1450s

1450s: events by year

Contents: 1450 1451 1452 1453 1454 1455 1456 1457 1458 1459

1450

January–December

• February 7 – John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk, marries Lady Margaret Beaufort.
• March – French troops under Guy de Richemont besiege the English commander in France, Edmund Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, in Caen.
• April 15 – Battle of Formigny: French troops under the Comte de Clermont defeat an English army under Sir Thomas Kyriel and Sir Matthew Gough which was attempting to relieve Caen.
• May 8 – Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
• May 9 – 'Abd al-Latif Mirza (a Timurid monarch) is assassinated.
• May 13 – Charles VIII of Sweden (who was also serving as Carl I of Norway) is declared deposed from the later throne in favor of Christian I of Denmark.
• June 18 – Battle of Seven Oaks: Jack Cade's rebels are driven from London by loyal troops, bringing about the collapse of the rebellion.
• July 6 – Caen surrenders to the French.
• August 12 – Cherbourg, the last English territory in Normandy, surrenders to the French.
• November 3 – The University of Barcelona is founded.
• November 23 – First Siege of Krujë: Albanian victory; Ottoman army of approximately 100,000 men retreats from Albania.

Date unknown

• Wolves enter Paris and kill 40 citizens.
• The Age of Discovery begins.
• Machu Picchu (Quechua: Machu Pikchu, "Old mountain") a pre-Columbian Inca site located 2,400 meters (7,875 ft) above sea level believed to be under construction.^[1]

1452

January–December

• February 22 – Murder of William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas by James II of Scotland at Stirling Castle.
• March – Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor becomes the last to be crowned in Rome.
• June 18 – Pope Nicholas V issues the bull Dum Diversas, legitimising the colonial slave trade.
• October – English troops under John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, land in Guyenne, France, and retake most of the province without a fight.
• October – Byzantine-Ottoman Wars – The Ottoman governor of Thessaly, Turakhan Beg, breaks through the Hexamilion wall for the fourth time and ravages the Peloponnese peninsula, to prevent the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea from assisting Constantinople during the final Ottoman siege of the imperial capital.^[2]

Date unknown

• A major eruption of the South Pacific volcano Kuwae in Vanuatu has a subsequent global cooling effect (the eruption released more sulfate than any other event in the past 700 years).
• Portuguese navigator Diogo de Teive discovers Corvo Island in the Azores.
• Battle of Bealach nam Broig, a Scottish clan battle.
• Revolt of Ghent: Forces of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, clash multiple times with rebel militia from Ghent in the region around Ghent.

1453

January–December

• April – Therapia and Studius are taken by the Ottomans in preparation for the assault on Constantinople, as are the Princes' Islands, by the Ottoman fleet under Admiral Baltoghlu.
• April 2–May 29 – Siege and Fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul): The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror ends the Byzantine Empire by capturing the capital, Constantinople. Mortars are perhaps used in battle for the first time in this action.
• May 22– Partial lunar eclipse takes place.
• May–June – Epibatos and Selymbria also fall to the Turks after the final fall of Constantinople.
• July 17 – Battle of Castillon: The French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed.
• October 19 – The Hundred Years' War comes to a close with the French recapture of Bordeaux, leaving the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

Date unknown

• Johannes Gutenberg invents the movable type printing press.
• Revolt of Ghent: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, crushes the Ghent rebellion.

1454

January–December

• February 4 – In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
• March 6 – Casimir IV of Poland renounces allegiance to the Teutonic Knights.
• March 27 – Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York becomes Protector for the insane King Henry VI of England.
• April 9 – Treaty of Lodi: Francesco Sforza forms a triple alliance between the duchy of Milan, the republic of Florence and kingdom of Naples.
• September 18 – Battle of Chojnice: The Polish army is defeated by a smaller but more professional Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.
• December – King Henry having regained his sanity, the Duke of York is dismissed as Protector.

