1417

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political events

Wilhelm, count of Zeeland, Holland, and Hainaut, dies and is succeeded by his 16-year-old daughter Jacoba, who was married 2 years ago to Jean de Touraine. Her husband has also just died, but the German king Sigismund of Luxembourg refuses to recognize her claim to her father's lands, supporting instead the claims of her father's brother Johann of Bavaria (see 1418).

English authorities capture the fugitive Lollard Sir John Oldcastle in November, Parliament repeats the condemnation it made in 1413, and he is hanged at London December 14 at age 39 over a fire that burns the gallows (see 1414).

The Laotian king Sam Saen Thai dies at age 61 (approximate) after a peaceful 44-year reign in which he has put the administration and defenses of Lan Xang on a sound footing, work that his successors will complete (see 1479).

commerce

Merchants of the Hanseatic League agree not to buy wheat before it is grown, herring before it is caught, or cloth before it is woven. The League regulates city tariffs and prices to keep supplies of grain and meat cheap for townspeople even at the expense of peasants.

religion

The former pope Gregory XII dies at Recanati October 18 at age 92 (approximate), and the Great Schism that has divided the Church since 1378 ends November 11. Having deposed Gregory XII, the antipope Benedict XIII, and the antipope John XXIII, the Council of Constance elects Ottone (Otto) Colonna, 49, who will reign until 1431 as Pope Martin V. The French offer him a residence at Avignon, the new pope opts for Rome, but that city is in ruins and Pope Martin will reside at Florence until 1420.

communications, media

Printers at Antwerp use movable type (see Limoges, 1381; Haarlem, 1435).

literature

The Italian humanist Poggio discovers the first four and a half books of the epic poem the Argonautica by the 1st century A.D. poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus at Saint-Gali. A first edition will be published in 1474.

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Communication

A copy of Lucretius's De rerum natura ("on the nature of things") is found in manuscript in a monastery; it is the first version available since Roman times. Scholars since have found another partially legible copy in the ruins of Herculaneum. See also 50 bce Biology; 1473 Physics.

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