1401

1401 (MCDI) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Julian calendar. It was the first year of the 15th century.

• Timur raids the city of Baghdad in the Jalayirid Empire.
• Passing of the De heretico comburendo Act in England – the Archbishop of Canterbury pressures King Henry IV of England into outlawing as heretics anyone owning an English translation of the Bible.
• Dilawar Khan establishes the Malwa Sultanate in present-day northern India.
• Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania is granted increased autonomy by King Jogaila of the Poland-Lithuania union.
• Emperor Ho Quy Ly of Dai Ngu (now Vietnam) passes the throne to his son, Thai Thuong Hoang.
• A civil war, lasting four years, breaks out in the Majapahit Empire in present-day Indonesia.
• The Joseon Dynasty in the present-day Korea officially enters into a tributary relationship with Ming Dynasty China.
• Japan re-enters into a tributary relationship with Ming Dynasty China.

• May 12 – Emperor Shoko of Japan (died 1428)
• July 23 – Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan (died 1466)
• October 27 – Catherine of Valois, queen of Henry VI of England (died 1437)
• November 26 – Henry Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset (died 1418)
• December 21 – Tommaso Masaccio, Italian painter (died 1428)
• Charles I, Duke of Bourbon (died 1456)
• Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut (died 1436)
• probable
  • Nicholas of Cusa, German philosopher, mathematician and astronomer (died 1464)

• March – William Sawtrey, English Lollard martyr (burned at the stake)
• April 8 (or August 8) Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (born 1338)
• October 20 – Klaus Störtebeker, German pirate
• date unknown
  • Anabella Drummond, queen of Scotland