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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce environment |
Representatives of Bohemia and Moravia meet at Caslav June 1, renounce the German king Sigismund, and found a government of their own (see 1419). A 4,000-man army of Hussites raised by Jan Zizka defeats the emperor's 40,000-man Catholic army and occupies Prague. Zizka's highly disciplined "Warriors of God" build the wooden town of Tabor, about 55 miles southeast of Prague, as a biblical city, and although Zizka loses his remaining eye at the siege of Raby he continues to lead the Hussites (see 1422).
The former marshal of France Jean II le Meingre Boucicaut dies in captivity in Yorkshire at age 55 (approximate), having been taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
Joanna II of Naples asks Aragon's Alfonso V to help her in her struggle against Louis III of Anjou (see Alfonso, 1420); she adopts Alfonso as her son and heir, Naples receives him as its liberator July 5, but Joanna will soon change her mind and make overtures to Louis of Anjou (see 1423).
Florence buys Livorno (Leghorn) and establishes the Consuls of the Sea.
Filippo Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, subjugates Genoa as he works to rebuild the duchy that broke up into city-states following the death of his father in 1402.
The Ottoman sultan Mehmet I dies at age 34 after an 8-year reign in which he has consolidated the empire. He is succeeded by his 18-year-old son, who will reign until 1451 as Murad II, extending the empire into southeastern Europe (see 1432).
China's Ming dynasty emperor Yong Le (Yung-lo) sends his admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) on a fifth expedition abroad (see 1416). The Ming navy has grown to include 250 long-distance galleons; 400 large warships; 400 grain-transport freighters; 1,350 patrol vessels; and 1,350 combat ships attached to coast-guard stations (see 1431). Some of the vessels may reach the Western Hemisphere this year, although evidence of that will remain controversial.
The Portuguese prince Henrique, now 27, assembles Europe's leading pilots, map-makers, astronomers, scholars, and instrument makers at Sagres on the Cape St. Vincent, where they will pioneer a new science of navigation (see portolan chart, 1311; Hanseatic League, 1375). A grandson of the late John of Gaunt, Henrique retired from the court 2 years ago, became governor of the Algarve, and will be remembered as Henry the Navigator (although he himself will never make any voyages of discovery). He has his shipwrights develop a lateen-rigged caravel with three masts—a highly maneuverable vessel able to stand up to the winds of the open sea (see Madeira Islands, 1419; Canary Islands, 1425).
Florentine banker Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici continues to build his fortune by collecting taxes for the pope, using bills of exchange to circumvent Church doctrine against usury, winning rights to alum mines, paying fines rather than serving in the government, and gaining control of partnerships in which he has participated. Now 61, he once made a loan to the pirate Baldassare Cossa, who became the antipope John XXIII in 1410, and as "God's banker" Giovanni has established branches throughout the northern Italian city-states and beyond the Alps. The city rewards him with the high ceremonial office of gonfaliere (standard bearer).
The North Sea engulfs more than 70 Dutch villages. Upwards of 100,000 die as the shallow Zuider Zee spreads over thousands of square miles.
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