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.
January 20 – The Parliament of England is opened at Westminster by King Henry IV.
February 3 – The Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, who has spent almost two months in England as the guest of King Henry IV, accepts a payment of 3,000 English gold marks in support of an alliance between the two nations, then makes plans to depart England for France.[10]
Jingnan campaign: After a month's recovery from defeat in battle in China, Prince Zhu Di mobilizes his troops at Beijing and marches south to fight the Ming dynasty Jianwen Emperor.[9]
March 2 – William Sawtrey, a Roman Catholic priest and adherent to the Lollard faith becomes the first person in England to be burned at the stake under the new De heretico comburendo law (officially the Suppression of Heresy Act 1400), dying at Smithfield, London after being convicted of heresy against the Roman Catholic faith.[11]
March 10 – As the English Parliament session closes, King Henry IV gives royal assent to the Suppression of Heresy Act, permitting secular authorities to carry out punishment for religious crimes. The assent comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury pressures King Henry to outlaw the Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe, and criminalizes possession of a copy of Wycliffe's translation of the Bible.
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.
April 28 – King Zsigmond of Hungary refuses to comply with demands of the Archbishop John Kanizsai and the Palatine Derek Bebek, he is taken prisoner. Sigismund remains captive until October 29.
May 6 – The council of the Republic of Venice passes a law prohibiting the Republic's executive, the Doge, from using the state owned official ship, the bucentaur, from being used for private purposes.[14]
June 15 – Jingnan campaign: The rebel Yan forces destroy the food supplies of the Ming Chinese government at Dezhou.[9]
June 25 – The Schaffhausen massacre of 30 Jewish residents, by burning, of the town of Schaffhausen takes place in Switzerland after the April 3 murder of 4-year-old Konrad Lori.[15]
July 9 – (27 Dhu al-Qadah 803 A.H.) Timur raids the city of Baghdad, in the Jalayirid Empire, then carries out a massacre of its inhabitants, including women and children, as punishment for resisting his rule. According to accounts later, "90,000 human heads were piled up on the public places of the town."[16] The only persons spared death are "theologians, shaikhs and dervishes", and the only buildings not demolished are "mosques, universities and hostels."[17]
December 2 – Jingnan campaign: Rebel General Zhu Di adopts a new approach in his war against the Chinese Imperial troops and departs from Beiping to drive troops southward to the Yangtze River, capturing Dong'e, Dongping, Wenshang, and Pei over the next two months.[9]
February 8 – The Great Comet of 1402 is first observed by people living in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth.[21] The comet, visible for eight days even in daylight, makes its closest approach to Earth on February 20. It is last seen on March 27.
February 19 – Sigismund of Křižanov, Prokop of Luxemburg and King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia carry out an unsuccessful raid on the military garrison of Jihlava in an attack against the Kingdom of Croatia, led by Sigismund of Luxembourg..[22] The Bohemians are routed, and Wenceslas is captured.
June 3 – Jingnan campaign: After crossing the Huai River into what is now Jiangsu province, and taking Yangzhou (May 18) and Luhe (May 19), the Yan Army of Zhu Di crosses the Yangtze River at Guazhou and is within striking distance of the Imperial Chinese capital at Nanjing by June 8, forcing Emperor Zhu Yun Wen to prepare terms of surrender that include granting the Yan Kingdom areas north of the Yangtze. Zhu Di refuses.[25]
June 13 – Jingnan campaign: The Army of Yan arrives at the walls of Nanjing, capital of Imperial China and surrounds the city. The defenders on the north side open the Jinchuan Gate and let the invaders in. The Emperor Zhu Yun Wen then orders for the palace to be set on fire with himself and his followers burned to death inside before the Yan King Zhu Di arrives. Zhu Di orders the execution of 29 palace officials.[25]
June 14 – Zhu Di, King of the Yan State at Beijing, becomes the new Ming Dynasty Emperor of China at Nanjing, uniting north and south China.[25]
Battle of Bryn Glas: Welsh rebels under Owain Glyndŵr defeat the English on the England/Wales border.[26] The Welsh capture Edmund Mortimer, son of the 3rd Earl, who defects to the Welsh cause, on 30 November marrying Owain's daughter Catrin.
October 1 – The House of Commons of England is opened at Coventry by King Henry IV, whose Lord Chancellor asks the members to pass a tax to support an offensive war against Scotland, enemies of Wales, Ireland and for defending the Marches of Guienne and Calais. Henry Redford is elected Speaker of the House.
