Religion & Belief in the 15th century

417 sourced entries, 1400 CE to 1499 CE, oldest first. Also see Religion & Belief across every century or everything else in the 15th century.

• 1400May 22 – Meeting in Frankfurt, three of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire (Rupert, elector of the Palatinate, Rudolf III, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg, elector of Saxony, and Jobst of Moravia, elector of Brandenburg) meet in an attempt to replace the Emperor, Wenceslaus, King of the Romans because of his failure to stamp out civil unrest or to resolve the Western Schism. They select Frederick I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg as the replacement for Wenceslaus.source
• 1400August 20 – Meeting at the Lahneck Castle in what is now the German state Rhineland-Palatinate, the princes of the German states vote to depose the Holy Roman Emperor, Wenceslaus, due to his weak leadership and mental illnesses.source
• 1401March 2 – William Sawtrey, a Roman Catholic priest and adherent to the Lollard faith becomes the first person in England to be burned at the stake under the new De heretico comburendo law (officially the Suppression of Heresy Act 1400), dying at Smithfield, London after being convicted of heresy against the Roman Catholic faith.source
• 1401March 10 – As the English Parliament session closes, King Henry IV gives royal assent to the Suppression of Heresy Act, permitting secular authorities to carry out punishment for religious crimes. The assent comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury pressures King Henry to outlaw the Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe, and criminalizes possession of a copy of Wycliffe's translation of the Bible.source
• 1401April 28 – King Zsigmond of Hungary refuses to comply with demands of the Archbishop John Kanizsai and the Palatine Derek Bebek, he is taken prisoner. Sigismund remains captive until October 29.source
• 1401May 6 – The council of the Republic of Venice passes a law prohibiting the Republic's executive, the Doge, from using the state owned official ship, the bucentaur, from being used for private purposes.source
• 1401September 24 – The late English cleric John Twenge (1320-1379) is canonized as Saint John of Bridlington by Pope Boniface IXsource
• 1402October 10 – A rare conference begins in England between the House of Commons and the House of Lords takes place with the permission of the King, and results in a 3-shilling tax on wine and a 14-pence tax on other merchandise.source
• 1402The Malacca Sultanate is established at Melaka Darul Azim (modern-day Melaka Darul Azim, Malaysia).source
• 1403February 7 – King Henry IV of England marries as his second wife Joan of Navarre, the daughter of King Charles II of Navarre and widow of Duke John IV of Brittany, at Winchester Cathedral.source
• 1403March 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 the Crown of Aragon.source
• 1403June 14 – The Emperor Manuel II restores Matthew I as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians. Matthew had been deposed the previous autumn during the Emperor's absence from Byzantium.source
• 1403December 22 – Pope Boniface IX annuls and revokes numerous indulgences previously paid to the Roman Catholic Church in return for a reduction of time in purgatory.source
• 1404October 17 – Cosimo de' Migliorati, Cardinal of the Basilica Cross in Jerusalem, is elected unanimously by eight cardinals to succeed the late Pope Boniface IX. Migliorati takes the papal name Innocent VII as the 204th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1405May 29 – In England, Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, meets Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Earl of Norfolk Thomas Mowbray in Shipton Moor, tricks them to send their rebellious army home, and then imprisons them.source
• 1405June 8 – Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, are executed in York on Henry IV's orders.source
• 1405The first record is written of whiskey being consumed in Ireland, where it is distilled by Catholic monks.source
• 1405Christine de Pizan writes The Book of the City of Ladies.source
• 1406January 9 – Pope Innocent VII declares that Ladislaus is deposed as King of Naples, but refuses to acknowledge the order.source
• 1406January 16 – After the Venetian Republic is victorious in the War of Padua against Francesco Novello da Carrara, the Venetian Consejo de i Diexe (Council of Ten) concludes that Novello and his sons are too dangerous to be left alive. Novello is taken from his cell at the Doge's Palace, where he has been held since November 23, and is strangled to death. His sons Francesco and Giacomo are executed the next day.source
• 1406January 22 – Abū al-Faḍl Al-Musta'in becomes the new Abbasid caliph of Cairo, spiritual leader of the Muslim faith in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, succeeding his father, Al-Mutawakkil I.source
• 1406May 21 – Pope Innocent VII issues the bull Piae Postulatio to protect the charity and hospice of Santa Maria dell'Anima (Saint Mary of the Soul), located in Rome and serving the German-speaking community.source
• 1406May 22 – In Germany, troops under the command of Johann von Paderborn, Bishop of Hildesheim, use cannons to destroy the walls of Gebhardshagen Castle in Salzgitter in what is now Lower Saxony.source
• 1406October 26 – Erik of Pomerania, ruler of the Kalmar Union, marries Philippa, daughter of Henry IV of England, in Lund Cathedral.source
• 1407Rudolfo Belenzani leads a revolt against Bishop Georg von Liechtenstein in Trento, Bishopric of Trent.source
• 1408January 12 – Western Schism: King Charles VI of France sends a letter to the Antipope Benedict XIII at Avignon, giving an ultimatum to Benedict and the other Avignon Papacy proponents to end the schism in the Roman Catholic Church against the Roman Obedience, headed by Pope Gregory XII. King Charles VI threatens that unless the schism ends by Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter (in 1408, April 24, with Ascension Day on June 3), France will end its support of the Avignon Obedience.source
• 1408March 14 – John of Bourbon, son of Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, is appointed as the Grand Chamberlain of France by King Charles VI.source
• 1408June 15 – After receiving the news that France will no longer support his Avignon Obedience, the Antipope Benedict XIII issues the Bull Celestis altitudo, summoning the a council to meet on November 1 at the French city of Perpignan, and then flees from the French-controlled Italian region of Genoa to avoid arrest.source
• 1408July 2 – From Livorno, a group of 13 Roman Catholic Cardinals allied with Pope Gregory begins sending encyclical letters "to the princes and prelates of the Christian world" summoning them to the Council of Pisa, to take place on March 25, 1409, in order to end the Western Schism.source
• 1408November 15 – The Antipope Benedict XIII convenes the Council of Perpignan.source
• 1409February 15 – The Galle Trilingual Inscription, with inscriptions in three languages (Chinese, Tamil and Persian) is installed by the Chinese admiral Zheng He at Galle in Sri Lanka, where he has stopped while on his way home during the second of his treasure voyages.source
• 1409March 25 – On the day of the Feast of the Annunciation, the Council of Pisa opens at the Cathedral of Pisa with 22 cardinals, four patriarchs and 80 bishops to seek an end to the Western Schism and resolve the conflict between Pope Gregory XII of the Rome and Antipope Benedict XIII of Avignon.source
• 1409May 10 – The Council of Pisa votes on the matter of whether to remove the warring popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII. All but two of the clerics present vote for them to be deposed, with the exception of Cardinal Gui de Maillesec and Cardinal Niccolò Brancaccio, who ask for more time to consider.source
• 1409June 5 – The Council of Pisa issues the order deposing both Gregory XII and Benedict XIII who are responsible for the Western Schism.source
• 1409June 26 – By order of the Council of Pisa, Pietro Filargo is crowned as Pope Alexander V, producing the anomaly of three different popes of the Roman Catholic church.source
• 1409August 7 – The Council of Pisa closes.source
• 1409September 9 – The new Pope Alexander V issues a papal bull granting a charter to the University of Leipzig.source
• 1410October 10 – Euthymius II becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church among Christians, after the death in August of the Patriarch Matthew I.source
• 1410November – For his services during the defense of Marienburg and Prussia, Heinrich von Plauen is chosen as the 27th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order.source
• 1410Jan Hus is excommunicated by the Archbishop of Prague.source
• 1411October 3 – At the Abbey of St Vaast in Arras in France, John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy hosts English Bishop Henry Chichele and several envoys who are ready to negotiate terms for English support of Burgundy in the ongoing French civil war with the Armagnacs. The negotiations fail to attract much support other than to hire some of the English soldiers as mercentaries.source
• 1412January 16 – The Medici family are made official bankers of the Papacy.source
• 1412February 15 – The Alcañiz Concord is reached in the Spanish Aragonese city of Alcañiz to have a group of nine delegates choose an undisputed King of Aragon.source
• 1412February 28 – The University of St Andrews in Scotland is granted a charter of privilege by the local bishop.source
• 1412May 7 – In Cairo, Abu’l-Faḍl Abbas Al-Musta'in, the Caliph of Cairo, is installed by rebels as the new Sultan of Egypt as a temporary replacement for his father, the Sultan An-Nasir Faraj. Al-Musta'in serves as the puppet ruler for six months before he returns to full time duty as the Caliph.source
• 1412June 14 – Antipope John XXIII signs an agreement with King Ladislaus of Naples, paying him 75,000 florins (262.5 kg or 9,375 oz. of gold), investing Ladislaus with the Neapolitan crown, and naming him as Gonfalonier of the Church within the Papal States. In return, King Ladislaus agrees to expel Pope Benedict XII from Naples and to recognize John as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1412June 28 – As the Compromise of Carpe is read aloud by Friar Vicent Ferrer before a crowd, Ferdinand I is proclaimed as the King of Aragon by the deleagates at Caspe.source
• 1412July 24 – Behnam Hadloyo becomes Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Mardin.source
• 1412November 6 – The rebel Emir Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh becomes the new Mamluk Sultan of Egypt by forcing the reigning Sultan Al-Musta'in to abdicate. Shaykh allows Al-Musta'in to continue as Caliph of Cairo.source
• 1413April 9 – The coronation of Henry V as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1413June 8 – King Ladislaus of Naples and his troops conquer and sack the city of Rome and drive out the Antipope John XXIII.source
