January–March •
January 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. •
January 15 – At the
Battle of Sandwich in England,
Yorkists raid
Sandwich, Kent, and capture the royal fleet. •
February 29 –
Johann IV and his brother
Sigismund of the
House of Wittelsbach become the joint rulers of "
Bavaria-Munich", one of several smaller states that had been fragmented from the original
Duchy of Bavaria, upon the death of their father,
Albrecht III the Pious. Johann's third son,
Albrecht IV, will reunite Bavaria-Munich with the other states (
Bavaria-Landshut,
Bavaria-Ingolstadt and
Bavaria-Straubing) into a single Duchy of Bavaria in 1503. •
March 4 – At Rome on the Wednesday during
Ember Days, Pope Pius II addresses an assembly of the College of Cardinals and criticizes most of them, declaring that "Your lifestyle is such that you would appear to have been chosen, not to govern the state, but called to enjoy pleasures. You avoid neither hunting, nor games, nor the company of women. You put together parties that are more opulent than is fitting. You wear clothes that are far too expensive. You overflow with gold and silver." He then directs them to consider the qualities of new candidates for the College. The next day, six cardinals are elected, including
Francesco Nanni-Todeschini-Piccolomini, the Pope's nephew, who will later become
Pope Pius III. •
March 5 – King
Christian I of Denmark, the various nobles of the
Duchy of Schleswig and the
County of Holstein agree to the
Treaty of Ribe, electing King Christian as the new Duke of Schleswig and Count of Holstein, and placing both political entities under Denmark's control. •
March 21 – After having control of
Malbork Castle, the Polish Army begins a siege against the Prussian town of
Marienburg.
April–June •
April 4 – The
University of Basel is founded in
Switzerland. •
May 30 –
Demetrios Palaiologos, the ruler of the Byzantine
despotate of Morea in southern Greece surrenders the capital,
Mystras,to the Ottomans. The Ottoman sultan
Mehmed II grants some islands in the Aegean Sea to Palaiologos, and he lives for several years in relative comfort. •
June 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. •
June 26 –
Wars of the Roses:
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and
Edward, Earl of March (eldest son of
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York) land in
England at
Sandwich, Kent with an army, and march on London.
July–September •
July 2 – The city of London opens its gates to the Yorkist invaders and puts up no resistance to their occupation. •
July 4 – The cannons of the
Tower of London, still in
Lancastrian hands, are fired on the
city of London, which is mostly in
Yorkist. The Tower is surrendered on
July 19. •
July 5 – The town of
Marienburg is captured by the Polish army after a four-month siege that had been started by General Proandota Lubieszowski, who had died during the fighting. •
July 10 – Wars of the Roses – King Henry VI of England is captured as prisoner of war after his army is defeated at the
Battle of Northampton by the earls of
Warwick and
March. It is agreed that York will be Henry's heir, disinheriting the King's son
Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. •
July 30 – King Henry VI summons the English Parliament to assemble at Westminster on October 7. •
August 3 – King
James II of Scotland is killed by the explosion of a
cannon which he had purchased from
Flanders as part of acquiring the most up-to-date military technology for Scotland. The King had been supervising the bombardment of
Roxburgh Castle during a siege to force out the English occupation troops. He is succeeded by his 8-year-old son, who becomes
King James III, with power exercised by the boy's mother, the Queen Regent
Mary of Guelders. •
August 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. •
September 14 – The
siege of
Trebizond, the capital of the
Empire of Trebizond, is started by the Ottoman Empire. The Trebizond Emperor,
David Megas Komnenos withstands the siege for almost a year.
October–December •
October 7 – The 22nd parliament of Henry VI is opened, and the House of Commons elects
John Green as its speaker. •
October 10 –
Richard, Duke of York enters the Council Chamber, places his hand upon the throne, and announces that he is the rightful King of England. He then takes up residence at the royal palace. •
October 25 – The
Act of Accord, passed by the Parliament of England, is given royal assent by
King Henry VI as a compromise to end the War of the Roses between King Henry's supporters (the Lancastrians) and the supporters of
Richard of York (the Yorkists). Under the law, King Henry is permitted to rule England for the rest of his life, but his son,
Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales is removed from the right of succession and Richard of York and his descendants are granted the right to rule upon King Henry's death. •
November 7 – King
James II of Cyprus orders his chief minister, George Boustronios, to travel to
Larnaca, and to round up "both the serfs and emancipated peasants, both mounted and on foot", to be delivered to the King at Nicosia to be drafted into the King's army, with the promise of benefits to the peasants and emancipation to the serfs. •
December 2 – In Spain, the popular
Prince Carlos de Viana, heir to the throne of Navarre, is arrested at
Lleida and jailed in
Morella by order of his father,
King Juan II, leading to an uprising in
Catalonia. King Juan eventually yields and frees Prince Carlos two months later on February 25. •
December 30 –
Wars of the Roses –
Richard of York, set to be the next King of England, is killed along with his son,
Edmund, Earl of Rutland, at the
Battle of Wakefield as a Lancastrian army under
Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset and
Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland decisively defeats the Yorkists. York's son
Edward becomes leader of the Yorkist faction and the heir to the English throne.
Date unknown •
Ali Bey Mihaloğlu captures
Michael Szilágyi. • Portuguese navigator
Pedro de Sintra reaches the coast of modern-day
Sierra Leone. • A famine breaks out in the
Deccan Plateau of India. • A monk, Leonardo da Pistoia, arrives in
Florence from
Macedonia, with the
Corpus Hermeticum. == Births ==