A timeline of contemporary European events, 1400 to 1550

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1399	Richard II deposed Henry IV crowned King of England (r. 1399-1413)	Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image Enlarged image
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

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