1460s

Events

Contents: 1460 1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 1467 1468 1469

1460

January–December

• March 5 – King Christian I of Denmark issues the Treaty of Ribe, enabling himself to become Count of Holstein and regain control of Denmark's lost Duchy of Schleswig.
• 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 with an army and march on London.
• 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 hands. The Tower is surrendered on July 19.^[1]
• July 10 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Northampton: Warwick and March defeat a Lancastrian army and seize King Henry VI of England.^[2] It is agreed that York will be Henry's heir, disinheriting the King's son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales.
• August 3 – While supervising a siege of English occupiers of Roxburgh Castle, King James II of Scotland is killed when one of his own cannons explodes.
• December 30 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield: A Lancastrian army under Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland decisively defeats a Yorkist army under Richard of York and his son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, who are both killed, the latter murdered after the battle. York's son Edward becomes leader of the Yorkist faction.

Date unknown

• Ali Bey Mihaloğlu captures Michael Szilágyi.
• Portuguese navigator Pedro de Sintra reaches the coast of modern-day Sierra Leone.
• Famine in the Deccan Plateau of India.
• A monk, Leonardo da Pistoia, arrives in Florence from Macedonia with the Corpus Hermeticum.
• The University of Basel is founded in Switzerland.

1461

January–December

• February 2 – Battle of Mortimer's Cross: Yorkist troops led by Edward, Duke of York defeat Lancastrians under Owen Tudor and his son Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke in Wales.
• February 17 – Second Battle of St Albans, England: The Earl of Warwick's army is defeated by a Lancastrian force under Queen Margaret, who recovers control of her husband.
• March 4 – The Duke of York seizes London and proclaims himself King Edward IV of England.
• March 5 – Henry VI of England is deposed by Edward, Duke of York during the Wars of the Roses.
• March 29 – Battle of Towton: Edward IV defeats Queen Margaret to make good his claim to the English throne (thought to be the bloodiest battle ever fought in England).
• July 10 – Stephen Tomašević becomes last King of Bosnia on the death of his father Stephen Thomas; he is crowned on November 17 in Saint Mary's Church, Jajce.
• June 28 – Edward, Richard of York's son, is crowned as Edward IV, King of England (reigns until 1483).
• July – Byzantine general Graitzas Palaiologos honourably surrenders Salmeniko Castle, last garrison of the Despotate of the Morea, to invading forces of the Ottoman Empire after a year-long siege.
• July 22 – Louis XI of France succeeds Charles VII of France as king (reigns until 1483).
• August 7 – The Ming dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor; after setting fire to the eastern and western gates of the Imperial City, Beijing (which are doused by pouring rains during the day-long uprising), Cao Qin finds himself hemmed in on all sides by imperial forces, loses three of his own brothers in the fight, and instead of facing execution he flees to his home in the city and commits suicide by jumping down a well located within his walled compound.
• August 15 – The Empire of Trebizond, the last major Romano-Greek outpost, falls to the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed II, after a 21-day siege.
• November 26 – Severe earthquake in L'Aquila.

Date unknown

• Cirencester Grammar School is founded in south-west England by the Bishop of Durham.
• Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli become students of Verrocchio.
• Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is founded by the Ottomans.
• François Villon writes Le Grand Testament.

1462

January–December

• March 27 – Vasili II of Russia dies, and is succeeded by his son Ivan III of Russia.
• June 17 – Vlad III Dracula attempts to assassinate Mehmed II in The Night Attack, forcing Mehmed to retreat from Wallachia.
• July 1 – Battle of Seckenheim.
• September 17 – Thirteen Years' War – Battle of Świecino (Battle of Żarnowiec): The Kingdom of Poland defeats the Teutonic Order.
• September – Mehmed II captures the town of Mytilene, thus conquering the island of Lesbos, in the Siege of Mytilene

Date unknown

• The Jews are expelled from Mainz, Germany.
• Portugal begins to settle the Cape Verde islands with slaves from the coast of Guinea.

