Directory

1408 CE

May 18: Antipope Benedict XIII threatens France's King Charles VI, who turns his support to Pope Gregory XII

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Gotland passes under Danish rule.source
  • Mihail I becomes co-ruler of Wallachia, with his father Mircea cel Bătrân.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 13 – Appenzell Wars: In the Appenzell region of Switzerland, the alliance of the region with St. Gallen, the Bund ob dem See "alliance over the lake", referring to the nearby Lake Constance fails in its attempt to liberate the city of Bregenz from Austrian rule. The Bund is dissolved less than three months later.source
  • February 19 – Battle of Bramham Moor: A royalist army defeats the last remnants of the Percy Rebellion.source
  • March – (late in the month of Tagu, which ended March 28, 769 ME) Ava–Hanthawaddy War: In Burma (now Myanmar), King Razdarit leads the invasion of the Kingdom of North Arakan and overthrows its ruler, Anawrahta of Launggyet, then has him executed.source
  • April 8 – Appenzell Wars: In the Appenzell region of Switzerland, the alliance of the region with St. Gallen, thesource
  • May 28 – A representative of Burma's Kingdom of Ava apologizes to the Ming dynasty Emperor of China for the kingdom's occupation of China's vassals, the Shan States, particularly the Mongyang State, whose monarch was killed in 1406.source
  • September 23 – The Battle of Othée is fought between the citizens of Liège and a professional army under command of John the Fearless. The militia of Liège suffers a heavy defeat.source
  • September 23 – Henry, Prince of Wales (later Henry V of England) retakes Aberystwyth from Owain Glyndŵr.source
  • December – Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas meet with Polish King Wladyslaw Jagiello in Navahrudak Castle, where they agree to support the Samogitians uprising to provoke the Teutonic Knights into declaring war against Poland.source
  • Zheng He delivers 300 virgins from Korea to the Chinese Emperor Cheng Zu.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 12 – Western Schism: King Charles VI of France sends a letter to the Antipope Benedict XIII at Avignon, giving an ultimatum to Benedict and the other Avignon Papacy proponents to end the schism in the Roman Catholic Church against the Roman Obedience, headed by Pope Gregory XII. King Charles VI threatens that unless the schism ends by Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter (in 1408, April 24, with Ascension Day on June 3), France will end its support of the Avignon Obedience.source
  • March 14 – John of Bourbon, son of Louis II, Duke of Bourbon, is appointed as the Grand Chamberlain of France by King Charles VI.source
  • June 15 – After receiving the news that France will no longer support his Avignon Obedience, the Antipope Benedict XIII issues the Bull Celestis altitudo, summoning the a council to meet on November 1 at the French city of Perpignan, and then flees from the French-controlled Italian region of Genoa to avoid arrest.source
  • July 2 – From Livorno, a group of 13 Roman Catholic Cardinals allied with Pope Gregory begins sending encyclical letters "to the princes and prelates of the Christian world" summoning them to the Council of Pisa, to take place on March 25, 1409, in order to end the Western Schism.source
  • November 15 – The Antipope Benedict XIII convenes the Council of Perpignan.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • The Moldavian town of Iaşi is first mentioned.source

Science & Discovery

  • December 5 – Emir Edigu of the Golden Horde reaches Moscow.source
  • The Yongle Encyclopedia is completed.source

Culture & Society

  • September 16 – Thorstein Olafssøn marries Sigrid Bjørnsdatter in Hvalsey Church, in the last recorded event of the Norse history of Greenland.source
  • December 13 – The Order of the Dragon is founded under King Sigismund of Hungary.source

Births

  • January 25 – Katharina of Hanau, German countess regent (d. 1460)source
  • February 14 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel (d. 1435)source
  • March 25 – Agnes of Baden, Countess of Holstein-Rendsburg, German noble (d. 1473)source
  • April 8 – Jadwiga of Lithuania, Polish princess (d. 1431)source
  • April 23 – John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, English noble (d. 1462)source
  • May 22 – Annamacharya, Indian mystic saint composer (d. 1503)source
  • October 1 or 1409 – Karl Knutsson, King of Sweden (d. 1470)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – Coptic Pope Matthew I of Alexandriasource
  • February 19 – Thomas Bardolf, 5th Baron Bardolf, English rebel (in battle)source
  • February 20 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English rebel (in battle) (b. 1341)source
  • April 10 or April 11 – Elizabeth le Despenser, English noblewomansource
  • April – Miran Shah, son of Timur the Lame (b. 1366)source
  • May 24 – Taejo of Joseon, ruler of Korea (b. 1335)source
  • May 31 – Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Japanese shōgun (b. 1358)source
  • August 20 – Abdul Majid Hassan, the Sultan of Brunei, sets off on a voyage to China at the invitation of the Emperor Cheng Zu and arrives in the capital, Nanjing, by September, becoming the first foreign monarch to make a peaceful visit to the Chinese Empire. While visiting, the Sultan becomes ill and dies on October 19.source
  • September 15 – Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (b. 1384)source
  • September 22 – Andronikos Palaiologos becomes the new Byzantine Emperor of Thessalonica after the death of his brother, John VIII Palaiologos.source
  • September 22 – John VII Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1370)source
  • October 19 – Awang Pateh Berbai, in Nanjing in China as part of the family accompanying his nephew, the Sultan Abdul Majid Hassan, becomes the new Sultan of Brunei when Abdul dies from an illness.source
  • December 4 – Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orléans by marriage to Louis I, Duke of Orléanssource