1540
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce science medicine religion education literature art everyday life agriculture food and drink |
England's Henry VIII marries Anne of Clèves at Greenwich January 6, less than a week after meeting her and 4 days after saying openly that she had no looks, spoke no English, and was "no better than a Flanders mare." Conveyed from Calais to England by Lord High Admiral William Fitzwilliam, 49, earl of Southampton, Anne is the 25-year-old daughter of the German Protestant leader John, duke of Clèves, and the marriage has been arranged by the lord privy seal Baron Thomas Cromwell, 54, to give Henry an ally against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and France's François I. But Henry soon finds that he has no reason to fear an attack from either. The king says that the marriage has not been (and cannot be) consummated; he makes Cromwell earl of Essex but has Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk, charge him with treason June 10. Parliament sends Cromwell to the Tower of London and declares the king's marriage null and void July 9. Henry marries the 25-year-old Catherine Howard, whose uncle is the duke of Norfolk, and Cromwell is beheaded on Tower Hill July 28, leaving the 66-year-old Norfolk as England's second most powerful man (but see 1542).
Hungary's John Zápolya dies at Szászebes July 22 at age 53 (see 1538). The Turks recognize his infant son Sigismund as the new king, and he will reign until 1571 as John II Zápolya, but Ferdinand of Hapsburg invades eastern Hungary and Turkish forces take over the great central plain, splitting the country in three to begin decades of conflict (see 1541).
Afghan soldier of fortune Sher Shah defeats Mughal forces at Kannauj and forces the emperor Humayun out of India (see 1539). Humayun will seek support in Sind, Marwar, and, eventually, Persia (see 1545).
Dutch whaling captain Jon Greenlander lands in Greenland and finds the last Norse colonist lying dead outside his hut with an iron dagger in his hand (see 982).
Hernándo Cortéz, now 55, returns to Spain (see 1536; 1547).
Spanish explorer Hernándo de Alarcon discovers the Colorado River.
Hernándo De Soto lands at Tampa Bay with more than 600 men, 200 horses, and 13 hogs. Rich with gold from Peru, De Soto moves west (see 1541).
Spanish explorer Francisco Vazquez Coronado, 30, arrives in the American southwest with 2,000 men and the first horses, mules, cattle, sheep, and hogs ever seen in the region. Accompanied by the missionary friar Marcos de Niza, he takes a pueblo July 7, thinking it is one of the "Seven Golden Cities of Cibola" reported last year by Friar Marcos, and finds the natives living in poverty. His lieutenant Lopez de Cardenas discovers what later will be called the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in December (local Paiute tribespeople call it Kaibab, or "Mountain Lying Down;" see Powell, 1869).
Agents of Henry VIII seize Waltham Abbey in Essex March 23. Henry has enriched himself and his friends with the properties, plate, and jewels formerly owned by the Church; the abbey is the last of the great monastic houses.
The English government sells annuities that repay their purchase price in 7 years whatever the age of the buyer.
"The First Account of the Book on the Revolutions by Nicolaus Copernicus" ("De libris revolutionum . . . Nic. Copernici . . . narratio prima . . .") by Austrian-born University of Wittenberg professor of astronomy and mathematics Georg Joachim (von Lauchen) Rheticus (originally Georg Joachim Iserin), 26, advances the ideas of Prussian-born Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik), 67 (see 1543; Nikolaus von Cusa, 1440).
Grounde of Artes by English mathematician-physician Robert Recorde, 30, introduces the plus sign (+) and minus sign (-) for calculation.
United companies of barbers and surgeons are incorporated at London.
Pope Paul III recognizes the Jesuit order founded in 1534. The pope will make the Jesuits his chief agents in spreading the Counter-Reformation.
Henry VIII secularizes the 321-year-old Westminster School, which will be refounded in 1560 and extensively reorganized (see Public Schools Act, 1868).
Florentine statesman-historian Francesco Guicciardini dies at Santa Margherita a Montici outside Florence May 22 at age 57 having nearly completed his History of Italy (Storia d'Italia), recording Italian history from 1494 to 1534.
Painting: Henry VIII by Hans Holbein; Doge Andrea Gritti by Titian; Adoration of the Shepherd by Venetian painter Jacopo (or Giacomo) da Bassano (né Ponte), 30. Il Parmigianino dies at Casalmaggiore near Parma August 28 at age 37.
The ruff gains popularity in Europe through the influence of Marguerite d'Angoulême, queen of Navarre, who widens the frill of the white or yellow accordion-style collar to cover up her ugly throat. The collar has come to Europe from India and will come to exemplify ostentation on the part of men as well as women (see commerce, 1624).
A specimen potato from South America reaches Pope Paul III via Spain (see 1539). The pope gives the tuber to a Frenchman who introduces it into France as an ornamental plant (see 1740).
Francisco Coronado will be credited with turning the Pueblo from dependence on wild game to raising domestic livestock for food, thus founding the American beef cattle, lamb, mutton, and pork industries.
Francisco Coronado will say of the Zuñi that they "eat the best cakes that ever I saw . . . They have the finest order and way to grind that we ever saw anyplace, and one Indian woman of this country will grind as much as four women of Mexico." Conquistador Gaspar Castaño de Sosa will come along in Coronado's wake and tell of seeing a Pueblo beehive oven (horno) on a roof at San Ildefonso. The Pueblo are famous for their bread, which they make by mixing cornmeal dough with lard and yeast, and their Hopi neighbors will make a paper bread called piki. Many tribespeople make a corn pudding (pikami) when blue corn is harvested.
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