1450s

This is a list of events occurring in the 1450s, ordered by year.

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 of England.
• May 9 – Abdal-Latif Mirza, a Timurid dynasty monarch, is assassinated.
• May 13 – Charles VIII of Sweden, also serving as Carl I of Norway, is declared deposed from the latter 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.
• July 12 – Jack Cade is slain in a skirmish.
• August 12 – Cherbourg, the last English territory in Normandy, surrenders to the French.
• October 5 – Jews are expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Duke Ludwig IX.
• 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.
• 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]
• Johannes Gutenberg has set up his movable type printing press as a commercial operation in Mainz by this date.^[2]

1451

January–December

• February 3 – Murad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies and is succeeded by his son Mehmed II.
• February 14 – Louis XI of France marries Charlotte of Savoy.
• April 11 – Celje acquires market-town status and town rights by orders from Count Frederic II of Celje.
• April 19 – In the Delhi Sultanate, the Afghan Lodi dynasty succeeds the Turkish Sayyid dynasty.
• June 30 – French troops under the Comte de Dunois invade Guyenne and capture Bordeaux.
• August 20 – The French capture Bayonne, the last English stronghold in Guyenne.
• October 28 – Revolt of Ghent: Ghent takes up arms against Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

Date unknown

• The University of Glasgow is founded.
• Nicholas of Cusa invents concave lens spectacles to treat myopia.

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.
• May 31 – Revolt of Ghent: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, officially declares war on Ghent.
• 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.
  • 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.^[3]

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 the islands of Corvo and Flores in the Azores.
• Battle of Bealach nam Broig, a Scottish clan battle.

1453

January–December

• April – Tarabya and Studius are taken by the Ottoman Empire in preparation for the assault on Constantinople, as are the Princes' Islands, by the Ottoman fleet under Admiral Baltaoglu.

Siege of Constantinople

• April 2–May 29 – Siege and Fall of Constantinople: The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror ends the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire after more than a thousand years by capturing the capital, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). Mortars are perhaps used in battle for the first time in this action. The consequent closure of the traditional overland route from Western Europe to the Far East and need to identify new maritime routes leads to the Age of Discovery.
• May 22 – Partial lunar eclipse.
• May–June – Epibatos and Selymbria also fall to the Ottoman Turks after the final fall of Constantinople.
• July – Revolt of Ghent: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, crushes the Ghent rebellion.

Battle of Castillon

• 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.

1454

January–December

• February 4 – Beginning the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master and the citizens of Toruń rebel against the Teutonic Knights.
• 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 of England 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 Zarfati 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.[1]
• 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 1 – Battle of Arkinholm: Forces loyal to King James II of Scotland defeat the supporters of 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 go to capture Albania but are met and swiftly defeated by Skanderbeg's smaller force.
• June 9 – Halley's Comet makes 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 (and hence is still rung).
• 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 despot of Serbia.
• Alvise Cadamosto discovers some of the Cape Verde Islands.
• Diogo Gomes reaches the Geba River in Guinea Bissau and explores the Gambia River.
• 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 Ceguer in North Africa.^[4]

Date unknown

• Magdalen College, 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.^[5]

1459

January–December

• September 23 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Blore Heath in England: Yorkists under Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury defeat a Lancastrian force.
• October 12 – Wars of the Roses: Due to the advance of a royal force on his fortress of Ludlow, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, flees to Ireland, while his ally Richard Neville, Earl of 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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