March 23 – Five-year-old
Trần Thiếu Đế is forced to abdicate as ruler of
Đại Việt (modern-day
Vietnam), in favour of his maternal grandfather and court official
Hồ Quý Ly, ending the
Trần dynasty after 175 years and starting the
Hồ dynasty. Hồ Quý Ly subsequently changes the country's name to Đại Ngu.
April 25 –
Jingnan campaign: In the
Shandong province of Ming dynasty China,
Zhu Di, Prince of Yan, defeats the Imperial forces of General
Li Jinglong in the two-day Battle of Baigou River, by taking advantage of the chaos that results when a gust of wind breaks the staff of General Li's flag of battle. The Yan forces capture 100,000 of the Imperial soldiers as prisoners and Li and the others retreat to
Jinan.
April – King
Swa Saw Ke, of
Ava, the largest kingdom in Burma, dies after a reign of 33 years and is succeeded by his son,
King Tarabya, who reigns less than seven months before being assassinated.
June 5 – Duke Frederick I of Brunswick-Lüneburg is assassinated after being identified as a rival to Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick, on his way back from a May 22 meeting of the prince-electors, is ambushed by a party of men led by
Count Henry of Waldeck while passing through the village of
Kleinenglis in the
Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont (now part of the German state of
Hesse, near
Borken).
July 26 –
Jagiellonian University is re-established in
Kraków by order of
King Władysław II, with the creation of the Faculty of Theology at what is then called the Kraków Academy. The restoration is partially financed by the sale of jewelry owned by the King's late wife,
Queen Jadwiga, who had died in
1399.
August 6 – Writing from
Newcastle upon Tyne to
Scotland's
King Robert III, England's
King Henry IV sends a demand that King Robert meet him "on Monday the 23rd of this present month of August, at
Edinburgh, where, for this reason and for the peace of tranquility of the realms of England and Scotland, we intend to be," for Robert "to perform the obligation which you owe us" as "overlords of Scotland and of its kings in all temporal matters pertaining to them..." King Henry warns that "considering the effusion of Christian blood and other dangers and losses which may occur if you do not comply with our wishes, you will be present to render us homage and take the oath of fealty." [1]
August 14 – King Henry IV leads the English Army into
Scotland, after receiving no answer from Scotland's King Robert III to his August 6 demand. The troops reach
Haddington, East Lothian the next day and at
Leith, on the outskirts of
Edinburgh, by August 18. As historian
James Hamilton Wylie will note almost 500 years later, "the walls of Edinburgh did not fall before this ram's-horn blast, and August 23rd came and went without the required homage or recognition."[2]
August 20 – Meeting at the
Lahneck Castle in what is now the German state
Rhineland-Palatinate, the princes of the German states vote to depose the Holy Roman Emperor,
Wenceslaus, due to his weak leadership and mental illnesses.
October 7 –
Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, stops between
Malatya and
Aleppo at the Turkish garrison in
Behesna. According to author Peter Purton, the garrison "had the temerity to shoot a catapult ball at Timur which rolled into his tent. Setting up his own battery of 20 machines, it is said that the first shot hit and destroyed the offending weapon. Treating this as a good omen, the attack was launched, the towers mined... and the place surrendered."[3]
November 2 – The Mamluk Sultanate surrenders the city of Aleppo and Tamerlane's Army massacres many of the inhabitants.[5]
November 25 – (9th waxing of Nadaw,
730 ME)
Minkhaung I becomes the new King of Ava, the largest kingdom in what is now northern
Myanmar, after a battle for power that follows the assassination of the erratic
King Tarabya.
December 25 – In China, the
Jingnan campaign of Prince
Zhu Di of Yan suffers a serious reversal at the Battle of Dongchang as Imperial General Sheng Yong, replacement of
Li Jinglong, encircles the Yan forces. Yan Army General
Zhang Yu is killed, but Zhu Di is able to escape to the northern capital at
Beijing and regroups his forces for a second attack to take place in February.
In modern-day
Korea, King
Jeongjong of Joseon abdicates in fear of an attack by his ambitious younger brother,
Taejong. Taejong succeeds to the throne.
March 13 – The Samogitians, supported by Grand Duke
Vytautas of
Lithuania, rebel against the Teutonic knights and burn two castles. Vytautas is granted increased autonomy by King
Jogaila of the
Poland–
Lithuania union.
Battle of Bryn Glas: Welsh rebels under
Owain Glyndŵr defeat the English on the England/Wales border.[10] The Welsh capture
Edmund Mortimer, son of the 3rd Earl, who defects to the Welsh cause, on 30 November marrying Owain's daughter Catrin.
The
Malacca Sultanate is established at Melaka Darul Azim (modern-day Melaka Darul Azim, Malaysia).
After the Christian
Knights of Saint John, who are ruling
Smyrna, refuse to convert to Islam or pay tribute,
Timur has the entire population massacred. The Knights subsequently begin building
Bodrum Castle in
Bodrum, to defend against future attacks.
Conchobar an Abaidh mac Maelsechlainn O Cellaigh succeeds Maelsechlainn mac William Buidhe O Cellaigh, as King of
Uí Maine in modern-day
County Galway and
County Roscommon in
Ireland.
October – An English fleet organised by
John Hawley of Dartmouth and Thomas Norton of Bristol seizes seven French merchant vessels in the
English Channel.
November – An English revenge raid on
Brittany by Sir William Wilford captures 40 ships and causes considerable damage ashore.[12]
commissions the Yongle Encyclopedia, one of the world's earliest and largest known general encyclopedias.
orders his coastal provinces to build a vast fleet of ships, with construction centered at Longjiang near
Nanjing; the inland provinces are to provide wood and float it down the
Yangtze River.
Tadhg Ruadh mac Maelsechlainn O Cellaigh succeeds Conchobar an Abaidh mac Maelsechlainn O Cellaigh, as King of
Hy-Many, in present-day counties
Galway and
Roscommon.
Maolmhordha mac Con Connacht succeeds Giolla Iosa mac Pilib, as King of
East Breifne, in present-day counties
Leitrim and
Cavan.
probable – Ououso becomes King of
Nanzan, in present-day south
Okinawa,
Japan.
April 10 –
After several invitations by the
Yongle Emperor of China since
1403, the fifth
Karmapa of the
Karma Kagyu sect of
Tibetan Buddhism, the lama
Deshin Shekpa, finally visits the
Ming dynasty capital, then at
Nanjing. In his twenty-two-day visit, he thrills the Ming court with alleged miracles that are recorded in a gigantic scroll, translated into five different languages. In a show of mystical prowess, Deshin Shekpa adds legitimacy to a questionable succession to the throne by Yongle, who had killed his nephew the
Jianwen Emperor in the culmination of a
civil war. For his services to the Ming court, including his handling of the ceremonial rites of Yongle's deceased parents, Deshin Shekpa is awarded the title Great Treasure Prince of Dharma (大寶法王).
January 18 – The
Decree of Kutná Hora strengthens the Bohemian Nation at thee cost of foreign, mostly German speaking students at the
University of Prague. Over a thousand students leave Prague as a consequence, chosing instead the universities of Heidelberg and the new university of Leipzig established later in the year.
^Ibn Khaldun (1952). Ibn Khaldūn and Tamerlane: Their Historic Meeting in Damascus, 1401 A.d. (803 A. H.) A Study Based on Arabic Manuscripts of Ibn Khaldūn's "Autobiography,". Translated by Walter Joseph Fischel. University of California Press. p. 97.
^Rogers, Clifford J., ed. (2010). "Modon, Battle of". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology. Oxford University Press. pp. 13–14.
ISBN978-0-195334036.