1480 - Political Events

Political Events

Anjou, Bar, Maine, and Provence fall to the French crown upon the extinction of the house of Anjou. René, count of Anjou, dies without an heir at Aix-en-Provence July 10 at age 71, and Louis XI annexes his realms.

Ludovico Sforza, 29, asks Ferrara's Ercole d'Este for the hand of his 6-year-old daughter Isabella d'Este. Duke of Bari and a power at Milan, Ludovico is a powerful condottieri—a soldier of fortune who lives by hiring himself and whatever troops he can gather to the highest bidder among the constantly warring Italian city-states. (The Republic of Florence, duchy of Milan, Republic of Venice, papal states, and Kingdom of Naples are Italy's major powers, but there are many smaller powers). Ercole has promised Isabella to Gian Francesco Gonzaga, elder son of Mantua's marquis Federico; unwilling to offend his close neighbor yet reluctant to miss the chance of so attractive an alliance, Ercole offers Ludovico the hand of Isabella's 5-year-old younger sister Beatrice (see 1490; 1491).

Otranto in southern Italy falls to the Ottoman Turks August 11, but Mehmet II (the Conqueror) fails in a siege of Rhodes. The Knights of St. John of Jerusalem purchased the island in 1306 and successfully resist the sultan from May to August. The fall of Otranto ends an Italian civil war precipitated by the Pazzi plot of 1478 that destroyed the balance of power among Florence, Naples, and Milan.

Ferdinand of Aragon helps the Florentine banker Lorenzo de' Medici make peace with Pope Sixtus IV.

The grand duke of Muscovy Ivan III takes advantage of disunity among the Tatars to stop their advance on Moscow and free the country of Tatar domination. Ivan has stopped paying tribute to the Golden Horde, his allies raid the Tatar base camp near near Sarai, and the "Battle" of Ugra is a bloodless confrontation on the Ugra River about 150 miles southwest of Moscow; the Tatar khan Akhmet decides not to fight, both sides withdraw, and the event (or non-event) marks the end of Mongol power in Russia (see 1494).