The Chinese invaders follow their 1446 conquest of Ava by taking the Shan-held city of Pagan, farther down the Irrawaddy River.

Thirty-nine towns are represented at the Hanseatic League’s diet of 1447.

Tensions between the Prussian region and the "Wendish" cities (Lübeck and its eastern neighbors) have increased as the fifteenth century has progressed.

Lübeck is dependent on its role as center of the Hansa, being on the shore of the sea without a major river.

It is on the entrance of the land route to Hamburg, but this land route can be bypassed by sea travel around Denmark and through the Sound.

Prussia's main interest, on the other hand, is primarily the export of bulk products like grain and timber, which are very important for England, the Low Countries, and later on also for Spain and Italy.

…defeats him in battle at Morgab.

Murad now turns against the Albanian leader Skanderbeg, who resists the Ottomans and is assisted by forces of the Pope and of the king of Hungary.

The dauphin, restored to royal favor after the unsuccessful Praguerie rebellion of 1440, holds a number of important commands in the 1440s, but in 1447 he retires to the Dauphiné.

Andrea del Castagno works in the refectory of Sant'Apollonia in Florence, painting, in the lower part, a Last Supper fresco in 1447, accompanied by other scenes portraying the Deposition, Resurrection, and Crucifixion, which are now damaged.

He also paints a lunette in the cloister, depicting a Pietà.

The detail and naturalism of this fresco, which displays del Castagno's talents at his best, portrays the ways in which del Castagno has departed from earlier artistic styles.

It is likely that Leonardo da Vinci was already familiar with this work before he painted his his own Last Supper in a more dramatic form to contrast with the stillness of these works, so that more emotion would be displayed.

Enea Silvio de'Piccolomini, after studying at the universities of Siena and Florence, had settled in the former city as a teacher, but in 1431 had accepted the post of secretary to Domenico Capranica, bishop of Fermo, then on his way to the Council of Basel (1431–39).

Capranica had been protesting against the new Pope Eugene IV's refusal of a cardinalate for him, which had been designated by Pope Martin V. Arriving at Basel after enduring a stormy voyage to Genoa and then a trip across the Alps, Enea had successively served Capranica, who ran short of money, and then other masters.

He had been sent by Cardinal Albergati, Eugenius IV's legate at the council, on a secret mission to Scotland in 1435, the object of which is variously related, even by himself.

He had visited England as well as Scotland, had undergone many perils and vicissitudes in both countries, and has left a valuable account of each.

The journey to Scotland had proved so tempestuous that Piccolomini swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port.

This proved to be Dunbar; the nearest shrine was ten miles distant at Whitekirk.

The journey through the ice and snow had left Aeneas afflicted with pain in his legs for the rest of his life.

It is only once he arrived in Newcastle that he had felt he had returned to a civilized part of the world and the inhabitable face of the Earth, Scotland and the far north of England being "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter".

In Scotland, he had fathered his second natural child, the other one having been born in Strasbourg.

Upon his return to Basel, Enea had sided actively with the council in its conflict with the Pope, and, although still a layman, had eventually obtained a share in the direction of its affairs.

He had supported the creation of the Antipope Felix V (Amadeus, Duke of Savoy) and had participated in his coronation.

Enea then withdrew to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Frederick III court in Vienna.

Crowned imperial poet laureate in 1442, he has obtained the patronage of the emperor's chancellor, Kaspar Schlick.

Some identify the love adventure at Siena that Enea related in his romance The Tale of the Two Lovers with an escapade of the chancellor.

Enea’s character had hitherto been that of an easy and democratic-minded man of the world with no pretense to strictness in morals or consistency in politics.

He now begins to be more regular in the former respect, and in the latter had adopted a decided line by making his peace between the Empire and Rome.

Being sent on a mission to Rome in 1445, with the ostensible object of inducing Pope Eugene to convoke a new council, he had been absolved from ecclesiastical censures and returned to Germany under an engagement to assist the Pope.

This he did most effectually by the diplomatic dexterity with which he had smoothed away differences between the papal court of Rome and the German imperial electors.

He plays a leading role in concluding a compromise in 1447 by which the dying Pope Eugene accepts the reconciliation tendered by the German princes.

As a result, the council and the antipope are left without support.

He had already taken orders, and one of the first acts of Pope Eugene's successor, Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455), is to make him Bishop of Trieste.

Tommaso Parentucelli was born at Sarzana, Liguria, where his father, a physician, died while he Tommaso was young.

Parentucelli later became a tutor, in Florence, to the families of the Strozzi and Albizzi, where he had met the leading humanist scholars.

