1470s

The 1470s decade ran from January 1, 1470, to December 31, 1479.

Events

1470

January–December[edit]

• March 12 – Wars of the Roses in England – Battle of Losecoat Field: The House of York defeats the House of Lancaster. ^[1]
• March 20 – The Battle of Nibley Green is the last fought between the private armies of feudal magnates in England.^[2]
• Spring: Anglo-Hanseatic War: Hanseatic League privateers set sail.
• May 15 – Charles VIII of Sweden, who has served three terms as King of Sweden, dies. Sten Sture the Elder proclaims himself Regent of Sweden the following day.
• June 1 – Sten Sture is recognised as Swedish ruler by the estates.
• July 12 – The Ottomans capture Euboea.
• August 20 – Battle of Lipnic: Stephen the Great defeats the Volga Tatars of the Golden Horde, led by Ahmed Khan.
• September 13 – A rebellion orchestrated by King Edward IV of England's former ally, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, forces the King to flee England to seek support from his brother-in-law, Charles the Bold of Burgundy.
• October 3 – Warwick releases Henry VI of England from the Tower of London, and restores him to the throne.
• November 28 – Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of Đại Việt launches a naval expedition against Champa, beginning the Cham–Annamese War.
• December 18 – Lê Thánh Tông leads the Đại Việt army into Champa, conquering the country in less than three months.

Date unknown[edit]

• The Pahang Sultanate is established at Pahang Darul Makmur (in modern-day Malaysia).
• The first contact occurs between Europeans and the Fante nation of the Gold Coast, when a party of Portuguese land and meet with the King of Elmina.
• Johann Heynlin introduces the printing press into France and prints his first book this same year.
• In Tonga, in or around 1470, the Tuʻi Tonga Dynasty cedes its temporal powers to the Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua Dynasty, which will remain prominent until about 1600.
• Between this year and 1700, 8,888 witches are tried in the Swiss Confederation; 5,417 of them are executed.
• Sir George Ripley dedicates his book, The Compound of Alchemy, to the King Edward IV of England.

1471

January–December[edit]

• January – Portuguese navigators João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar reach the gold-trading centre of Elmina on the Gold Coast of west Africa.^[3] and explore Cape St. Catherine, two degrees south of the equator, so that they begin to be guided by the Southern Cross constellation. They also visit Sassandra on the Ivory Coast.
• March 1 – Emperor Lê Thánh Tông captures the Champa capital, establishing new regions in middle Vietnam.
• March – The Yorkist King Edward IV returns to England to reclaim his throne.
• April 14 – Battle of Barnet: Edward defeats the Lancastrian army under Warwick, who is killed.^[4]
• May 4 – Battle of Tewkesbury: King Edward defeats a Lancastrian army under Queen Margaret and her son, Edward of Westminster the Prince of Wales, who is killed.^[5]
• May 21 – King Edward IV celebrates his victories with a triumphal parade on his return to London. The captured Queen Margaret is paraded through the streets. The same day Henry VI of England is murdered in the Tower of London, eliminating all Lancastrian opposition to the House of York.
• July 14 – Battle of Shelon: The forces of Muscovy defeat the Republic of Novgorod.
• August 9 – Pope Sixtus IV succeeds Pope Paul II, to become the 212th pope.
• August 24 – King Afonso V of Portugal conquers the Moroccan town of Arzila.
• August 29 – The Portuguese occupy Tangier, after its population flees the city.
• October 10 – Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm, Sweden: The forces of Regent of Sweden Sten Sture the Elder, with the help of farmers and miners, repel an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
• December 21 – The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe are discovered by Portuguese navigators João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar.^[6]

Date unknown[edit]

• Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui of the Inca Empire dies, and is succeeded by his son Topa Inca Yupanqui.
• Moorish exiles from Spain, led by Moulay Ali Ben Moussa Ben Rached El Alami, found the city of Chefchaouen in the north of Morocco.
• Marsilio Ficino's translation of the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin, De potestate et sapientia Dei, is published.

1472

January–December[edit]

• February 20 – Orkney and Shetland are returned by Norway to Scotland, as a result of a defaulted dowry payment.^[7]
• March 4 – A mount of piety is established in Siena (Italy), origin of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest surviving retail bank.^[8]
• April 11 – The first printed edition of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy is published in Foligno.^[9]
• June
  • 20-year-old Leonardo da Vinci is admitted as a master in his own right to the artists' Guild of Saint Luke in Florence.^[10]
  • (approximate date) – Volterra, a town in Italy, is sacked by Florentine soldiers for challenging the power of Lorenzo de' Medici.
• July 3 – The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, England, commonly known as York Minster, is declared complete and consecrated.^[11]
• December 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.")

