1471

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political events

France's Louis XI declares war on Charles the Bold, duc de Burgundy, in January and occupies towns in Picardy.

England's Edward IV lands at Ravenspur in March with an army of 10,000 men to oppose Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, who has quarreled with him; transferred his allegiance to the Lancastrian cause; released Henry VI from imprisonment; and restored him to the throne. Warwick brings an army of 15,000 to fight Edward and the Battle of Barnet in Hertfordshire takes place on Easter Sunday, April 14. John de Vere, 13th earl of Oxford, leads the Lancastrian vanguard, but one part of the Lancastrian army clashes with another accidentally in the heavy mist. Edward takes advantage of the confusion. Warwick is killed, his army sustains about 1,000 casualties (the Yorkists lose about half that many), and the earl of Oxford is exiled once again to France (see 1473). Edward gains another victory at Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire May 4, defeating an inferior force under the command of Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset (whose brother was killed at Hexham in 1464); the 17-year-old heir apparent Edward Prince of Wales, is killed; Margaret of Anjou is captured; and her husband, the last Lancastrian king Henry VI, is murdered in the Tower of London May 21, possibly by Richard, duke of Gloucester (see Bosworth, 1485).

Thomas Fitzgerald, 7th earl of Kildare, accepts an appointment as lord deputy of Ireland (see 1468), and the earls of Kildare will hereafter bear the title of lord deputy (the English princes being lords lieutenant); aristocratic power in Ireland will remain in the hands of that country's ruling earls until well into the next century, but English rule of Ireland is really no rule at all (see 1477).

Bohemia's George Podiebrad dies at Prague March 22 at age 51 and is succeeded by the 15-year-old Polish prince Wladislaw (Vladislav), a son of Casimir IV, who will reign until 1516 as Ladislas II, dominated by nobles. The ascension of Ladislas begins a 7-year Hungarian war.

The Moldavian prince Stefan invades Walachia, which has become an Ottoman vassal state (see 1467; 1475).

The grand duke of Muscovy Ivan III forces Novgorod to renounce her ties with Lithuania and pay tribute to Moscow (see 1462). Novgorod is the center of a vast republic in northern Europe, and while Lithuania extends from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Ivan has made Muscovy a more powerful nation (see 1479).

The Swedish regent Sten Sture repels an invasion by Kristian of Denmark with help from Stockholm and other towns (see 1470). Kristian barely escapes with his life in the Battle of Brunkeberg outside Stockholm October 10. His army is crushed, arbitrators in the peace talks that ensue agree to reinstate him, but the Swedish national assembly soon rejects that idea and elects the 31-year-old nobleman Sten Sture, 30, as regent. Sten and his nephew Svante Nilsson Sture hold the real power in Sweden, and he returns to the reforms of Engelbrecht Engelbrechtsen (see 1435; 1497).

Tangier falls to Portugal's Afonso V (Afonso o Africano), who has earlier taken Arzila and Casablanca in a campaign against the North African kingdom of Fez but failed in an effort to take Tangier in 1463 (see 1458).

The Vietnamese forces of Le Thanh Ton defeat the Cham people who have been attacking Vietnam for decades. Since ascending the throne 11 years ago, Le Than Ton has defeated rivals for his throne, registered his population, had new civil and penal codes drawn up on the basis of Confucian moral precepts, instituted a land tax based on the nature of a farmer's crops and the amount of his arable land, and had hortatory Confucian works read out periodically in every village. He reduces Champa to a narrow strip along the southern edge of the peninsula (see 1479).

The Inca emperor Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui dies after a 33-year reign in which he has conquered neighboring peoples and expanded his state from his capital at Cuzco in a northwesterly direction to Quito (see 1433). His son Topa Inca Yupanqui will further enlarge the state (see 1524).

exploration, colonization

San Jorge d'el Mina is founded by the Portuguese as a port to trade in gold on what will be called Africa's Gold Coast.

commerce

The new pope Sixtus IV cancels the Vatican alliance made with the Medici family in 1466 to monopolize the alum trade. The late Cosimo de' Medici's grandson Lorenzo, now 22, conciliates the new pope and is appointed receiver of the papal revenues and banker to the Vatican (but see 1475).

medicine

The Black Death strikes England in another epidemic of bubonic plague, killing 10 percent of the population (see 1409; 1499).

religion

German priest and writer Thomas à Kempis dies at Mt. St. Agnes July 25 at age 91.

Pope Paul II dies at Rome July 26 at age 54 after a 7-year reign and is succeeded by a cardinal of the della Rovere family who will reign until 1484 as Sixtus IV.

literature

Poet Sir Thomas Malory dies at London in March at age 65 (approximate). Probably a knight-retainer to the earl of Warwick, he was convicted more than 20 years ago of raping a married woman, stealing cattle, and committing other offenses and has spent much of his adult life in prison, where he has written Le Morte D'arthur, an interpretation of Arthurian legend that introduced the romantic triangle of King Arthur's queen, Guinevere, and her illicit lover, Lancelot du Lac, who was the king's bravest and most loyal knight (see 1485).

art

Painting: Madonna in a Garden by Cosmé Tura.

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