1476

1471 1472 1473 1474 1475 1476 1477 1478 1479 1480

political events

Walachia returns Vlad Tepes (Dracula) to the throne January 31. Now 43, Dracula, who has married the sister of Hungary's Matthias Corvinus, takes this year as his second wife the Neapolitan princess Beatrice of Aragon (see Dracula, 1477).

Burgundy's Charles the Bold conquers Lorraine, makes war on the Swiss cantons that have allied themselves with France's Louis XI, but is defeated at Granson on the southwestern shore of Lake Neuchatel March 2 (see 1474). The Burgundians took Granson in February and hanged its entire garrison. Charles has an army of 30,000 with plenty of artillery; the Swiss only 18,000 pikemen and halberdiers. But the canton leaders attack so swiftly that the Burgundians have little chance to use their guns. The Burgundians take to their heels when two more Swiss columns arrive and about 1,000 of them are killed as compared to about 200 Swiss. The Battle of Morat (Murten) on the shores of the Murtensee west of Berne June 22 gives the Swiss another victory: the duke of Lorraine and cantonal commanders launch a surpise attack to relieve the Burgundian siege of Morat, losing only 410 of their 23,200 infantrymen and 1,800 cavalrymen; 8,000 of Charles the Bold's 23,000-man force are killed despite having far superior artillery; and France's Louis XI decides to come in on the side of the Swiss Confederation (see 1477).

Milan's tyrant Galeazzo Maria Sforza is assassinated December 26 at age 32 by three young noblemen on the porch of the city's cathedral. He is succeeded after a 10-year reign by his 7-year-old son Gian Galeazzo under the regency of the boy's mother, Bona of Savoy (see 1450). She acknowledges that her late husband wronged the noblemen who killed him, asks the pope to issue a bull absolving Galeazzo's many and grievous sins, offers to make reparations and to build churches and monasteries and perform works of mercy, and endeavors to restore Milan's alliance with Ferrara by arranging a marriage between her daughter Anna and the newborn son and heir of Ferrara's Ercole d'Este. The pope tries to capitalize on the situation by pushing the marriage of Catharina Sforza, Galeazzo's daughter, to his own nephew, a match that had been arranged by Galeazzo (Bona has brought up Catharina with her own children) (see 1479).

communications, media

William Caxton sets up the first English press to employ movable type and prints an indulgence to raise money for a Christian fleet against the Ottoman Turks (see 1475).

art

Painting: The Demidoff altarpiece by Carlo Crivelli.

Sculpture: David (bronze) by Andrea del Verrocchio.

food and drink

Paris charcutiers (pork butchers) band together by edict of France's Louis XI for the sale of cooked pork and raw pork fat only; they do not have the right to slaughter the pigs they need and will be dependent on general butchers until the next century. During Lent, they may sell salted herring and other seafish.

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