Undated[edit]

• The Kingdom of Fez is founded by the Wattasid dynasty with Sultan Abu Abd Allah al-Sheikh Muhammad ibn Yahya as its first ruler.^[12]
• An extensive slave trade begins in modern Cameroon as the Portuguese sail up the Wouri River.
• Fernão do Po claims the central-African islands Bioko and Annobón for Portugal.
• Possible discovery of the island of "Bacalao" (perhaps Newfoundland off North America) by João Vaz Corte-Real.
• First printing of Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ (De Imitatione Christi) probably concludes posthumously in Augsburg;^[13] it will reach 100 editions and translations by the end of the century.^[14]
• Johannes de Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi (written c. 1230) is first published in Ferrara, the first printed astronomical book.
• Pietro d'Abano's medical texts Conciliator differentiarum quae inter philosophos et medicos versantur and De venenis eorumque remediis (written before 1315) are first published.

1473

January–December[edit]

• February 12 – The first complete Inside edition of Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (Latin translation) is published in Milan.
• August 11 – Battle of Otlukbeli: Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II defeats the White Sheep Turkmens, led by Uzun Hasan.^[15]

Date unknown[edit]

• Stephen the Great of Moldavia refuses to pay tribute to the Ottomans. This will attract an Ottoman invasion in 1475, resulting in the greatest defeat of the Ottomans so far.
• Axayacatl, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, invades the territory of the neighboring Aztec city of Tlatelolco. The ruler of Tlatelolco is killed and replaced by a military governor; Tlatelolco loses its independence.
• Possible discovery of the island of "Bacalao" (possibly Newfoundland off North America) by Didrik Pining and João Vaz Corte-Real.
• The city walls and defensive moat are built in Celje, Slovenia.
• Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474, an astronomical wall calendar, is published in Kraków, the oldest known printing in Poland.^[16]
• Florentine physician Marsilio Ficino becomes a Catholic priest.
• Possible date – Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye is the first book to be printed in English, by William Caxton, in Bruges.

1474

January–December[edit]

• February – The Treaty of Utrecht puts an end to the Anglo-Hanseatic War.
• March 19 – The Senate of the Republic of Venice enacts the Venetian Patent Statute, one of the earliest patent systems in the world.^[17] New and inventive devices, once put into practice, have to be communicated to the Republic to obtain the right to prevent others from using them. This is considered the first modern patent system.^[18]
• July 25 – By signing the Treaty of London, Charles the Bold of Burgundy agrees to support Edward IV of England's planned invasion of France.^[19]
• December 12 – Upon the death of Henry IV of Castile, a civil war ensues between his designated successor Isabella I of Castile, and her niece Juana, who is supported by her husband, Afonso V of Portugal. Isabella wins the civil war after a lengthy struggle, when her husband, the newly crowned Ferdinand II of Aragon, comes to her aid.

Date unknown[edit]

• Marsilio Ficino completes his book Theologia Platonica (Platonic Theology).
• Axayacatl defeats the Matlatzinca of the Toluca Valley.

1475

January–December[edit]

• January 10 – Battle of Vaslui (Moldavian–Ottoman Wars): Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire, which is led at this time by Mehmed the Conqueror of Constantinople.
• July 4 – Burgundian Wars: Edward IV of England lands in Calais, in support of the Duchy of Burgundy against France.^[20]
• August 29 – The Treaty of Picquigny ends the brief war between France and England.
• November 13 – Burgundian Wars – Battle on the Planta: Forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious against those of the Duchy of Savoy, near Sion, Switzerland.
• November 14 – The original Landshut Wedding takes place, between George, Duke of Bavaria, and Hedwig Jagiellon.
• December – The Principality of Theodoro falls to the Ottoman Empire,^[21] arguably taking with it the final territorial remnant of the successor to the Roman Kingdom after nearly 2,228 years of Roman civilization since the legendary Founding of Rome in 753 BC.

Date unknown[edit]

• Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye is the first book to be printed in English, by William Caxton in Bruges (or 1473–74?).
• Rashi's commentary on the Torah is the first dated book to be printed in Hebrew, in Reggio di Calabria.^[22]
• Conrad of Megenberg's book, Buch der Natur, is published in Augsburg.^[23]
• In Wallachia, Radu cel Frumos loses the throne (for the last time), and is again replaced by Basarab Laiotă.

1476

January–December[edit]

• March 1 – Battle of Toro (War of the Castilian Succession): Although militarily inconclusive, this ensures the Catholic Monarchs the Crown of Castile, forming the basis for modern-day Spain.
• March 2 – Battle of Grandson (Burgundian Wars): Swiss forces defeat Burgundy.^[24]
• June 22 – Battle of Morat (Burgundian Wars): The Burgundians suffer a crushing defeat, at the hands of the Swiss.
• July 26 – Battle of Valea Albă (Moldavian–Ottoman Wars): The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II defeats Stephen III of Moldavia.
• November 26 – Vlad the Impaler declares himself reigning Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia for the third and last time. He is killed on the march to Bucharest, probably before the end of December. His head is sent to his old enemy, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II.

