1530s

1530s: events by year

Contents: 1530 1531 1532 1533 1534 1535 1536 1537 1538 1539

1530

January–June

• June 25 – The Augsburg Confession is presented to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

July–December

• August 3 – Battle of Gavinana: Florence is captured by Spanish troops under Prince Philibert. The Piagnon (followers of the memory of Girolamo Savonarola) are overthrown and the Medici are restored, in the person of the Pope's nephew Alessandro de Medici.
• October 8 – A flood engulfs Rome.
• November 5 – St. Felix's Flood destroys the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands.

Date unknown

• Charles V crowned by the Pope in Bologna.
• The Knights of Malta are formed when the Knights Hospitaller are given Malta by Pope Clement VII.
• The ducal palace of Celle is constructed in Germany.
• Martin Afonso de Souza's expedition patrols the Brazilian coast, banishes the French, and creates the first colonial towns: São Vicente and São Paulo.
• Austrian forces capture Esztergom, Hungary, and raid as far as Buda.
• Humayun starts to rule.
• Paracelsus leaves Nürnberg.
• Erasmus publishes A handbook on manners for children (De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus), which becomes popular and widely translated.

1531

January–June

• January 26 – Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake in which thousands die.
• February 11 – Henry VIII of England is recognised as supreme head of the Church of England.
• February 27 – Lutheran princes in the Holy Roman Empire form an alliance known as the Schmalkaldic League.
• February or March – Battle of Antukyah: Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi of the Adal Sultanate defeats the Ethiopian army.
• April – Battle of Puná: Francisco Pizarro defeats the island's native inhabitants.
• April 16 – The city of Puebla, Mexico is founded.
• June 24 – The city of San Juan del Río, Mexico is founded.

July–December

• July 25 – The city of Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico is founded.
• September 22 – Battle of Obertyn: The Moldavians are defeated by Polish forces under Jan Amor Tarnowski, allowing the Poles to recapture Pokucie.
• October 11 – Battle of Kappel: The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss religious reformer, is killed.
• October 28 – Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia thus falls under Imam Ahmad's control.
• December 12 – The Virgin Mary, in the guise of Our Lady of Guadalupe, allegedly appears to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec convert to Catholicism.

Date unknown

• Andrea Alciato publishes the first part of his Emblemata.
• The Comet Halley appears (Perihelion: August 26).
• Conquistador Francisco de Montejo claims Chichen Itza as capital of Spanish-ruled Yucatán.
• The University of Sarajevo is founded by Gazi Husrev-beg.
• Kõpu Lighthouse is completed.
• An enormous drought in Henan province, China, coupled with a gigantic swarm of locusts in the summer, forces many in destitute agricultural communities to turn to cannibalism instead of dying by starvation.
• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes the worst abuses of the encomienda system by pressure of Bartolomé de las Casas.
• Witch-hunt in the town of Schiltach, Germany

1532

January–June

• May 13 – Francisco Pizarro lands on the northern coast of Peru.
• May 16 – Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
• June 25 – Suleiman the Magnificent leads another invasion of Hungary, which fails miserably.

July–December

• September 1 – Lady Anne Boleyn is created Marquess of Pembroke by her fiancé, King Henry VIII of England.
• November 16 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Atahualpa.

Date unknown

• Civil war begins in the Inca Empire.
• Atahualpa wins the Inca civil war over Huáscar.
• The Prince is published five years after death of the author Niccolò Machiavelli.
• Pantagruel is published by François Rabelais.
• The Duchy of Brittany is absorbed into France.
• Henry VIII grants the Thorne brothers a Royal Charter to found Bristol Grammar School.
• Stamford School founded by William Radcliffe
• The Paris Parlement has the city's beggars arrested 'to force them to work in the sewers, chained together in pairs'.

1533

January–June

• January 25 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne Boleyn, who becomes his second queen consort.
• March 30 – Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
• May 23 – King Henry VIII of England's marriage with Catherine of Aragon is declared annulled by Archbishop Cranmer. However, since Pope Clement VII had already rejected Henry's petition for annulment in 1530, Catherine continues to believe herself Henry's wife until her death.
• June 1 – Cranmer crowns Anne Boleyn as queen in Westminster Abbey. Pope Clement responds by excommunicating both Henry and Cranmer from the Roman Catholic Church.

July–December

• July 11 – Henry VIII is excommunicated by Pope Clement VII.
• July 22 – Treaty of Istanbul between the Ottoman Empire and the Archduchy of Austria.
• September 7 – Elizabeth I of England is born at Greenwich Palace.
• November 15 – Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, Peru.

Date unknown

• Russia: Ivan IV succeeds his father Vasili III as Grand Prince of Muscovy at 3 years old.
• Peru: Inca Atahualpa pays Francisco Pizarro a ransom of approx. $100 million in gold; Pizarro executes him anyway.
• A peace treaty divides Hungary between Suleiman I and King Ferdinand.
• Pechenga Monastery is founded in the Far North of Russia.
• The Act in Restraint of Appeals declares the king to be the supreme sovereign in England and forbids judicial appeals to the papacy.
• 1533–1534 – Sultan Suleyman I makes Roxelana his legal wife.
• Paracelsus interprets Bible in Appenzell.