• 1413August 28 – The University of St Andrews in Scotland is chartered by papal bull issued by Antipope Benedict XIII.source
• 1413December 4 – By order of King Henry V of England, the remains of King Richard II (whom Henry V's father had overthrown and imprisoned in 1399) are moved from the grounds of King's Langley Priory in Hertfordshire and reinterred at Westminster Abbey, the traditional final resting place of English monarchs.source
• 1413December 26 – The rule of Michele Steno as the Doge of the Republic of Venice ends after 26 years upon his death. Tommaso Mocenigo is elected to replace him as Doge.source
• 1413Samogitia becomes the last region in Europe to be Christianized.source
• 1414February 26 – The speech given by French theologian Jean Petit of the "Council of Faith", including nine propositions drawn from the speech, is publicly burned by order of the inquisitor, Gerard de Montaigu, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Paris.source
• 1414March 9 – Abu’l-Faḍl Abbas Al-Musta'in, previously forced to abdicate as Sultan of Egypt and replaced by Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh on November 6, 1412, is forced out from his office as Caliph of Cairo. The Sultan Shaykh then designates his own brother, Sulaymān al-Mustakfī, as the new Caliph of Cairo.source
• 1414October 8 – Bohemian church reformer Jan Hus departs his home at the invitation of King Sigismund of Germany in order to attend the Council of Constance. A few weeks after his November 3 arrival, however, even though he was promised safe-conduct - he is imprisoned for heresy and spends the rest of his life in captivity.source
• 1414November 16 – The Council of Constance opens at Konstanz begins in order to end the western schism and resolve the conflict of having three different Popes recognized by Rome (Benedict XIII), Avignon (Gregory XII) and Pisa (John XXIII), after being summoned by King Sigismund.source
• 1414December 17 – (4 Shawwal 817 AH) In Ahmedabad in the Gujarat Sultanate in India, construction of Ahmed Shah's Mosque is completed and the date is etched into stone.source
• 1414Durham School is founded as a grammar school in the city of Durham, England by Thomas Langley, Prince-Bishop of Durham; it continues in existence as an independent school 600 years later.source
• 1415March 2 – At the Council of Constance, the Antipope John XXIII, chosen at the Council of Pisa, promises that he will resign all claims to leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1415March 20 – Despite his promise to resign, the Antipope John XXIII escapes the city of Constance and takes refuge in the Duchy of Austria at Schaffhausen.source
• 1415March 23 – Giorgio Adorno resigns as the Doge of Genoa despite having been appointed for life.source
• 1415April 6 – The decree Haec sancta synodus is approved by the Council of Constance and sets the precedent that an ecumenical council of cardinals and bishops has superiority over the Pope. The decree provides that a council "legitimately assembled in the Holy Spirit... has power immediately from Christ; and that everyone of whatever state or dignity, even papal (in the Latin text,etiam si papalis), is bound to obey it in those matters which pertain to the faith."source
• 1415May 4 – The Council of Constance declares that the late English theologian John Wycliffe (1328-1384) was a heretic and bans his writings, as well as directing that his work be burned, and that Wycliffe's remains be removed from their burial site on consecrated church ground. The order will be carried out 13 years later in 1428.source
• 1415May 11 – From Valencia in Spain, the Antipope Benedict XIII issues a papal bull with eleven prohibitions against Jews, including a ban on teaching, reading or possessing the Talmud; prohibition of Jewish possession of Christian artifacts or Christian books; limiting each town to only one synagogue; barring Jews from serving specific jobs or making contracts; segregating Jews from Christians in all public places; and requiring all Jews to wear "a red and yellow sign" on their clothes. Jews who convert to the Roman Catholic faith become exempt from the restrictionssource
• 1415May 29 – The Council of Constance approves an order dismissing, in absentia the Antipope John XXIII, who had been chosen by the Council of Pisa, from any authority over the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1415June 5 – The Council of Constance condemns the writings of John Wycliffe and asks Jan Hus to recant in public his heresy; after his denial, he is tried for heresy, excommunicated, then sentenced to be burned at the stake.source
• 1415July 4 – Pope Gregory XII officially opens the Council of Constance, and then abdicates. He is the last pope to resign, until Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.source
• 1415July 18 – Sigismund, King of the Romans, departs from the meeting of the Council of Constance on a special trip to Perpignan, in order to secure the resignation of the antipope Benedict XIII in order to end the Western Schism, and then to try to end the wars between France and England, and Poland and the Teutonic Knights.source
• 1415September 20 – Sigismund, King of the Germans, who convened the Council of Constance, meets in Spain with the antipope Benedict XIII, and makes an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Benedict to resign.source
• 1415Antipope Benedict XIII orders all Talmuds to be delivered to the diocese, and held until further notice.source
• 1416May 30 – The Catholic Church burns Jerome of Prague for heresy at the Council of Constance.source
• 1416July 1 – Henry Chichele, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England, begins the first of his semiannual inquisitions, directing the archdeacons to seek out heretics and bring them to trial.source
• 1416December 2 – Through the Council of Constance and diplomatic treaties during late 1416, Sigismund, King of Germany unifies the fractured Catholic Church and isolates the Bohemian reformers, providing him with the necessary authority to later initiate the Hussite Wars against Jan Žižka.source
• 1416The Hussite Bible is completed by Tamás Pécsi and Bálint Újlaki.source
• 1417January 19 – After the dismissal of Al-Musta'in as Caliph of Cairo by the Sultan Shaykh al-Mahmudi is declared unlawful by Islamic clerics, Shaykh arranges Al-Musta'in and three sons of the late Sultan Faraj to be transferred away from Cairo to Alexandria.source
• 1417January 19 – Joanna II, Queen of Naples, issues a pardon for Giacomo Orsini, who had rebelled against her predecessor, King Ladislaus of Naples.source
• 1417March 10 – In Bohemia, Johannes Cardinalis von Bergreichenstein, rector of the University of Prague issues a proclamation declaring that the theological teachings of the late Jan Hus are doctrine confirmed for all Christians, leading to eventual condemnation by the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope for heresy.source
• 1417April 18 – Frederick I, Elector of Brandenburg, is appointed to an additional position as Archchamberlain of the Holy Roman Empire.source
• 1417June 30 – In France, the Baron of Trévoux reverses a ban against the town's Jewish population, and allows them to study the Talmud without interference.source
• 1417July 27 – After being the last claimant to the papacy, the Antipope Benedict XIII is excommunicated and deposed by the Council of Constance, bringing to an end the Great Western Schism.source
• 1417November 11 – On St. Martin's Day, with all three previous claimants to the office of Pope gone, the 53-member Council of Constance unanimously elects Oddone Colonna to be the new Pontiff. Colonna will take the name of Saint Martin of Tours upon his consecration.source
• 1417November 19 – The coronation of Elizabeth Granowska as Queen consort of Poland takes place after King Wladyslaw receives a special dispensation from the Council of Constance.source
• 1417November 21 – The coronation of Oddone Colonna as Pope Martin V takes place in Constance as he becomes the 206th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. His installation ends a period of two years and five months without a Pope at Rome, as he succeeds Pope Gregory XII, who had abdicated on July 4, 1415.source
• 1418March 21 – The Concordats of Constance are approved by the Council of Constance for signing by the various parties.source
• 1418April 22 – The Council of Constance ends.source
• 1418May 13 – Spain approves and signs the Concordats of Constance.source
• 1418September 13 – Commissioned by the Sultan Al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh of Egypt and supervised by the Shaykh's Emir Abu Bakr al-Yaghmuri, the rebuilding of the Ibn Uthman Mosque begins in Gaza City. The Mosque will be completed in 1431 but will be destroyed almost 600 years later in 2024 by an airstrike from the State of Israel.source
• 1419February 13 – The University of Rostock is established in Germany by Albert V, Duke of Mecklenburg following approval in a papal bull from Pope Martin V.source
• 1419March 14 – Braccio da Montone is awarded Governorship of Bologna by Pope Martin V in recognition of his ouster of Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio.source
• 1419May 10 – In Italy's Republic of Florence, the republic is elevated to the level of an archdioese by Pope Martin V, who spent 18 months in Florence after being elected by the Council of Constance. In recognition of the hospitality accorded to him, Pope Martin names Bishop Amerigo Corsini to be the first Archbishop of Florence.source
• 1419December 4 – Louis III of Anjou is invested by Pope Martin V as the new King of Sicily.source
• 1420March 1 – Pope Martin V issues the papal bull Omnium plasmatoris domini, calling upon Roman Catholics to unite in a crusade against what he considers heretic Christian sects, including the adherents of John Wycliffe (Lollards) and the followers of Jan Hus (Hussites).source
• 1420March 17 – Ferdinand de Palacios, an envoy of the Pope, publishes the papal bull at Wroclaw, calling for a crusade against the Hussites.source
• 1420April 22 – A dispute between the County of Nassau-Siegen and the Electorate of Trier over who shall be made count of Isenburg-Limburg is settled after negotiations.source
• 1420May 25 – Prince Henry the Navigator is appointed Grand Master of the Military Order of Christ.source
• 1420June 7 – Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine after a long siege, ending the independence of the Patriarchal State of Friuli, run by the Patriarch of Aquileia.source
• 1420August 7 – Construction of the dome of Florence Cathedral is started, after Filippo Brunelleschi wins the commission for his "double shell" design.source
• 1421February 23 – The coronation of Catherine of Valois as Queen consort of England takes place at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1421April 24 – The Sedlec Abbey, a monastery for the Cistercians order in Bohemia, is looted and burned by Hussites led by Jan Žižka, and several of the monks inside are killed.source