Date unknown

• The press of Johannes Gutenberg (at Mainz on the Rhine) produces the first printed documents bearing a date.
• Isaac Sarfati sends a circular letter to Rhineland, Swabia, Moravia and Hungary, praising the happy conditions of the Jews under the crescent in contrast to the "great torture chamber" under the cross and urging them to come to Turkey.^{[citation needed]}
• Statutes of Nieszawa enacted in Poland.

1455

January–December

• January 8 – Pope Nicholas V publishes Romanus Pontifex, an encyclical addressed to King Afonso V of Portugal, which sanctions the conquest of non-Christian lands, and the reduction of native non-Christian populations to 'perpetual slavery'.
• February 23 – The Gutenberg Bible is the first book printed with movable type.
• April 8 – Pope Calixtus III succeeds Pope Nicholas V as the 209th pope.
• Spring – The Wars of the Roses begin.
• May 18 – Battle of Arkinholm: King James II of Scotland defeats the Earl of Douglas.
• May 22 – First Battle of St Albans: Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• July – Siege of Berat.

1456

January–December

• May 18 – Second Battle of Oronichea (1456): Ottoman forces of 15,000 went to capture Albania but was met and swiftly defeated by Skanderbeg's smaller force.
• June 9 – Halley's Comet made an appearance, as noted by the humanist scholar Platina.
• July 7 – A retrial acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
• July 21–July 22 – Battle of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade): The Hungarians under John Hunyadi rout the Turkish army of Sultan Mehmed II. The noon bell ordered by Pope Callixtus III commemorates the victory throughout the Christian world (hence the noon bell is still rung to this day).
• August 20 – Vladislav II, reigning Prince of Wallachia, is killed in battle by Vlad III Dracula, who succeeds him.
• October 17 – The University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden and Prussia).

Date unknown

• Lazar Branković becomes king of Serbia.
• Luigi de Cadamosto discovers the Cape Verde Islands.
• Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia founds the city of Debre Berhan.
• Muscovy and Novgorod Republic conclude the Treaty of Yazhelbitsy.

1457

January–December

• February 24 – Charles VIII of Sweden is declared deposed. Archbishop of Sweden Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna and statesman Erik Axelsson Tott become co-regents of Sweden. The throne is then offered to Christian I of Denmark and Norway.
• June 23 – Christian I is elected king of Sweden, ending the war between Sweden and Denmark and restoring the Kalmar union.

• September 2 – Battle of Ujëbardha: One of Skanderbeg's most important victories against the Ottoman army in the open field.

Date unknown

• The oldest printed book to carry a date, the Mainz Psalter, is published.
• Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg is founded.
• Ştefan cel Mare secures the throne of Moldavia, which he retains for the next 47 years.
• Edo Castle is built by Ōta Dōkan in what is now Tokyo.
• After years of captivity and absence from the Ming throne, the Zhengtong Emperor of China is reinstated as the Tianshun Emperor.

1458

January–December

• January 24 – Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary.
• August 19 – Pope Pius II succeeds Pope Callixtus III as the 210th pope.
• October 24 – King Afonso V of Portugal conquers Alcácer-Quibir in North Africa.

Date unknown

• Magdalen College, University of Oxford is founded.
• George of Podebrady becomes king of Bohemia.
• Luis Cadamosto discovers the first Cape Verde Islands.
• The Turks issue a decree to protect the Acropolis after they conquer Athens.
• The Jewish community is expelled from Erfurt (Germany), their houses are sold and the synagogue turned into an arsenal.^[3]

1459

January–December

• September 23 – Battle of Blore Heath: Yorkists under the Earl of Salisbury defeat a Lancastrian force.
• October 12 – Due to the advance of a royal force on his fortress of Ludlow, The Duke of York flees to Ireland, while his ally Warwick goes to Calais.

Date unknown

• The Wallachian town of Bucharest is first mentioned.
• The city of Jodhpur, in western India, is founded by Rao Jodha of Marwar.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References

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