1534

January–June

• February 27 – A group of Anabaptists, led by Jan Matthys, seize Münster in Westphalia and declare it "The New Jerusalem" as they begin to exile dissenters and forcibly baptize all others.
• April 5 – On Easter Sunday, Anabaptist Jan Matthys is killed by the Landsknechte, who lay siege to Münster on the day he predicted as The Second Coming of Christ. His follower John of Leiden takes control of the city.
• May 10 – Jacques Cartier explores Newfoundland while searching for the Northwest Passage.
• June 9 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to discover the St. Lawrence River.
• June 23 – Copenhagen opens its gates to Count Christopher of Oldenburg leading the army of Lübeck (and the Hanseatic League), nominally in the interests of the deposed King Christian II of Denmark. The surrenders of Copenhagen and, a few days later, of Malmö represent the high point of the Count's War for the forces of the League. These victories presumably led the Danish nobility to recognize Christian III as King on July 4.^[1][2]

July–December

• July 4 – Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.
• July 7 – The first known exchange occurs between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
• October 13 – Pope Paul III succeeds Pope Clement VII as the 220th pope.
• October 18 – Huguenots post placards all over France attacking the Catholic Mass, provoking a violent sectarian reaction.

Date unknown

• Cambridge University Press is given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII and becomes the first of the privileged presses.
• Henry VIII, angry at the Pope's refusal to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, declares himself Supreme Head of the English church, the Church of England (see also: The derivative but more widely spread: Anglican Communion Church). The Supremacy Act is published.
• The Act for the Submission of the Clergy requires English churchmen to submit to the king, and forbids the publication of ecclesiastical laws without royal permission.
• Gargantua is published by François Rabelais.
• Martin Luther's translation of the complete Christian Bible into German appears. He had already published the New Testament in 1522.

1535

January–June

• January 18 – Lima, Peru is founded by Francisco Pizarro.
• February 27 – George Joye published his Apologye in Antwerp to clear his name from the accusations of William Tyndale
• March 10 – Blown off course on his way to Peru, Fray Tomás de Berlanga Discovers the Galapagos Islands.
• April – Jacques Cartier lands near the Iroquois city of Stadacona, Canada (now Quebec) and in May, the even greater Huron city of Hochelaga.
• April–May – William Tyndale is arrested in Antwerp and imprisoned in Vilvoorde.
• May 10 – Amsterdam: A small troop of Anabaptists, led by the Münster minister Jacob van Geel, attacks city hall in an attempted coup to seize the city. In the counter attack of the urban militia, the burgmeester, Pieter Colijns, is killed by the rebels.^[3]
• May 19 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's 2 sons (who Cartier took during his first voyage).
• June 22 – Execution of John Fisher, Cardinal and Bishop of Rochester, by order of King Henry VIII of England.
• June 24 – The Anabaptist state of Münster (see Münster Rebellion) is conquered and disbanded.

July–December

• July 6 – Sir Thomas More, author of Utopia and one time Lord Chancellor of England, is executed for treason by King Henry VIII, after refusing to agree to Henry's decision to separate the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church.
• October 2 – Jacques Cartier reaches the area (island) in the St. Lawrence River that eventually becomes Montreal, Quebec.
• October 4 – The first complete English-language Bible is printed in Antwerp, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

Date unknown

• Combined Swedish and Danish fleets defeat the Hanseatic navy.
• Manco II is appointed puppet Inca Emperor by Spanish Conquistadors.
• Spanish forces fail for the second time to conquer Yucatan.
• Carlos Quinto conquers Tunis.
• Anabaptists rebel in some cities in the Netherlands, including a famous incident of seven men and five woman walking nude in the streets of Amsterdam.
• The first book in Estonian – Wanradt's and Koell's Catechism, is written.
• St. Alphege Church is completed in Solihull, England.
• The Charterhouse London is closed, as part of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• Paracelsus visits Bad Pfäfers.

1536

January–June

• January 7 – Catherine of Aragon, First Queen of Henry VIII of England, dies.
• February 2 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• February 25 – Jacob Hutter is burned at the stake for heresy.
• April 30 – The Inquisition is implemented in Portugal.
• May 2 – Anne Boleyn, Second Queen of Henry VIII of England, is arrested on the grounds of incest, adultery, and treason.
• May 17 – The five men accused of adultery with Anne Boleyn, including her own brother George Boleyn, are executed.
• May 19 – Anne Boleyn, Second Queen of Henry VIII of England is executed by Henry.
• May 30 – Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour.
• May – Manco Inca Yupanqui leads a revolt against the Spanish, and then leads his people to Machu Picchu, deep in the Valcahambra range of the Andes.
• June 24 – Cristobal de Onate founds San Juan Bautista del Teul.
• June 27 – San Pedro Sula is founded by Pedro de Alvarado.

July–December

• October 13 – The Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion in York, is "resolved" by Robert Aske.

