1439

1431 1432 1433 1434 1435 1436 1437 1438 1439 1440

political events

A nephew of the Scandinavian king Erik VII assumes the thrones vacated by Erik (see 1438); Christopher of Bavaria, now 21, will reign over Denmark, Norway, and Sweden until 1448 as Kristofer III, and although Erik will make efforts from his island refuge of Gotland to regain at least one of the thrones, he will abandon hope in 1449 and return to his native Pomerania.

France's Charles VII negotiates with the English at Gravelines, helped by the diplomatic skills of Jean d'Orléans, who receives the countship of Dunois from his half brother Charles, duc d'Orléans. Richard Beauchamp, 5th earl of Warwick, dies at Rouen April 30 at age 57.

The Hapsburg German king Albrecht II dies at Langendorf October 27 at age 42 after a reign of less than 2 years, spent mainly in defending Hungary against the Ottoman Turks (he has also been king of Bohemia and Hungary and the uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor). Albrecht has led an army to the gates of Baghdad but has lost much of his force to dysentery, which hastens his own end. The death of Friedrich of Tyrol, Hapsburg cousin of Albrecht II, leaves Friedrich's 24-year-old ward and nephew the senior member of the Hapsburg family (see 1440).

The Ottoman sultan Murad II annexes Serbia and forces that country's despot George Brankovich, now 72, to take refuge in Hungary (see 1395; 1439).

Venetian naval and military hero Pietro Loredan is murdered, possibly with the connivance of the doge Francesco Foscari, his political enemy.

medicine

Venice has an outbreak of the bubonic plague that will be called the Black Death; by midyear, half the city's population is dead, but some people exposed to the plague do not fall ill and in some cities the disease does not appear at all.

religion

The Council of Florence convenes at that city January 10, having been moved from Ferrara either because of an outbreak of plague there or simply because banker Cosimo de' Medici has succeeded in luring the ecumenical council to his native city. The Greek delegates are finally persuaded to accept the Filioque of the Nicene Creed and the Latin statements on purgatory, the Eucharist, and papal primacy. A union between the two groups (the Laetentur Caeli) is signed July 6, reaffirming the union between Constantinople and Rome; the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus accepts papal primacy, but when the delegates return to Constantinople many of them repudiate the reunion of the two Churches; the council will move to Rome in September 1443 and continue to 1445.

Pope Eugenius IV appoints Zbigniew Oleshnicki cardinal. A strong opponent of the dissident Hussite movement, Oleshnicki is the first Polish cardinal.

The Pragmatic Sanction of Mainz leaves the German Church under imperial and princely control, postponing any reform in the Church (see 1440).

art

Painting: Margaret van Eyck by Jan van Eyck.

Sculpture: Marble reliefs for the altar of St. Peter in the great cathedral at Florence by Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia, 39.

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