1463

January–December

• January 5 – French poet François Villon receives a reprieve from death by hanging, and banished from Paris; his further life is undocumented.
• May – The Kingdom of Bosnia falls to the Ottoman Empire.
• September 15 – Battle of Vistula Lagoon: The navy of the Prussian Confederation defeats that of the Teutonic Order.
• October 8 – Truce of Hesdin ends French support for the House of Lancaster in England.^[3]

Date unknown

• Muhammad Rumfa starts to rule in Kano.
• Corpus Hermeticum is translated into Latin by Marsilio Ficino.

1464

January–December

• April 25 – Battle of Hedgeley Moor in England: Yorkist forces under John Neville defeat Lancastrians under Sir Ralph Percy, who is killed.^[3]
• May 1 – Edward IV of England secretly marries Elizabeth Woodville, and keeps the marriage a secret for 5 months afterwards.^[3]
• May 15 – Battle of Hexham: Neville defeats another Lancastrian army, this one led by King Henry and Queen Margaret themselves. This marks the end of organized Lancastrian resistance for several years.
• June 11 – Fifteen year-truce between the kingdoms of England and Scotland signed.^[3]
• June 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 10 year peace treaty with the Ottomans signed in 1463 by attacking their forces near Ohrid.
• June 23 – Christian I of Denmark and Norway, who is also serving as King of Sweden, is declared deposed from the latter throne. His deposed predecessor Charles VIII of Sweden is re-elected to the throne on August 9.
• August 21 – Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan abdicates, and is succeeded by his son, Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado.
• August 30 – Pope Paul II succeeds Pope Pius II as the 211th pope.

Date unknown

• In China, a small rebellion occurs in the interior province of Huguang, during the Ming Dynasty; a subsequent rebellion springs up in Guangxi, where a rebellion of the Miao people and Yao people forces the Ming throne to respond by sending 30,000 troops (including 1,000 Mongol cavalry) to aid the 160,000 local troops stationed in the region to crush the rebellion that will end in 1466.^[4][5]
• Jehan 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.

1465

January–December

• January 29 – Amadeus IX becomes Duke of Savoy.
• January 30 – Charles VIII of Sweden is deposed. Clergyman Kettil Karlsson Vasa becomes Regent of Sweden.
• July 13 – Battle of Montlhéry: Troops of King Louis XI of France fight inconclusively against an army of the great nobles organized as the League of the Public Weal.
• July 24 – Former King Henry VI of England is captured by Yorkist forces and imprisoned in the Tower of London. His queen consort Margaret of Anjou and Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, have fled to France.
• August 11 – In Sweden, Regent Kettil Karlsson Vasa, Bishop of Linköping, dies and is succeeded by Archbishop Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna as Regent.
• October 14 – Wallachian voivode Radu cel Frumos, younger brother of Vlad Țepeș, issues a writ from his residence in Bucharest, the earliest known document to mention the city by name.

Writ issued on 14 October 1465 by the Wallachian voivode Radu cel Frumos, from his residence in Bucharest. It is the oldest known document that mentions Bucharest by name.

Date unknown

• Moroccan Revolt in Fez, ousting the Maranid rulers and killing Jews.
• Massive flooding in central and southern China motivates the initial construction of hundreds of new bridges.

1466

January–December

• June – Second Siege of Krujë: Mehmed II leads an army of 150,000 in an attempt to quash the Albanian resistance by taking Krujë. The Albanians repulse him and the Ottoman army retreats from Albania.
• August 26 – A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, led by Luca Pitti and Borso d'Este, is discovered and put down in Florence.
• October 18 – Erik Axelsson Tott replaces Jöns Bengtsson Oxenstierna as Regent of Sweden.
• October 19 – The Thirteen Years' War ends with the Second Peace of Thorn.

Date unknown

• The Chimú Empire is conquered by troops of the Inca.
• The Mentelin Bible, the first printed German language Bible, is produced.
• Louis XI of France introduces silk weaving to Lyon.^[6]
• Collapse of the Kingdom of Georgia into anarchy and its subsequent fragmentation into rival states of Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Samtskhe-Saatabago and a number of principalities, which is finalised in 1490 when Constantine II of Georgia has to recognize his rival monarchies.

