1438

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political events

The Austrian duke Albrecht of Hapsburg is crowned king of Hungary January 1 and elected German king March 18 to succeed his late father-in-law, Sigismund (see 1437). Now 40, Albrecht II is crowned king of Bohemia June 29 but will not be able to obtain possession of Bohemia and will spend most of his brief reign defending Hungary against the Ottoman Turks. He convenes a diet at Nuremberg, ends all feuds based on the right of private warfare, appoints arbiters to resolve disputes, and installs Count Ulrich von Cilli, 32, as his Bohemian regent but soon dismisses him.

Venetian forces under the command of Pietro Loredan reconquer fortresses along the Po River (but see 1439).

Scotland and England conclude a truce that will last until 1448.

Prominent members of the Swedish nobility gain support from the Danish council of state for their demand that Erik XIII (Denmark's Erik VII) institute a new union with constitutional limits on his rule (see 1435). Erik has ruled Denmark, Norway, and Sweden since 1412; he refuses the Swedish demands, flees peasant rebellions, steals the treasuries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; takes refuge on the Swedish island of Gotland; and turns pirate, preying on Baltic shipping. The Swedes will depose him next year, the Norwegians in 1442.

Portugal's Duarte (Edward) I dies of plague at Tomar December 9 at age 47 with his brother Fernãndo still unransomed. Duarte's 6-year-old son inherits the crown and will reign until 1481 as Afonso V, with his brilliant uncle Pedro as regent until 1449 (the boy's mother, Leonor of Aragon, has no liking for Pedro but will leave the country, allowing Pedro and his brother Henrique [Henry the Navigator] to manage the nation's affairs; see but see 1449).

The Inca dynasty that will rule much of the Andean region in the southern hemisphere of the Western Hemisphere until 1553 is founded by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (see 1471).

religion

The Council of Ferrara opens January 8 in a continuation of the Council of Basel, which was convened in 1431 but which Pope Eugenius IV has transferred from the Swiss city. The Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus attends with a Greek delegation numbering about 700, including 20 metropolitans and the patriarch of Constantinople. Delegates discuss purgatory and have a falling-out over the Nicene Creed of 325, specifically over the phrase "and from the Son" (Filioque), the Greeks maintaining that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, not from both the Father and the Son (see 1439).

A Pragmatic Sanction issued by France's Charles VII limits papal authority over French bishops and gives the king a voice in clerical appointments (but see 1461).

education

England's Henry VI establishes Oxford's College of All Souls of the Departed with help from Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury (see Lincoln College, 1427). The college's warden and 40 fellows are all to take Holy Orders; 24 are to study arts, philosophy, and theology; 16 to study civil or canon law; and All Souls will be unique in that it will never have ordinary students, only fellows, and become chiefly a place for academic research (see Magdalen, 1458).

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