• 1421Traditional date – Larabanga Mosque is founded, in modern-day northern Ghana.source
• 1422November 7 – After being returned to England from France, and then being taken on a two-day journey from Southwark to Temple Bar and thence to London, the body of the late King Henry V is buried at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1422December 9 – The Regency Council of the infant King Henry VI of England assembles for the first time with 18 nobles, led by John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, the uncle of the King and the brother of the late King Henry V. Because the Duke of Bedford serves primarily in France to command English forces there in the ongoing war, another uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, leads the regency most of the time during the King's minority.source
• 1423November 16 – On behalf of the infant King Henry VI of England, Duke of Bedford, Regent for France, confirms the 1315 Norman Charter.source
• 1424January 23 – William Cheyne becomes the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, replacing the late William Hankford.source
• 1424February 1 – While negotiating his release from captivity, King James of Scotland is allowed to be married to Joan Beaufort in London, with a ceremony taking place at Southwark Cathedral.source
• 1424February 12 – The coronation of Sophia of Halshany, wife of Władysław II Jagiełło, as Queen consort of Poland takes place at the Kraków Cathedral.source
• 1424May 21 – The coronation of James I as King of Scotland takes place at Scone Abbey in the Scottish town of Scone. After the ceremony King James performs his first knighthood ceremony, honoring 18 prominent nobles.source
• 1425July 21 – The Great Council of Venice agrees to accept many of the demands by the residents of occupied Thessalonia and requests Venetian administrators to respect the customs and rights of the citizens and to work together with the Thessalonian local council of 12 nobles in the governance of the city.source
• 1426August 16 (11 Shawwal 829 AH) – Barakat ibn Hasan, son of the late Hasan ibn Ajlan, is confirmed by the Egyptian Sultan Barsbay as the new Emir of Mecca, conditioned on paying the remaining 25,000 dinars owed by Hasan.source
• 1426December 30 – A peace treaty is signed in Venice between the Republic of Venice (led by the Doge Francesco Foscari) and the Duchy of Milan (ruled by the Duke Filippo Maria Visconti), through the mediation the papal envoy, Cardinal Niccolò Albergati. Milan is required to relinquish control of Brescia and Vercelli to Venice, but regains control of its former lands in Liguria.source
• 1427January 16 – The papacy of Pope Gabriel V of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, ends with his death after a reign of more than 17 years.source
• 1427May 11 (16 Pashons, 1143 AM) – At Alexandria, Farag El-Maksi is elected as the new Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Christians and takes the regnal name of Pope John XI.source
• 1427June 7 – Pope Martin V orders the Roman Catholic bishops of Portro and Alba to work on driving the Fraticelli faction of the Franciscan Order from Italy.source
• 1427October 13 – Lincoln College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, is founded by the Bishop of Lincoln.source
• 1427The Celestine Order is established in France.source
• 1428December 2 – The Appenzell Wars come to an end in Switzerland as Frederick VII, Count of Toggenburg and knights of the Order of St. George's Shield defeat the rebel army of the Canton of Appenzell in a battle on the field between Gossau and Herisau. In a truce the next year, Appenzell is forced to repay the back taxes owed to the Abbey of St. Gallbut is relieved from future obligations.source
• 1429September 18 – 18 (Dhu al-Hijjah 832 AH) The Hafsid Sultanate Saracens, ruled by the Hafsid Caliph Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz II and commanded by Kaid Ridavan, depart from Tunis with 70 ships and 18,000 troops in an attempt to capture Malta, but are repelled by its defenders.source
• 1429November 6 – The formal coronation of the 6-year-old Henry VI as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1430August 23 – Pope Martin V, writing in the papal brief Ad statum, grants recognition to the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, allowing them the right to hold property.source
• 1430November 21 – Joan of Arc is sold by the Burgundians to the Kingdom of England for 10,000 livre tournois, equivalent to 808.8 kg (28,530 oz or 1,783.1 lbs) of silver.source
• 1431March 11 – Cardinal Gabriele Condulmer is elected as the successor to Pope Martin V and takes the name of Pope Eugene IV as the 207th leader of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1431July 25 – An ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, originally called by Pope Martin V before his death in February, convenes at Basel in Switzerland.source
• 1431October 15 – The Roman Catholic Council of Basel issues a formal invitation to the Hussites to take part in its deliberations.source
• 1431December 13 – Vlad, future Prince of Wallachia as Vlad II Dracul, is made a member of the Order of the Dragon. Because of this, his son Vlad the Impaler will inspire the literary figure named Dracula.source
• 1431December 14 – The first full meeting of the Roman Catholic council at Basel is convened, but Pope Eugene IV and the council members are not able to agree on principles.source
• 1432February 13 – The 42 ft tall Statue of Gommateshwara is consecrated by King Veera Pandya in the Indian city of Karkala, capital of the Vijayanagara Empire and now part of the Karnataka state.source
• 1432May 6 – Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece is first presented to the public.source
• 1432August 15 – With 132 ships, the navy of Spain's Crown of Aragon, dispatched by King Alfonso V, lands in North Africa at the island of Djerba off of the coast of Tunisia and begins a siege. The Caliph of Ifriqiya, Abu Faris Abd al-Aziz II, attempts to defend the island. but the Aragonese take control of Djerba by September 9.source
• 1432September 30 – A delegation from Poland, led by the Bishop of Kraków, Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki, arrives in Vilnius and brings a message Grand Duke Sigismund that King Władysław II Jagiełło of Poland recognizes Sigismund as Lithuania's ruler, for life.source
• 1432November 12 – Pope Eugene IV authorizes Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini to close the Council of Basel, but Cesarini declines to do so.source
• 1433January 4 – Prokop the Great, leader of the Hussites of Bohemia, appears at the Council of Basel with his envoys in order to negotiate and end to the anti-Hussite Crusade started by the Holy Roman Empire and the Pope.source
• 1433February 15 – Pope Eugene IV withdraws his papal bull of 1431 that had ordered the Council of Basel to be dissolved, and declares "that the said council from its very beginning was and is a legitimate council and it should continue as if no dissolution was made."source
• 1433April 9 – Ispend bin Yusuf deposes Shah Muhammad of Qara Qoyunlu as Governor of Baghdad.source
• 1433May 17 – The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel becomes the first state in the Holy Roman Empire to abolish serfdom as the Duke Heinrich der Friedfertige ("Heinrich the Peaceful") ends the fedual system there by decree.source
• 1433September 7 – Cosimo de' Medici, later the unofficial leader of Florence and patron of Marsilio Ficino, is imprisoned in the Palazzo dei Priori. Initially facing life imprisonment, Medici is then exiled by the Albizzi/Strozzi faction instead. He returns a year later, on October 6, 1434.source
• 1433September 16 – A legate of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, who had been determined to break up the Council of Basel, arrives at the Council and informs the group that Albergati is ready to negotiate.source
• 1433November 30 – After months of negotiations between the Council of Basel and the Bohemian government, the Compactata of Prague is ratified an assembly of Bohemian and Moravian representatives, resolving the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Hussites.source
• 1434April 14 – The foundation stone of Nantes Cathedral in Nantes, Brittany, is laid.source
• 1434July 25 – The coronation of Wladyslaw III as King of Poland takes place at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.source
• 1434September 29 – Pope Eugene IV issues the papal bull Regimini gregis, condemning the enslavement by the Kingdom of Castile of the Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands. An order to free the slaves follows three months later.source
• 1434November 12 – Bishop Nils Ragvaldsson of Sweden delivers a speech at the Council of Basel, arguing the Kingdom of Sweden and its monarch, Eric of Pomerania deserve senior rank over the Spanish delegation.source
• 1434December 17 – Pope Eugene IV issues the papal bull Creator Omnium, directing the freedom of the Canary Island slaves within 15 days after the bull is received.source
• 1435January 13 – Sicut Dudum, a papal bull forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish, is promulgated by Pope Eugene IV.source
• 1435March 8 – Prince Zhu Qiyu, who will become the Emperor of China in 1449, is appointed as the Prince of Cheng in the name of the Emperor Yingzong of Ming.source
• 1435December 4 – The Livonian Confederation, with a capital at Valka (now on the border of Latvia and Lithuania) is formed by an agreement signed at Valka by the Archbishop of Riga; Courland; the Dorpat; the Ösel–Wiek and bishops of Courland, Dorpat, Ösel-Wiek and Reval; the representatives of the Livonian Order and its vassals; and the deputies of Riga, Reval and Dorpat city municipal councils.source
• 1435Enea Piccolomini, the future Pope Pius II, is sent by Cardinal Albergati on a secret mission to Scotland and Northern England.source
• 1435Francis of Paola founds the Order of the Minims in Italy.source
• 1436March 25 (New Year's Day in local calendars) – Pope Eugene IV consecrates Florence Cathedral. Construction had started 140 years earlier in 1296 and is nearly complete with the finishing of a dome that has been engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome itself would be dedicated five months later.source
• 1436August 30 – Brunelleschi's Dome at Florence Cathedral is dedicated.source
• 1436September 15 – Pope Eugene IV issues a supplement to his papal bull of 1435, Sicut dudum (which banned enslavement by Portugal of the people of the Canary Islands), by another bull, Romanus Pontifex, allowing Portugal to conquer any of the Islands that had not yet been converted to Christianity.source
• 1437January 15– The Compacts of Basel are ratified by the Council of Basel in Switzerland, as the Roman Catholic Church ends its campaign against the Hussites. Among other things, the Church authorizes Hussite priests to administer sacramental wine to their congregations as part of the Communion during the Eucharist before Easter without declaring the same to be heresy, but stops short of allowing the Communion wafer.source
