Medieval Timeline - Browse by Century

Richard II of England Dies
Date: 1400 A.D.
Description:
The king was probably murdered while he was imprisoned at Pontefract Castle.

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Henry IV of England Dies
Date: March 20th, 1413 A.D.

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Henry V Crowned King of England
Date: April 9th, 1413 A.D.

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Cambridge Plot
Date: 1415 A.D.
Description:
The Cambridge plot (also known as the Southampton plot) was a conspiracy planned by Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Sir Thomas Grey, and Henry, 3rd Baron Scrope. They planned to assassinate King Henry V and his brothers at Southampton prior to the king's departure for France. They then planned to proclaim Edmund de Mortimer, (the heir presumptive of Richard II) 5th Earl of March, as the new King. Edmund, however, revealed the plot, and the three conspirators were duly executed.

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Death of John Hus
Date: July 6th, 1415 A.D.
Description:
John Hus, a former University master turned theologian and a founder of the Hussite movement in Bohemia, is executed.

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Battle of Agincourt
Date: October 25th, 1415 A.D.
Description:
One of the most significant battles of the Hundred Years War, this battle was an English victory (under Henry V) over the French (under Charles VI). The superiority of the English longbow was again demonstrated against France's heavily armored knights.

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Treaty of Troyes
Date: May 21st, 1420 A.D.
Description:
This treaty was an agreement between England and France during the Hundred Years War. According to its terms, the French King Charles VI betrothed his daughter Catherine of Valois to Henry V and made the English King his rightful heir in place of the dauphin.

When Henry V died two years later, the crown of both countries was in effect inherited by the infant Henry VI (who was born 1421). Henry VI would be crowned King of England at Westminster in 1429 and King of France at Paris the following year.

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Henry V of England Dies
Date: September 1st, 1422 A.D.
Description:
Henry V, King if England and the victor of Agincourt, dies of dysentery in 1422 in Bois de Vincennes, France.

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Henry VI Crowned King of England
Date: November 6th, 1429 A.D.

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Execution of Joan of Arc
Date: May 30th, 1431 A.D.
Description:
Joan of Arc is executed at Rouen. The Maid of Orleans, aged just 19, had been captured by the Burgundians and handed over to the English. After a lengthy trial she was found guilty of being a relapsed heretic and duly burnt at the stake. She was canonised in 1920.

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Birth of Mehmet II
Date: March 30th, 1432 A.D.
Description:
The future conqueror of Constantinople was born in Adrianople as the third son to Sultan Murad II of the Ottoman Turks. Over the next decade his two eldest brothers died, and on February 2, 1451, his father the sultan dies. Mehmet II comes to power as the next Ottoman sultan and to ensure that his claim to the throne is not challenged, he has his father's youngest heir killed. On May 29th, 1453 Mehmet and his army take Constantinople as their own. He was only 21 years old when Constantinople fell to him. On May 3, 1481, the destroyer of two Empires, four kingdoms and eleven principalities died at age 49.

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Fall of Cherbourgh
Date: August 12th, 1450 A.D.
Description:
After 33 years of English rule, the French succeed in recovering all of Normandy. Now only the Channel Islands would remain under English control. Although tthe war would continue for another three years, the ruinous cost of financing garrisons, combined with the ending of the Burgundian-Almanac civil war in France, would spell the end to Plantagenet ambitions in Continental Europe.

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Fall of Constantinople
Date: May 29th, 1453 A.D.
Description:
In 1453, Constantinople fell to Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire. Constantine XI, the Byzantine emperor at the time, was killed in the fighting to take the city. This marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire.

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Battle of Castillon
Date: July 17th, 1453 A.D.
Description:
The vanguard of the small English army arrived at the French camp in the early hours of the morning, only to witness the whole French army in flight before them. The English commander, John Talbot, charged up to the camp's palisade wall in pursuit of the enemy—only to find the parapets manned by hundreds of cannon, and thousands of archers. The French army had hidden while the servants and valets fled the field as a lure to the Englishmen. Talbot was killed and his army routed, resulting in complete English expulsion from France and the loss of Aquitaine, which had been the pride of England's crown for over three hundred years.