Date unknown

• Charles V triumphally enters Rome following Via Triuphalis and delivers a speech before the pope and college of cardinals. In the speech he publicly challenged king of France on a duel.
• Battle of Un no Kuchi: Takeda Family forces defeat Hiraga Genshin.
• Various religious buildings are closed as part of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, including
  • Basingwerk Abbey,
  • Bourne Abbey
  • Brinkburn Priory,
  • Cartmel Priory,
  • Dore Abbey
  • The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary and St Chad
  • Haltemprice Priory
  • Tintern Abbey
• The legal and political union of Wales and England is reinforced by An Acte for Lawes & Justice to be ministred in Wales in like fourme as it is in this Realme.
• War resumes between Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V. Francis ceases control of Savoy and captures Turin.
• Reformation in Denmark: Protestantism is introduced in Denmark and Norway by King Christian III.
• The Portuguese crown divides Brazil into fifteen donatory captaincies.
• Trade compact exempts French merchants from Ottoman law and allows them to travel, buy and sell throughout the sultan's dominions and to pay low customs duties on French imports and exports. The compact is renewed in 1569.
• Battle of Reynogüelén: First battle between Spanish conquistadors and Mapuches in Chile. Arauco War begins.

1537

January–June

• January – Bigod's Rebellion, an uprising by Roman Catholics against Henry VIII of England
• January 6 – Alessandro de Medici is assassinated.
• March – Diego de Almagro successfully charges Manco Inca's siege of Cuzco, thereby saving his antagonists, the Pizarro brothers.
• March 12 – Recife is founded by the Portuguese in Brazil.
• June 2 – Pope Paul III publishes the encyclical Sublimis Deus, which declares the natives of the New World to be rational beings with souls who must not be enslaved or robbed.

July–December

• August 15 – Asunción is founded by Juan de Salazar y Espinoza. It's the oldest city in South America.
• August 25 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.

Date unknown

• Manco II establishes neo-Inca independent state at Vilacampa, Peru.
• The Spaniards bring the potato to Europe.
• The island of Paros is conquered by the Ottoman Empire
• Christian III forces introduction of Lutheran Protestantism in Denmark and Norway.
• Religious buildings are dissolved by Henry VIII, including
  • Bisham Priory,
  • Bridlington Priory,
  • Castle Acre Priory, and
  • Valle Crucis Abbey.
• Bisham Abbey is founded by Henry VIII in place of Bisham Priory.
• Bangalore is first mentioned.

1538

January–June

• February 24 – Treaty of Nagyvárad: Peace is declared between King Ferdinand and the Turks. John Zapolya is recognized as King of Hungary (Eastern Hungarian Kingdom), while Ferdinand retains the northern and western parts of the Kingdom, and is recognized as heir to the throne.

• April 26 – Battle of Las Salinas: Almagro is defeated by Francisco Pizarro, who then seizes Cuzco.
• June 18 – Truce of Nice: Peace is declared between Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France.

July–December

• August 6 – Bogotá, Colombia is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
• September 28 – Battle of Preveza: The Turkish fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the Holy League of Emperor Charles V under the command of Andrea Doria.
• October 28 – The first university of the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is founded.
• November 30
  • Sucre, Bolivia is founded under the name Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo.
  • Byland Abbey is dissolved.

Date unknown

• Michelangelo starts work on the Piazza del Campidoglio (Capitoline Hill).
• Bisham Abbey is dissolved.
• The first in a decade-long series of severe famines and epidemics sweep central and southeastern China during the Ming Dynasty, made worse by a previous decision in 1527 to cut back on the intake of grain quotas for granaries.
• During the Ming Dynasty of China, a tsunami floods over the seawall in Haiyan County of Zhejiang province, inundating the agricultural crop fields with saltwater and ruining many acres of crops. This drives up the price of foodstuffs and many are forced to live off of tree bark and weeds (as one Wang Wenlu stated in his writing of 1545).
• Paracelsus visits Villach.

1539

January–June

• January – Battle of Naungyo, Burma
• January 12 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (and Charles I of Spain) and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Toledo, agreeing to make no further alliances with England. The treaty comes after Henry VIII of England splits with Rome and Pope Paul III.
• March – Canterbury Cathedral surrenders, and reverts to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'.
• May 30 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. He also introduces pigs into North America.
• May – The Six Articles, an Act of the Parliament of England, reaffirms certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England.

July–December

• September 4 – Henry VIII contracts to marry Anne of Cleves.
• September 7 – Guru Angad Dev becomes the second Guru of the Sikhs.

Date unknown

• Protestant Reformation: Lutheranism is forcibly introduced into Iceland, despite the opposition of Bishop Jón Arason.
• Beaulieu Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Colchester Abbey, St Albans Abbey, the Priory of St Mary, Nottinghamshire, (Newstead Abbey) and St Mary's Abbey, York, fall prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• In Henan province, China, a severe drought with swarms of locusts is made worse by a major epidemic outbreak of the plague.
• King Francis I of France issues an ordinance that places the whole of France under the jurisdiction of the royal law courts and makes French the language of those courts.
• Horse racing begins at Chester

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References