• 1437March 25 – In a ceremony in Holyrood Abbey, six-year old Prince James is crowned as James II of Scotland by Pope Eugene IV. For the security of the crown, the capital of Scotland is moved from Dunfermline to Edinburgh.source
• 1437April 23 – Pope Eugene IV issues the papal bull Dominatur Dominus, further to safeguard the rights of the Guanches, the natives of the Portuguese-controlled Canary Islands.source
• 1437July 6– The Transylvanian peasant revolt comes to an end with a formal treaty signed at the monastery of Cluj-Manastur, reducing the tithe to be paid to their employers, and abolishing the tax requiring surrendering one-ninth of each individual's production of wine and grain, and confirming the right of peasants to move freely within Transylvania.source
• 1438January 8 – Upset at the attempted reforms at the Council of Basel in Switzerland, Pope Eugene IV convenes a rival council at Ferrara in Italy, through Niccolò Albergati, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bologna, with 40 prelates in attendance.source
• 1438January 24 – The Council of Basel, with only 16 bishops present, votes to suspend Pope Eugene from papal authority.source
• 1438February 10 – All Souls' College is founded in the University of Oxford by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Henry VI of England as a graduate institution.source
• 1438February 15 – Pope Eugene issues the bull "Exposcit debitum", declaring the council at Ferrara an ecumenical council, and commanding the prelates at Basel to appear at Ferrara within a month or face excommunication.source
• 1438July 7 – Charles VII of France issues the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, giving the French church control over the appointment of bishops, and depriving the Pope of French ecclesiastical revenues.source
• 1438November 27 – Following approval by the General Council of Scotland, regents for King James II of Scotland give royal assent to the Inquisitions in Last Reign Act, providing for the continuation of any inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy that had been started prior to the assassination of King James I.source
• 1439January 10 – Pope Eugene IV, who had convened the Council of Ferrara a year earlier to fight the reforms of the Council of Basel, orders the transfer of its participants from Ferrara to Florence.source
• 1439May 16 – Pope Eugene, already found to be in contempt of the Council of Basel, is declared by the Council to be a heretic.source
• 1439June 25 – The Council of Basel formally declares that Pope Eugene IV is deposed.source
• 1439July 6 – Pope Eugene IV issues the Bull of Union with the Greeks (Laetentur Caeli), signed by the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, proclaiming the end of the East–West Schism between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy and the union of the two divisions of the Christian faith. The bull is repudiated by most Eastern bishops shortly thereafter.source
• 1439August 28 – Pope Eugene IV sends a message of unity to the Emperor of Ethiopia, Qostantinos I, but the proposal for a union with the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church is not acknowledged.source
• 1439September 8 – Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi captures Foligno, ending Trinci's signoria.source
• 1439October 30 – The Council of Basel begins a conclave to elect its own successor to Pope Eugene IV, whom it had deposed on June 25.source
• 1439November 5 – The Council of Basel elects its own pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, and selects Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy (considered an antipope), who takes the regnal name Felix V.source
• 1439November 22 – Following up on the declaration of union of the Roman Catholic Church with the Greek Orthodox Church, Pope Eugene IV signs an agreement of union with the Armenian Apostolic Church.source
• 1439December 18 – Pope Eugene IV designates nine archbishops and six bishops to join the College of Cardinals and one cardinal and one priest, for 17 appointments in all.source
• 1440January 8 – Seventeen new Roman Catholic Cardinals are added to the College of Cardinals afer having been appointed by Pope Eugene IV on December 18.source
• 1440March 8 – Despite the birth of a posthumous son of the late King Albert V, the Hungarian nobles vote to elect King Vladislaus III of Poland as the new King of Hungary.source
• 1440March 14 – The Prussian Confederation is formed by 53 nobles and clergy, representing 19 Prussian cities, who meet at Elbing to form an opposition to the Teutonic Knights.source
• 1440June 29 – Casimir IV Jagiellon is proclaimed as the new Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Lithuanian Council of Lords.source
• 1440Zhu Quan writes the Cha Pu ("Tea Manual") in China.source
• 1440Lorenzo Valla's De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio demonstrates that the Donation of Constantine is a forgery.source
• 1441March 17 – The Swiss Canton of Bern intervenes to block an agreement between the Canton of Zürich that would have ceded the town of Grüningen to the Habsburg family of Germany.source
• 1441March 19 – Isidore of Kiev, the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia, returns to his home in Moscow after having attended the Council of Florence, where he agreed to unify the Russian Church with the Roman Catholic Church. When he arrives, he is arrested on the order of Grand Prince Vasily II and imprisoned under minimum security.source
• 1441April 20 — The Council of Florence, led by Pope Eugene IV, declares that the members of the Council of Basel are heretics and votes to excommunicate them, as well as affirming the superiority of the Pope over the Councils in the bull Etsi non dubitemus. In 1440, the Council of Basel had declared Eugene IV to be a heretic, deposed him as Pope, and excommunicated him.source
• 1441April 26 — Pope Eugene IV orders the transfer of the Council of Florence to Romesource
• 1441June 7 – The University of Bordeaux is established by Pope Eugene IV while Bordeaux is under the control of France. Closed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it will reopen in 1896 and continue to be in existence 280 years later.source
• 1441August 26 – Bishop Alberto da Sarteano, who had been sent by the Vatican on a mission to seek the Ethiopian Coptic Christian Church to join with the Roman Catholic Church, returns to Rome with four Ethiopians who had been allowed to leave by the Emperor Zara Yaqob. Two of the visitors the attend the Council of Florence to discuss the possible union of Coptic Orthodoxy and the Latin Church, marking the earliest recorded contact of the Ethiopian Coptic Church with Europe.source
• 1441October 4 – Pope Eugene IV issues a papal bull to recognize the Order of St Ambrose.source
• 1442January 25 – John Fortescue becomes the new Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, replacing the late John Hody.source
• 1442February 4 – As part of his campaign to reunite the Christian churches of the world, Pope Eugene IV promulgates the Bull of Union with the Copts (officially, Cantate Domino), an attempted union with the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt.source
• 1442June 17 – Friedrich, Duke of Inner Austria is crowned as Romanorum Rex, King of the Germans, and becomes the heir to the Holy Roman Emperor.source
• 1442August 30 – Louis IV, Elector Palatine, agrees to serve as the judge in resolving a dispute between Henry II, Count of Nassau-Siegen and the Archbishop Jakob von Sierck.source
• 1442December 19 – Pope Eugene IV issues the papal bull Illius qui se pro divini granting full remission of sins to any Christian who had participated in the Crusades by Prince Henry the Navigator against the Saracens.source
• 1442Jelena Balšić completes writing the Gorički zbornik manuscripts at her church of St. Mary, on the island of Beška in the Serbian Despotate.source
• 1443January 1 – Pope Eugene IV called for Christians under his jurisdiction to participate in the Crusade of Varna against the incursions of the Ottoman Empire into Central Europe.source
• 1443May 13 – John Stafford is appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Eugene IV.source
• 1443June 14 – Pope Eugene IV and King Alfonso V of Naples reach a forma agreement at Terracina, with the Pope recognizing Alfonso as the rightful King and Prince Ferrante as heir to the throne, while Alfonso agrees to stop support of the antipope Amadeus VII and the Council of Basel.source
• 1443September 28 – Pope Eugene IV returns to Rome for the first time in more than nine years, after having been forced to flee on June 4, 1434.source
• 1443December 24 – In Poland, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Siewierz sells the duchy of Siewierz to Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Bishop of Kraków, for 6,000 silver coins (Prague groschen), equivalent to at least 21 kg or 750 ounces of silver.source
• 1443December 30 – King Sejong the Great of Korea announces the creation of the Hunminjeongeum (literally "The Proper Sounds for the Instruction of the People") a manual for Hangul, a standardized writing system for the Korean language.source
• 1443The Buddhist Zhihua Temple (智化寺) is built in Beijing, at the order of Wang Zhen, chief eunuch at the court of the Emperor Yingzong of Ming Dynasty China.source
• 1443King Sejong the Great starts to create Hangul, the native alphabet of the Korean language, with his scholars.source
• 1444April 18 – In Sicily, the University of Catania receives papal recognition from Pope Eugene IV, ten years after its founding on October 19, 1434.source
• 1444A serious fire occurs at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.source
• 1445January 19 – In Poland, the Duchy of Oświęcim, ruled jointly since 1434 by the three sons of the late Duke Casimir of the Piast dynasty, is divided between the three brothers. Wenceslaus I, the eldest, receives the Duchy of Zator, Przemysław becomes ruler of Toszek and Jan IV, the youngest of the brothers, receives the capital, Oświęcim, along with the towns of Kęty and Żywiec.source
• 1445April 23 – King Henry VI of England marries Margaret of Anjou, daughter of René of Anjou, the former King of Naples, at a ceremony at Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire.source
• 1445May 29 – Stjepan Tomaš Kotromanić of the House of Kotromanić is granted recognition by the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Eugene IV as King Tomaš of Bosnia.source
• 1445May 30 – At a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the coronation of Margaret of Anjou as Queen consort of England takes place before John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury.source
• 1445June 24 – Annibale I Bentivoglio, the ruler of the semi-independent Lordship of Bologna since 1443, is assassinated by the rival Canneschi family, with the support of Pope Eugene IV.source
