Middle Ages
Battle of Varna (1444): The Crusade That Ended in Disaster
Decisive Ottoman victory; King Władysław III and Cardinal Cesarini were killed and the Crusade of Varna collapsed.
Region
Europe
Middle Ages
Vlad the Impaler: Vlad III Dracula, Prince of Wallachia
Vlad III fought the Ottomans and his internal enemies with extreme brutality; he lost his throne in 1462, regained it briefly in 1476 and was killed soon after.
Middle Ages
Gutenberg's Printing Press: Movable Type Changes Europe
Printing with movable metal type spread to more than 250 European towns by 1500, transforming the production of books and the circulation of ideas.
Middle Ages
Fall of Constantinople (1453): End of the Byzantine Empire
Ottoman victory; Constantinople was captured, the Byzantine Empire ended and the city became the Ottoman capital.
Middle Ages
Wars of the Roses (1455-1487): Lancaster Against York
The House of York won the throne in 1461 and lost it in 1485 to Henry Tudor, whose marriage to Elizabeth of York founded the Tudor dynasty.
Middle Ages
Siege of Belgrade (1456): John Hunyadi Halts Mehmed II
Hungarian and crusader victory; Mehmed II lifted the siege, and Belgrade remained in Hungarian hands until 1521.
Middle Ages
Matthias Corvinus: Renaissance King of Hungary, 1458–1490
Matthias made Hungary a major Central European power and a Renaissance centre, but his conquests and reforms did not outlast his death in 1490.
Middle Ages
Battle of Towton (1461): The Bloodiest Battle on English Soil
Decisive Yorkist victory; Edward IV secured the throne and Henry VI fled to Scotland.
Middle Ages
Fall of Trebizond (1461): The Last Byzantine Successor State
Trebizond surrendered to the Ottomans, ending the last Byzantine Greek empire; Emperor David and most of his family were executed in 1463.
Middle Ages
Ivan III the Great: Gathering the Russian Lands, 1462–1505
Ivan III tripled the territory ruled from Moscow, ended Tatar overlordship and laid the foundations of a centralised Russian state.
Middle Ages
Ferdinand and Isabella (1469): The Marriage That Made Spain
The marriage united the heirs of Castile and Aragon; after Isabella won the War of the Castilian Succession, the two crowns were ruled jointly from 1479.
Middle Ages
Pazzi Conspiracy (1478): Murder in Florence Cathedral
Giuliano de' Medici was killed but Lorenzo survived; the plotters were executed and Medici power in Florence emerged stronger, though a two-year war with the Papacy and Naples followed.