October 10 – A rare conference begins in England between the House of Commons and the House of Lords takes place with the permission of the King, and results in a 3-shilling tax on wine and a 14-pence tax on other merchandise.
November 25 – The fourth parliament of King Henry IV of England closes at Westminster after two months and the passage of new laws, including the penal Laws against Wales which stop the Welsh from gathering together, obtaining office, carrying arms and living in English towns. The laws apply to any Englishman who marries a Welsh woman.
December 2 – (6 Jumada al-Awwal 805 A.H.) With 4,000 troops, Tamerlane, Amir of the Timurid Empire covering much of what is now Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan begins the Siege of Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey). Smyrna is captured after two days of attacks on its outer walls.[30] After the Christian Knights of Saint John, who are ruling Smyrna, refuse to convert to Islam or pay tribute, Timur has the entire Christian 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.
January 23 – The Yongle Era in China begins with the first day of the Chinese New Year, six months after King Zhu Di of the Yan State arrived at Nanjing, deposed the southern Chinese Emperor Jianwen, and proclaimed himself as the Emperor Yongle.
April 1 – Prince Henry of England, son of King Henry IV, is appointed by his father to serve for one year as the Royal Lieutenant of Wales, with command over English toops to fight the Welsh rebels.[33]
April 3 – Jean II Le Maingre of France, also known as Boucicaut, the French Governor of Genoa, leads a fleet of 18 ships, 600 horses and 700 infantry to stop an attack by Muslims on the island of Cyprus and the city of Famagusta. Boucicaut besieges the Muslim city of Candelore on June 24.[34]
June 14 – The Emperor Manuel II restores Matthew I as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians. Matthew had been deposed the previous autumn during the Emperor's absence from Byzantium.[36]
June 15 – John III of Soltaniyeh, an Domincan friar of the Roman Catholic Church, arrives in Paris as an emissary of the conqueror Timur, Emir of Transoxiana, in order to secure an agreement with King Charles VI of France in order to open trade relations between the two nations.[37]
August 5 – The coronation of Ladislaus of Naples as King of Hungary and Croatia takes place in Zara (now Zadar in Croatia), where Ladislaus had arrived on July 19. His reign lasts less than four months before he is deposed.[38]
October 18 – An English fleet organised by John Hawley of Dartmouth and Thomas Norton of Bristol seizes seven French merchant vessels in the English Channel.[41]
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.
February 10 – Thomas of Lancaster, the second son of King Henry IV of England, becomes the "Admiral of the North and South", succeeding Admiral Thomas Beaufort.[47]
March 1 – Under the new Emperor Yongle, China continues to build its fleet, ordering the construction of 50 new seagoing ships from the Capital Guards in Nanjing.[49]
March 20 – As the English Parliament adjourns, King Henry IV gives royal assent to acts that have passed, including the Multipliers Act, which declares "It shall be felony to use the craft of multiplication of gold or silver.", prohibiting any alchemists who has actually may have discovered how to perform transmutation of other substances into precious metals. The law remains in force until repealed 284 years later.
August 25 – King Henry IV of England summons a new parliament, to open on October 16.
September 14 – Albert IV, Duke of Austria, dies at the age of 26 from an illness contracted while he was fighting against Bohemia and Moravia for control of the city of Znaim (now Znojmo in the Czech Republic).[57] He is succeeded as Duke by his 6-year old son, Albert.
October 17 – Cosimo de' Migliorati, Cardinal of the Basilica Cross in Jerusalem, is elected unanimously by eight cardinals to succeed the late Pope Boniface IX. Migliorati takes the papal name Pope Innocent VII as the 204th pope of the Roman Catholic Chruch.[58]
November 13 – England's "Unlearned Parliament" closes its session, the sixth during the reign of King Henry IV.
January 19 – Upon the death of Prince Sigismund of Anhalt-Dessau (now within the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in southeastern Germany), his four sons Waldemar IV, George, Albert V and Sigismund II become the joint rulers of the principality. Upon the death of Waldemar in 1417, Sigismund in 1452, and Albert in 1469, George will reign alone for five more years until his death in 1469.
February 20 – Khalil Sultan becomes the new ruler of the western side of the Timurid Empire upon the death of his grandfather, the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane], while the son of Tamerlane, Shah Rukh, becomes the ruler of the eastern side.