• 1445August 7 – A papal bull is issued by Pope Eugene IV declaring that the Chaldean Christians and the Maronites of Cyprus are in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1446March 21 – In the Holy Roman Empire in Germany, the Electors of Cologne, Trier, Mainz, and the Palatinate, along with representatives of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, assemble at Frankfurt-am-Main and create a mutual defense alliance to resist Pope Eugene IV.source
• 1446October 5 – The compromise proposed by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III with Pope Eugene IV is publicly endorsed by the Elector of Mainz, the Elector of Brandenburg, the Margrave of Ansbach, the Margrave Jakob I of Baden, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, the Archbishop of Salzburg, the and the Bishops of Augsburg, Chiemsee, Bamberg, Passau, Constanz and Chur.source
• 1446October 9 – The hangul alphabet is proclaimed in Korea, by King Sejong the Great. The Hunmin Jeongeum, published during the year, is considered the start of this brand new scientific writing system.source
• 1447March 4 – The papal conclave opens at the Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome with 18 of the 24 living members of the College of Cardinals arriving to select a new Pope With 12 votes necessary for the require two-thirds needed for an election, Cardinal Prospero Colonna receives 10 and Cardinal Domenico Capranica gets 8.source
• 1447March 6 – On the fourth vote of the papal conclave, Prospero Colonna is still unable to gain more than 10 votes, and Cardinal Capranica addresses the group, warning that Rome would be under attack from the King of Aragon. At the intervention of Cardinal Giovanni Berardi, the cardinals begin voting for a compromise candidate, Tommaso Parentucelli, who wins 12 votes. Parentucelli then takes the regnal name of Pope Nicholas V, the 208th Bishop of Rome and Pope.source
• 1447March 19 – The coronation of Tommaso Parentucelli as Pope Nicholas V takes place in Rome. The crown is placed upon his head by Cardinal Prospero Colonna, who had come within two votes of being selected as the Pope on March 5.source
• 1447April 22 – (5 Safar 851 AH) Khwaja Ubaidullah Ahrar becomes the new leader of the tariqa (order) of Süleymancılar among adherents of Sufism in what is now Turkey.source
• 1447July 22 – In a royal wedding at the cathedral in Madrigal de las Altas Torres in the Kingdom of Castile (now in Spain) Princess Isabella of Portugal, cousin of King Afonso VI, marries King Juan II of Castile.source
• 1447Tashi Lhunpo Monastery is founded by the 1st Dalai Lama at its original location in Shigatse, Tibet.source
• 1448February 17 – The Concordat of Vienna is signed between the Holy Roman Empiresource
• 1448May 24 – Under an agreement with the Holy Roman Emperor, Friedrich III, the city council of Basel in Switzerland votes to expel all persons attending the Council of Basel, a group of clerics opposed to the Roman Catholic Pope.source
• 1448June 29 – Karl VIII is crowned as King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral the day after being publicly hailed as king at Mora Stones.source
• 1448July 25 – The Council of Basel, opposed to the Pope at Rome, moves to Lausanne and holds its first session, presided over by the antipope Felix V.source
• 1448December 15 – Jonas, a Russian bishop, is installed by the Council of Russian Bishops in Moscow, as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus. The event marks the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church because the election of Jonas is made without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as this is without the consent of the Patriarch of Constantinople, it signifies the beginning of an effectively independent church structure in the Grand Duchy of Moscow.source
• 1448December 20 – Pope Nicholas V appoints Rudolf of Diepholt, Bishop of Utrecht, as cardinal.source
• 1448The Vatican Library is founded by Pope Nicholas V.source
• 1449January 6 – Constantine XI Palaiologos is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mistra; he will be the last in a line of rulers that can be traced to the founding of Rome.source
• 1449April 7 – The last Antipope, Felix V, abdicates.source
• 1449April 19 – Pope Nicholas V is elected by the Council of Basel.source
• 1449April 25 – The Council of Basel dissolves itself.source
• 1449July 3 – King James II of Scotland marries Mary of Guelders at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.source
• 1449November 20 – Karl Knutsson, reigning as King Karl VIII of Sweden, is crowned as King Karl I of Norway in a ceremony at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.source
• 1450May 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.source
• 1451January 7 – Pope Nicholas V issues a Papal Bull to establish The University of Glasgow; classes are initially held in Glasgow Cathedral.source
• 1452March 19 – Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes the last to be crowned in Rome.source
• 1452May 20 – China's Emperor Daizhong, brother of the former emperor Yingzong, designates his son as the new heir to the throne, demoting Daizhong's son Zhu Jianshen and placing his own son, Zhu Janji, as next in line for the throne.source
• 1452June 18 – Pope Nicholas V issues the bull Dum Diversas, legitimising the colonial slave trade.source
• 1452December 12 – Isidore of Kiev, the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, proclaims the union of the Greek and Latin churches at the Hagia Sophia in hopes of an alliance with Western Christians to prevent the loss of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.source
• 1454January 6 – Mehmed II, the Muslim Sultan of the Ottoman empire, restores the Christian Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, and appoints the Byzantine Greek theologian Gennadius Scholarius as the Patriarch Gennadius II.source
• 1454February 4 – The cause of the Thirteen Years' War is set when 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, beginning the conflict.source
• 1454June 11 – In Poland, the landholders and bishops of Elbing (now Elbląg) pledge allegiance to King Casimir IV, and Danzig (now Gdańsk) follows on June 16.source
• 1454August 30 – The Italic League is concluded in Venice as an alliance between the Republic of Venice, the Papal States, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples.source
• 1455January 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'. (Later there will be a dramatic reversal when, in 1537, the bull Sublimis Deus of Pope Paul III forbids the enslavement of non-Christians.)source
• 1455February 23 – The Gutenberg Bible is the first book printed with movable type.source
• 1455March 2 – After an agreement reached in Venice on August 30, the Italic League (Lega Italica) comes into being as a 25-year truce and mutual defense agreement between the Republic of Venice, the Papal States, the Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Florence, and the Kingdom of Naples.source
• 1455April 4 – The papal conclave to replace the late Pope Nicholas V begins. For the first time, the conclave is held at the Apostolic Palace in Rome. In the first rounds of ballots, the two front-running candidates are Cardinal Latino Orsini and Cardinal Prospero Colonna, and Colonna receives a plurality of votes, but not the required two-thirds majority.source
• 1455April 8 – Cardinal Alfons de Borja is elected as the 209th Roman Catholic pontiff and takes the name Pope Calixtus III.source
• 1455June 3 – Saint Vincent Ferrer is canonized 36 years after his death by Pope Callixtus III in a ceremony at the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.source
• 1455September 8 – Pope Calixtus III decides to send Christians on a crusade against the Ottoman Empire in an attempt to recapture Constantinople. At a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Pope provides Cardinal Alain de Coëtivy with the crusader's cross and sends him on a mission to meet with King Charles VII of France in hopes of getting French support for the proposed crusade.source
• 1456January 6 – After two years as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the Eastern Orthodox Christian partriarch in the Islamic Ottoman Empire, Gennadius Scholarius resigns, and Isidore II is elected to replace him.source
• 1456March 13 – The papal bull Inter caetera is issued by Pope Callixtus III, recognizing the rights of the Kingdom of Portugal to colonize any territories its explorers discover on the West African coast, and making the non-Christian natives of those colonies perpetual vassals of the King of Portugal.source
• 1456September 15 – The Burgundian state, led by Prince Philip the Good, captures the rebel city of Deventer in the Netherlands after a 32-day siege that had been defended by Gijsbrecht van Brederode, Bishop of Utrecht.source
• 1456September 23 – Pope Calixtus III issues a papal bull granting a seven-year indulgence to any Christian who makes a pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza in Spain's Kingdom of Aragonsource
• 1457May 15 – The Swiss city of St. Gallen becomes a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Emperor upon payment of 7,000 gulden to its former abbot, Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg.source
• 1457June 23 – Christian I is elected king of Sweden, ending the war between Sweden and Denmark and restoring the Kalmar Union.source
• 1457August 14 – The Mainz Psalter, the second major book printed with movable type in the West, the first to be wholly finished mechanically (including colour), and the first to carry a printed date, is printed for the Elector of Mainz.source
• 1457October 30 – Pasquale Malipiero is elected as the new Doge of Venice.source
• 1457December 23 – Pope Calixtus III declares Albanian hero Skanderbeg to be a Captain-General of the Holy See and gives him the title Athleta Christi ("Champion of Christ").source
• 1458April 2 – George of Poděbrady (King Jiří z Poděbrad) receives the Crown of Saint Wenceslas at his coronation at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague as King of Bohemia.source
• 1458April 20 – Isidore of Kiev is installed as the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople, leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire, with the approval of the Muslim Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II.source
• 1458September 3 – The coronation of Pope Pius II by Cardinal Prospero Colonna takes place on the front steps of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.source
• 1459January 18 – The Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem is founded by Pope Pius II, to defend the island of Lemnos.source
• 1459April 8 – Stefan Branković, despot of Serbia, is overthrown by King Stefan Tomaš of Bosnia, who installs his son, Stephen Tomašević as the new despot.source
