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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce religion literature art tobacco environment |
The Schmalkaldic League organized February 6 allies the majority of Europe's Protestant princes and imperial cities against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V who has had his brother Ferdinand, now 27, elected king of the Romans (meaning German king) at Cologne in January. The elector of Saxony leads the opposition to Ferdinand, who is financed in large part by loans from Anton Fugger.
Genoa reinstates its dogeship under constitutional reforms instituted by Andrea Doria and elects Battista Spinola doge (see 1339). He will serve until 1533.
The Battle of Obertyn in August gives Jan Tarnowski's Polish forces a victory over Moldavia.
The Catholic cantons attack Zürich and defeat the Protestants October 11 in the Battle of Kappel. Huldreich Zwingli is killed in the fighting.
Burma's first Toungoo king Minkyinyo dies after a 45-year reign and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1550 as Tabinshwehti (see 1535).
The Songhai emperor Askia Musa in West Africa is assassinated by one of his brothers after a 3-year reign. The former king Mohammed I Askia, now about 88, is banished to an island infested with mosquitoes and toads as his children engage in murderous wrangles over the territories that he conquered before he was deposed (see 1537).
The former captain general Pedro Arias Dávila dies at León, New Spain (later Nicaragua) March 6 at age 90 (approximate), having remained in office until 5 years ago despite criticisms that he lacked the youth, intellectual ability, and moral capacity to govern effectively.
Francisco Pizarro and his brothers Gonzalo and Hernándo leave Panama for Peru with 300 men and 100 horses (see 1529). Reinforcements under the command of Hernándo De Soto, 31, join the expeditionary force, and it moves up into the Cordilleras with two artillery pieces, encountering virtually no opposition (see 1526; 1532).
São Vicente is founded in Brazil by Portuguese conquistador Martin Affonso de Souza. New settlers extend Portugal's Brazilian holdings.
Sugar becomes as important as gold in the Spanish and Portuguese colonial economies.
The bourse that opens at Antwerp is the forerunner of all mercantile exchanges. Brokers gather to trade shares and commodities in the city that has become a major center of shipping and trade. The bourse will continue to operate through 1997 (see Hamburg, 1558).
The late Huldreich Zwingli is succeeded as pastor of Zürich by his asssistant Heinrich Bullinger, 27, a convert from Roman Catholicism who will become a major force in securing Switzerland for the Reformation.
Dictionarium seu linguae latinae thesaurus by Paris scholar-printer Robert Etienne, 28, is a landmark in lexicography. The second son of printer Henri Etienne, who founded the family firm at Paris about 30 years ago, Etienne became head of the concern 6 years ago and a few years later published his first complete Bible in Latin.
Nonfiction: The Boke Named the Governour by English scholar Thomas Elyot, 41, is the first English treatise on moral philosophy. Elyot travels as a diplomat to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V with orders to procure the arrest of Bible translator William Tyndale (see religion, 1526); Table-talk by Martin Luther, who writes, "My wife is more precious to me than the kingdom of France and all the treasures of Venice" but says also, "Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips, and accordingly they possess intelligence. Women have narrow shoulders and broad hips. Women ought to stay at home."
Poetry: Mirror of the Sinful Soul (Le Miroir de l'ame Pécheresse) by Marguerite d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, is based on the assumption that a woman is every bit man's equal in relation to God. A lifelong Catholic, Marguerite is also a humanist, and her devotional poetry shows that the writings of John Calvin have had a strong influence on her.
German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider dies at Würzburg July 8 at age 71.
Spain's West Indian colonists cultivate tobacco on a commercial scale (see 1518; 1560).
An earthquake shatters Lisbon January 26, killing 30,000.
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