1499 - Political Events

Political Events

France's Louis XII obtains a divorce from Jeanne, daughter of Louis XI, and marries Anne of Brittany, widow of the late Charles VIII, to keep the duchy of Brittany in the French crown.

Louis XII gains support from Venice for his claims to Milan (see 1498); he invades Italy once again, the German king Maximilian I sends an imperial army whose troops include Georg von Frundsberg, 25, to support Ludovico Sforza, but Louis forces Sforza to flee Milan and accepts the city's surrender September 14.

Lucrezia Borgia is appointed governor of Spoleto. Her father, Pope Alexander VI, confiscates the castles of the Gaetani family on the frontier between Naples and the Papal States; Lucrezia is able to buy them for 80,000 ducats.

The Swiss receive French financial backing in a war with the German king Maximilian I; southern German cities support Maximilian, but the Swiss gain a series of victories over Georg von Frundsberg and his comrades; Maximilian has no choice but to sign the Treaty of Basel September 22 granting the Swiss independence (formal independence will not come until 1648).

Venice begins a 4-year war with the Ottoman Empire. The Venetians will lose some territory and trading posts to the Turks.

The Ottoman Turks conquer Montenegro (Zeta).

Perkin Warbeck goes to the gallows November 12 for conspiring to escape from the Tower of London with the imprisoned Edward Plantagenet, 8th earl of Warwick and last male representative of the House of York (see 1497). Warwick is beheaded November 28 at age 24.