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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce art |
William de la Pole, 1st duke of Suffolk, arrives in France in February with a train of courtiers to escort Margaret of Anjou to England and is entertained with feasts and tournaments. Agnès Sorel bears a third daughter at Beauté sur Marne; the king presents her with the château d'Issoudoun.
Charles VII creates the first permanent French army: 20 companies of elite royal cavalry with 200 lances per company, six men per lance.
Copenhagen becomes the capital of Denmark.
Portuguese explorer Dinis Diaz rounds Africa's Cape Verde for the first time in modern history (see Cape Bojador, 1434). Sent out by Prince Henrique (Henry the Navigator), he reaches the mouth of the Senegal River, which is thought to be a branch of the Nile (see Cape Verde Islands, 1451).
Some 25 caravels per year trade between Portugal and West Africa, bringing home gold dust and slaves to Lagos and Lisbon.
Painting: Santa Lucia Altarpiece by Italian painter Domenico Veneziano, 39, represents the Madonna and the saints in the same scale for the first time and reveals a new use of light and shadow; The Adoration of the Magi by Italian painter Fra Angelico (Guido di Petro), 58, and Fra Filippo Lippi; Giants by Paolo Uccello; frescoes of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and others by Andrea del Castagno for the refectory of Florence's Church of Santa Apollonia.
Sculpture: The Resurrection by Luca della Robbia, who has perfected a technique of creating figures of terracotta glazed like faience in white relief against blue grounds.
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