He had studied at Bologna and Florence, gaining a degree in theology in 1422.

Bishop Niccolò Albergati was so awestruck with Parentucelli’s capabilities that he had taken him into his service and given him the chance to pursue his studies further by sending him on a tour through Germany, France and England.

He has been able to collect books, for which he had an intellectual's passion, wherever he went.

Some of them survive with his marginal annotations.

He had attended the Council of Florence, and in 1444, when his patron died, he had been appointed Bishop of Bologna in his place.

Civic disorders at Bologna were prolonged, so Pope Eugene IV soon named him as one of the legates sent to Frankfurt, where he was to assist in negotiating an understanding between the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire, regarding undercutting or at least containing the reforming decrees of the Council of Basel (1431–1439).

His successful diplomacy had gained him the reward, on his return to Rome, of the title Cardinal-Priest of Santa Susanna in December 1446.

At the papal conclave of 1447, he is elected Pope in succession to Eugene IV on March 6.

He takes the name Nicholas V in honor of his early benefactor, Niccolò Albergati.

Filippo Maria Visconti, under whom the family has recouped its fortunes, seeks to maintain Visconti control over Lombardy and opposes Venice's expansion in mainland Italy.

At his death on August 13, 1447 without a clear male heir, the city is into confusion by the unexpectedness of the Duke's expiration and the quick way in which the claimants to the title act.

Filippo Maria had no heir through male bloodlines, but the day before his death had written a will dedicating the Duchy to Alfonso V of Aragon.

Among the other claimants are Charles, Duke of Orléans, nephew of Filippo Maria through his mother Valentina Visconti, Filippo's cousins Albert and Sigismund of the House of Habsburg, great-grandsons of Bernabò Visconti, and Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who declares that the Duchy reverts back to the Holy Roman Empire on the extinction of male heirs.

The two most prominent candidates supported by the Milanese population are Alfonso of Aragon and Francesco Sforza, the late Duke's son-in-law by his marriage to Bianca Maria Visconti.

The Bracceschi, supporters of the King of Aragon, seize the Castello on the night of the 13th, almost before Filippo Maria dies, forcing the captains to swear allegiance to Alfonso.

Despite the general support for either Alfonso or Sforza, other influential citizens believe that the old republic can be restored.

Learned bodies, such as the College of Jurisprudence in Pavia, paint the days of the old republic as a golden age.

The merchants, seeing the prosperity of Republican Venice, are behind this idea.

On the morning of the 14th, Republicans stir the populace to rise against the Bracceschi, led by Antonio Trivulzio, Giorgio Lampugnano, Innocenzo Cotta, and Teodoro Bossi, members of the College of Jurisprudence.

A Republic is declared behind the Palace of the Commune, and the captains abandon their oaths to Alfonso and turn in favor of the Republic.

The Bracceschi are driven from Milan, and the new republic is called the Golden Ambrosian Republic, named for St. Ambrose, the fourth century bishop of Milan, who is taken on as the Republic's patron.

They take the old constitution and revise it that same day as suits their needs, electing twenty-four Capitani e difensori della libertà, or "Captains and Defenders of Liberty," to frame laws, elected regularly and later reduced to twelve.

The idea of a radical renovation of liberties in the cities does not suit the powers of North Italy, who have been in league against the Visconti territorial gains in a decades-long series of wars interrupted by truces, most recently the Peace of Cremona of November 20, 1441.

Venice is already at war with Milan, and the Republic is struck a sore blow as previously Milanese cities, including Pavia, Lodi, and Piacenza, defect or declare their independence.

Besides the loss of support and defensive locations, the drop in revenue also causes a brief financial crisis resolved by the imposition of new taxes.

Venice, now occupying Lodi and Piacenza, refuses to listen to Milan's pleas for peace.

Milan turns to Francesco Sforza, the greatest military leader of his day, offering him the position of Captain-General and the city of Brescia.

Although he had wished to succeed Visconti, he decides to accept the position and promised rewards.

A draft is declared in Milan on September 13.

Sforza quickly captures independent Pavia when its commander offers to surrender to him, and the Republic grudgingly allows him to keep it with the title of Count, fearing that the Pavians and their large arsenal might instead offer themselves to Venice if they refuse.

Sforza promises the Pavians no new taxes, respect for the old laws, payment for his hired officials, and to repair the city bridges and walls.

He keeps these promises faithfully and so wins over the people of Pavia, establishing his rulership.

Pavia, which had been previously almost a second capital to Milan, gives Sforza his own seat of power.

The city is also in a strategic location on the Po River, situated where it can block the Venetians from coming to the relief of the beleaguered Piacenza via water.