1487

July 9: Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan.

Template:Year nav Template:C15 year in topicYear 1487 (MCDLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–March

• January 29 – Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.
• February 2 – Acting on rumors of a rebellion in England, led by a person posing as Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, King Henry VII convenes a meeting of the Privy Council at Sheen Palace in Richmond, to discuss a response to the situation. The first measure is to bring Edward, son of the last Earl of Warwick, out of imprisonment at the Tower of London and to parade him through London to dispel the rumors.<ref>Gerald Prenderghast, Richard III and the Princes in the Tower: The Possible Fates of Edward V and Richard of York (McFarland, 2017) p.108 ISBN 9781476625904</ref>
• February 8 – Arrest warrants for treason are issued by the English Privy Council for Henry Bodrugan, John Beaumont and other persons accused of having traveled to the counties of Devon and Cornwall to "stir up sedition and rebellion.<ref>"Desmond Seward, The Last White Rose (Pegasus Books, 2014) ISBN 9781605985909</ref>
• February 11 – Pope Innocent VIII renews the designation of Tomás de Torquemada as the Grand Inquisitor of Spain in the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, and Valencia.<ref>"Inquisition", by Joseph Bloetzer, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8, ed. by Charles Herbermann (Robert Appleman Co., 1910</ref>
• February 26 – At the insistence of Cardinal Rodrigo de Borja Pope Innocent VIII, authorizes a Christian crusade and against the Muslim Moors, to start on September 1 and to be funded for one year.<ref>Joseph F. O'Callaghan, The Last Crusade in the West: Castile and the Conquest of Granada (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) p.155 ISBN 9780812209358</ref>
• March 6 – Cardinal John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury since January 21, becomes the new Lord Chancellor of England, succeeding the late Thomas Bourchier.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• March 27 – Pope Innnocent VIII issues an order designating the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews, Robert Blackadder, as the Primate of All Scotland, outraging the bishops in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• March – Sigismund, Archduke of Austria, largely on the poor advice of his counselors, declares war on Venice, and seizes silver mines in and around the Sugana Valley.

April–June

• April 27 – In Spain, the town of Vélez in Muslim Granada becomes the first conquest by the invasion by Christian Castile and Aragon, surrendering after 10 days.<ref name=Prescott>Template:Cite book</ref>
• May 7 –
  • After failed attempts by King Ferdinand of Aragon to negotiate Granada's surrender of the city of Malaqa, the siege of Málaga begins, with the Granadan General Hamet el Zegri defending against a larger contingent of Aragonese and Castilian troops. At the same time, the Spanish fleet blocks the harbor and all access to Malaga from the sea. The city surrenders after three months.<ref name=Prescott/>
  • The Kingdom of Portugal dispatches Pêro da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva across Europe and Africa to inquire about a sea route to India, as well as to inquire about the enigmatic Prester John. Covilha reaches Ethiopia but is not allowed to leave, while de Paiva is never heard from again.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• May 24 – Lambert Simnel, a supporter of the late King Richard III who is leading a rebellion against King Henry VII, is crowned King "Edward VI of England" in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.<ref name="KilfeatherKilfeather2005">Template:Cite book</ref> He claims to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, and challenges Henry VII for the throne of England, where he lands on June 5.
• May 18 – The army of the Grand Principality of Moscow begins the siege of Kazan as troops led by Daniil Kholmsky after a dispute begins over the succession to the throne of the Khanate of Kazan.<ref name=Alexeev>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• May 19 – The witch-hunters' manual Malleus Maleficarum, written by Heinrich Kramer with Jacob Sprenger, is approved by Catholic theologians from the University of Cologne and at Speyer in the Holy Roman Empire. The preface states that all readers should know that "in the year since the Birth of Our Lord 1487, in the fifth indiction, on Saturday, the 19th day of May, at five in the afternoon or thereabouts," professors Henricus Institoris and Jacobus Sprenger certified the text on behalf of Pope Innocent VIII. The preface notes that although some preachers preachers of the Word of God claim in sermons "that sorceresses do not exist", the authors' intention is "to alleviate this ignorance" and to "exterminate the sorceresses" by "appropriate methods of sentencing."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• May 27 – At Chiang Mai, in what is now part of northern Thailand, King of Lan Na, Prince Yotchiangrai becomes the new reigning monarch upon the death of his father, King Tilokaraj.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• June 5 – The rebel army led by Lambert Simnel, who has proclaimed himself as "King Edward VI" lands on Piel Island at Lancashire.<ref>Mervin Barbara, Enquiring History: Tudor Rebellions 1485–1603 (Hodder Education, 2014) p.23.</ref>
• June 16 – At the Battle of Stoke Field: the army of the pretender Lambert Simnel, led by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, and Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell, is crushed by troops loyal to Henry VII.<ref name="Burne2005">Template:Cite book</ref>
• June 19 – French–Breton War: The siege of the city of Nantes in the Duchy of Brittany is started by King Charles VIII of France, but fails after less than two months and is lifted on August 6.<ref name=Moal>Template:Cite web</ref>