March 18 – News reaches the Timurid Empire that Tamerlane has died, and a period of mourning begins as Tamerlane is interred at the Gur-e-Amirmausoleum in Samarkand, now in the Republic of Uzbekistan.[60]
December 21 – King Henry IV of England summons the members of the "Long Parliament", the sixth session of the English House of Commons and the House of Lords, to assemble at Westminster on "March 1, 1405", the "old style" date for March 1, 1406.
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 the cost of foreign, mostly German speaking students at the University of Prague. Over a thousand students leave Prague as a consequence, choosing instead the universities of Heidelberg and the new University of Leipzig established later in the year.
^Kenneth M. Setton, The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571), Volume I: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (The American Philosophical Society, 1976) p.374
^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.
^"Timur, Sultan", in Biography or Third Division of The English Cyclopedia, Volume 6, ed. by Charles Knight (Bradbury, Evans & Company, 1868) p.77
^"Timur in Iran", by H. R. Roemer, in The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 6, ed. by Peter Jackson and Laurence Lockhart (Cambridge University Press, 1968) p.66
^Demotz, Bernard (2000). Le comté de Savoie du XI au XV. Slatkine.
^Miskolczy, István (1922). Nápolyi László, 1. közlemény Századok 56, Budapest. pp. 330-350.
^Dreyer, Edward L. (2007), Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433, New York: Pearson Longman, p. 105, ISBN978-0-321-08443-9, OCLC64592164
^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.
^C. L. Kingsford, Prejudice and Promise in Fifteenth Century England (Taylor & Francis, 2013) p.84
^Sumption, Jonathan (2015). The Hundred Years War. Vol. 4: Cursed Kings. Faber & Faber. p. 120.
^"Pardons and Pilgrims", by Diana Webb, in Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits: Indulgences in Late Medieval Europe, ed. by Robert Swanson (BRILL, 2018) p.263
^Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, The History of England, Volume 5, (J. and P. Knapton, 1747) p.271
^Léon Guérin, Histoire maritime de France contenant (Paris: Dufour et Mulat, 1851) p. 341
^Dreyer, Edward L. (2007), Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty, 1405-1433, New York: Pearson Longman, p. 105, ISBN978-0-321-08443-9, OCLC64592164
^Dourou-Iliopoulou, Maria (2019). Angevins and Aragonese in the Mediterranean. Athens: Herodotus. p. 167. ISBN978-960-485-325-0.
^Mallett, Michael E. (1996). "La conquista della Terraferma". Storia di Venezia dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima. Vol. IV, Il rinascimento: politica e cultura (History of Venice from its origins to the fall of the Serenissima. Vol. IV, The Renaissance: Politics and Culture) (in Italian). Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 181–240. OCLC644711024.
^Poupardin, René (2011). "John, Duke of Burgundy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15. Cambridge University Press. pp. 445–446.
^Blockmans, Wim; Prevenier, Walter (1999). Peters, Edward (ed.). The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369-1530. Translated by Fackelman, Elizabeth. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 13.
^Setton, Kenneth M. (1975). "The Catalans and Florentines in Greece, 1380–1462". A History of the Crusades. Vol. 3. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 267.
^Richard Vaughan, John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power, Volume 2 (Boydell Press, 2002) pp.7-8
^R. R. Davies, The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr (Oxford University Press, 1996)
^Muir, William (1896). The Mameluke; or, Slave dynasty of Egypt, 1260-1517, A. D. Smith, Elder. pp. 121−128.
^Mallett, Michael E. (1996). "La conquista della Terraferma". Storia di Venezia dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima. Vol. IV, Il rinascimento: politica e cultura (in Italian). Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. p. 188. OCLC644711024.
^Grabowsky, Volker (2010), "The Northern Tai Polity of Lan Na", in Geoff Wade and Laichen Sun (ed.), Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, p. 210, ISBN978-988-8028-48-1
^" The Captivity of James I", by E. W. M. Balfour-Melville, in The Scottish Historical Review, Volume 21 (1924) p.47 ("As the Annunciation fell in 1406 on a Thursday, the previous Monday would have been March 22nd, which may therefore be accepted as the date of the capture.") Because of the calendar used in England at the same time, the year was considered 1405 until March 25, when the New Year's Day marked the beginning in England of 1406.
^Syvret, Marguerite (2011). Balleine's History of Jersey. Chichester: Phillimore. pp. 50–1. ISBN978-1860776502.