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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce science religion art architecture, real estate agriculture food availability |
The Treaty of Toledo signed February 1 ends hostilities between Charles V and François I.
Isabella d'Este dies at Mantua February 13 at age 64 after a career in which she has used her diplomatic skills to sway rulers' decisions and influence politics. She has encouraged scholars, poets, and artists such as Ariosto, Castiglione, Leonardo, and Titian.
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signs a truce at Frankfurt April 19 with the German Protestants there.
The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V puts down a rebellion in his native Ghent, whose citizens have refused to pay taxes to finance the emperor's war with France. François I has not responded to their pleas for help, and they are stripped of their privileges.
English lord deputy of Ireland Piers Butler, 8th earl of Ormonde, dies in late August at age 72 (approximate) after just 2 years in office. His son James, 45, will be confirmed in the possession and precedence of the earldom by act of Parliament in 1544, becoming the 9th earl (but see 1546).
Afghan soldier of fortune Sher Shah defeats the Mughal emperor Humayun's forces at Chausa (see 1540).
Burmese forces take the city of Pegu, obliging the Pegu king Takayutpi to flee for his life to Prome, a region northwest of what later will be Rangoon (see 1535; 1541).
Nikolaus Federmann arrives at Bogotá as agent for the Welsers (see 1528). The city has been founded in the past 2 years under the name Santa Fe de Bogotá by Gonzalo Jiminéz de Quesada (see 1536). Federmann, Sebastián de Belalcázar, and Quesada agree to submit their dispute to Madrid, Quesada sails from Cartagena in July, but the crown grants him only an honorary title, not the right of conquest that he has sought. He returns to New Granada, where he works to protect colonists from the rapacity of large landholders (comenderos) and the severity of colonial officials as he becomes the most influential individual at Bogotá.
Conquistador Francisco de Orellana, 48, moves to Guayaquil and is named governor of the region.
Franciscan missionary Friar Marcos de Niza, 44, explores territory that will become Arizona and New Mexico. Born at Nice in Savoy, he came to America 8 years ago, freed Indian slaves from northern regions of New Spain, has gone farther north across the desert on orders from the Spanish viceroy Antonio de Mendoza with an expedition that includes a Moor (who is killed) and returns from the Zuni pueblos with glowing accounts of gold, silver, and precious stones in what he calls the "Seven Golden Cities of Cibola" (see Coronado, 1540).
The Bank of Naples is founded with a capital of 4,000 ducats by Neapolitans Aurelio Paparo and Leonardo di Palma to free the poor from the evils of usury by granting loans on pledges without interest or at very low rates of interest. The bank will grow to become the most powerful agricultural credit institution in the southern Italian provinces.
A fixed maximum on Spanish grain prices becomes a permanent facet of royal economic policy. Applied only sporadically until now, the tasa del trigo has the effect of favoring sheepraising over tillage, making Spain dependent on imports for her food, and making food prices so high that the Spanish worker can barely afford food, clothing, housing, and fuel.
Japan ends trade monopolies and institutes a policy of free trade, but the country has little contact with the rest of the world.
New Kreuterbuch by German priest-physician-botanist Hieronymus (Tragus) Bock, 41, departs from earlier books on botany by giving detailed descriptions (see Brunfels, 1530). A 1546 edition will contain carefully-drawn illustrations of about 700 plants, classified on the basis of their structural similarity (see Fuchs, 1541).
Practice of Mathematics and Individual Measurements (Practica arithmetica et mensurandi singularis) by Pavia-born physician-mathematician-astrologer Girolamo Cardano, 37, at Milan embodies popular lectures that Cardano has given on the subject. He is admitted to the college of physicians and will soon become its rector.
England's Statute of the Six Articles makes it heresy to deny any of six positions: transubstantiation, communion in one kind for laymen, celibacy of the priesthood, inviolability of chastity vows, necessity of private masses, and necessity of auricular confession.
The poet guru Nanak dies at the village of Kartarpur in the central Punjab at age 70 (approximate), having established the tenets of the monotheistic Sikh religion (Sikh is Punjabi for disciple), which is neither Hindu nor Muslim but emphasizes salvation from rebirth through meditation. Nanak has chosen his disciple Angad as his spiritual successor, and the new guru will head the sect until his own death in 1552, developing the script (Gurmukhi) that will be used to write down Sikh scriptures.
Painting: King François I by Titian.
Mantua's Palazzo Ducale is completed by architect-painter Romano Giulio, 40, who was an assistant to the late Raphael.
Potatoes arrive in Spain with conquistadors returning from Quito (see 1536). Pedro de Cieza of the Pizarro expedition describes the tubers as something similar to chestnuts (see 1540).
Hernándo de Soto lands in Florida May 25 with livestock that include 13 hogs—by some accounts the first hogs seen in North America (but see Ponce de León, 1521).
Portugal's agrarian system declines as a result of dependence on slave labor introduced since 1441.
Famine strikes Cuzco as a result of Spanish mismanagement (see 1533). By September, people are dying of hunger and tens of thousands of Indians march in the streets with crosses, asking for food, which had been distributed in an orderly way by the Inca.
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