• The 2nd largest bell of St. Peter's Church in Fritzlar was founded by Meister Goswin aus Fritzlar.

1467

January–December

• June 15 – Philip the Good is succeeded as Duke of Burgundy by Charles the Bold.
• October 29 – Battle of Brustem: Charles the Bold defeats the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
• November 12 – Regent of Sweden Erik Axelsson Tott supports the re-election of deposed Charles VIII of Sweden to the throne.
• December 15 – Battle of Baia: Troops under Stephen III of Moldavia decisively defeat the forces of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, at Baia (present-day Romania). This is the last Hungarian attempt to subdue the Principality of Moldavia.

Date unknown

• Third Siege of Krujë: A few months after the failure of the second siege, Mehmed II leads another unsuccessful Ottoman invasion of Albania.
• The Ōnin War (1467–1477), which initiates the Sengoku period in Japan, begins.
• While Hassan III of the Maldives is on Hajj, Sayyidh Muhammad deposes his son, acting regent. On his return, Hassan regains the throne.
• Some Papal abbreviators are arrested and tortured on the orders of Pope Paul II, among them Filippo Buonaccorsi.
• King Matthias Corvinus founds the first university in Slovakia, the Universitas Istropolitana in Bratislava.
• The polyalphabetic cipher is invented by Leon Battista Alberti (approximate date).
• Juan de Torquemada's book, Meditationes, seu Contemplationes devotissimae, is published.^[7]

1468

• August 26: Baeda Maryam succeeds his father Zara Yaqob as Emperor of Ethiopia.
• October 14: The Treaty of Péronne is signed by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis XI of France.

Date unknown

• The Lancastrians surrender Harlech Castle to King Edward IV of England after a seven-year siege.
• The Great Council of the Republic of Venice attempts to curb the power of the Council of Ten through legislation restricting them to acting on emergency matters.
• Orkney is pledged by Christian I, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland. As the money is never paid, the connection with the crown of Scotland becomes perpetual.
• Metz Cathedral is completed.
• At about this date, Sonni Ali, king of the Songhai Empire, takes power over Timbuktu.

1469

• October 19 – Ferdinand II of Aragon marries Isabella I of Castile in Valladolid, bringing about a dynastic union of Spain.

Undated

• Sigismund of Austria sells Upper-Elsass (Alsace) to Charles the Bold in exchange for aid in a war against the Swiss.
• Moctezuma I, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, dies and is succeeded by Axayacatl.
• Marsilio 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".

Significant people

• Charles I (the Bold) (1433–1477), Duke of Burgundy, r. 1467–1477
• Jean Fouquet of France (1420–1481), painter
• Francis II (1433–1488), Duke of Brittany, r. 1458–1488
• Gendun Drup of Tibet (1391–1474), First Dalai Lama
• Diogo Gomes of Portugal (1420–1485), navigator, explorer and writer
• Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz (1395?–1468), printer and inventor of the movable type printing press
• Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460), Portuguese prince and patron of exploration
• William Herbert of Wales (1423–1469), Pro-York nobleman
• Sir Thomas Malory of England (1405?–1471), soldier, member of Parliament, political prisoner, and author of Le Morte d'Arthur
• Richard Neville of England (1428–1471), nobleman, administrator, and military commander
• Demetrios Palaiologos of Morea (1407–1470), Byzantine Prince and Despot of Morea
• Thomas Palaiologos of Morea (1409–1465), Byzantine Prince and Despot of Morea
• Philip III (the Good) (1396–1467), Duke of Burgundy, r. 1419–1467
• Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester (1452–1483), English Prince, Yorkist commander, and future King of England
• Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York of England (1411-1460), nobleman, military commander, and Yorkist claimant to the Throne of England
• Mar Shimun IV, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East (Patriarchate then based in Mosul), held position 1437–1497
• Tlacaelel (1397-1487), Tlacochcalcatl of the Aztec empire
• Jasper Tudor of Wales (c.1431–1495), nobleman and adventurer
• Owen Tudor of Wales (c.1400–1461), soldier and courtier at the court of the English Kings
• Andrea del Verrocchio of Florence (1435–1488), painter, sculptor, and goldsmith

References