1481
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization religion |
The Ottoman sultan Mehmet II dies at Hunkarcayr outside Constantinople May 3 at age 49 on the eve of another campaign in Anatolia. In his autocratic 30-year reign he has reorganized the government, given it its first codified criminal law code, encouraged scholarship, and invited the painter Gentile Bellini from Venice to decorate the walls of his palace. His eldest son is 34 and will reign until 1512 as Bayazid II, strengthening Turkish power in Europe through wars with Poland, Hungary, and Venice.
Milanese power changes hands as Ludovico Sforza (Il Moro), uncle of Gian Galeazzo, ousts the boy's mother from her regency and takes over (see 1479; 1494).
English jurist Sir Thomas Littleton (or Lyttelton, or Luttelton) dies at Frankley, Worcestershire, August 23 at age 59, having produced a Treatise on Tenures (or Littleton on Tenures), the first English legal text not written in Latin or showing any great influence of Roman (civil) law.
Portugal's Afonso V dies at his native Sintra in the Azores August 28 at age 49 after a 43-year reign. Afonso the African renounced his throne 2 years ago and abandoned any claim to Castile, but the Cortes has not yet met to ratify his abdication. Afonso is succeeded by his 26-year-old son, who will reign until 1495 as João II.
Portugal's new king spurs the explorations that have given his nation dominance in trade with West Africa.
The Spanish Inquisition puts eight converted Jews on trial, finds them guilty, and burns them at the stake (see 1478). It begins persecuting the so-called Marranos (the word originally meant "pigs") and will be broadened to persecute all "heretics," including Muslims (see Torquemada, 1483).
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