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France's Louis XII dies at Paris January 1 at age 52 after a 15-year reign. His widow, Mary Tudor, feigns pregnancy by wrapping towels around her waist and fainting in public, but Louise of Savoy demands that Mary be given a thorough physical examination and doctors find no evidence that she is pregnant. Louis is succeeded by his robust son-in-law and cousin once removed, François of Valois-Angoulême, who is not quite 21. The new king will reign until 1547 as François I under the domination of his mother, Louise of Savoy.
The Treaty of Vienna July 22 allies Maximilian I's Hapsburg family with the Jagiello family of Bohemia's Ladislas and makes Maximilian's brother Ferdinand potential heir to the Hungarian throne (see 1516; 1526).
The Treaty of Tübingen forces Ulrich, duke of Württemberg, to grant important rights to the States General, which assumes liability for the duke's debts (see 1514; but see also1519).
France's new king François I allies himself with Venice and leads his troops through the Alps during the summer and into Lombardy in September, using the heretofore unexploited route through the Col de l'Argentière; supported by 22,000 infantry; 200 Venetian cavalry; and eight guns. He seizes Novara and encounters 20,000 Swiss mercenary pikemen; 10,000 arquebusiers; 2,500 cavalry; and 70 guns who have marched out of Milan under the command of Arnold von Winkelried and the 25-year-old Charles, duc de Bourbon, who has spent more than 100,000 livres to recruit 25,000 armored mercenaries (Landsknechte), equip these foot soldiers with long pikes (to use against mounted knights) plus huge two-handed swords (to use against enemy infantry), and maintain his own French troops. The similarly armed Swiss attack across marshy ground September 13 at Marignano, 10 miles southeast of Milan. The battle continues until September 15, by which time the Swiss have lost 12,000 killed and wounded, the French only half that number. A cousin of François I, the duc de Bourbon distinguishes himself in the battle. The myth of Swiss invincibility is destroyed, peace is concluded September 29, and the Treaty of Geneva signed November 7 with the Swiss Confederation allows the Swiss to retain most of the Alpine passes and receive a French subsidy in return for French rights to enlist Swiss mercenaries. François enforces his claim to the title duke of Milan, elevates the duc de Bourbon to the position of constable of France, and makes peace with Pope Leo X December 14 (the pope's Swiss Guards wear uniforms designed by Michelangelo).
Portuguese naval strategist Afonso de Albuquerque leaves Goa in February with 26 ships, gains control of part of the island of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, falls ill in September, turns back to Goa, receives word en route that he has been replaced by Lope Soares, and dies at sea December 15 at age 62.
England's Henry VIII issues decrees designed to protect peasants from the results of land enclosure.
Bartolomé de Las Casas voyages home to Spain to plead the case of the Indians to Carlos I (see 1514). Francisco Cardenal Jiménez de Cisneros of Toledo takes up his cause, and together they work out a Plan para la reformación de las Indias (see 1516).
Explorer Juan Díaz de Solís, 44, leaves the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda for South America October 8 with three ships, 70 men, and enough provisions to last 2½ years (see 1516).
Spanish explorer Juan de Bermudez discovers an Atlantic archipelago that will be called Bermuda.
Havana, Cuba, is founded by Spanish conquistadors.
Traveler Ludovico di Varthema dies at Rome in June at age 50 (approximate).
Nonfiction: Education of a Christian Prince (Institutio Princip Christiani) by Erasmus.
Fiction: Utopia by English envoy to Flanders Thomas More, 38, describes an imaginary island governed entirely by reason and offers solutions to the social ills that plague England in a time when landlords are driving the peasantry off farm lands in order to develop sheep pastures for the burgeoning wool industry.
Printer-publisher-typographer Aldus Manutius (Manutius il Vecchio) dies at Venice February 6 at age 64. Backed by Lyons-born bibliophile and French Army treasurer Jean Grolier, 35, at Milan, he has produced the first printed editions of many Greek and Latin classics, notably inexpensive editions in well-edited pocket sizes. His Asolini brothers-in-law continue the Aldine Press that he founded in 1495 and that his third son, Paulus, will take over in 1533.
Painting: Isenheim altarpiece by German painter-architect-engineer Matthias Grünewald (Mathis Gothart Nithart), 39; The Baptism of Christ (triptych) and The Temptation of St. Anthony (triptych), both tempera on wood, by Flemish painter Joachim (de) Patinier (or Patenier), 30; Portrait of Fra Teodoro by Giovanni Bellini.
Flemish-born French composer Loyset Compère dies at Saint-Quentin August 16 at age 73 (approximate), having served the court by writing dozens of chansons plus masses, motets, and Magnificats.
Hampton Court Palace goes up in Middlesex outside London for Cardinal Wolsey. Now 40, Thomas Wolsey was made archbishop of York last year and has just been elevated to cardinal. His palace is more splendid than that of the king at Richmond and will be a source of contention between Wolsey and Henry VIII (see 1526).
The Vatican appoints the painter Raphael chief architect of St. Peter's. He succeeds the late Bramante, who died last year (see 1506).
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