people with some connection to Fang Xiaoru (Yong Le's favorite method of execution is by a thousand cuts, causing those who displease him to bleed slowly to death). Uneasiness persists that the deposed nephew will somehow reappear, but the Yong Le reign will bring progress to China (see Forbidden City, 1420).
Würzburg University has its beginnings in Bavaria.
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