1452

January–December

• February – Alexăndrel retakes the throne of Moldavia, in his long struggle with Petru Aron.
• February 22 – William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas is killed by James II of Scotland, at Stirling Castle.
• March 17 – Reconquista – Battle of Los Alporchones (around the city of Lorca in Murcia): The combined forces of the Kingdom of Castile, and its subsidiary kingdom of Murcia, defeat the Emirate of Granada.^[1]
• March 19 – Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes the last to be crowned in Rome.^[2]
• May 31 – Revolt of Ghent: Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, officially declares war on Ghent.
• June 18 – Pope Nicholas V issues the bull Dum Diversas, legitimising the colonial slave trade.
• October
  • English troops under John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, land in Guyenne, France, and retake most of the province without a fight.
  • Byzantine–Ottoman Wars: The Ottoman governor of Thessaly, Turakhan Beg, breaks through the Hexamilion wall for the fourth time, and ravages the Peloponnese Peninsula to prevent the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea from assisting Constantinople, during the final Ottoman siege of the imperial capital.^[3]

Date unknown

• A major volcanic eruption, 1452/1453 mystery eruption, has a subsequent global cooling effect (the eruption releases more sulfate than any other event in the previous 700 years).
• Portuguese navigator Diogo de Teive discovers the islands of Corvo and Flores, in the Azores.
• Battle of Bealach nam Broig, a Scottish clan battle.
• Edinburgh officially becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Scotland.^[4]

• February 6 – Joanna, Princess of Portugal (d. 1490)
• February 14
  • Davide Ghirlandaio, Italian painter and mosaicist (d. 1525)^[5]
  • Pandolfo Petrucci, tyrant of Siena (d. 1512)
• March 10 – King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Aragonese king and first king of a united Spain (by marriage to Isabella of Castile) (d. 1516)^[6]
• April 15 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist and inventor (d. 1519)^[7]
• April 19 – King Frederick of Naples (d. 1504)^[8]
• May 18 – Henry the Younger of Poděbrady, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1492)
• July 27
  • Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1508)^[9]
  • Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza (d. 1508)
• August 12 – Abraham Zacuto, Spanish Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian (d. 1515)
• September 21 – Girolamo Savonarola, Italian religious reformer (d. 1498)^[10]
• October 2 – King Richard III of England (d. 1485)^[11]
• December 6 – Antonio Mancinelli, Italian humanist pedagogue and grammarian (d. 1505)
• December 10 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician (d. 1531)
• Date unknown
  • Diogo Cão, Portuguese explorer (d. 1486)
  • Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza of Milan (d. 1508) (approximate date)

Švitrigaila and Michał Bolesław Zygmuntowicz (Michael Žygimantaitis) died on February 10, 1452

• February 10
  • Švitrigaila, Grand Prince of Lithuania
  • Michał Bolesław Zygmuntowicz (Michael Žygimantaitis), Prince of Black Ruthenia
• February 14 – Konrad VII the White, Duke of Oleśnica
• February 22 – William Douglas, 8th Earl of Douglas (b. 1425)
• April 20 – Reinhard III, Count of Hanau (1451–1452) (b. 1412)
• May – John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury^[12]
• October – Nicholas Close, English bishop
• probable – Gemistus Pletho, Greek philosopher