Joan of Arc wins her way into the presence of Charles VII at Chinon and persuades him, eventually, to trust her

Joan of Arc leads French forces in the successful relief of Orléans

Joan of Arc stands nearby while Charles VII is anointed at Reims, then kneels before him and for the first time calls him her king

Joan of Arc is captured in a skirmish with the Burgundians, who subsequently hand her over to the English

Joan of Arc, tried by the Inquisition on behalf of the English in Rouen, is burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic

The Compacts of Prague, agreed with the papacy in 1433, allow the Hussite laity to receive the sacrament in both kinds

The Byzantine emperor John Palaeologus and the Patriarch of Constantinope, Joasaph, arrive in Ferrara to attend a council of the Roman Catholic church

The French clergy pass a resolution at Bourges, limiting the power of the papacy within France, which is adopted by the king as a 'pragmatic sanction'

Florence acquires first-hand experience of Greek culture when Greek Orthodox priests join in a debate on theology, in particular the question of Filioque

The Seventeenth Ecumenical Council moves from Ferrara, because of the danger of plague, and sets up in Florence

Cuzco, city of the Incas, grows rapidly in power after Pachacuti ('transformer of the earth') becomes emperor

The Hungarian general Janos Hunyadi takes Sofia from the Turks and in the next few months liberates most of Bulgaria, Serbia and Albania

A Turkish army routs the Hungarians at Varna on the Black Sea, beginning a process which brings the Turks to the gates of Belgrade by 1456

The caravel, a sailing ship developed in the Mediterranean and used down the west coast of Africa, is adapted by the Portuguese for Atlantic use

An engagement at St Albans is the first battle in the 30-year struggle between the white and red roses of York and Lancaster

With Constantinople in Turkish hands, Moscow begins to see itself as the centre of Orthodox Christianity - or the third Rome

Tomas de Torquemada, from a family of converted Jews, is appointed Spain's first Grand Inquisitor

Civil war between squabbling Swiss cantons is averted by the diplomcy of a hermit, Brother Klaus, at the Convention of Stans

On the death of Matthias Corvinus, in 1490, the Habsburgs recover Vienna from the Hungarians

Savonarola, the new prior of San Marco, is a stern critic of both the pope in Rome and the Medici in Florence

The army of Ferdinand and Isabella besieges and takes the city of Granada, completing the long reconquest of Spain from the Muslims

Torquemada persuades Ferdinand and Isabella to expel from Spain all Jews (about 160,000) who will not convert to Christianity

Rodrigo Borgia, elected pope as Alexander VI, already has four illegitimate children and possibly sires three more while pope

Piero de' Medici and his brothers flee from Florence, after a mob ransacks the Medici palace

Savonarola, in the carnival before Lent, urges the people of Florence to throw playing cards and lewd images on a great bonfire of vanities