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First Battle of St. Albans
Date: May 22nd, 1455 A.D.
Description:
In the opening battle of the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of York, and his allies the Yorkists attacked King Henry VI's smaller army at the fortified town of St Albans. After fierce street fighting to no avail, the Earl of Warwick took the Yorkist reserve force and found a back-way through the gardens to the town's market place. His unexpected charge broke the shocked Lancastrian army in two and won the day. As the rout started King Henry was taken into the Yorkist lord's custody, to become their puppet.

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The Battle of Blore Heath
Date: September 23rd, 1459 A.D.
Description:
A battle during the Wars of the Roses in which the Earl of Salisbury defeated a larger force of Lancastrians under the command of Lord Audley.

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King James II of Scotland Dies
Date: 1460 A.D.
Description:
While laying siege to Roxburgh Castle, a cannon blew up instantly killing the king.

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Battle of Towton
Date: March 29th, 1461 A.D.
Description:
Towton was the bloodiest battle during the Wars of the Roses. The battle was a serious loss for the Lancastrians.

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Edward IV Crowned King of England
Date: June 28th, 1461 A.D.

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Battle of Edgecote Moor
Date: July 26th, 1469 A.D.
Description:
By the late 1460s, the Earl of Warwick, who strove harder than any other man to put Edward IV on the throne, was plotting rebellion. The King was heading north to deal with local risings when Warwick and the Duke of Clarence, the king's brother, declared for the rebels. The rebels managed to avoid Edward's army but were forced to engage the Earls of Pembroke and Devon's men at Edgecote Moor. Warwick joined them later that day and routed the royal army. Edward IV was captured soon after the rebel victory.

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Battle of Barnet
Date: April 14th, 1471 A.D.
Description:
When the Earl of Warwick reinstated the old king Henry VI in 1470, Edward IV was forced into exile in Burgundy, where he was lent money and men to retake his kingdom. He invaded England and the two armies met in battle one extremely foggy morning at Barnet. Due to the bad visibility the two armies were not aligned and were both able to flank each other. The Lancastrian Earl of Oxford used this to his advantage, routing the enemy opposite him. When he rejoined the battle with 500 of his men, the whole line had rotated ninety degrees because of the pressure on the flanks, and instead of charging into the backs of the Yorkist ranks, he attacked his own men, killing Warwick's own brother, John Neville. A quarter of Warwick forces quit the field as a cry of 'treason' went up. As the battle ended Warwick ran towards the horseline, now some distance away, but was cut off and killed. Over three thousand men lay dead on the battlefield besides him.

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Battle of Tewkesbury
Date: May 4th, 1471 A.D.
Description:
A battle during the Wars of the Roses between Edward IV, who led a Yorkist army, and the Duke of Somerset, who led the Lancastrians on behalf of Queen Margaret. This battle was a Yorkist defeat of the Lancastrians. Margaret's young son was killed during the battle, paving the way for Edward IV's continued reign.

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Henry VI of England Dies
Date: May 27th, 1471 A.D.
Description:
Henry VI was executed by Edward IV following Henry's defeat at Tewkesbury.

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Edward IV of England Dies
Date: April 9th, 1483 A.D.

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Edward V Accedes Throne of England
Date: April 9th, 1483 A.D.

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Edward V of England Deposed
Date: June 25th, 1483 A.D.
Description:
There are rumors that Edward V was murdered in the Tower of London along with Richard, duke of York after being imprisoned there by their uncle, who would become Richard III.

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Richard III Crowned King of England
Date: July 6th, 1483 A.D.

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Richard III of England Dies
Date: August 22nd, 1485 A.D.
Description:
Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

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Battle of Bosworth
Date: August 22nd, 1485 A.D.
Description:
This was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard III (a Yorkist) in battle. After the battle Henry was crowned king, establishing the Tudor dynasty.

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Henry VII Crowned King of England
Date: October 30th, 1485 A.D.
Description:
Henry VII was crowned king after defeating and killing Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

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