1460-1468
Iberia and Africa
Portuguese attacks had disrupted but not stopped the Wattasids influence but they did affect the internal stability of the Maranid Kingdom so that the Wattasid Rebellion of 1464, centred on Fez, was able to easily oust Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq.
This de-stabilised the entire area which collapsed into small semi-independent or tribal states.
The Portuguese attempted to take advantage of this and in 1468 sacked Casablanca, destroying its Pirate base.
The British Isles and France
Wars of the Blooms; Overthrow II
Warwick had become the greatest landowner in England. Already a great magnate through his wife's property, he also inherited his father's estates and had been granted much forfeited Lancastrian property. He also held many of the offices of state. He was convinced of the need for an alliance with Castile via a marriage with Isabella, daughter of the late John II, and had been negotiating the match.
However, Edward had married Elizabeth Woodville, widow of a Lancastrian knight, in secret in 1459. He later announced the news of his marriage as
fait accompli, to Warwick's considerable embarrassment.
Embarrassment turned to bitterness as the Woodvilles were favoured over the Nevilles [Warwick's family] at court. Many of Elizabeth's relatives were married into noble families, others were granted peerages or royal offices.
Edward's preference for an alliance with Burgundy rather than Castile and reluctance to allow his brothers to marry Warwick's daughters compounded matters. Edward's general popularity was on the wane in this period with higher taxes and persistent disruptions of law and order.
By 1462, Warwick had formed an alliance with Edward's jealous and treacherous brother George, who married Isabel Neville in defiance of Edward's wishes. They raised a small army in France that invaded and defeated the King's forces at Ashford, capturing London afterward. Edward was captured at Olney and imprisoned. Warwick had the queen's father and her brother executed.
Warwick made an immediate move to have Edward declared illegitimate and place George on the throne. The country was in turmoil, with nobles once again settling scores with private armies and Lancastrians being encouraged to rebel.
Few of the nobles were prepared to support Warwick's seizure of power, nevertheless, Edward fled and escaped to Aquitaine.
Rebellions broke out in Lincolnshire but Warwick suppressed them at the Losecoat Field. George was proclaimed King George I but military operations meant that any coronation was postponed.
Margaret of Anjou, already in exile in France, wished to forestall a hostile alliance between Edward and Burgundy suggested the idea of an alliance between Warwick and Margaret. Edward, having learned his politics from Warwick, had Margaret murdered. Henry was never seen again but Prince Edward escaped.
Edward IV, having gathered support in Aquitaine and gained the allegiance of the Dukes of Brittany and Toulouse, had already marched north to take Paris. Warwick, meanwhile, had to suppress another uprising in Yorkshire.
Edward moved from Paris to capture the Channel ports, most importantly Calais. His task was made easy by the work Warwick had done in 1454 and the fact that those who would oppose him were in England with Warwick. Burgundy also provided funds and troops to Edward to enable him to launch an invasion of England.
Edward landed at Dartmouth and rapidly secured support from the southern counties and ports. Having outmaneuvered Warwick, Edward captured London. His army then met Warwick's at Barnet in 1464. The battle was fought in thick fog, and some of Warwick's men attacked each other by mistake. It was believed by all that they had been betrayed, and Warwick's army fled. Warwick was cut down trying to reach his horse. George I was also killed in the battle.
Prince Edward, the Lancastrian heir to the throne, finally located by Edward IV's agents in Italy, was killed. With no Lancastrian heirs to succeed him, the Yorkist hold on the throne was secure.
Around this time the new coat of arms asserting English dominance in Ireland was adopted.
Scotland
In 1464 a 15 year-truce between the kingdoms of England and Scotland was signed.
James III married Margaret, Maid of Norway, in 1468. The lands of Orkney and Man were given by Christian I as the dowry of his daughter.
Holy Roman Empire
Wilhelm, Habsburg Duke of Brabant and his successor Wilhelm II fought the Prince-Bishop of Liege in 1467 after which the Prince accepted vassalisation and renounced the Bisheropic. As a mere Duke could not "bend the knee" to a vassal who was a Prince, Wilhelm proclaimed the Kingdom of Neideland with himself as Wilhelm I.
Duchy of Brabant and Kingdom of Neideland
Scandinavia
Charles VIII of Sweden was deposed in 1465 and clergyman Karlsson Vasa became Regent.
The throne lay vacant for two years before the new Regent, Erik Tott, supported the re-election of Charles VIII to the throne.
The Steppes & Rus Lands
The unified state of Tver caused alarm in Moscow which reached an accommodation with Kiev sealed with the partition of Bryansk. Moscow also signed an alliance with Novgorod in 1461. In 1462 Vasili II of Moscow died, and was succeeded by his son Ivan III. Feeling protected on its northern border, Moscow declared war on Ryazan in 1465 but did not find this as easy as expected. Ryazan's allies, Qasim, although their vassals, were half civilized [and Orthodox] nomads with modern weaponry available to them. the manoeuvrability this allowed the Ryazan army enabled them to raid and burn much of the City of Moscow although the new Kremlin, the first stone rather than wood built, protected much of the population.
Tver lent support and materiel to Ryazan and, when Moscow was fully engaged declared war, again, upon Novgorod. Moscow was forced to support its ally and fight on two fronts. Tver's diplomacy also gained Swedish co-operation in inciting rebellion in Karelia and Finland. Muscovite resistance was strong but Novgorod collapsed in internal and external conflict, the council fell in 1466, the state itself ceasing to exist in 1467. Moscow made concessions to Ryazan and fought Tver to a standstill.
Tver again used the peace treaty to formalise it's ascendancy, entering a marriage which made the Tsar heir to Rostov's lands if the prince died without issue.
Lithuania, which many expected to intervene in the Rus wars, was struck by yet another of its series of civil wars. This war, however brought the Prince of Smolensk, Sergei, to power as King. Whilst the state, now known as Smolensk-Lithuania, remained officially Catholic, it's religion was a mixture of Orthodox and Catholic practices just shy of being considered heretical by the Papacy. The civil war also brought changes in the Baltic. Riga became a temporal Duchy, officially renouncing claims to the Lithuanian vassal areas as the Duchy of Courland but expanding to the north.
Pskov tried to tread a middle road between Tver and Smolensk, as it had between Novgorod and Lithuania, generally successfully.
Italy
In 1466 a conspiracy against Cosimo de ‘Medici, ruler of Florence, designed to bring Florence back into the Imperial fold, was discovered and put down. For the Empire the plan backfired as first Provence, later other states of North Italy left the Empire.
Stymied on the mainland, Venice entered into wars with both Byzantium and Tunis. Both were waged primarily on water, any landing mostly small scale raids rather than invasions. Both were settled with a return to the status quo after the 1468 coup of the Great Council of the Republic curbed the power of the Council of Ten, legislation restricting them to action only on emergency matters.
Poland and the North
A brief conflict between Poland and Kassaria, in 1465, over Zips, the area ceded by Bohemia after the Hussite wars, was settled at the peace table with the border as before but trade concessions for grain made by Poland.
Byzantium and The Caucasus
After 1466 Georgia collapsed into anarchy and its subsequent fragmentation into rival states of Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Samtskhe and a number of principalities, would take nearly a quarter of a century when Georgia finally had to recognize its rebel monarchies.
The Byzantine-Venetian War of 1463-1479 set the new Byzantine Army against the strong Venetian defences of cities like Modon in the Peloponnesus.
