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Denmark's nobility deposes Kristian II after a cruel 10-year reign and replaces him in January by the duke of Holstein, 52, who will reign until 1533 as Frederik I.
The house of Vasa that will rule Sweden until 1665 and make it the strongest power in the Baltic comes to the throne in the person of Gustav Eriksson Vasa, now 27, who has led Swedish resistance to the Danes (see 1520). He is crowned June 6, invades the Danish province of Bleckinge, ravages eastern Skania, and will reign until 1560 as Gustav I (see 1524).
England's Henry VIII tries to force a grant of funds from Parliament and provokes a rebellion that ends only when the king abandons his demand.
Charles, duc de Bourbon, flees France with several cartloads of his family's wealth (see 1519). He joins forces with Spain's Carlos I, who is preparing an army to invade France (see 1524).
Ferrara's Alfonso I d'Este recovers Modena, which was taken away by the late Pope Julius II in 1510; Alfonso will recover Reggio in 1523.
The Ottoman sultan Suleiman I appoints the capable 30-year-old Greek-born soldier Ibrahim as his grand vizier. Ibrahim will play a key role in Suleiman's successes over the course of the next 12 years.
Hernándo Cortéz's wife, Doña Catalina, dies under mysterious circumstances soon after her arrival in New Spain. Doña Marina remains the conquistadors's chief interpreter and his major ally in converting the people to Christianity, but she will die at age 24 in 1527 or early 1528, possibly of smallpox.
Florentine merchants issue marine insurance policies to protect other merchants against the hazards of shipping cargos by sea.
Huldreich Zwingli at Zürich publishes his 67 Articles January 19, attacking transubstantiation and the authority of the pope.
Mennonite religious views have their origin at Zürich, where a small community leaves the state Church to pursue a form of Christianity that emphasizes the sanctity of human life and of man's word, acknowledges no authority outside the Bible and the enlightened conscience, limits baptism to true believers, and denies the Christian character of the state Church and of civil authorities while recognizing a duty to obey civil laws (see Simons, 1536).
Two Augustine monks from Antwerp who have followed the teachings of Martin Luther are burnt alive at Brussels July 1.
Pope Adrian VI dies at Rome September 14 at age 64 after a 20-month reign. The Dutch pontiff's successor Giulio de' Medici will reign until 1534 as Clement VII, first in a line of Italian popes that will be unbroken until 1978. Born out of wedlock himself (he was the posthumous son of the late Giuliano de' Medici, who was assassinated in 1478), Clement has fathered a son whom he will try to install as duke of Florence.
Painting: Erasmus by German painter-engraver Hans Holbein the Younger, 25, who has delighted the Dutch humanist with marginal drawings for his Praise of Folly (see 1509); Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by Il Parmigianino (see 1524). Gerard David dies at Bruges August 13 at age 63 (approximate); Luca Signorelli dies at Cortona October 16 at age 82 (approximate).
French pirate Jean Fleury captures two Spanish caravels off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, and takes Aztec treasures plundered by Hernándo Cortéz: three huge chests of gold ingots, 500 pounds of gold dust, 680 pounds of pearls, emeralds, topazes, feathered cloaks, golden masks set with gemstones, and helmets. News of the booty will soon attract other French privateers to the Caribbean (see 1554).
Conquistadors in Cuba recognize the possibilities of cultivating sugar there for the first time.
Maize grows in Crete and in the Philippines, where Magellan's men introduced the plant 2 years ago.
Turkeys from New Spain are introduced into Old Spain (where they are called gallopavo, or peacock) and will soon appear in England, where they will get their name in a confusion with guinea fowl, originally from Africa, that has just been introduced from the Eastern Mediterranean by "turkey merchants," meaning Turks (see Cortéz, 1519). Some food historians will note that the Hebrew word for peacock is tukki and that Jewish traders may have taken the bird to England, where tukki became "turkey," but most authorities will reject this version, if only because the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and those who converted to Christianity (or pretended to) and remained probably did not use Hebrew. Turkey will gradually replace peacock, swan, and other birds on English tables and by the end of the next century almost no one will still be eating peacock or swan, whose meat is, by comparison, tough and stringy (see 1555; France, 1538).
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