1535
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An Act of Union joins Wales to England as Henry VIII annexes the neighboring principality (see Glendower, 1409; Scotland, 1707).
English forces under the command of Sir William Skeffington retake Dublin from young Thomas Fitzgerald (see 1534). Sir William was appointed to succeed Fitzgerald's father last year as lord deputy of Ireland. He storms Fitzgerald's stronghold, Maynooth Castle, in March; Fitzgerald surrenders in August, having failed to receive aid from Scotland or Spain, and his father, Garret, 9th earl of Kildare, dies of natural causes in September, making Thomas the 10th earl (see 1537).
Denmark's Kristian III crushes the rebellion (the Count's War) that began in 1533 and assumes power, with Johan Friis as his chancellor (see Swedish invasion, 1534). Using breech-loading bronze cannon that are much lighter in weight than iron cannon, Kristian defeats a Swedish-supported Skanian army commanded by Count Kristoffer of Oldenburg near Helsinborg; he will make peace with Lübeck and establish Lutheranism as the state religion, confiscating Catholic Church property to help him reduce his war debt (see 1563).
Jan Tarnowski directs a campaign against the Muscovites and is appointed governor of Kraków Province in recognition of his military successes.
Florentine officials engage banker's son Ippolito de' Medici, 26, to petition the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for the removal of the unpopular Allesandro de' Medici from his position as duke. Charles is on expedition in Tunis, Ippolito arrives at Itri to embark on his mission, and he dies there August 10, having been poisoned by one Giovanni Andrea, who escapes to Florence. Visiting his hometown of Borgo San Sepolcro, the assassin is seized by a mob and stoned to death.
Tunis falls to the forces of Charles V, who has sent an army commanded in part by nobleman Fernando Alvarez de Toledo y Pimental, 27, 3rd duque de Alva, in a fleet commanded by the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, now 69. The Ottoman admiral Barbarossa (Khair ad-Din) is defeated and Tunis is sacked (see 1534).
Milan's Francesco Sforza II dies October 24 at age 43. He dies without issue; thus, the main line of the Sforza dynasty is ended. Milan becomes a suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and it will remain under Spanish rule until 1706 (see 1536).
The Mughal emperor Humayun occupies Gujarat in Rajasthan, where Bahadur Shah has taken up arms against Mughal authority (see 1537).
The Burmese king Tabinshwehti begins a military campaign against his southern neighbor, the kingdom of Pegu, as he tries to unify the Burmese, Mon, and Shan into one nation in hopes of trading with the Portuguese who took Malacca 24 years ago. He captures the city of Bassein in the Irrawaddy delta (see 1539).
The viceroyalty of New Spain is established with Mexico City (Tenochtitlan) as its capital. Spain's Carlos I rewards soldier Antonio de Mendoza, 45, for distinguished service by appointing him first viceroy, charging him with increasing royal revenues, regulating native affairs, and administering the vast region, which has suffered from rivalries among the conquistadors and rebellions against their rule (see 1536; human rights, 1542).
Guayaquil, Ecuador, has its beginnings in a settlement founded by Sebastián de Benalcázar, who last year occupied Quito. The town will be moved to a more healthful location.
Lima, Peru, is founded by Francisco Pizarro, who has returned to Peru and resumes his exploitation of the Inca Empire (see 1534; university, 1551).
Jacques Cartier returns to North America with 110 men (see 1534). Guided by the two natives whom he seized last year, he sails up the St. Lawrence River to what later will be the site of Quebec, establishes a base near an Iroquois village, proceeds upriver in September with a small party to an island that will later be the site of Montreal, where rapids block further progress, and receives a warm welcome from the natives (who tell him that two other rivers lead to the west, where there is plenty of gold, silver, copper, and spices), but he remains only a few hours before returning to his base. His fleet is frozen solid in November at the mouth of the St. Charles River under the Rock of Quebec, where the party will spend the bitter winter, becoming the first Europeans since the Vikings to winter that far north on the North American continent. "All our beverages froze in their casks," Cartier will write, "and on board our ships, below hatches as on deck, lay four fingers' breadth of ice" (see 1536).
Münster's Anabaptist leader John of Leyden beheads one of his four wives by his own hand in the marketplace in a fit of frenzy and justifies all of his arbitrary actions on the basis of having received visions from heaven (see 1534). Dutch militia attack the Anabaptists April 7, overwhelming the Olde Klooster near Bolsward, which the Anabaptists have used as a staging area for support of their co-religionists in Münster, which falls to Francis of Waldeck June 24 after 12 months of profligacy; the besieged city surrenders, and the leading Anabaptists are imprisoned (see 1536).
Sir Thomas More is beheaded at his native London July 6 at age 57 by order of Henry VIII for refusing to swear an oath of supremacy as required by last year's Act of Supremacy. Sir Thomas has been charged with treason, and Solicitor General Richard Rich, 39, has not only acted as prosecutor at his trial but given testimony that resulted in his conviction.
The first English translation of the entire Bible comes off the press October 4 either at Zürich or Cologne (see Tyndale, 1526). Yorkshire-born reformer Miles Coverdale, 47, has studied at Cambridge, was ordained a priest at Norwich in 1514, was converted to Protestantism after joining the Augustinian Friars at Cambridge, moved abroad in 1528 to escape persecution, returned home last year, and has dedicated his authorized work to Henry VIII. His knowledge of Latin and Greek leaves something to be desired, but the first edition of his free translation is quickly exhausted. It goes back to press, a third impression will appear next year, and a new edition "overseen and corrected" will be published in England in 1537. Another Bible published this year under royal license claims to be "truly and purely translated into English" but is actually a combination of work by Tyndale and Coverdale.
English convents and their schools shut down on orders from Henry VIII. Girls for the next half-century will have little education unless their parents can afford private tutors, send their daughters abroad, or risk persecution and stiff penalties by sponsoring unlicensed schools. Poor girls will attend charity schools, but such schools will be mostly for boys, and the closing of the convents with their resident nuns deprives the nation of female teachers.
Painting: Madonna del Collo Lungo by Il Parmigianino.
The Palazzo del Te is completed for Mantua's Duke Frederico Gonzaga II to designs by architect Giulio Romano, who executes several of the fresco murals that decorate its interior. A summer palace and horse farm located near the city, the palazzo is a square block with a central court, a splendid garden, and huge public rooms painted with erotic frescoes depicting the loves of the gods, the wars of the gods (the Sala dei Giganti is a continuous scene, painted from floor to ceiling, of the giants trying to storm Olympus and being repelled), and life-size portraits of some of the duke's horses.
Scurvy breaks out among the Huron in North America and then among the French wintering in New France with Jacques Cartier (see 1536).
The Lübeck tavern Haus der Schiffergesellschaft opens in Breite Strasse with tables built of ship planks at which sea captains, travelers, and merchants sit side by side in the great hall.
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