1403

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Year 1403 (MCDIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–December

• February 7 – King Henry IV of England marries Joanna of Navarre, the daughter of Charles d'Évreux, King of Navarre.
• March 12 – As King Martin I of Aragon helps to end the siege by the French of the papal palace in Avignon, Antipope Benedict XIII flees to Aragon.
• April – Balša III succeeds his father Đurađ II as ruler of the Principality of Zeta (now the Republic of Montenegro).
• May 21 – Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, an ambassador from the king of Castile, leaves Cadiz; he arrives in Samarkand over a year later.
• Before July 21 – Henry 'Hotspur' Percy forms an alliance with Welsh rebel Owain Glyndŵr.
• July 21 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats a rebel army led by "Hotspur" Percy, who is killed in the battle by an arrow in his face.
• October 7 – Battle of Modon: French naval forces under Jean Le Maingre (Marshal Boucicaut) defeat the Republic of Venice at Modon in the Peloponnese.^[1]

Date unknown

• Jan Hus begins preaching Wycliffite ideas in Bohemia.
• In China, the Ming Emperor Yongle
  • moves the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.
  • commissions the Yongle Encyclopedia, one of the world's earliest and largest known general encyclopedias.
  • orders his coastal provinces to build a vast fleet of ships, with construction centered at Longjiang near Nanjing; the inland provinces are to provide wood and float it down the Yangzi River.
• The Temple of a City God is constructed in Shanghai.
• The Gur-e Amir Mausoleum is built in Samarkand by Timur after the death of his grandson Muhammad-Sultan, and eventually becomes the family mausoleum of the Timurid dynasty.
• Georgia makes peace with Timur but has to recognise him as a suzerain and pay him tribute.
• While the Ottoman Empire is at war, the Byzantine Empire reclaims the European coast of the Sea of Marmara and Thessalonica. The emperor's son Andronikos Palaiologos is given the title of Lord of Thessalonike.
• The world's first quarantine station is built in Venice to protect against the Black Death.
• Grand Duke Vytautas ends his alliance with Muscovy and captures Vyazma and Smolensk.
• Stefan Lazarević establishes Belgrade as the capital of the Serbian Despotate.
• A guild of stationers is founded in the City of London. As the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (the "Stationers' Company"), it continues to be a Livery Company in the 21st century.
• In Ireland
  • Tadgh Ruadh mac Maelsechlainn O Cellaigh succeeds Conchobar an Abaidh mac Maelsechlainn O Cellaigh as King of Hy-Many in present-day Galway and Roscommon.
  • Maolmhordha mac Con Connacht succeeds Giolla Iosa mac Pilib as King of East Breifne in present-day Leitrim and Cavan.
• probable – Ououso becomes King of Nanzan in present-day south Okinawa, Japan.

Births

• January 17 – George Kastrioti of Albania (d. 1468)
• February 22 – King Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
• June 11 – John IV, Duke of Brabant (d. 1427)
• September 1 – Louis VIII, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1445)
• September 25 – Louis III of Naples (d. 1434)
• date unknown – Robert Wingfield, English politician (d. 1454)

Deaths

• March 8 – Beyazid, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1354)
• April – Đurađ II Stracimirović, Serbian nobleman from the House of Balšić in Zeta
• May 10 – Katherine Swynford, widow of John of Gaunt
• May 12 – William de Lode, English prior
• July 21 (at the Battle of Shrewsbury)
  • Sir Walter Blount, English soldier, standardbearer of Henry IV (in battle)
  • Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford, English soldier (in battle)
  • Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, English rebel (in battle)
• July 23 – Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, English rebel (executed) (b. 1343)
• date unknown – Vukosav Nikolić, Bosnian nobleman (in battle)
• probable date – Hajji Zayn al-Attar, Persian physician

References