July–September

• July 9 – The Khanate of Khazan surrenders after a siege of seven weeks, and Khazan becomes a vassal of the Russians in the Grand Principality of Moscow.<ref name=Alexeev/>
• July 11 – The Battle of Aldy Charrish takes place in Scotland as the Clan Mackay defeats the Clan Ross.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• August 6 – French–Breton War: King Charles VIII of France ends the siege of Nantes after seven weeks.<ref name=Moal/>
• August 10 – The County of Tyrol within the Holy Roman Empire defeats the attack of the Republic of Venice at the Battle of Calliano, with 1,400 of the Ventians and 700 of the Tyroleans killed.
• August 11 – The Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples sign a peace treaty to end the war that had started a year and half earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• August 13 – The siege of Málaga ends, when the Spanish take the Granadan city.<ref name=Prescott/> Most of the 11,000 surviving residents are taken prisoner and then sold into slavery in Castile and Andalusia.<ref>Matthew Carr, Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain (New York: The New Press, 2009) p.7 ISBN 9781595583611</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
• August 17 – Wiener Neustadt, the last town in Lower Austria to resist Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus, surrenders to his army.<ref>Pál Engel, The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526 (I.B. Tauris, 2001) p.306 ISBN 1-86064-061-3</ref>
• August 18 – The Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella make a triumphant entrance into the newly captured city of Malaga.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• August – Bartolomeu Dias leaves Lisbon, on his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.
• September 9 – Zhu Youcheng becomes the new Ming Dynasty Emperor of China upon the death of his father Zhu Jianru[, bringing an end to the Chengua era and beginning the Hongzhi era.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

October–December

• October 1 – Royal assent is given by King James III of Scotland to acts passed by the Scottish Parliament, including the Royal Burghs Act 1487 (requiring annual meetings of the commissioners of Scotland's town governments); the annexation of Lochmaben Castle; the Sea Fishing Act (regulating the herring industry); and the Goods of Convicts Act (allowing the confiscation of possessions of persons arrested for trespassing).
• November 9 – The second parliament of King Henry VII assembles at Westminster with John Mondurant as Speaker of the House of Commons. The parliament lasts for slightly more than five weeks.
• November 30 – Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria promulgates the Reinheitsgebot, specifying three ingredients – water, malt and hops – for the brewing of beer.
• December 8 – Bartolomeu Dias and his crew, sailing southward along the African coast in the caravels São Cristóvão and São Pantaleão arrive at what is now Namibia's Walvis Bay, which Dias calls O Golfo de Santa Maria da Conceição.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Abel Fontoura Costa, Às portas da Índia em 1484 (Imprensa da Armada, 1935) p.31</ref>
• December 16 – The war between Hungary and Austria is ended with an armistice signed at Sankt Pölten between Duke Albert III of Saxony (on behalf of the Holy Roman Empire) and Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus.<ref>Július Bartl, et al., Slovak History: Chronology & Lexicon. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2002) p.206 ISBN 0-86516-444-4</ref>
• December 18 – The second parliament of King Henry VII is dissolved in England after 39 days.
• December 19 – (7 Panquetzaliztli of the year 8 acatl) During the reign of the Mexican Aztec Emperor Ahuitzotl, the Temple of Huitzilopochtli, sixth in a series is completed and dedicated in Tenochtitlan to the Aztec god of war.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
• December 31 – Pope Innocent VIII establishes the office of the Secretary of State of the Vatican by approving the apostolic constitution Non Debet Reprehensibile, with 24 apostolic secretaries, the most important being the Secretarius Domesticus.<ref>Paul Philip Mariani, China's Church Divided: Bishop Louis Jin and the Post-Mao Catholic Revival (Harvard University Press, 2025) ISBN 978-0-674-29765-4.</ref>

Date unknown

• Italian architects work on the Moscow Kremlin.
• Stockport Grammar School is founded, in the north of England.

Births

• February 7 – Queen Dangyeong, Korean royal consort (d. 1557)
• February 8 – Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1550)
• February 15 – Henry of the Palatinate, bishop of Utrecht (d. 1552)
• April 10 – William I, Count of Nassau-Siegen (d. 1559)
• July 5 – Johann Gramann, German theologian (d. 1541)
• July 17 – Ismail I, Shah of Persia (d. 1524)
• August 27 – Anna of Brandenburg, Duchess of Schleswig and Holstein (d. 1514)
• September 10 – Pope Julius III (d. 1555)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• October 5 – Ludwig of Hanau-Lichtenberg, German nobleman (d. 1553)
• November 14 – John III of Pernstein, Bohemian land-owner, Governor of Moravia and Count of Kladsko (d. 1548)
• date unknown
  • Amda Seyon II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1494)
  • Magdalena de la Cruz, Franciscan nun of Cordova (d. 1560)
  • Fray Tomás de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama (d. 1551)
  • Piotr Gamrat, Polish Catholic archbishop (d. 1545)
  • Stanisław Kostka, Polish noble (d. 1555)
  • Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish conquistador (d. 1537)
  • Michael Stifel, German mathematician (d. 1567)
  • Giovanni da Udine, Italian painter (d. 1564)
  • Peter Vischer the Younger, German sculptor (d. 1528)

Deaths

• March 21 – Nicholas of Flüe, Swiss hermit and saint (b. 1417)
• May 27 – Tilokaraj, king of Lan Na (b. 1409)
• June 16 – John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (b. c. 1463)<ref name="Burne2005"/>
• June 26 – John Argyropoulos, Greek philosopher
• July 16 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (b. 1436)
• August 23 – Maria of Cleves, French noble (b. 1426)
• September 9 – Chenghua Emperor of China (b. 1447)
• September 14 – Mara Branković, Serbian princess (b. 1416)
• September 30 – John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1400)
• October 22 – Antonio Bettini, Italian religious writer (b. 1396)
• date unknown
  • William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel (b. 1417)
  • Tlacaelel, high priest of Tenochtitlán (b. 1398)