• 1459May 3, Pope Pius II issues a papal bull to approve building the University of Valence in France. The university will exist for almost 240 years before being closed during the French Revolution.source
• 1459May 27 – Pope Pius II arrives in Mantua in the Italian region of Lombardy as the guest of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, in order to convene the Council of Mantua in hopes of organizing a crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Meetings begin on June 1 the Council continues for six months.source
• 1459September 26 – Pope Pius II calls upon the participants of at the Council of Mantua to fund and participate in a Christian crusade to recapture Constantinople from the Muslim Ottomans, who had seized it in 1453.source
• 1459November 12 – Pope Pius II issues the papal bull Inter Ceteras, founding the University of Basel in Switzerland, though the university does not begin operations until April 4 the following year.source
• 1459November 20 – In England, the "Parliament of Devils" (so called because it consists of Lancastrian supporters and Yorkist nobles are not invited) opens its session at Coventry in St Mary's Priory and Cathedral.source
• 1459King Thomas of Bosnia forces the clergy of the Bosnian Church into exile.source
• 1459Richard Hygons, English composer, begins fifty years of service at Wells Cathedral.source
• 1460January 14 – After gaining a consensus at the Council of Mantua, Pope Pius II formally declares a Christian crusade against the Muslim Ottoman Empire to recapture Constantinople, which had been captured by the Ottomans in 1453.source
• 1460June 3 – Pope Pius II re-imposes a 1454 ban against trade with the Prussian Confederation, and extends it to include a ban against trading with the Kingdom of Poland, after the Prussian states and Poland refuse to join in the proposed crusade against the Ottoman Empire.source
• 1460August 8 – Sigismund, the Duke of Austria, is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Pius II and has his domains placed under an interdict.source
• 1460A monk, Leonardo da Pistoia, arrives in Florence from Macedonia, with the Corpus Hermeticum.source
• 1461May 3 – Theodosius Byvaltsev is installed as the new leader of the Russian Orthodox Church as Metropolitan of Moscow and all the Russias by order of Vasily II Vasilyevich, Grand Prince of Moscow.source
• 1461François Villon writes Le Grand Testament.source
• 1461Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is founded by the Ottomans.source
• 1461Cirencester Grammar School is founded in southwest England by the Bishop of Durham.source
• 1462January 16 – The conflict in Poland over who should be the bishop of Krakow — Pope Pius II's appointee Jakub of Sienno or King Casimir IV's pick, Jan Gruszczynski — Pope Pius sends his legate, the Archbishop of Crete Hieronymus Landus, to negotiate a compromise that ultimately ends with Jakub being recognized by King Casimir as Bishop.<source
• 1462April 1 – Bishop Antony Kokkas becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, succeeding the late Patriarch Isidore II as leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. He takes the name Ioasaf I.source
• 1462April 28 – Pope Pius II issues the papal bull Cum almam nostram urbem prohibiting the destruction or removal of the ancient ruins in Rome and Campagna or the burning of ancient marble for lime, with violators subject to excommunication.source
• 1462October 7 – Pope Pius II issues the declaration Apud Raynaldum, condemning the enslavement of Christians, although the prohibition is limited only to people recently baptized.source
• 1462November 2 – King Edward IV issues a charter guaranteeing the right of clergy to be tried in the ecclesiastical courts rather than by the royal judicial system set for most of the English inhabitants, despite the general limitation of ecclesiastical courts to church matters.source
• 1463April 28 – Pope Pius issues the papal bull In Minoribus Agnetes, retracting his earlier complaint against the late Pope Eugene IV and endorsing the previous work at the Council of Basel.source
• 1463September 12 – Pope Pius II calls for all Christians to participate in a crusade against the Ottoman Empire.source
• 1463October 22 – Pope Pius II issues the papal bull Ezechielis prophetae, offering an indulgence to any Christians who take part in a crusade against the Ottoman Empire for at least six months or who donate funds to support it.source
• 1463Corpus Hermeticum is translated into Latin, by Marsilio Ficino.source
• 1464March 23 – Pope Pius II excommunicates the entire town of Prudnik (now part of Poland and its Roman Catholic inhabitants for its failure to pay its share of the debts owed to the Duke of Oels, Konrad IV the Elder.Tadeusz Kwaśniewski, (16 August 2002).source
• 1464June 18 – Pope Pius II himself shoulders the cross of the Crusades, and departs for Ancona to participate in person. He names Skanderbeg general captain of the Holy See, under the title Athleta Christi. This plan forces Skanderbeg to break his ten-year peace treaty with the Ottomans signed in 1463, by attacking their forces near Ohrid.source
• 1464June 23 – King Christian of Sweden who is also King of Denmark and of Norway in the union of the three kingdoms, is declared deposed from the latter throne. His deposed predecessor Charles VIII of Sweden is re-elected to the throne on August 9.source
• 1464August 30 – Cardinal Pietro Barbo, Bishop of Vicenza, is elected as the new Pope, receiving 14 of the 19 votes On the first ballot, Cardinal Barbo had 11 of the 14 required, while the other eight were divided among Ludovico Trevisan and Guillaume d'Estouteville. Barbo takes the regnal name of Pope Paul II, 211th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1464September 29 – King Edward IV of England surprises his advisors and the nation by introducing Elizabeth Woodville as his wife at Reading Abbey, and revealing that he had been married for almost five months, the ceremony having taken place on May 1. The marriage outrages King Edward's mentor, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, who had been arranging a marriage between the King and Bona of Savoy, sister-in-law of France's King Louis XI.source
• 1464Jehan Lagadeuc writes a Breton-French-Latin dictionary called the Catholicon. It is the first French dictionary as well as the first Breton dictionary of world history, and it will be published in 1499.source
• 1465January 30 – Charles VIII of Sweden is deposed. Clergyman Kettil Karlsson Vasa becomes Regent of Sweden.source
• 1465May 26 – Elizabeth Woodville, Queen consort of Edward IV of England, is crowned in a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1465August 11 – In Sweden, Kettil Karlsson Vasa, Bishop of Linköping, is succeeded as Regent by Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna.source
• 1465November 13 – The Archbishop of Tours, Jean Bernard, excommunicates Bishop Jean de Beauvau of Angers for insubordination.source
• 1465The main altar of St Martin's Church, Colmar is finished by painter Caspar Isenmann.source
• 1466February 9 – Gabriel VI is elected as the new Pope of the Coptic Christian Church, succeeding the late Matthew II.source
• 1466May 21 – On his deathbed, Bosnian nobleman Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, Grand Duke of Bosnia, dictates a testament proclaiming that his son Vladislav Hercegović, "brought the great Turk to Bosnia to the death and destruction of us all" and blames Vladislav for the end of the Kingdom of Bosnia. Vladislav becomes the Grand Duke of Bosnia the next day with the approval of the Ottoman governor.source
• 1466December 23 – Pope Paul II excommunicates the King of Bohemia, George of Poděbrady, releasing all Bohemian citizens from their oaths of to the king.source
• 1467January 7 – At Rome, Pope Paul II holds a secret papal consistory, with the Albanian general Skanderbeg, to ask the cardinals assembled to provide Skanderbeg with 5,000 ducats (equivalent to 17.5 kg lb of gold based on the worth of a ducat of 3.5g of gold). While the cardinals respond that 5,000 ducats is insufficient, the Pope explains that the additional money will have to wait until the war in Italy is concluded.source
• 1467January 15 – In one of his first acts as the new Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Dionysius I removes George Galesiotes and Manuel Christonymos from office in the Church as an act of revenge against their failure to support his candidacy.source
• 1467March 29 – On Easter Sunday, in the Bohemian city of Kunvald (now part of the Czech Republic), the Unity of the Brethren (commonly called the Moravian Church) is formed as one of the first Protestant churches by four Hussite bishops. Despite persecution, it progresses to as many as 100,000 adherents within 100 years.source
• 1467December 5 – Sayf al-Din Bilbay, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, is overthrown less than two months after becoming the monarch, as the Dhahiri branch of the Mamluks captures him. The Dhahiris proclaim Al-Malik al-Zahir Timurbugha al-Rumi (referred to as "Timurbugha") as the new Sultan.source
• 1467Some papal abbreviators are arrested and tortured on the orders of Pope Paul II, among them Filippo Buonaccorsi.source
• 1468January 31 – Abu Al-Nasr Sayf ad-Din Al-Ashraf Qaitbay (generally referred to as "Qaitbay") is installed by Mamluk Egyptian nobles as the new Sultan of Egypt and Syria, the day after the Sultan Timurbugha had been removed after less than two months on the throne.source
• 1468February 15 – The Earl of Desmond, Thomas FitzGerald, until recently the Kingdom of England's Lord Deputy of Ireland, is beheaded on orders of his successor, John Tiptoft, shortly after being arrested on accusations of treason against the Crown, then quickly tried and convicted in a show trial.source
• 1468April 25 – At Stirling in Scotland, the Lord Boyd, the regent for King James III, enters an agreement for joint rule with the members of his council (the bishops of Glasgow and of Aberdeen, the earls of Argyll and of Arran, the provost of Lincluden, and Archibald Whitelaw) to co-operate in the governing of Scotland.source
• 1468August 26 – Baeda Maryam succeeds his father Zara Yaqob, as Emperor of Ethiopia.source
• 1468September 18 – The Great Council of the Republic of Venice curbs the power of the Council of Ten through legislation restricting them to acting on emergency matters.source
• 1469January 1 – Pope Paul II issues a papal bull establishing the military order of the Knights of Saint George at the request of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, and invests Johann Siebenhirter as the order's first Grand Master.source
• 1469August 1 – The Order of Saint Michael ( Ordre de Saint-Michel) is founded by King Louis XI of France as a response to the 's Order of the Golden Fleece.source
• 1469Marsilio Ficino completes his translation of the collected works of Plato, writes Commentary on Plato's Symposium on Love, and starts to work on Platonic Theology.source
