1419

1411 1412 1413 1414 1415 1416 1417 1418 1419 1420

political events

Jean the Fearless, duc de Burgundy, settles the dispute between Jacoba of Bavaria and her uncle Johann of Bavaria, ruling in Jacoba's favor (see 1418; but see also1420).

England's Henry V conquers almost all of Normandy by July with the exception of Mt. St. Michel (see 1418). Jean the Fearless, duc de Burgundy, is murdered September 1 while conferring on the bridge of Montereau with the French dauphin Charles, whose older brothers Louis and Jean have died in 1415 and 1417, respectively (the murder is in reprisal for the 1407 killing of the duc d'Orléans). The new duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon reaffirms his country's alliance with England, and the Treaty of Brètigny, forced on the French October 14, provides for English sovereignty over Guines, Ponthieu, Poitou, Saintonge, Angoumois, Limousin, Périgord, Agenois, Quercy, Rouergue, and Bigorre. The timid, uncrowned dauphin controls most of the territory below the Loire, while English and Burgundian troops ravage the north, brutally raping and pillaging as they cross the countryside (see 1420).

Korea's Yi dynasty king Htai Tjong dies and is succeeded by his son Sejong, who ascends the throne at age 22 to begin a 31-year reign in which he will reduce the wealth and power of the Buddhist hierarchy, bar all Buddhist monks from Seoul, and encourage artists and writers to reach new heights.

religion

A crowd gathers at Prague June 30 to demand the release of fellow Hussites held prisoner (see 1415); when the magistrates stall, the Hussites storm the town hall, throw the magistrates out the window, and begin what will be called a Hussite revolution, spreading puritanical ideas, derived from the late Jan Hus's denunciation of profligacy in the Catholic Church's hierarchy, from Bohemia to places as distant as Lithuania and Spain. The Hussites choose as their leader the one-eyed veteran (and occasional robber baron) Jan Zizka of Trocnov, 59, who has fought for the Teutonic Knights against the Poles, for the Austrians against the Turks, and for the English at Agincourt 4 years ago. An army of perhaps 25,000 knights, mercenaries, and adventurers summoned by Pope Martin V lays siege to Prague under the command of the German king Sigismund of Luxembourg, Zizka leads a force of about 9,000 Hussite peasants and laborers against the Catholic army July 30, his artillery takes a heavy toll, and his cavalry forces Sigismund to abandon the siege and retire temporarily from Bohemia (see 1421).

consumer protection

The mayor and aldermen of London issue a decree against blending wines, insisting that "each wine be sold whole in his degree and kin as he groweth" and that no one, citizen or foreigner, "mingle [any] manner of wine . . . but sell them as they grow." Merchants are forbidden to store prized Rhine wines in the same cellar as thin white wine, which is often used to stretch the superior wine, but Dutch wine merchants in the next 2 centuries will develop blending into an art that does not compromise the quality of good wine.

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