1442 - Political Events

Political Events

Forces of Aragon's Alfonso V captures Naples June 2 and he is crowned king (Alfonso I) of Naples June 12 (see 1435). His mistress Lucrezia de Alagno encourages him to remain, he will move his court next year to Naples, and he will reign from there until his death in 1458, reuniting Naples and Sicily as he embellishes the Castel Nuovo of 1279 with magnificent sculptures and makes Naples the center of a Mediterranean Aragonese empire.

Austria's Hapsburg archduke Friedrich III is crowned German emperor July 17 at Aix-la-Chapelle more than 2 years after being chosen at Frankfurt. Now 26, he will reign until 1493 as Friedrich III (see 1452).

England loses all her Gascon territory except Bordeaux and Bayonne to the French.

Merchant Jacques Coeur gains the dominant place on France's Grand Council through the influence of Agnès Sorel (see 1441). Yolande of Anjou dies soon thereafter at the château de Saumur, diminishing the role of Agnès in France's affairs of state (which was never to initiate policy but merely to induce Charles VII to accept Yolande's decisions). The true head of the house of Anjou, Yolande has for more than a decade acted through Agnès to guide the monarch's hand and supply the means for his efforts to follow up on Joan of Arc's triumph at Orléans and drive the English out of France.

Hungarian forces under the governor of Transylvania, János Hunyadi, 35, rout the Ottoman forces of Mezid Bey, who has invaded Transylvania, and vanquish an army sent to avenge the bey's defeat.