• 1471August 9 – Cardinal Francesco della Rovere, who received no votes in the initial round of balloting in the papal conclave, receives 13 votes and is elected as the new Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. He takes the regnal name of Pope Sixtus IV to become the 212th pope.source
• 1472July 3 – The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, England, commonly known as York Minster, is declared complete and consecrated.source
• 1472December 31 – The city council of Amsterdam prohibits snowball fights: "Neymant en moet met sneecluyten werpen nocht maecht noch wijf noch manspersoon." ("No one shall throw with snowballs, neither men nor (unmarried) women.")source
• 1472The Kingdom of Fez ruling the modern nation of Morocco, is founded by the Wattasid dynasty with Sultan Abu Abd Allah al-Sheikh Muhammad ibn Yahya as its first ruler.source
• 1472The first printing of Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi) is made in Augsburg after Kempis's death in 1471 it will reach 100 editions and translations by the end of the century.source
• 1473January 9 – Pope Sixtus IV lifts the order of interdict that had been placed by Pope Paul II on the late Bohemian King George of Poděbrady and his sons, granting absolution, after the sons convert to the Roman Catholic faith.source
• 1473March 6 – The original University of Trier is founded in the Electorate of the Paletine in what is now Germany, 18 years after the Pope had granted the Archbishop of Trier, Jakob von Sierck, the papal dispensation to create a university. After 365 years, the university is closed in 1798, but re-established 172 years later in 1970.source
• 1473May 7 – Pope Sixtus IV appoints eight clerics to the College of Cardinals, the most in his career, the most since December 18, 1439 when 17 were appointed by Pope Eugene IV.source
• 1473June 29 – Gerontius, Bishop of Kolomna is appointed as the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.source
• 1473October 31 – The Trier Conference breaks up after Charles the Bold fails to persuade the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick to help Charles become King of the Romans or to enter into an alliance against King Loouis XI of France. Frederick II instead proposes an alliance between the Empire, Burgundy, and France. Charles threatens to leave unless he can secure an alliance by a treaty marriage.source
• 1473Florentine physician Marsilio Ficino becomes a Catholic priest.source
• 1474Marsilio Ficino completes his book Theologia Platonica (Platonic Theology).source
• 1475June 15 – The Vatican Library in Rome is created by the papal bull Ad decorem militantis ecclesiae and names Bartolomeo Platina as the first librarian for the Vatican.source
• 1475June 19 – After Queen consort Dorothea of Denmark visits Rome, Pope Sixtus IV issues a papal bull permitting King Christian I to establish a university in Denmarksource
• 1475Rashi's commentary on the Torah is the first dated book to be printed in Hebrew, in Reggio di Calabria.source
• 1476Goyghor Mosque is built by Musa ibn Haji Amir and his son, Majlis Alam.source
• 1477May 12 – Pope Sixtus IV grants a special dispensation for Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the three-year-old son of King Edward IV, is betrothed to 4-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, in a waiver of canon law that sets a minimum age for marriage as 14 for boys and 12 for girls. The children's wedding will take place on January 15, 1478.source
• 1478November 1 – The Spanish Inquisition begins as Pope Sixtus IV promulgates the papal bull Exigit sinceras devotionis affectus, permitting the Crown of Castile, at the request of Queen Isabella, to create the office of Inquisitor General, with the Dominican bishop Tomás de Torquemada to prosecute accused heretics.source
• 1479November 5 – Grand Admiral Gedik Ahmed Pasha of the Ottoman Navy gives the order to ravage the Greek island of Zakynthos, at the time a territory of the Republic of Venice, and the Ottoman troops destroy most of the island's churches and monasteries and many of its dwellings.source
• 1479Johann Neumeister prints a new edition of Juan de Torquemada's Meditations, or the Contemplations of the Most Devout.source
• 1480July 28 – An Ottoman army lands near Otranto in southern Italy. Pope Sixtus IV calls for a crusade to drive the Ottomans away. Otranto falls on August 12 after a 15-day siege.source
• 1480September 27 – The co-rulers of most of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile initiate the Spanish Inquisition to look for heretics and unconverted Jews, appointing the Dominican Order clerics Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín to serve as the first two inquisitors.source
• 1481April 8 – Pope Sixtus IV issues the papal bull Cogimur jubente altissimo, calling for Roman Catholics to participate in a crusade against the Ottoman Empire, starting with the Turkish-occupied southern Italian area in and around Otranto, with the liberation of Valona (now in Albania) to follow.source
• 1481June 21 – The papal bull Aeterni Regis grants Portugal first option to all newly conquered African and Asian lands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal.source
• 1481October 13 – The bodies of the Martyrs of Otranto, who had been killed in Italy in 1480 by the Ottomans who had conquered the city of Otranto, are discovered in the city's cathedral "uncorrupted", and the group as a whole is celebrated as martyrs to the Roman Catholic faith. The 813 martyrs will be canonized more than 500 years later on May 12, 2013.source
• 1482January 25 – (5 Adar 5242) The first printing of the Torah by movable type, in the original Hebrew language, is made in Bologna, marking the first use of the Hebrew alphabet rather than the Roman alphabet in printing.source
• 1482March 22 – Pope Sixtus IV, in a special bull, grants self-government rights to the Italian town of Ascoli Piceno.source
• 1482April 3 – Symeon I succeeds Maximus III as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.source
• 1482August 30 – The reign of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège over the Principality of Liège, a semi-independent eccleasitic state within the Holy Roman Empire in parts of what are now Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, comes to an end when he is assassinated on orders of William de La Marcksource
• 1483February 11 – The General Council of the Inquisition is created in Spain.source
• 1483July 6 – Richard III and Anne Neville are crowned king and Queen of England, at Westminster Abbey.source
• 1483July 20 – The coronation of Hans, King of Denmark as crowned King of Norway is held at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.source
• 1483August 15 – The Sistine Chapel opens in the Apostolic Palace in Rome.source
• 1483December 25 – At Rennes Cathedral in France, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, leader of the House of Lancaster after Richard III of England of the House of York had seized the throne, pledges to marry Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter the late King Edward IV, in order to strengthen his support for the overthrow of King Richard.source
• 1484March 26 – William Caxton, the first printer of books in English, prints his translation of Aesop's Fables in London.source
• 1484April 19 – Muhammad Shah Mir becomes the new Sultan of Kashmir in India, succeeding Hasan Khan.source
• 1484June 22 – The first known book printed by a woman, Anna Rügerin, is an edition of Eike of Repgow's compendium of customary law, the Sachsenspiegel, produced in Augsburg.source
• 1484December 5 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, giving the Inquisition a mission to hunt heretics and witches in Germany, led by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.source
• 1485February 3 – Three days after returning to Germany following his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, John V, Count of Nassau-Siegen founds the Franciscan monastery at his capital in Siegen.source
• 1485October 12 – Thomas Lovell is appointed for life as England's Chancellor of the Exchequer by King Henry. He will serve for 39 years before his death in 1524.source
• 1486February 16 – Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg is elected King of the Romans at Frankfurt.source
• 1486February 18 – Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is born in the town of Nadia, West Bengal, India, just after sunset. He is regarded as an incarnation, or avatar, of Lord Krsna, and later comes to inaugurate the sankirtana movement, or the chanting of the Holy Names of the Lord. This chanting, or mantra meditation, is first brought to the United States in 1965, by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.source
• 1486February 18 – At a meeting of six electors of the Holy Roman Empire at Frankfurt-am-Main, the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, is elected as the King of the Romans and ruler of the Germans, as the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.source
• 1486March 23 – After getting into a war with the Kingdom of Naples by siding with rebels in the Barons' Conspiracy, Pope Innocent VIII sends the Papal Legate, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (who will become later become Pope Julius II), as an envoy to the Kingdom of France to seek assistance from King Charles VIII. King Charles sends a delegation to Rome two months later, with no resolution made.source
• 1486May 13 – Humphrey Stafford and his brother Thomas Stafford, who had been given sanctuary by the church at Culham, Oxfordshire, are forcibly removed by Sir John Savage and 60 armed men on charges of treason. Protests are made to Pope Innocent VIII against the breaking of the right of sanctuary in the Roman Catholic Church, and while Thomas is pardoned by King Henry, Humphrey is executed for treason on July 8.source
• 1486May 31 – The French delegation from King Charles arrives in Rome to discuss the assistance request from Pope Innocent, but negotiations fail because of Cardinal Borgia's support of the Spanish King of Naples.source
• 1486June 7 – Pope Innocent VIII responds to complaints made in a letter to him from King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and Austria, and declares that the Holy See does not resent Hungary for its war against the Holy Roman Empire, and promises to examine the Hungarian King's concerns.source
• 1486July 12 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the papal bull Catholice fidei defensionem, granting plenary indulgences to people who took part in the war of Casimir IV Jagiellon against the Ottoman Empire.source
• 1486October 6 – Cardinal John Morton becomes the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England.source
• 1486Sigismund, Archduke of Tyrol, issues Europe's first large silver coin, the guldengroschen, which will later become the thaler.source
• 1486Johann Reuchlin begins studying the Hebrew language.source
• 1486Giovanni Pico della Mirandola returns to Florence, and writes Oration on the Dignity of Man.source
