Year 1451 (MCDLI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–December

• January 7 – Pope Nicholas V issues a Papal Bull^[1] to establish The University of Glasgow; classes are initially held in Glasgow Cathedral.
• February 3 – Murad II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, dies and is succeeded (on February 18) by his son, Mehmed II.
• February 14 – Louis XI of France marries Charlotte of Savoy.
• April 11 – Celje acquires market town status and town rights, by orders from Count Frederic II of Celje.
• April 19 – In the Delhi Sultanate, the Afghan Lodi Dynasty succeeds the Turkish Sayyid Dynasty.
• June 30 – French troops under Jean de Dunois invade Guyenne, and capture Bordeaux.
• August 20 – The French capture Bayonne, the last English stronghold in Guyenne.
• October – After assassinating Bogdan II of Moldavia, Petru Aron takes up the throne.
• October 28 – Revolt of Ghent: Ghent takes up arms against Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.

Date unknown

• The Great Peacemaker along with Jigonhsasee and Hiawatha, found the Haudenosaunee, commonly called the Iroquois Confederacy

Births

• January 14 – Franchinus Gaffurius, Italian composer (d. 1522)
• January 29 – John, Prince of Portugal, Prince of Portugal (d. 1451)
• February 17 – Raffaello Maffei, Italian theologian (d. 1522)
• March 5 – William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English earl (d. 1491)
• March 9 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (d. 1512)^[2]
• April 22 – Queen Isabella I of Castile, Castillian queen regnant and first queen of a united Spain (by marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon) (d. 1504)^[3]
• May 2 – René II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1508)
• May 17 – Engelbert II of Nassau, Count of Nassau-Vianden and Lord of Breda (1475–1504) (d. 1504)
• June 1 – Giles Daubeney, 1st Baron Daubeney (d. 1508)
• July 10 – James III of Scotland (d. 1488)^[4]
• September 5 – Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence, elder daughter of Richard Neville (d. 1476)^[5]
• November 29 – Elisabeth of Brandenburg, Duchess of Württemberg (d. 1524)
• date unknown
  • Christopher Columbus, Italian explorer (d. 1506)^[6]
  • Ignatius Noah of Lebanon, Syriac Orthodox patriarch of Antioch (d. 1509).^[7]

Deaths

• January 7 – Antipope Felix V (b. 1383)
• January 18 – Henry II, Count of Nassau-Siegen, Co-ruler of Nassau-Siegen (1442–1451) (b. 1414)^[8]
• February 3 – Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
• June – ‘Abdullah, Timurid Empire ruler
• July 11 – Barbara of Cilli, Holy Roman Empress, queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1392)
• October – Bogdan II of Moldavia, assassinated by Petru Aron
• date unknown
  • Stefan Lochner, German painter (b. 1400)
  • John Lydgate, English monk and poet (b. 1370)
  • al-Mustakfi II, Abbasid Caliph