NEW UNIVERSAL BIOGRAPHY.

PERIOD XXX.

[CENT. XV.]

REMARKABLE FACTS, EVENTS, AND DISCOVERIES.

A.D.

1402 Tamerlane defeats and takes prisoner Bajazet.

1405 The Canary Islands discovered by Bathencourt.

1411 The university of St. Andrew's, in Scotland, founded.

1412 Algebra brought from Arabia into Europe.

1415 The battle of Agincourt gained over the French by Henry V. of England.

1420 Madeira discovered by the Portuguese.

1428 The siege of Orleans. The French, encouraged by the heroic Joan of Arc, compel the English to raise the siege of Orleans, and take Jergeau. Charles VII. crowned at Rheims.

1430 Henry VI. of England crowned at Paris.

1431 Joan, the patriotic maid of Orleans, taken by the duke of Bedford, and barbarously burned for a witch.

1440 Printing by wooden blocks invented by Laurentius, at Haarlem in

Holland.

1446 The Vatican library founded at Rome.

1450 The Bible printed at Mentz, by John Faustus and Co., with cut

metal types.

1453 Constantinople taken by the Turks, which ends the Eastern Empire, 1123 years from its dedication by Constantine the Great, 2206 from the foundation of Rome.

1454 The University of Glasgow in Scotland founded.

1459 Printing completed by Schoeffer's invention of cast metal types. 1460 Engraving and etching on copper invented.

1468 Printing first performed in England, at Oxford.

1471 William Caxton erects a printing press in Westminster Abbey,

1473 The study of the Greek language introduced into France.

1477 The University of Aberdeen in Scotland founded.

1479 Union of the kingdoms of Arragon and Castile,

VOL. IV.

B

1482 The coast of Guinea discovered by the Portuguese. A court of inquisition erected in Seville.

1483 Richard III., of England, defeated and killed at the battle of Bosworth, by Henry VII.

1486 Henry establishes fifty yeomen of the guards, the first standing army.

1489 Maps and sea charts first brought to England by Barth. Columbus. 1490 William Groceyn introduces the study of the Greek language into England. The Moors subdued by Ferdinand V. of Spain, and become his subjects.

1492 America discovered by Columbus. The Moors expelled from Granada, which they had possessed for more than 800 years.

1496 The Jews and Moors banished out of Portugal.

1497 The Portuguese first sail to the East Indies, by the Cape of Good Hope. South America discovered by Americus Vesputius. North America discovered by Cabot, employed by Henry VII.

IN 1453, the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, fixed that wandering people to one place; and though they now possess very large regions in Europe, Asia, and Africa, an effectual stop has long been put to their further progress.

About this time, learning also began to revive in Europe, where it had long been lost; and the invention of printing, which happened at the same time, rendered it impossible for barbarism ever to take place in such a degree as formerly. All nations of the world, indeed, seem now to have laid aside much of their former ferocity; and though wars have by no means been given up, they have not been carried on with such circumstances of fury and savage cruelty as before. Instead of attempting to enrich themselves with plunder, and the spoils of their neighbours, mankind in general have applied themselves to commerce, the only true and durable source of riches. This soon produced improvements in navigation; and these improvements led to the discovery of many regions formerly unknown. At the same time, the European powers being at last thoroughly sensible that extensive conquests could never be permanent, applied themselves more to provide for the security of those dominions which they already possessed, than to attempt the conquest of one another; and this produced the policy to which so much attention was lately paid, namely, the preventing any one of the nations from acquiring sufficient strength to overpower another.

In the end of the fifteenth century, the vast continent of America was discovered; and about the same time, the passage to the East Indies, or the Cape of Good Hope. The discovery of these rich countries gave a new turn to the ambition of the Europeans. To enrich themselves either by the gold and silver produced in these countries, or by traffic with the natives, now became their object. The Portuguese had the advantage of being the first discoverers of the Eastern, and the Spaniards of the Western countries. The former did not neglect so favourable an opportunity of enriching themselves by commerce. Many settlements were formed by them in the East India islands, and on the continent; but their avarice and perfidious behaviour towards the natives proved, at last, the cause of their total expulsion. The

Spaniards enriched themselves by the vast quantities of precious metals imported from America, which were not obtained but by the most horrid massacres committed on the natives. These possessions of the Spaniards and Portuguese soon excited other European nations to make attempts to share with them in their treasures, by planting colonies in different parts of America, and making settlements in the East Indies. Thus the rage of war was in some measure transferred from Europe to those distant regions; and after various contests, the British at last obtained a superiority both in America and in the East Indies.

