1412
Joan of Arc Born at Domremy
In a village on the Meuse, at the ragged edge of Armagnac France, a peasant girl was born who would hear voices from the age of thirteen and die in fire at nineteen. Her father farmed; her mother taught her the Pater Noster. Nothing else about her childhood was remarkable.
Vijayanagara Empire Consolidates the Deccan
Devaraya I of the Sangama dynasty expanded the great Hindu empire's northern frontiers against the Bahmani Sultanate, investing heavily in massive irrigation works across the Tungabhadra valley that transformed dry scrubland into productive rice paddy. The capital at Hampi, a city of carved granite temples and royal elephant stables set among boulder-strewn hills, was growing into one of the largest urban centers in the entire medieval world.
Medici Bank Opens Rome Branch
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici expanded his banking house from Florence to Rome, securing the immensely profitable papal account that managed tithes, indulgences, and diplomatic payments flowing from every Catholic diocese in Europe. Managing the Church's vast international finances transformed the Medici from prosperous local bankers into the continent's most powerful financial dynasty. The connection between Florentine money and papal politics would reshape Italian culture for a century.
Sigismund Crowned King of Germany
The Hungarian Luxembourg, fluent in half of Europe's languages and bankrupt in all of them, added the German crown to his collection. He would spend the next two decades trying to unite Christendom, suppress the Hussites, and keep the Ottomans out of the Danube. He mostly failed. His extraordinary diplomatic energy made him the most traveled medieval emperor, attending councils from Constance to London.