1440s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	14th century – 15th century – 16th century
Decades:	1410s 1420s 1430s – 1440s – 1450s 1460s 1470s
Years:	1440 1441 1442 1443 1444 1445 1446 1447 1448 1449
1440s-related categories:	Births – Deaths – By country Establishments – Disestablishments

This is a list of events occurring in the 1440s, ordered by year.

January–December

• February 21 – The Prussian Confederation is formed.
• April 9 – Christopher of Bavaria is elected King of Denmark.
• April – Murad II lays siege to Belgrade. The city is heavily damaged, but the defenders' use of artillery prevents the Turks from capturing the city.
• September 13 – Gilles de Rais is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Bishop of Nantes.
• September – The term of Regent of Sweden Karl Knutsson Bonde ends as newly elected king of Denmark Christopher of Bavaria is also elected king of Sweden.
• October 22 – Gilles de Rais confesses and is sentenced to death.

Date unknown

• Itzcóatl, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, dies and is succeeded by Moctezuma I (Moctezuma Ilhuicamina).
• Lorenzo Valla's De falso credita et ementita Constantini Donatione declamatio demonstrates that the Donation of Constantine is a forgery.
• Eton College is founded by Henry VI of England.
• Sir Richard Molyneux is appointed constable of Liverpool Castle in England.
• The Ming dynasty government of China begins a decade-long series of issuing harsh edicts towards those who illegally mine silver, the latter known as 'miner bandits' (kuangzei), a trend begun in 1438. The government wants to cap the amount of silver circulating into the market as more grain taxes are converted into silver taxes. The government establishes community night watches known as 'watches and tithings' (baojia) who ensure that illegal mining activities are brought to a halt. However, these are desperate measures, as illegal silver mining continues to thrive as a dangerous but lucrative venture.
• Zhu Quan writes the Cha Pu ("Tea manual") in China.

1441

• February – The Republic of Venice annexes the seigniory of Ravenna, ending the Da Polenta dynasty.
• February 12 – King's College, Cambridge, is founded by King Henry VI of England.
• November 10 – Alfonso V of Aragon lays siege to Naples.

Date unknown

• Ouagadougou becomes the capital of the Mossi Kingdoms.
• Two Ethiopians attend an ecclesiastical council at Florence, as part of the negotiations concerning a possible union of Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity. This is the earliest recorded contact of the Ethiopian Church with Europe.
• A revolt occurs in the Yucatán capital Mayapan; the Maya civilization splits into warring city-states.
• With the help of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, governor Haci Giray declares his province independent of the Golden Horde and establishes the Crimean Khanate.
• Nuno Tristão reaches the Cabo Branco in the western coast of Africa. This is probably the first voyage where a caravel is used for maritime exploration.
• The first black African slaves are brought to Europe, at Lagos, Portugal.

January–December

• March 18–25 – Battle of Hermannstadt: John Hunyadi defeats an army of the Ottoman Empire 80,000 strong, led by Mesid Bey of Vidin, near Sibiu in Transylvania.
• June 12 – Alfonso of Aragon is crowned as King of Naples.

Date unknown

• The community of Rauma, Finland is granted its town rights.
• The municipality of Juva, Finland is founded.
• Vlad II Dracul is temporarily replaced as ruler of Wallachia by his son Mircea.
• A fourth tower is added to Liverpool Castle.
• Jelena Balšić completes writing the Gorički zbornik manuscripts at her church of St. Mary on the island of Beška in the Serbian Despotate.

January–December

• July 22 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl (Old Zürich War): The forces of the city of Zürich are defeated but the Old Swiss Confederacy have insufficient strength to besiege and take the city.
• November 8 – Battle of Niš: John Hunyadi and the army of the Crusade of Varna defeat three armies of the Ottoman Empire and capture the city of Niš in modern-day Serbia; Skanderbeg deserts the Ottoman camp and goes to Albania.
• November 28 – Skanderbeg and his forces, rebelling against the Ottoman Empire, liberate Krujë, in Middle Albania, and raise the Albanian flag.

Date unknown

• Portuguese explorer Nuno Tristão penetrates the Arguin Gulf off the west coast of Africa.
• King Sejong the Great establishes Hangul as the native alphabet of the Korean language.
• Vlad II Dracul begins his second term as ruler of Wallachia, succeeding Basarab II.
• The Buddhist Zhihua Temple (智化寺) is built in Beijing at the order of Wang Zhen, chief eunuch at the court of the Zhengtong Emperor of Ming dynasty China.

January–December

• March 2 – The League of Lezhë, an alliance of Albanian principalities, is established in Lezhë; George Kastrioti Skanderbeg is proclaimed commander of the Albanian resistance.
• May 22 – The Treaty of Tours, signed between England and France, secures a truce in the Hundred Years' War for 5 years.
• June 15 – Cosimo de' Medici founds the Laurentian Library in Florence.
• June 29 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman army at the Battle of Torvioll.
• August 15 – Peace of Szeged between the Turkish Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.
• August 26 – Old Zurich War – Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs: Charles VII of France, seeking to send away troublesome troops made idle by the truce with England, sends his son the Dauphin Louis with a large army into Switzerland to support the claims of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The massively outnumbered Swiss force is destroyed in this battle, but inflict such casualties on the French that they withdraw.
• August – After making peace with the Karamanids, Ottoman Sultan Murad II abdicates in favor of his son Mehmed II.
• November 10 – Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Władysław III of Poland and Hungary are crushed by the Turks under Sultan Murad II. Władysław is killed, ending the Jagiellonian Union of Hungary and Poland.