• 1487January 29 – Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.source
• 1487February 11 – Pope Innocent VIII renews the designation of Tomás de Torquemada as the Grand Inquisitor of Spain in the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Valencia.source
• 1487February 26 – At the insistence of Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja Pope Innocent VIII, authorizes a Christian crusade and against the Muslim Moors, to start on September 1 and to be funded for one year.source
• 1487March 6 – Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury since January 21, becomes the new Lord Chancellor of England, succeeding the late Thomas Bourchier.source
• 1487March 27 – Pope Innocent VIII issues an order designating the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews, Robert Blackadder, as the Primate of All Scotland, outraging the bishops in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland.source
• 1487August 11 – The Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples sign a peace treaty to end the war that had started a year and half earlier.source
• 1487December 31 – Pope Innocent VIII establishes the office of the Secretary of State of the Vatican by approving the apostolic constitution Non Debet Reprehensibile, with 24 apostolic secretaries, the most important being the Secretarius Domesticus.source
• 1489September 1 – King Ferdinand I of Naples is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and declared deposed from office by a bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII. King Ferdinand, who had been punished for refusing to pay dues to the Pope, disregards the papal order and rules over Naples for the rest of his life.source
• 1489October 2 – The Rorschacher Klosterbruch, a civil war in Switzerland, comes to an end after three months when the Abbey of Saint Gall (in the canton of St. Gallen) signs a peace with the canton of Appenzell.source
• 1489Lucas Watzenrode becomes bishop of Warmia.source
• 1490January 4 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who ally themselves with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of Lèse-majesté.source
• 1490June 15 – English printer William Caxton prints his English language translation of the French book, Ars moriendi, which he renders as The art and crafte to knowe well to dye.source
• 1490July 13 – John of Kastav finishes a cycle of frescoes in the Holy Trinity Church, Hrastovlje (modern-day southwestern Slovenia).source
• 1490November 20 – The first edition of the chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanch, by Joanot Martorell, is printed in Valencia.source
• 1490Catholic missionaries arrive in the African Kingdom of Kongo.source
• 1490All Saints' Church, the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, is begun.source
• 1491May 3 – The ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, Nkuwu Nzinga, is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.source
• 1491July 6 – King João I of Kongo, who had recently converted to Christianity, completes the construction of the first Christian church in sub-Saharan Africa, the Cathedral of the Holy Saviour of Congo (Kulumbimbi), in what is now the city of M'banza-Kongo in Angola.source
• 1492January 16 – Antonio de Nebrija publishes Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar text for the Castilian Spanish language, in Salamanca, which he introduces to the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, newly restored to power in Andalusia, as "a tool of empire".source
• 1492January 23 – The Soncino Bible, which includes the Pentateuch, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther is printed.source
• 1492February 1 – The Titulus Crucis relic is discovered, during the renovation of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme Church in Rome.source
• 1492March 31 – Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra Decree, expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism.source
• 1492May 31 – Pope Innocent VIII and members of the College of Cardinals meet at the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome with diplomatic envoys sent by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II. The envoys present the Pope a gift, said to be the Holy Lance, from the Sultan, along with the Sultan's proposal, payment of 120,000 crowns of gold and an annual subsidy of 45,000 ducats in return for the continued imprisonment of Cem Sultan, a half-brother of Bayezid and a rival claimant to the throne.source
• 1492August 8 – The papal conclave, the first to be held in the Sistine Chapel, begins balloting with 23 of the 27 members of the College of Cardinals in attendance. With 16 votes needed for the required two-thirds majority, the first ballot is split among three candidates, with Oliviero Carafa receiving 9, Rodrigo Borja 7 and Giuliano della Rovere 5, while two cast a blank vote.source
• 1492August 11 – Cardinal Rodrigo Borja is unanimously elected on the fourth ballot of the papal conclave, and takes the name of Pope Alexander VI, 214th pope of the Roman Catholic Church.source
• 1492November 10 – The Catholic Monarchs of Spain issue an Ordinance legalizing the return of Sephardi Jews who had been expelled in August and the terms for remaining. In both cases, all need a baptism as Christian converts in the Roman Catholic church.source
• 1493May 4 – In the papal bull Inter caetera, Pope Alexander VI decrees that all lands discovered 100 leagues (or further west) of the Azores are Spanish.source
• 1493June 25 – Friar Bernardo Buil, a Catalan monk in Spain, is appointed by Pope Alexander VI as the first Christian "Vicar Apostolic of the New World". Friar Buil will depart from Cadiz on September 25 on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus, and will begin his mission at La Isabela, a Spanish settlement on the island of Hispanola in what becomes the Dominican Republic.source
• 1493July 12 – The Nuremberg Chronicle, written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel as Liber Chronicarum and described as "a history of the world from the Creation to the year 1493", with woodcut illustrations by Michael Wohlgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, is first printed. The expense is undertaken by two German merchants in Nuremberg, Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister.source
• 1493August 19 – Maximilian I succeeds his father, Frederick III, as Holy Roman Emperor.source
• 1493September 26 – Pope Alexander VI issues the bull Dudum siquidem to the Catholic Monarchs, extending the grant of newly discovered lands he made them in Inter caetera.source
• 1493October 24 – Spain's Royal Council issues a Provision setting harsh sanctions against Spanish Christians who slander people who have newly converted from Judaism to Christianity, particularly with the term tornadizos.source
• 1494January 4 – The Cetinje Octoechos (Цетињски октоих, an Eastern Orthodox octoechos (liturgy), first tone), the first incunabulum written in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic, and the first book printed in Cyrillic in Southeast Europe, is completed in Cetinje.source
• 1494May – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, recognises the pretender Perkin Warbeck as rightful King of England.source
• 1494December 31 – King Charles VIII of France and the French Army peacefully march into Rome after being granted free passage by Pope Alexander VI.source
• 1495January 28 – Prince Cem Sultan, brother of the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II, imprisoned since 1482 after being captured by the Knights Hospitaller, and held captive in Rome since 1489, is released from to French custody by Pope Alexander VI at the request of King Charles of France.source
• 1495February 10 – King's College, Aberdeen, predecessor of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, is founded with the issuance of the papal bull Primo Erectio Universitatis by Pope Alexander VI on the petition of William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen.source
• 1495March 31 – In response to the French invasion and rapid subjugation of the Italian nations, the League of Venice is formed by representatives of Pope Alexander, King Ferdinand of Spain, the acting Holy Emperor Maximilian, and Ludovico, Duke of Milan.source
• 1495June 1 – Brother John Cor of Lindores Abbey pays duty on 8 bolls of malt to the Exchequer in Scotland to make aqua vitae for King James IV; the record in the Exchequer Rolls is the first written reference to Scotch whisky.source
• 1495Piero Pacini da Pescia publishes Epistles, Gospels, and Popular Readings in the Tuscan Languagesource
• 1495The Reichskammergericht of the Holy Roman Empire is founded in Frankfurt.source
• 1496December 5 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree ordering the expulsion of "heretics" from the country.source
• 1497March 19 – Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal: Forced conversion of Jews in Portugal begins.source
• 1497May 12 – Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.source
• 1497June 26 – The coronation of Federico di Trastamara, son of King Alfonso II, as King of Naples takes place at Barletta Cathedral.source
• 1497June 27 – At what is supposed to be a meeting at Nysa about a united front by the nobility of Poland against the Ottoman Empire, Nicholas II of Niemodlin (Mikołaj II Niemodlińsk), the Duke of Opole in Poland as well as ruler of the duchies of Niemodlin, Brzeg, and Strzelce, attempts to stab two of the other nobles attending, Casimir II, Duke of Cieszyn and the Bishop Jan IV Roth. Nicholas is beheaded the next day.source
• 1497Benefit of Clergy Act 1496, requiring that charges against a church official for treason must be tried in a government court of law. For other charges, clergymen may still have the benefit of being tried by an ecclesiastical court under canon law.source
• 1498May 23 – Girolamo Savonarola, ruler of Florence, is executed for criticizing the Pope.source
• 1498May 27 – The formal coronation of King Louis XII in France takes place at the Reims Cathedral.source
• 1498June 20 – Niccolò Machiavelli, who will later be the author of the influential political theory guide The Prince, is elected by the Great Council of Florence as the Secretary of the Second Chancellery of the Republic of Florence.source
• 1498November 24 – In the Kingdom of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Diego de Deza, Bishop of Jaén, is commissioned as the Grand Inquisitor for the Crown of Castile, the Kingdom of León, and for Granada. His power is expanded in September to include the rest of Spain.source
• 1499June 10 – Pope Alexander VI informs the Roman Catholic cardinals that the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire has amassed a fleet of 300 ships to lay siege to the city of Rhodes.source
• 1499Johannes Trithemius inadvertently reveals interests in magic by writing a letter to a Carmelite friar about a treatise he is writing on steganography.source