1459

Events

January 18 - The Order of Our Lady of Bethlehem is founded by Pope Pius II, to defend the island of Lemnos.
February 3 - The coronation of François II as Duke of the semi-independent Duchy of Brittany takes place in Nantes.
February 27 - Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, proclaims himself to be rightful King of Hungary and prepares to invade the kingdom in order to overthrow King Mathias Corvinus.
March 4 - Austrian troops, on orders of Frederick III, invade Hungary, starting the Austrian–Hungarian War. The war continues for three years before the Austrians withdraw in 1462.

April 8 - Stefan Branković, despot of Serbia, is overthrown by King Stefan Tomaš of Bosnia, who installs his son, Stephen Tomašević as the new despot
April 24 - The Fra Mauro map of the world is completed by the Italian cartographers Fra Mauro and Andrea Bianco, who had been hired by the late King Afonso V of Portugal to produce an up-to-date geography for the use by explorers.
April 25 - The Treaty of Eger is signed by representatives of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Electorate of Saxony, setting a border that remains more than 500 years later as the border between the Czech Republic and Germany as running along the main ridge of the Ore Mountains from Eger to the River Elbe.
May 3, Pope Pius II issues a papal bull to approve building the University of Valence in France. The university will exist for almost 240 years before being closed during the French Revolution.
May 12 - In India, Rao Jodha, ruler of the Kingdom of Marwar selects the site of a new capital city, which will be named Jodhpur in his honor.
May 27 - Pope Pius II arrives in Mantua in the Italian region of Lombardy as the guest of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, in order to convene the Council of [Mantua (1459)|Council of Mantua] in hopes of organizing a crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Meetings being on June 1 the Council continues for six months.
June 20 - The Despotate of Serbia comes to an end as the despot Stefan Tomašević surrenders the last Serbian city, Smederevo, without a fight.

→§§§§ July-September

July 2 - The Sultanate of Morocco renews its siege of Ksar es-Seghir, which had been seized by the Kingdom of Portgal on October 24, 1458. The Portuguese Governor Duarte de Meneses leads the defense of the city against the attacks led by the Sultan Abd al-Haqq II, who calls off the siege after less than two months.
August 24 - Morocco's Sultan Abd al-Haqq II ends his siege of the Portuguese fortress at Ksar es-Seghir.
September 23 - Wars of the Roses: At the Battle of Blore Heath in the Kingdom of England, Yorkists under Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, defeat a Lancastrian force.
September 26 - Pope Pius II calls upon the participants of at the Council of Mantua to fund and participate in a Christian crusade to recapture Constantinople from the Muslim Ottomans, who had seized it in 1453.

October 12 - Wars of the Roses: With a royal force advancing on his fortress at Ludlow, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, flees to Ireland, while his ally Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick goes to Calais.
November 12 - Pope Pius II issues the papal bull Inter Ceteras, founding the University of Basel in Switzerland, though the university does not begin operations until April 4 the following year.
November 20 - In England, the "Parliament of Devils" opens its session at Coventry in St Mary's Priory and Cathedral.
December 18 - At the consistory of 1439, Pope Eugene IV appoints an unprecedented 17 Roman Catholic cardinals.
December 20 - England's "Parliament of Devils" is dissolved after accomplishhing its purpose of passing bills of attainder for high treason, indictments of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York and other Yorkist supporters in the War of the Roses. Other prominent Yorkists charges are Edward, Earl of March, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and his son, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.

The Wallachian town of Bucharest is first mentioned.
Richard, Duke of York, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, returns on a second visit to Ireland. The Irish Parliament, meeting at Drogheda, upholds his authority against Henry VI, and an English Act of Attainder.
Richard Hygons, English composer, begins fifty years of service at Wells Cathedral.