Date unknown

• Constantine XI Palaiologos, as ruler of the Despotate of the Morea, invades the Duchy of Athens (at this time under Florentine control) and forces it to pay tribute and to return Thebes to the Byzantine Empire.
• Forces of the Sultan of Egypt fail to take Rhodes from the Knights of Rhodes.
• Portuguese explorers reach the mouth of the rivers Senegal and Gambia.
• Portuguese fleet of caravels led by Lançarote de Freitas lands 235 slaves at Algarve, Portugal.
• The first European slave market for the sale of African slaves, the Mercado de Escravos, opens in Lagos, Portugal.
• A serious fire occurs at Old St Paul's Cathedral in London.
• The Iguvine Tablets are discovered at Gubbio, Italy.

January–December

• October 10 – Battle of Mokra: The Albanian forces under Skanderbeg defeated the Ottoman forces. (Pope Eugene IV raised a hymn as a praise that Christendom has been provided with a new defender after he heard of the battle.)

Date unknown

• The Portuguese set up their first trading post (Feitoria) in Africa, on the island of Arguin.
• Portuguese explorer Dinis Dias discovers the Cap-Vert in the western coast of Africa.
• Battle of Gomit: Emperor Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia defeats and kills Sultan Arwe Badlay of Adal.

January–December

• September 27 – The Battle of Otonetë. Skanderbeg defeats the Ottomans.
• Before October – Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire is forced to abdicate in favor of his father Murad II by the Janissaries.
• October – Murad II invades Attica, forcing Constantine XI to return Thebes to the duchy of Athens and remove the tribute imposed in 1444. Murad II imposes his own tribute.
• October 9 – The hangul alphabet is created in Korea by King Sejong the Great of Joseon. The Hunmin Jeongeum published during the year is considered the start of this brand new scientific writing system.
• December 10 – After hesitating for several weeks, Murad II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, destroys the Hexamilion wall in an assault that includes cannons. Murad and the Ottoman governor of Thessaly, Turakhan Beg ravage the Peloponnese peninsula at will, with the Sultan devastating the northern shore until Glarentza and Turakhan raiding in the interior. The Despotate of the Morea is turned into an Ottoman vassal state.

Date unknown

• Nuno Tristão is killed by natives in the coast of Senegal.
• Portuguese navigator Álvaro Fernandes reaches the mouth of the Casamance River in Senegal.
• The Precious Belt Bridge in China is fully reconstructed.
• In Italy, the siege of Cremona by the condottieri troops of Francesco Piccinino and Luigi dal Verme is raised after the arrival of Scaramuccia da Forlì.
• The Blarney Stone is set into a tower of Blarney Castle in Blarney, County Cork in Ireland.

January–December

• March 6 – Pope Nicholas V succeeds Pope Eugene IV, to become the 208th pope.
• July 15 – The Inquisition is revived in Spain.
• December
  • Vlad II Dracul, ruler of Wallachia, and his eldest son Mircea are assassinated. Vladislav II succeeds him with the assistance of John Hunyadi.
  • The Albanian-Venetian War of 1447-1448 begins.

Date unknown

• The Siege of Soest in the course of the Soest Feud
• According to Ryū's own sources, Iizasa Ienao founds Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu, the earliest historically verifiable Japanese koryū martial art that is still extant today.

January–December

• January 6 – Christopher of Bavaria, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden dies with no designated heir, leaving all three kingdoms with vacant thrones. Brothers Bengt Jönsson Oxenstierna and Nils Jönsson Oxenstierna are selected to serve as co-regents of Sweden.
• August 14 – Battle of Oronichea results in Albanian victory: Peace between Albania and Venice is established on October 4.
• June 20 – The Regency period of Sweden ends with the election of Karl Knutsson Bonde as King Charles VIII of Sweden.
• June 28 – Charles VIII of Sweden is publicly hailed as king at Mora Stones and is crowned in Uppsala Cathedral the following day.
• September 28 – Christian of Oldenburg, betrothed to Queen Dowager Dorothea of Brandenburg, becomes King Christian I of Denmark.
• October 17 – Battle of Kosovo: Hungarian forces under John Hunyadi are defeated by the Turks due to Ottoman superiority

Date unknown

• Queens' College, Cambridge is founded by Margaret of Anjou.
• The Vatican Library is founded by Pope Nicholas V.
• Vlad III the Impaler becomes reigning Prince of Wallachia for two months before being deposed by Vladislav II.
• After a long episode of drought, flood, locust infestation, and famine in Ming Dynasty China since the year 1434, these natural afflictions finally wane and agriculture and commerce return to a state of normality.

1449

• January 6 – Constantine XI Palaiologos is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mistra. He will be the last in a line of rulers that can be traced to the founding of Rome.
• April 7 – The last Antipope, Felix V, abdicates.
• April 19 – Pope Nicholas V is elected by the Council of Basel.
• April 25 – The Council of Basel dissolves itself.
• May 14 – Second Siege of Sfetigrad (1449): Garrison surrenders and Ottomans seize the fortress.
• May 20 – Tensions between King Afonso V of Portugal and Peter, Duke of Coimbra erupt at the Battle of Alfarrobeira. Defeat of the Duke's forces.
• August 13 – First Margrave War: Albrecht III Achilles, Elector of Brandenburg takes Lichtenau Fortress from Nuremberg.
• September 3 – Battle of Tumu Fortress: The Oirat Mongols defeat the Ming dynasty army and capture the Zhengtong Emperor of China; the latter is officially deposed while his brother ascends as the Jingtai Emperor the next year.
• October 29 – The French recapture Rouen from the English.