A timeline of contemporary European events, 1400 to 1550

A timeline of contemporary European events, 1400 to 1550

1399

1400 Death of Geoffrey Chaucer

1404 John the Fearless succeeds his father Philip the Bold as Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders (r. 1404-1419)

1415 Battle of Agincourt (24 Oct.)

Charles, Duke of Orleans, taken prisoner and held in England until 1440

1417 End of the Great Schism

1419 Philip the Good succeeds as Duke of Burgundy (r. 1419-1467)

1422 Deaths of Charles VI of France and Henry V of England

Henry VI crowned King of England

1429 Charles VII crowned King of France at Rheims (r. 1429-1461)

1430 Institution by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, of the chivalric Order of the Golden Fleece

1431 Joan of Arc burnt at stake in Rouen (30 May)

1432 Henry VI crowned King of France

Ghent altarpiece The Adoration of the Lamb completed by the Van Eycks

1434 Cosimo de'Medici (d.1464) becomes ruler of Florence

1435 Leone Battista Alberti completes his On Painting

1436 Charles VII recovers Paris

1439 Bull of Union between the Greek and Latin Churches

1441 Death of the painter Jan van Eyck

1444 Death of the painter Robert Campin, of Tournai

1450 Kentish Rebellion of Jack Cade

1452 Birth of Leonardo da Vinci (d.1519)

1453 Fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehmet II (29 May)

End of Hundred Years War (19 Oct.)

Death of the composer John Dunstaple

1454 Beginning of the Wars of the Roses (22 May)

1455 Gutenberg Bible is printed at Mainz

1461 Edward IV becomes King of England (r. 1461-1470, 1471-1483)

Louis XI becomes King of France (r. 1461-1483)

1464 Death of the painter Rogier van der Weyden, of Tournai

1467 Charles the Bold succeeds as Duke of Burgundy (r. 1467-1477)

1469 Lorenzo de'Medici (d.1492) becomes ruler of Florence

1470 Sir Thomas Malory completes his Morte d'Arthur

1470/1 Exile of Edward IV in the Low Countries

1474 Death of the composer Guillaume Dufay

1475 Birth of the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (d. 1564)

William Caxton produces the first book printed in English

1477 Death of Charles the Bold, last Valois Duke of Burgundy, at the battle of Nancy

Archduke Maximilian of Austria marries Mary of Burgundy

1479 Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile become the 'Catholic Monarchs of Spain'

1482 Death of the painter Hugo van der Goes, of Ghent

1483 Richard III becomes King of England (r. 1483-1485)

1485 Battle of Bosworth and accession of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch

1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope

1489 Death of the painter Simon Marmion, of Valenciennes

1490 Aldine Press founded at Venice by Aldus Manutius

1492 Conquest of Granada by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile

Christopher Columbus sails to the New World

Martin Behaim constructs at Nuremberg the first terrestrial globe

1494 Death of the painter Hans Memling, of Bruges

1495 Manuel I becomes King of Portugal (r. 1495-1521)

1496/7 Double marriage between the Archduke Philip the Fair and Joanna of Castile, and Margaret of Austria and the Infante John of Castile

1497 John Cabot sails to Newfoundland

1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India

Leonardo da Vinci completes The Last Supper in Milan

1500 Birth of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

1503 James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor

1506 Death of the painter Andrea Mantegna

Death of the Archduke Philip the Fair in Spain

1507 Margaret of Austria appointed Governor of the Netherlands

1509 Henry VIII becomes King of England (r. 1509-1547)

1510 Death of the painter Sandro Botticelli, of Florence

1513 Niccolò Machiavelli completes The Prince

1516 Publication at Basel of Erasmus's Latin translation of the New Testament

1517 Publication at Wittenberg of Luther's Theses

1520 The Emperor Charles V crowned at Aachen

Suleiman the Magnificent succeeds his father Selim I

Death of the painter Raffaello de'Santi (Raphael)

1521 Death of the composer Josquin Desprès

1522 Publication at Wittenberg of Luther's German translation of the New Testament

1522 Knights of St John abandon Rhodes to the Turks

1523 Death of the painter Gerard David

1524 Francis I invades Italy

1525 Battle of Pavia (24 Feb.)

1526 Publication at Worms of William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament

1527 Sack of Rome

1528 Death of the artist Albrecht Dürer

1529 Siege of Vienna by the Turks

Fall of Cardinal Wolsey

1531 Henry VIII becomes Supreme Head of the Church in England

1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn

1534 Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

1535 Publication at Zurich of Coverdale's Bible, the first printed Bible in English

1536 Publication of Paracelsus's Great Book of Surgery

1539 Suppression of monasteries in England

1541 Michelangelo completes the fresco The Last Judgement in the Sixtine Chapel

1542 The Inquisition established at Rome

1543 Publication of Nicolaus Copernicus's Revolutions of the Celestial Orbits

Publication of Andreas Vesalius's On the Human Body

1546 Death of Martin Luther

1547 Death of Henry VIII

1553 Mary Tudor becomes Queen of England

1555 Charles V abdicates as Holy Roman Emperor

1558 Elizabeth becomes Queen of England

1561 Death of the miniaturist Simon Bening, of Bruges

Illuminating the Renaissance Illuminating the Renaissance

Introduction to Flemish Renaissance manuscript art Introduction to Flemish Renaissance manuscript art

Timeline of contemporary European events

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