Battle of Sandwich (1460) – Capture of the Royal Fleet
Who Fought
History & Significance
Year 1460 (MCDLX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 1460th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 460th year of the 2nd millennium, the 60th year of the 15th century, and the 1st year of the 1460s decade.
January 14 – After gaining a consensus at the Council of Mantua, Pope Pius II formally declares a Christian crusade against the Muslim Ottoman Empire to recapture Constantinople, which had been captured by the Ottomans in 1453.
January 15 – At the Battle of Sandwich in England, Yorkists raid Sandwich, Kent, and capture the royal fleet.
February 29 – Johann IV and his brother Sigismund of the House of Wittelsbach become the joint rulers of "Bavaria-Munich", one of several smaller states that had been fragmented from the original Duchy of Bavaria, upon the death of their father, Albrecht III the Pious. Johann's third son, Albrecht IV, will reunite Bavaria-Munich with the other states (Bavaria-Landshut, Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Bavaria-Straubing) into a single Duchy of Bavaria in 1503.
March 4 – At Rome on the Wednesday during Ember Days, Pope Pius II addresses an assembly of the College of Cardinals and criticizes most of them, declaring that "Your lifestyle is such that you would appear to have been chosen, not to govern the state, but called to enjoy pleasures. You avoid neither hunting, nor games, nor the company of women. You put together parties that are more opulent than is fitting. You wear clothes that are far too expensive. You overflow with gold and silver." He then directs them to consider the qualities of new candidates for the College. The next day, six cardinals are elected, including Francesco Nanni-Todeschini-Piccolomini, the Pope's nephew, who will later become Pope Pius III.
March 5 – King Christian I of Denmark, the various nobles of the Duchy of Schleswig and the County of Holstein agree to the Treaty of Ribe, electing King Christian as the new Duke of Schleswig and Count of Holstein, and placing both political entities under Denmark's control.
March 21 – After having control of Malbork Castle, the Polish Army begins a siege against the Prussian town of Marienburg.
April 4 – The University of Basel is founded in Switzerland.
May 30 – Demetrios Palaiologos, the ruler of the Byzantine despotate of Morea in southern Greece surrenders the capital, Mystras,to the Ottomans. The Ottoman sultan Mehmed II grants some islands in the Aegean Sea to Palaiologos, and he lives for several years in relative comfort.
June 3 – Pope Pius II re-imposes a 1454 ban against trade with the Prussian Confederation, and extends it to include a ban against trading with the Kingdom of Poland, after the Prussian states and Poland refuse to join in the proposed crusade against the Ottoman Empire.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Sandwich (1460) – Capture of the Royal Fleet lies on Thanet Sand Formation, bedrock that formed in the Thanetian. The rock here is sand, silt and clay.
The raid on Sandwich on 15 January 1460 was a swift, purposeful strike rather than a pitched battle. The Yorkists seized the royal fleet moored in the harbour, depriving the Lancastrian crown of its naval capacity at a moment when the struggle for the throne was intensifying. Within months, the same port at Sandwich would serve as the landing point for the Yorkist army that marched on London and ultimately took King Henry VI prisoner, suggesting that the January raid had materially cleared the way for everything that followed.
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