1526
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France's François I signs the humiliating Treaty of Madrid January 14 after being held captive for nearly a year by Spain's Carlos I (the uncrowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles V). François I abandons Burgundy and renounces his claims to Flanders, Artois, Tournai, and Italy; once released, he says the terms were extorted and the treaty is invalid, but his wife, Claude, has died, and he does agree to take as his second wife the Spanish princess, Eleanor of Austria, elder sister of Carlos, as required by a clause in the treaty. Some observers characterize the stiff and solemn Eleanor as an "Andalusian madonna"; the king much prefers the company of his mistress Anne d'Heilly, duchesse d'Etampes, but he is not content with beauty, seeking out rather more learned women whose intellectual conversation flatters him (although critics say their influence is bad for the country). François refuses to honor his promises to Charles, duc de Bourbon, and sells off almost all of the duke's land holdings to other members of the aristocracy. Bourbon asks Carlos I for more financial support, but constant rebellions have left Carlos short of funds and instead of money he gives Bourbon the title duke of Milan and command of another large army of French troops and German Landsknechte.
The League of Cognac joins France, England, Florence, Milan, Venice, and the Papacy against Spain's Carlos I, but the league has no money, and its military commander in Italy is Francesco Maria della Rovere, who will prove so fearful of defeat that he will fail to take advantage of opportunties. The French king creates a scandal by forming an alliance with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent against Carlos I, and when Carlos fails to provide enough money to pay his German mercenaries the duc de Bourbon begins in the summer to lose control of his army of occupation in northern Italy (see 1527).
The Battle of Mohács on the Danube August 29 and 30 pits 13,000 poorly disciplined Hungarian peasant infantrymen and 12,000 cavalry with 20 guns against an 80,000-man Ottoman force led by Suleiman the Magnificent and his grand vizier Ibrahim, who have advanced from Belgrade with 300 guns. The Turks sustain heavy losses, and it takes Suleiman 3 days to regroup, but his men have killed 15,000 Hungarians, including seven bishops and more than 500 noblemen.
Hungary's Louis II reportedly drowns at age 20 while fleeing the battlefield at Mohács and his death ends the Jagiello line in Hungary and Bohemia; the Hungarian crown passes to Ferdinand, brother of Maximilian I, under terms of the 1515 Treaty of Vienna, but John Zápolya, now 39, served as regent during Louis's minority and is elected king by Hungary's nobility (see 1529; Dózsa Rebellion, 1514). Bohemia's crown goes to Louis's Spanish-born Hapsburg brother-in-law Ferdinand, brother of Spain's Carlos I, who is elected king at age 23 to begin a reign that will continue until 1564.
The Ottoman Empire has another Celali (or Jelali) Revolt (see 1519). Tribesmen in Anatolia will continue their uprising until the grand vizier Ibrahim is able to quell it in 1528 (see 1595).
The Battle of Panipat April 19 ends in victory for the Indian robber baron Babar, now 43, whose 12,000-man army uses artillery to rout the 100,000-man force of Delhi's sultan Ibrahim shah Lodi (see 1504). Having conquered the Punjab and made himself master of Lahore, Babar takes Agra and founds the Mughal Empire that will rule India until 1761 (see 1527).
Portuguese forces destroy the former sultan of Malacca's new capital on the island of Bintang off the Malayan Peninsula (see 1511). Mahmud Shah has continued to receive the allegiance and tribute from neighboring states that he enjoyed as sultan of Malacca and become the leader of a Malayan and Muslim confederacy, but although he has launched several attacks against the Portuguese they have not been successful, and Mahmud Shah flees to Sumatra, where he will die in 1528, but his successors will build Johore into an empire of considerable consequence.
Congolese king Mbemba Nzinga protests to Portugal's João III that his merchants are "taking every day our natives, sons of the land and sons of our noblemen and our vassals and our relatives" in exchange for goods from Europe and are selling his people as slaves to Brazilian sugar planters (see 1510). A convert to Christianity, the king says that the kidnappers are depopulating his country.
Diego Columbus (Colón) dies at Montalbán, Spain, February 23 at age 46, having made several voyages back from the Caribbean to defend his position as viceroy (see 1536).
