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Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice exploration, colonization commerce education literature art |
Maximilian of Austria wins election as king of the Romans February 16 despite opposition from his father, the emperor Friedrich III. Now 33, Maximilian is crowned king of the Germans April 9 at Aix-la-Chapelle and will reign until 1519 as Maximilian I.
Albrecht III Achilles, elector of Brandenburg, dies at Frankurt-am-Main March 11 at age 71, having helped in 1473 to establish the rule of primogeniture that the mark of Brandenburg shall pass to the elector's eldest son. Albrecht has fought aristocratic banditry, paid his officials salaries, kept them under tight control, and instituted an accounting system in his territories while opposing the autonomy of cities and towns such as Nuremberg.
Hungary's Matthias Corvinus (Mátyás Corvin) issues a royal decree that lays down a code of laws as part of a program that is making his country for a brief period the dominant state in central Europe (see 1467). His jurists have begun a codification intended to summarize the main principle of law "for all times," establishing a degree of centralization and the rudiments of a standing army within what remains largely a feudal state.
England's Henry VII marries Elizabeth, daughter of the late Edward IV and his consort, Elizabeth Woodville (see 1483).
African slaves in the kingdom of Gaur in India rebel and place their own leader on the throne.
Christopher Columbus submits his plan for a westward expedition to Ferdinand and Isabella May 1 and persuades them to sponsor him (see 1485; 1492).
Africa's kingdom of Benin begins trade with Portugal.
Former English lord chancellor William of Waynfleet dies at Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire, August 11 at age 91 (approximate), having founded Magdalen College at Oxford and shut down several monasteries in order to obtain revenues for its endowment.
Nonfiction: "Oration on the Dignity of Man" ("De hominis dignitate oratio") by Italian scholar and Platonist philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, 24, who has invited scholars from all of Europe to Rome for a public disputation. He had planned to defend 900 theses drawn from diverse Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin scholars, but a papal commission has denounced 13 of his theses as heretical and Innocent VIII has prohibited the assembly. Pico writes an Apologia but flees to France, where he is arrested. After a brief imprisonment, he will settle at Florence, where he will become associated with the Platonic Academy under the protection of Lorenzo de' Medici.
Painting: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli for the villa at Castello of his patron, Lorenzo Pierfrancesco de' Medici; Annunciation by Carlo Crivelli.
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