Date unknown[edit]

• Leonardo da Vinci is acquitted on charges of sodomy, after which he disappears from the historical record for two years.
• Axayacatl, sixth Tlatoani of Tenochtitlán, is defeated by the Tarascans of Michoacán.
• Goyghor Mosque is built by Musa ibn Haji Amir and his son, Majlis Alam.^[25]

1477

January–December[edit]

• January 5 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold of Burgundy is again defeated, and this time is killed; this marks the end of the Burgundian Wars.^[26]
• February? – Volcano Bardarbunga erupts, with a VEI of 6.
• February 11 – Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, is forced by her disgruntled subjects to sign the Great Privilege, by which the Flemish cities recover all the local and communal rights which have been abolished by the decrees of the dukes of Burgundy, in their efforts to create in the Low Countries a centralized state.
• February 27 – Uppsala University is founded, becoming the first university in Sweden and all of Scandinavia.^[27]
• August 19 – Mary of Burgundy marries Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, in Ghent, bringing her Flemish and Burgundian lands into the Holy Roman Empire, and detaching them from France.^[28]
• November 18 – William Caxton produces Earl Rivers' translation into English of Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, at his press in Westminster, the first full-length book printed in England on a printing press.^[29]

Undated[edit]

• Ivan III of Russia marches against the Novgorod Republic, marking the beginning of Russian Colonialism.
• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola starts to study canon law, at the University of Bologna.
• Thomas Norton (alchemist) writes Ordinall of Alchemy.
• The first edition of The Travels of Marco Polo is printed.

1478

January–December[edit]

• January 14 – Novgorod surrenders to Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow.
• January 15 – Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York is married to Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk.
• February 18 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London.
• April 26 – The Pazzi Family attacks Lorenzo de' Medici, and kills his brother Giuliano, during High Mass in Florence Cathedral.^[30]
• May 14 – The Siege of Shkodra, Albania begins.
• November – Eskender succeeds his father Baeda Maryam, as Emperor of Ethiopia, at the age of six.
• November 1 – The Spanish Inquisition begins.
• December 28 – Battle of Giornico: Swiss troops defeat the Milanese.

Date unknown[edit]

• Grand Duchy of Moscow devolved from the Golden Horde.
• Lorenzo de' Medici becomes sole ruler of Florence.
• The Demak Sultanate gains independence from Majapahit, after a civil war.
• The Fourth Siege of Krujë, Albania by the Ottoman Empire, concludes and results in the town's capture, after the failure of three prior sieges.
• Vladislav II of Bohemia makes peace with Hungary.
• Possibly the first reference to cricket, in "criquet", as discovered in France by Rowland Bowen in the 20th century. It has been dismissed by some (most notably John Major) and presaged with Edward II's "Creag" (1300) by others.
• Mondino de Liuzzi's Anathomia corporis humani, the first complete published anatomical text, is first printed (in Padua).

1479

January–December[edit]

• January 20 – Ferdinand II ascends the throne of Aragon, and rules together with his wife Isabella I, Queen of Castile, over most of the Iberian peninsula.
• January 25 – The Treaty of Constantinople is signed between the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Venice, ending sixteen years of war between the two powers; Venice will cede Negroponte, Lemnos and Shkodër, and pay an annual sum of 10,000 gold ducats.^[31]
• April 25 – Ratification of the Treaty of Constantinople in Venice ends the Siege of Shkodra after fifteen months, and brings all of Albania under the Ottoman Empire.
• May 13 – Christopher Columbus, an experienced mariner and successful trader in the thriving Genoese expatriate community in Portugal, marries Felipa Perestrelo Moniz (Italian on her father's side), and receives as dowry her late father's maps and papers, charting the seas and winds around the Madeira Islands, and other Portuguese possessions in the Ocean Sea.
• August 7 – Battle of Guinegate: A French army sent to invade the Netherlands is defeated by Maximilian of Austria.
• September 4 – The Treaty of Alcáçovas (also known as the Treaty or Peace of Alcáçovas-Toledo) is signed between the Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon on one side, and the King of Portugal and his son on the other side, ending the four-year War of the Castilian Succession.
• October 13 – Battle of Breadfield (Hungarian: Kenyérmezei csata, Turkish: Ekmek Otlak Savaşı): The army of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by Pál Kinizsi and István Báthory, defeats that of the Ottoman Empire in Transylvania, Hungary, leaving at least 10,000 Turkish dead.

Ongoing[edit]

• The plague breaks out in Florence.^[32]
• Johann Neumeister prints a new edition of Juan de Torquemada's Meditations, or the Contemplations of the Most Devout.^[33]