Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi), master of sculpture in both marble and bronze, one of the greatest of all Italian Renaissance artists. A good deal is known about Donatello's life and career, but little is known about his chara...

Henry V of England was one of the great warrior kings of the Middle Ages. He was born at Monmouth, Wales, and reigned as King of England from 1413 to 1422. Henry was son of Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV, and Mary de Bohun, who die...

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici, called 'the Elder' and posthumously Father of the Nation (Latin pater patriae) was an Italian banker and politician, the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the It...

Edward, called the Philosopher or the Eloquent, was King of Portugal and the Algarve and second Lord of Ceuta from 1433 until his death. He was the son of John I of Portugal and his wife, Philippa of Lancaster, a daughter of John of Gaunt....

James I, King of Scots (reign: 1406 – 37), was the son of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was probably born in late July 1394 in Dunfermline as youngest of three sons. By the time he was eight years of age both of his elder brothers w...

Henry the Navigator was an infante of the Kingdom of Portugal and an important figure in the early days of the Portuguese Empire. He was responsible for the early development of European exploration and maritime trade with other continents....

Niccolò de' Conti was an Italian merchant, explorer, and writer. Born in Chioggia, who traveled to India and Southeast Asia, and possibly to Southern China, during the early 15th century. He was one of the human sources used to create the 1...

The Battle of Nicopolis took place on 25 September 1396 and resulted in the rout of an allied army of Hungarian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, French, Burgundian, German and assorted troops (assisted by the Venetian navy) at the hands of an Ottoma...

Alfonso the Magnanimous was the King of Aragon (as Alfonso V), Valencia (as Alfonso III), Majorca, Sardinia and Corsica (as Alfonso II), and Sicily and Count of Barcelona (as Alfonso IV) from 1416 and King of Naples (as Alfonso I) from 1442...

Philip the Good KG (French: Philippe le Bon), also Philip III, Duke of Burgundy was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty (the then Royal family of France). During his reign Burgun...

Albert the Magnanimous KG was King of Hungary from 1437 until his death. He was also King of Bohemia, elected (but never crowned) King of Germany as Albert II, duke of Luxembourg and, as Albert V, archduke of Austria from 1404. Albert w...

Isabella of Portugal was Duchess of Burgundy as the third wife of Duke Philip the Good. Born a Portuguese infanta of the House of Aviz, Isabella was the only surviving daughter of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster....

Guillaume Du Fay, also Dufay, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. A central figure in the Burgundian School, he was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the leading composers in Europe in the mid-15th century. His un...

Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli was an Italian mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer. Toscanelli is noted for his observations of comets and the painstaking calculation of their orbits. Among these was the comet of 1456; only named Halley'...

Rogier van der Weyden or Roger de la Pasture was an Early Flemish painter. His surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces and commissioned single and diptych portraits. Although his life was generally uneventful, he...