In 1492, the Moors and Saracens were expelled from Spain, by the taking of Granada.

GOVERNMENT.

ROME.

JOHN VII., Palæologus, emperor of the East, succeeded his father Emanuel in 1425. He was unsuccessful against the Turks, and solicited the assistance of the Latins. To secure the support of the princes of the west, he meditated a union between the two churches, and the pope called a council at Ferrara, where the emperor himself attended, and a reconciliation took place in 1439, but did not long continue. John died in 1448, after a reign of twenty-nine years.

CONSTANTINE XIII.*, surnamed Dracoses, the son of Palæologus, was placed on the throne by the sultan Amurath II., in 1448; but Mahomet II., his successor, resolving to dethrone him, laid siege to Constantinople, by sea and land. Constantine being summoned, for the last time, to deliver up the city, with a promise of his life and liberty, answered, that he was unalterably determined either to defend that city or to perish with it. The attack began at three in the morning, on the 29th of May, 1453; such troops were first employed as the sultan valued least, and designed for no other purpose than to tire the Christians, who made a prodigious havoc of that disorderly multitude. After the carnage had lasted some hours, the Janizaries and other fresh troops advanced in good order, and renewed the attack with incredible vigour. The Christians, summoning all their courage and resolution, twice repulsed the enemy; but being, in the end, quite spent, they were no longer able to stand their ground, so that the enemy broke into the city in several places. In the mean time, Justiniani, the commander of the Genoese and a select body of the Greeks, having received two wounds, one in the thigh and the other in the hand, was so disheartened

*This emperor is denominated XIII., because, in the imperial catalogue, a son of Constantine XI. is ranked as Constantine XII., though he enjoyed no more than the title under his elder brother Michael.

that he caused himself to be conveyed to Galata, where he soon after died of grief. His men, dismayed at the sudden flight of their general, immediately quitted their posts, and fled in the utmost confusion. However, the emperor, attended with a few of the most resolute of the nobility, still kept his post, striving, with unparalleled resolution, to oppose the multitude of barbarians, that now broke in from every quarter. But being, in the end, overpowered with numbers, and seeing all his friends dead on the ground, "What! cried he aloud, is there no Christian left alive, to strike off my head?" He had scarce uttered these words, when one of the enemy, not knowing him, cut him across the face with his sabre, and another coming behind him, with a blow on the back part of his head, laid him dead on the ground. After the death of the emperor, the few Christians who were left alive, fled; and the Turks, meeting with no further opposition, entered the city, which they filled with blood and slaughter. They gave no quarter, but put all they met to the sword, without distinction. Many thousands took refuge in the church of St. Sophia, but they were all massacred in their asylum by the enraged barbarians, who, prompted by cruelty, revenge, and love of booty, spared no place nor person. Most of the nobility were, by the sultan's order cut off, and the rest kept for purposes more grievous than death itself. Many of the inhabitants, among whom were some men of great learning, escaped, while the Turks were busied in plundering the city. These, embarking in five ships then in the harbour, arrived safe in Italy, where, with the study of the Greek tongue, they revived the liberal sciences, which had long been neglected in the west. After the expiration of three days, Mahomet commanded his soldiers to forbear all farther hostilities, on pain of death; and then put an end to as cruel a pillage and massacre as any recorded in history. The next day he made his triumphal entry into Constantinople, and chose it for the seat of the Turkish empire, which it has continued to be ever since. Thus terminated the empire of the East, 1123 years after its establishment at Constantinople.

DAVID, of the imperial family of Comnenus, the last emperor of Trebizond, succeeded John, his brother. He was dethroned by Mahomet II., emperor of the Turks, who gave him his choice, either to embrace the Mahometan religion, or to suffer death. He preferred the latter, and was exposed to dreadful torments. This took place in 1461.

PAUL ERIZZO, was governor of Negropont. When obliged to capitulate to the Turks, on condition of having his life spared, Mahomet II. ordered him, in 1469, to be sawn in two, and cut off, with his own hands, the head of his daughter, who refused to gratify his passion.