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England's Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn, now 26, who has been his mistress for the past 6 years. The ceremony is performed in secret January 25 by butcher's son Thomas Cranmer, 43, who has gained influence in the court and advised Henry that his 1509 marriage to Catherine of Aragon is null and void because she was previously married to Henry's late brother Arthur, prince of Wales, even though that marriage was probably never consummated. Henry makes Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury March 30, and the new queen is crowned at Westminster June 1 (see 1536).
Denmark's Frederik I dies at Gottorp, Schleswig, April 10 at age 61 after a 10-year reign and is succeeded as king of Denmark and Norway by his 30-year-old son, who will reign until 1559 as Kristian III. Danish Catholics oppose Kristian and hope to make his younger brother Hans king; peasants and burghers hope to restore the imprisoned ex-king Kristian II. Count Christopher of Oldenburg leads Lübeck in support of Kristian II, but most of the nobility supports Kristian III in the civil war (the Count's War) that breaks out over the succession. Statesman Johan Friis, 39, tries to persuade the nobility of Fyn to join with their Jutland counterparts in supporting the claims of the elder son. Supporters of the deposed Kristian II will take Friis prisoner, but he will escape and rejoin Kristian III in 1535 (see 1536; Swedish invasion, 1534).
The 14-year-old Catherine de' Medici of Florence marries the 14-year-old Henri de Valois, duc d'Orléans, at Marseilles October 28. Henri will become France's Henri II in 1547; his bride's late father, Lorenzo, grew rich in the spice trade and by supplying alum to the textile industry.
The grand duke of Muscovy Basil (Vasily) III Ivanovich dies at Moscow December 3 at age 54. Having divorced his first wife, who was apparently barren, he has married Yelena Glinskaya and is succeeded by their sickly 3-year-old son, whose older brother Yuri is retarded but who will make himself czar of Muscovy and rule until 1584 as Ivan IV ("the Terrible") (see 1547).
Suleiman the Magnificent signs a treaty June 22 with Ferdinand of Hungary, brother of the Holy Roman Emperor, who rules part of Hungary while Suleiman's puppet John Zápolya rules the other part.
The Peruvian Empire ends August 29 with the strangulation of the last Inca, Atahualpa, at age 31 (approximate; see 1532). His people have filled the room at Cuzco several times over with gold and silver chairs, fountains, statues, plates, and ornaments made by generations of craftsmen; the Spaniards have melted it down into 24 tons of gold and silver ingots, giving most to Francisco Pizarro and his brothers, a little to the Church, and one-fifth to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The conquistadors have then accused the Inca of plotting to overthrow them; Pizarro has brought him to trial on charges of murder, sedition, and idolatry, and he has been condemned to death despite the huge ransom paid for his release. Most of Pizarro's advisers have protested the sentence of death by fire, calling it treacherous, but Atahualpa is tied to a stake, the friar Vicente de Valverde offers to spare him from being burnt alive if he professes himself a Christian and receives baptism, the Inca agrees, and he dies at the hands of a strangler (see Quito, 1534).
Hispaniola's slaves stage another uprising, which the conquistadors suppress with great bloodshed.
Gemma Frisius announces a new method of surveying that will replace the laborious method of pacing out distances (see 1530).
The Algerian corsair Khair ad-Din, 67, evacuates Moors who have been driven from Spain by the Inquisition. A Turk from the island of Lesbos, Khair ad-Din has commanded the pirates since the death of his brother at Spanish hands in 1518. He is known for his red beard as Barbarossa and is appointed admiral in chief of the Ottoman Navy.
The son of the Spanish inquisitor-general writes from Paris that no one in Spain can "possess any culture without being suspected of heresy, error, and judaism."
Marguerite d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, sees to it that her brother François I gives her nieces Madeleine and Marguerite education in mathematics, Latin, and the arts; the king's new daughter-in-law Catherine de' Medici will far outdo them in her academic achievement, becoming as proficient in Greek as any man.
Nonfiction: Table-talk by Martin Luther, who writes, "Girls begin to talk and to stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops."
Poet Ludovico Ariosto dies at Ferrara July 6 at age 58.
Venice's three-story Palazzo Corner della Ca'Grande is completed to designs by sculptor-architect Jacopo Sansovino.
Cooks attending Catherine de' Medici are far more sophisticated and knowledgeable than French cooks. They introduce to France such vegetables as broccoli, globe artichokes (Catherine is a devotee of artichokes and the French nobility will soon savor fonds d'artichauts at festive banquets), savoy cabbage, and haricot beans—fagioli given her by her brother Alessandro. The beans will be known in Provence as fayoun and will be the basis of cassoulet, the bean dish of Languedoc (see 1528; 1749).
Stuffed guinea hen introduced by Catherine's cooks will be known to the French as pintade à la Medicis. The Italians also introduce truffles and start the French digging enthusiastically for truffles of their own, using sows that chase a sex hormone secreted by the fungi. The cooks will introduce pastries such as frangipani, macaroons, and Milan cakes, introduced only recently to Florence (see frangipani, 1532).
The double boiler introduced to the French court by the cooks of Catherine de' Medici is known to Italians as a bagno maria after a legendary medieval alchemist named Maria de Cleofa, reputed author of Tradtor della Distillazone (about medicine, magic, and cookery); the French will call it a bain marie.
A Florentine chef makes a different-flavored ice for each day of Catherine's wedding celebration, giving many Frenchmen their first taste of the dessert. By 1576 there will be 250 master ice makers in Paris.
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