1510s

1510s: events by year

Contents: 1510 1511 1512 1513 1514 1515 1516 1517 1518 1519

1510

January–June

• January – Catherine of Aragon gives birth to her first child, a stillborn daughter.
• January 23 – Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals himself.
• February 27 – Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Goa.

Date unknown

• Pskov is conquered by Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy.
• The Holy League is formed to defend the Italian States.
• Peter Henlein builds the first pocketwatch.
• Sir Thomas More becomes undersheriff of the City of London.
• Paolo Cortese publishes De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals, including advice on palatial architecture – which inspires Thomas Wolsey in his construction work at Hampton Court Palace.
• Henry Cornelius Agrippa moves to Italy.

1511

January–June

• April 9 – St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, receives its charter.

July–December

• July – Henry VIII of England's flagship, the Mary Rose, is launched at Portsmouth.
• August 24 – Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca. The Sultanate then establishes rule from Johor, starting decades of skirmishes against the Portuguese to regain the fallen city. While taking the city, the Portuguese slaughter a large community of Chinese merchants living there (mentioned by Zhang Xie writing a century later). Malacca is the first city in Southeast Asia to be taken by a Western nation, gaining home rule only in 1957 when it becomes part of Malaysia.
• November – The Treaty of Westminster creates an alliance between Henry VIII of England and Ferdinand II of Aragon against France.
• November 20 – Sinking of the vessel Frol de la mar transporting Afonso de Albuquerque and the valuable treasure of the conquest of Malacca en route to Goa.

Date unknown

• Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez is appointed Governor.
• Duarte Barbosa arrives in India for the second time. He works as clerk in the factory of Cananor and as the liaison with the Indian rajah.
• Ferdinand II of Aragon observes that "one black can do the work of four Indians".
• Juan de Agramonte, a sailor from Spain, is thought possibly to have travelled to Newfoundland.
• Taíno, an indigenous uprising occurs in southwestern Puerto Rico near Guánica.
• The first black slaves arrive in Colombia.
• The Spanish conquest of Yucatán begins.
• Erasmus publishes his most famous work, The Praise of Folly, as Moriae encomium / Laus stultitiae.
• Şahkulu Rebellion

1512

January–June

• February 18 – War of the League of Cambrai: Sack of Brescia by the French.
• April 11 – War of the League of Cambrai: Battle of Ravenna: French forces under Gaston de Foix, Duc de Nemours defeat the Spanish under Raymond of Cardona, but Gaston is killed in the pursuit.
• May 3 – The Fifth Council of the Lateran starts.

July–December

• August 10 – War of the League of Cambrai: English naval victory at the Battle of St. Mathieu over the French.
• Summer – War of the League of Cambrai: Ferdinand II of Aragon sends Don Fadrique de Toledo to complete the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre.
• October 19 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
• October 21 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.
• November 1 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

Date unknown

• António de Abreu discovers Timor island and reaches Banda Islands, Ambon Island and Seram.
• Francisco Serrão reaches the Moluccas.
• Juan Ponce de León discovers the Turks and Caicos Islands.
• Pedro Mascarenhas discovers Diego Garcia and reaches Mauritius in the Mascarene Islands.
• Selim I succeeds Bayezid II as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• Moldavia becomes a vassal of the Turkish Empire, on the same conditions as Wallachia: the voivode will be designated by the Turks, but will be of the Orthodox faith. Also, the Turks are not allowed to build mosques, to be buried, to own land or to settle in the country.
• The Florentine Republic is dismantled and the Medici family comes back into power.
• The word "masque" is first used to denote a poetic drama.
• Wolverhampton Grammar School is founded by Sir Stephen Jenyns in England.
• Giggleswick School is founded by Rev James Carr in England.
• Paracelsus moves to Ferrara.
• Possible date - Nicolaus Copernicus begins to write Commentariolus, an abstract of what will eventually become his heliocentric astronomy De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; he sends it to other scientists interested in the matter by 1514.^[1][2][3]

1513

January–June

• January 20 – Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway.
• March 9 – Pope Leo X succeeds Pope Julius II as the 217th pope.
• March 27 – Juan Ponce de Leon becomes the first European definitely known to sight what is now the territory of the United States (specifically Florida), mistaking it for another island.
• April 2 – Juan Ponce de Leon and his expedition become the first Europeans known to visit Florida, landing somewhere on the east coast.
• May – Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares lands on Lintin Island in the Pearl River estuary. This is followed up by Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of Christopher Columbus, who commands an expedition from Portuguese Malacca in 1516 to land on the shores of mainland southern China, in order to trade with Chinese merchants at Guangzhou.
• June 6 – Italian Wars – Battle of Novara: Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis de la Tremoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan. Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.

July–December

• August 16 – Battle of the Spurs (or Battle of Guinegate): English troops under Henry VIII defeat a French army under Marshal La Palice.
• August 22 – Thérouanne is captured by Henry VIII of England.
• September – The dispute between Johann Reuchlin and Johannes Pfefferkorn, relative to the Talmud and other Jewish books, is referred to Pope Leo X.
• September 9 – Battle of Flodden Field: King James IV of Scotland is defeated and killed by an English army under Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. James's son, the Duke of Rothesay, becomes James V, King of Scots.
• September 25 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, "silent upon a peak in Darién", first sees what will become known as the Pacific Ocean.
• October 7 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramon de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
• December – Louis XII makes peace with the Pope and Spain.

Undated

• Niccolò Machiavelli writes The Prince.
• Leo Africanus visits Timbuktu, the second city of Songhai Empire.
• Paracelsus begins stydying at Ferrara University.
• Appenzell becomes a member of Old Swiss Confederacy.