Francisco Pizarro encounters rough seas en route to Peru and makes a landing at what will be called Port of Famine (see 1525). His freshwater barrels have breached, his food stores have spoiled, and 20 men die of hunger before the caravel he has sent back for fresh supplies arrives with flour and fresh meat. Pizarro returns to Panama for reinforcements after being wounded in a skirmish with hostile natives, but on a second expedition he explores the Gulf of Guayaquil and secures some gold from natives who greet him as Viracocha. They believe him to be the fulfillment of a legend that the 14th century Inca king Viracocha Inca will return (see 1529).
Spanish conquistador Vasquez de Ayllon leaves Santo Domingo July 26 to establish a colony in Florida, taking along several hundred would-be settlers (see Ponce de León, 1521), but many of them soon die. He himself dies October 18, and his followers return to Santo Domingo in November.
Basque navigator Juan Sebastián de Elcano dies in the Pacific August 4 at age 50 (approximate), having made the first circumnavigation of the world.
Sebastian Cabot explores South America's Río de la Plata, sailing into the Paraná and Paraguay rivers on the basis of information supplied to him by Francisco del Puerto, sole survivor of the Díaz de Solís landing party that was killed 10 years ago.
Italian weapons maker Bartolomeo Beretta begins making crossbows; the manufacturer will start making firearms in 1550 and continue in that business into the 21st century.
The Tyndale Bible published in secret at Worms is a translation of the New Testament by English linguist William Tyndale, 34, who has visited Martin Luther at Wittenberg. Tyndale has fled Cologne after the dean of Frankfurt discovered printers at work on the Bible, persuaded the senate of Cologne to forbid further printing, and warned Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey to watch English ports for Tyndale; the archbishop of Canterbury William Warham buys up copies of Tyndale's Bible on the Continent and burns them, but some copies are smuggled into England, where bishops suppress most of them (see 1530).
Nonfiction: On Civility in Boys (De Civilitate Morum Puerilium) by Desiderius Erasmus notes that the easiest way to learn table manners is to have them ingrained in childhood. "If you cannot swallow a piece of food," he says, "turn around discreetly and throw it somewhere." "Some people put their hands in the dishes the moment they have sat down. Wolves do that." "To lick greasy fingers or to wipe them on your coat is impolite; it is better to use the table cloth or the serviette." The work covers everything from dental hygiene and the importance of clean fingernails at the dinner table to when and how to spit. The book will go into more than 130 editions.
Poetry: L'Enfer by French poet Clément Marot, 32, who has been imprisoned for his Lutheran sympathies but has won the favor of François I, who appoints him valet de chambre and court poet.
Painting: Madonna of Burgomaster Meyer by Hans Holbein, who visits Sir Thomas More in England with a letter of introduction from Erasmus; The Last Judgment by Lucas van Leyden; The Four Apostles by Albrecht Dürer is Dürer's last great religious painting; The Last Supper (fresco) by Andrea del Sarto; PesaroMadonna by Titian.
The Château de Chantilly is completed in Renaissance style in Ile-de-France by the Montmorency family that will add a Petit Château in 1560.
Hampton Court Palace outside London is presented to Henry VIII by Cardinal Wolsey, who has financed construction of the stately mansion (see 1515). Wolsey occupies the former royal palace at Richmond, sharing Hampton Court on occasion with the king.
A history of the West Indies by the Spaniard Alveido notes that in Nicaragua "everything is bought with [cacao beans], however expensive or cheap, such as gold, slaves, clothing, things to eat, and everything else . . . There are public women . . . who yield themselves to whomever they like for ten cacao beans . . . which is their money." (The beans will continue for centuries to be employed as currency.) The Aztec do not themselves harvest cocoa (the trees grow only at lower elevations, where rainfall is more abundant); when they conquer rival tribes such as the Mayans, they exact tribute that often includes sacks of cacao beans, which the Mayans use in certain social and religious rituals. The beans are easy to count and handy to use as currency; eight of them buy a rabbit, 10 a pig, 100 a slave. Tributes are paid in cargas, a carga being a load of 24,000 beans weighing 22½ to 27 kilograms.
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