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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization religion education art music marine resources |
Beatrice d'Este gives birth to a stillborn son January 3 and dies at Milan a few hours later at age 21. Thus, her husband, Ludovico Sforza, loses the voice of reason and wisdom that has curbed his impetuosity. He antagonizes Venice, Pope Alexander VI turns against him, and the duke will soon come to grief (see 1500).
Lucrezia Borgia, 17, duchess of Ferrara, has her father, Pope Alexander VI, annul the marriage that he arranged for her 4 years ago to Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro. He betroths the golden-haired beauty to Alfonso of Aragon, a nephew of the king of Naples; the match appalls Alfonso's sister Isabella d'Este, but the pope almost completely cancels the annual fee that Ferrara pays as a fief of the Church (see 1501).
Tin miners in Cornwall revel against stiff taxes imposed by England's Henry VII to support English defenses against Scottish invasion forces (see 1496). Led by blacksmith Michael Joseph, an army of some 3,000 Cornishmen crosses the Tamar into England, picks up recruits as it marches through Devon and Somerset, reaches Blackheath south of London, but is no match for the 10,000-man army fielded by Henry; he defeats the Cornishmen June 16, captures their leaders, and has them put to death June 27. Dragged to Tyburn from the Tower of London, they are hanged, disemboweled, and hacked into quarters.
Perkin Warbeck invades Cornwall with a small force after failing to find support in Ireland (see 1496). Having anchored in St. Ives harbor, the pretender fails in a siege of Exeter, advances to Taunton, takes sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire, but is forced to surrender in September and is imprisoned in the Tower of London with the earl of Warwick (see 1499).
Denmark's Jan I defeats a Swedish army at Brunkeberg, enters Stockholm, revives the Scandinavian Union that ended in 1412, and begins a 4-year reign as Jan II.
Poland's Jan Olbracht (John Albert) responds to an appeal from Moldavia's hospodar Stefan the Great and dispatches an army to help Stefan repel a threatened Tatar invasion, but Stefan realizes that the king intends to capture the towns of Kilia and Belgorod (Akkerman) at the mouths of Danube and Dneister rivers and depose him. Fearing that he may lose his throne to the Polish prince Sigismund, Stefan mounts an attack on the Polish army and defeats it at Suceava, inflicting heavy losses.
Persia's Rustam Shah dies after a 5-year reign that ends the dynasty of the White Sheep which has ruled since 1453 (see 1502).
Vietnam's Le Thanh Ton dies at Dong Kinh (later Hanoi) after a 37-year reign in which he has established a Chinese-style centralized government and extended his borders by absorbing most of Champa on his southern coast (see 1479; 1527).
John Cabot reaches Labrador (or, perhaps, Newfoundland) June 24 after a 53-day voyage from Bristol (see 1496). Later evidence will reveal that Bristol seamen arrived in Newfoundland earlier, and Vikings long before them, but Cabot's is the first recorded English crossing of the Atlantic on a voyage of exploration. Accompanied by 18 men aboard the 70-foot caravel Ye Matthew, he explores what later will be called Nova Scotia, laying the basis for future English claims to North America, and arrives at Lisbon August 6 (see 1498; politics, 1711).
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, 28, leaves Lisbon with four ships to investigate the possibility of a sea route to India, as was suggested by the voyage of Bartolomeu Dias in 1487 and by the report of Pedro de Covilhão. Da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope November 22 (see 1498).
Vasco da Gama sails along the west coast of Africa on Christmas Day and gives Natal its name.
The Florentine prior-dictator Savonarola celebrates the annual carnival with a "burning of the vanities" in the Piazza della Signoria. Masks related to carnival festivities, indecent books and pictures, and other items are burned, attracting crowds too large for the cathedral. The prior attacks the alleged crimes of Pope Alexander VI and indignantly spurns the offer of a cardinal's hat, but the pope is determined to silence the daring friar and issues a bull excommunicating him (see 1491; 1498).
A royal charter is granted for King's College to be established in Old Aberdeen (see 1495). Modeled on schools at Bologna and Paris, it is intended to educate students in the law, medicine, divinity, and the arts. Its chapel will be founded in 1500. The college will merge with Marischal College in 1860, and the resulting University of Aberdeen will survive as Scotland's third-oldest institution of higher learning.
Painting: Apollo and Marsyas by Perugino; The Meeting of Joachim and Anne at the Golden Gate by Florentine painter Filippino Lippi, 40, a son of the late Fra Filippo Lippi.
Sculpture: Bacchus by Florentine artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, 22, at Rome.
Composer Jean d'Ockeghem dies at Tours February 6 at age 86 (approximate), having written chansons, masses, and motets that will survive for centuries. His death moves Josquin des Pres to write a "Déploration" in which he intertwines his own name with those of his rivals Loyset Compère, Ockeghem, and Pierchon (Pierre de La Rue), saying, "Weep great tears from your eyes."
John Cabot notes vast codfish banks off the coast of Newfoundland. The fishing grounds have been visited in the past by Breton fishermen and will be called the Grand Banks (see 1504).
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