1396

Events

January 4 – Irene Shpata, daughter of Gjin Bua Shpata, becomes the new Ottoman Despotess of Ioannina when she marries the despot Esau de' Buondelmonti of Epirus.
February 4 – (24 Rabi' al-Thani 798 AH) Hasan ibn Ajlan becomes the Emir of Mecca as his brother Muhammad ibn Ajlan steps aside.
March 9 – King Richard II of England, 29, marries Princess Isabelle of France, the 6-year-old daughter of King Charles VI of France, by proxy. The two will marry in person on October 31 in Calais.
March 28 – A War Council in Buda, led by King Sigismund of Hungary is held with representatives of various Christian nations to begin the Nicopolis Crusade against the Muslims of the Ottoman Empire for the liberation of Bulgaria.

April 30 – Thousands of Christian crusaders from France depart from Dijon and march to Strasbourg, then sail on the Danube river to join forces with King Sigismund.
May 19 – Martin I succeeds his brother, John I, as King of Aragon (modern-day northeastern Spain).
June 14 – The University of Zadar is founded with the establishment of a theological seminary in the Croatian city.
July 20 – Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden publishes the Treaty of Kalmar, proposing the personal union of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway (with Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Shetland and Orkney) and Sweden (including Finland and ÃÂland).

July 23 – Queen Margaret makes her great-nephew and adopted son Eric of Pomerania joint ruler of Sweden. Eric has already been made joint ruler of Norway.
August 29 – The is fought in the third of the Friso-Hollandic Wars between Holland, led by Albert I, Duke of Bavaria, and Friesland, a semi-independent kingdom, led by Juw Juwinga. Although Juwinga is killed in battle, the Frisians are able to hold onto independence.
September 12 – The Crusaders, with more than 17,000 troops from France, Hungary, the Knights Hospitaler, Wallachia and the Holy Roman Empire , arrive at the outskirts of Nicopolis (now Nikopol in Bulgaria).
September 19 – John V marries Joan of France.
September 25 – Battle of Nicopolis: The Ottomans defeat a joint crusade by Hungary, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and Wallachia, led by King Sigismund of Hungary. This is the last large-scale crusade of the Middle Ages.
late September – Battle of the North Inch ("Battle of the Thirty"): In a mass trial by combat on the North Inch of Perth, Scotland, the Clan Cameron defeat the Clan Mackintosh. Records refer to "warpipes" being carried into battle, perhaps predecessors of the Great Highland bagpipe.

October 31 – The widowed Richard II of England (29), and six-year-old Isabella of Valois (daughter of Charles VI of France), are married in Calais, resulting in a temporary peace between the kingdoms of England and France.
October – A Transylvanian expedition captures Vlad I Uzurpatorul, thus allowing the restoration of Mircea I of Wallachia to the throne.
November 24 – The Transit of Venus, the last not to be part of a pair, is possibly observed by Aztec astronomers.
November 27 – Antoniotto I Adorno, Doge of the Republic of Genoa, voluntarily steps down and turns control of the republic over to France's King Charles VI. King Charles then appoints Adorno as the governor of French-ruled Genoa.
November 29 – Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, marries Joan Beaufort in England.
November 30 – King Richard II summons the members of the English House of Lords and the House of Commons to open the English Parliament on January 22.
December 30 – Waleran III of Luxembourg, becomes the French Governor of the former Republic of Genoa.

The Ottomans capture the Bulgarian fortress of Vidin and Tsar Ivan Sratsimir, ending the Second Bulgarian Empire. The Bulgarian state is reestablished in 1878 as the Principality of Bulgaria.
France conquers the Republic of Genoa.
After a 14-year interregnum, Pedro de San Superano is declared ruler of the Principality of Achaea (modern-day Peloponnese, southern Greece).
Abu Amir succeeds Abdul Aziz II as ruler of the Marinid dynasty, in modern-day Morocco.
Timur appoints his son Miran Shah, as Timurid viceroy of present-day Azerbaijan.
The Kart dynasty is brought to an end in east Persia after its remaining rulers are murdered at a banquet by Miran Shah.
Philibert de Naillac succeeds Juan FernÃÂ¡ndez de Heredia, as Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller.
Huitzilihuitl succeeds his father, Acamapichtli, as ruler of the Aztecs.
The Ulu Camii Mosque is built in Bursa by the Ottomans.
The Ming dynasty court of China sends two envoys, Qian Guxun and Li Sicong, to the Ava Kingdom of Burma and the Tai polity of the Mong Mao, in order to resolve a dispute between these two. The travels of the Chinese ambassadors are recorded in the historical text of the Baiyi Zhuan.
Timur orders the construction of a garden in a meadow, House of Flowers.
Peasants in the modern-day provinces of Hunan and Hubei in the east of China plant 84 million fruit trees.
The University of Zadar is founded, the first university in Croatia.