1514

January–June

• March 12 – A huge exotic embassy sent by King Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X defiles in Rome.
• March – Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian.
• May 15 – Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo’s Gesta Danorum, the oldest known version of that work.
• June – The Battle of Hornshole between England and Scotland takes place near Hawick, Scotland.^[4]

July–December

• July – Peace is declared between England and France.
• August 23 – Battle of Chaldiran: Selim I crushes the Persian army of Shah Ismail I.
• September 8 – Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, the Belarusians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
• September 15 – Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York.
• October 9 – Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor are married.

Date unknown

• Albrecht Dürer makes his famous engraving Melencolia I.
• Paolo Ricci moves to Augsburg.

1515

January–June

• June – Persia is invaded by Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire.

July–December

• September 5 – Selim captures the Persian capital of Tabriz without encountering any resistance, but is unable to hold it.
• September 13–September 14 – Battle of Marignano: The army of Francis I of France defeats the Swiss, thanks to the timely arrival of a Venetian army. Francis restores French control of Milan.
• November 15 – Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Cardinal.
• December 24 – Thomas Wolsey is named the English Lord Chancellor.

Date unknown

• The Manchester Grammar School is founded.
• Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana, Cuba.
• The Yadigarid Uzbeks found the Khanate of Khiva.
• Francis I of France starts to rule.
• Bartolomé de las Casas urges Charles V to end Amerindian slavery and recommends the importation of blacks from Africa.^{[citation needed]}
• First Congress of Vienna.
• Dürer's Rhinoceros cut.
• Henry Cornelius Agrippa returns to Northern Italy.

1516

January–June

• March – With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson Charles of Ghent becomes King of Spain as Carlos I.
• April 23 – The Reinheitsgebot is instituted in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, regulating the purity of beer permissible for sale.

July–December

• July – Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mameluks and invades Syria.
• August 13 – The Treaty of Noyon is signed. Francis recognizes Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan.
• October 28 – Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
• December 4 – Treaty of Brussels: Peace is declared between France and the Empire.

Date unknown

• Pedro de Solis discovers the Río de la Plata.
• King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X sign the Concordat of Bologna.
• Desiderius Erasmus publishes a new Greek translation of the New Testament.
• Thomas More publishes Utopia.
• Leonardo da Vinci accepts Francis I's invitation to France.
• The Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello trades with Chinese merchants at Canton during the Ming Dynasty.
• Gillingham School founded – the oldest school in Dorset

1517

January–June

• January 22 – Battle of Ridaniya: The Turkish forces of Selim I defeat the main Mamluk army in Egypt under Touman Bey.
• February 3 – Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire; the Mamluk Sultanate falls.

July–December

• August 15 – Portuguese merchant Fernao Pires de Andrade meets Ming Dynasty Chinese officials through an interpreter at the Pearl River estuary and lands at what is now in the jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Although the first European trade expeditions to China took place in 1513 and 1516 by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello, respectively, Andrade's mission is the first official diplomatic mission of a European power to China commissioned by a ruler of Europe (Manuel I of Portugal).
• October 31 – Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses (posting them on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church).

Date unknown

• Organized western merchants make their first contact with China after Rafael Perestrello was the first to land in southern China in 1513; European merchants venture into port at Guangzhou and trade with Chinese merchants there.
• Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy conquers Ryazan.
• Selim I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, conquers Egypt and declares himself Caliph.
• A third outbreak of the sweating sickness in England hits Oxford and Cambridge.
• The Dutch city of Ommen is devastated by fire.
• The Fifth Council of the Lateran ends.

1518

January–June

• April 18 – Bona Sforza is crowned as Queen of Poland.
• May 26 – A Transit of Venus occurs.

July–December

• July – Dancing Plague of 1518, a case of dancing mania in Strasbourg in which many people died from constant dancing.
• October 3 – The Treaty of London temporarily ensures peace in Western Europe.

Date unknown

• A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola.
• The Manchester Grammar School opens.
• The African slave trade begins.

1519

January–June

• January 1 – Ulrich Zwingli preaches for the first time as people's priest of the Great Minister in Zurich
• March 4 – Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico
• April 21 – Hernán Cortés lands in Veracruz, Veracruz
• June 28 – Charles I of Spain becomes Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (rules until 1556).

July–December

• July 4 – Martin Luther joins the debate regarding papal authority against John Eck at Leipzig.
• August 15 – Panama City is founded.
• September 20 – Ferdinand Magellan leaves Europe to circumnavigate the world.
• October 12 – Hernán Cortés and his men, accompanied by 3,000 Tlaxcalans, entered Cholula.
• November 8 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlan and the court of Aztec ruler Moctezuma.

Date unknown

• Erasmus publishes his Colloquia.
• Martin Luther questions the infallibility of papal decrees.
• The artistic form appears in Georgia and spreads.
• The Spanish find Barbados.
• The first civil revolt in Anatolia takes place, led by Alevi preacher Celâl.
• Cacao comes to Europe.
• Havana moves from the southern to the northern part of Cuba.
• The St. Olav Church is completed in Tallinn, Estonia.
• According to Wang Yangming (1472–1529), the Ming Dynasty philosopher and governor of Jiangxi, China, he intends to use fo–lang–ji cannons in suppressing the rebellion of Prince Zhu Chenhao in this year. This is most likely the earliest reference in China to the breech-loading Frankish culverin.
• A large pandemic spreads from the Greater Antilles into Central America, and perhaps as far as Peru in South America. This widespread epidemic kills off much of the indigenous populations in these areas. According to historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. in his The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, this outbreak is the first widely documented epidemic in the New World.
• Central Mexico Amerindians' population – 25.3 million.
• Postclassic period ends in Mesoamerica.
• The first recorded fatal accident involving a gun in England was recorded at Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References