The 15th century holds the transition be tween the Middle Ages and modern history. The end of the Middle Ages is usually said to be the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, though occasionally it has been suggested that a better date for a boundary between the two periods would be the discovery of America in 1492. The fall of Constintinople is the most important military and political event of the century. It was led up to from' the very beginning. Tamerlane, Timur the Mongol or the Lame, a successor of Jhenghis Khan, occupied the Caucasus, Armenia and Mesopotamia, after re ducing Persia towards the end of the 14th cen tury and then proceeded to add southern Russia and India to his empire. Just at the beginning of the 15th century he was forced by a re bellion in Syria to turn, and in 1401 destroyed Aleppo, burned Damascus and stormed Bagdad. He defeated Bajazet or Bajezid, the Sultan of the Turks, who died in prison in 1403, but Timur himself followed his prisoner to death ih 1405. Timur's empire then fell to pieces and left the Turks free for their long con templated capture of Constantinople. A series of attacks were made upon the city. It was clearly but a question of time before the capital of the Eastern Empire would fall. The recog nition of this impending disaster aroused some of the serious thinkers of Europe to the neces sity for a Crusade, but without avail. A series of Popes took up the subject and the result was at least a bringing together of the Eastern and Western Churches. A council was held at Ferrara for the union of the Latins and the Greeks, but in spite of Cardinal Bessarion's in fluence, and the fact of Pope Eugenics IV, the long years of religious differences between the peoples prevented the reunion from being more than short-lived. A European army was sent to aid the Greeks, and the Turks were defeated Sophia and Nissa being conquered by Hunyadi the Magyar Christian hero (1443). Another ex pedition under the heroic Skanderbeg (Cas triota), Prince of Albania, was defeated (1444). The Hungarians and Albanians were the only champions of Western Christianity, and their efforts proved vain against the overpowering numbers of the Turks. In the spring of 1453 Mohammed besieged Constantinople by both land and sea with 150,000 men, and 420 ships, and the place fell by storm, 23 May.
The year of the fall of Constantinople (1453) was also that of the end of the Hundred Years War between France and England, which had served to hamper the intellectual develop ment of both these countries to a very serious extent. Now they might have had time for other thoughts and the Renaissance been given an opportunity to exert itself to the full, but it was seriously set back in England by the unfortunate civil wars of the Roses and by in ternal dissensions of many kinds in France. The English who had laid claims to French territory ever since the time of William the Conqueror had been able to vindicate those claims to some extent in the later 14th century, but Henry V with a small army of English soldiers won the Battle of Agincourt, 1415, and marrying the French king's daughter, was to succeed to the title of King of France on the death of the poor mad French monarch, Charles VI. His son Charles VII found a fol lowing in France that enabled him to hold out for a time against the English under the Duke of Bedford, but he was nearly at the end of his resources in every way when Joan of Arc, a young shepherd maiden of Domremy offered to lead his army, awakened the country, relieved Orleans and had Charles crowned King of France at Rheims. Her marvelous story is
one of the strangest in history. This country girl from the confines of Lorraine was at the age of 17 the general-in-chief of the armies of France. When her heavenly appointed task, as she proclaimed it, was done, she asked to be allowed to withdraw into obscurity once more, but her presence' was deemed too valuable for the morale of the French army to permit this and after a time she was captured by the Eng lish. To discredit her they put her to death as a witch, but her trial only served to em phasize her virtues. Her life, the only one in all history as Mark Twain has said, every de tail of which we have under oath from eye witnesses, remains the marvel of history.
The Wars of the Roses absorbed English attention for a generation and caused an im mense amount of suffering and death before it could be settled whether the House of York, whose symbol was the white rose, or the House of Lancaster of the red rose should rule in England. The Lancastrians were supported mainly by the north of England, the Yorkists by the south. More important than any of the Icings of the time was the Duke of Warwick, the Icing-maker as he came to be called, whose adhesion to one side or the other again and again turned the scale. The pathetic character of the time is Henry VI, the gentle, kindly but weak monarch who probably deserves the name of saint which some people have ac corded him, though others have proclaimed him simply a fool. He will ever be recalled for his liberality in the cause of religion and learn ing and for his foundations at Eton and Cam bridge. The villain of the Wars of the Roses is Richard III, whom historians have been vin dicating in recent years and who was un doubtedly an able man and popular among the people. The stigma upon his name for the murder of the little Princes in the Tower of London has never been wiped out, and this makes it easy to understand why historians should have been ready to credit other evil traditions with regard to him.
After varying fortunes, the Yorkists winning the first battle at Saint Albans, 1455, and others in 1459 and 1460, Margaret, the undaunted wife of Henry VI, refusing to accept the compromise by which Henry was to reign for life and be succeeded by the Duke of York, moved heaven and earth for her son Edward, and won the Battle of Wakefield, where York was slain. She also won the second Battle of Saint Al bans. Decisively defeated by Warwick at Towton Heath, Margaret still kept up the struggle until her son was slain at Tewkesbury (1471). When the Yorkists won Tewkesbury, York seemed assured of the throne. The death of Edward IV, however, leaving Edward and Richard, the little Princes in the care of their uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who mur dered them, gave the chance for Lancaster in the person of Henry VII to make a popular appeal, gather an army and defeat Richard at Bosworth. By marrying Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, Henry united the two houses. He proved to be a very thrifty king who imposed taxes and gathered immense sums of money, consolidating the kingdom for his son Henry VIII, who proceeded to spend roy. ally until his treasury was exhausted.