Nagy-Várad, the settlement that will become the…

The Yongle emperor had used Zheng He's treasure fleet to expand China's tributary trade system farther afield than ever before.

He also used woodblock printing to spread Chinese culture, and used the military (especially cavalry) to expand China's borders.

This includes the brief occupation of Vietnam, from the initial invasion in 1406 until the Ming withdrawal in 1427 as a result of protracted guerrilla warfare conducted by the nascent Vietnamese Lê dynasty.

The Đurašević family is a branch of the Kalođurđević family, whose members had held the most distinct positions in the court of Balša III.

Đurađ Đurašević and his brother Aleksa (Lješ) are lords of the territory of Paštrovići (Luštica and the hills above Kotor and Budva).

Đurađ is one of the witnesses listed in the charter issued by Balša III in 1413 when he founded a church of the Praskvica Monastery.

Đurađ's son and Aleksa Paštrović, an envoy of Sandalj Hranić, were also present.

The Venetians on March 10, 1420, had promised to appoint Đurađ and his brother as governors of Budva, but after the death of Balša III they had refused Venetian invitations to switch sides and to accept Venetian suzerainty, remaining loyal to new lord of Zeta, Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević.

The Đurašević brothers, who control ten salt ponds in the Grbalj valley near Kotor, build the Kom Monastery in the period between 1415 and 1427, when Upper Zeta is held by the Crnojevići.

Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone, nicknamed Masaccio ("Slovenly Tom") because he cares so little for his appearance and personal affairs and so much more for his art, is the first artist to employ the principles of Brunelleschi's linear perspective in a major painting when he executes his Trinity fresco, an astonishing visual tour-de-force painted around 1425-27 for the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

In this monumental and rationally ordered work, Masaccio creates the three-dimensional illusion of a chapel receding beyond the wall on which it is painted.

He reinforces this perspective effect by the placement of the figures of the donors, who are portrayed kneeling on a shelf that appears to project forward.

He constructs the entire composition so as to direct the spectator's eye inexorably toward the focal point of the work, the pyramidal group composed of the Virgin and Saint John at the bases and God the Father and the crucified Christ at the apex, further heightening the sculptural appearance of the figures by his innovative use of chiaroscuro, or modeling in light and dark.

Visconti, under advice by the emperor Sigismund, has refused to ratify the Peace of Venice, on which the ink has barely dried, when he unsuccessfully attempts to ambush and kill Carmagnola at Chiari in 1427.

Failing in his attempt to assassinate Carmagnola, he rearms his Po River fleet and renews warfare in May 1427.

The Milanese are initially victorious, taking Casalmaggiore and …

…besieging Brescello; the fleet sent here is set on fire by the Venetian fleet of Francesco Bembo; however, …

…Niccolò Piccinino is able to defeat Carmagnola at Gottolengo on May 29.

The sermons of Bernardino of Siena, a popular Franciscan who preaches against witchcraft, reveal both a phenomenon of superstitious practices and an overreaction against them by the common people.

However, it is clear that Bernardino had in mind not merely the use of spells and enchantments and such like fooleries but much more serious crimes, chiefly murder and infanticide.

This is clear from his much-quoted sermon of 1427, in which he says: "One of them told and confessed, without any pressure, that she had killed thirty children by bleeding them ... [and] she confessed more, saying she had killed her own son ... Answer me: does it really seem to you that someone who has killed twenty or thirty little children in such a way has done so well that when finally they are accused before the Signoria you should go to their aid and beg mercy for them?"

Bernardino’s legacy, both while he is alive and after his death (the first edition of his works, for the most part elaborate sermons, will be printed at Lyon in 1501), is far from benign: of fanatical moralizing temperament, he preaches fiery, intransigent sermons against many classes of people.

His sermons are riddled with ostensible anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia.

He demonizes many women as "witches", and calls for homosexuals (or "sodomites" as he calls them) to be either completely isolated from society or eliminated from the human community.

He thus becomes a major exponent of what historian Robert Moore has called "the persecuting society" of late medieval Christian Europe.

Bernardino calls for Jews to be isolated from the wider communities in which they live; blaming the poverty of local Christians on Jewish usury.

His audiences often use his words to reinforce actions against Jews, and his preaching leaves a legacy of resentment on the part of Jews.

On sodomy (particularly homosexuality), he keenly points out the reputation of the Italians beyond their own borders.

He particularly decries Florentine lenience; in Verona, he approvingly reminded listeners that a man was quartered and his limbs hung from the city gates; in Genoa, men were regularly burned; and in Venice a sodomite had been tied to a column along with a barrel of pitch and brushwood and set to fire.

He advised the people of Siena to do the same.

In 1424 he had dedicated three consecutive sermons in Florence to the subject, in the course of a Lenten sermon preached in Santa Croce, he admonished his hearers: Whenever you hear sodomy mentioned, each and every one of you spit on the ground and clean your mouth out as well.

If they don't want to change their ways by any other means, maybe they will change when they're made fools of.

Spit hard!

Maybe the water of your spit will extinguish their fire.

In Siena he had preached a full sermon against sodomy (including homosexuality) in 1425 and does so again in 1427.

Over time his teachings will help mold public sentiment and dispel indifference over controlling sodomy more vigorously.

Everything unpredictable or calamitous in human experience he attributes to sodomy, including floods and the plague, as well as linking sodomy to local population decline.

The Venetian Republic is desirous of rapid and conclusive operations, but it is in the interest of Carmagnola, as indeed to all other soldiers of fortune, to make the operations last as long as possible, to avoid decisive operations, and to liberate all prisoners quickly.

Asa consequence, the campaign drags on interminably, some battles are won and others lost, truces and peace treaties are made only to be broken, and no definite result is achieved.

Visconti can count on some of the best condottieri of the time, such as Sforza, Agnolo della Pergola, Piccinino and Guido Torello.

But, as they are jealous, he names supreme commander Carlo Malatesta.

Carmagnola had quickly taken Brescia for Venice, then made sure he campaigned very slowly, doing very little for a long time, forcing Venice to pay incredible amounts in upkeep for the almost useless army.

Eventually the public is starting to catch on to this, so Carmagnola decides he needs another big victory to keep in command.

He finally moves into enemy territory and meets the army of Filippo Maria, under Malatesta, at Maclodio.

The town itself is virtually destroyed in the battle, and the result is a decisive victory for Venice.

Carmagnola is heavily praised and rewarded, being given a palace at San Stae that used to be the property of the Malatesta family, a fief in Bresciano, and a letter of appreciation from the doge.

Public opinion of Carmagnola quickly sours again, however, as he releases all eight thousand prisoners captured and decides not to advance on the defenseless Cremona.

He then retires his army for the winter against Venetian wishes.