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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization medicine religion art |
News of a rebellion in Yorkshire prompts Henry VIII to order the beheading of Reginald Cardinal Pole's 67-year-old mother, Margaret, countess of Salisbury, who has been held in the Tower of London since the fall of 1538. She resists the executioner and he hacks her to death May 28, making her a martyr to English Catholics. A bill of attainder is issued against her son Reginald, now 41, who will remain on the Continent until 1553.
Parliament dutifully recognizes Henry VIII as king of Ireland (his predecessors have held the title Lord of Ireland) in a further step to shed papal authority. Sir Anthony St. Leger, now 45, who has been Henry's lord deputy (viceroy) in Ireland since July of last year, invades Tyrone, whose 61-year-old chieftain Conn O'Neill hands over his son as hostage, attends a parliament at Trim, voyages to England, submits to Henry VIII at Greenwich, is created earl of Tyrone for life, receives a grant of lands, and is appointed to the king's privy council. His acceptance of an English title infuriates many of his clansmen, and they will raise further objections when he nominates his illegitimate son Matthew as his heir, making him Baron of Dungannon (see 1559). St. Leger will continue as lord deputy until 1548, pursuing a conciliatory policy of persuading the great lords to recognize the king's ecclesiastical supremacy in return for new titles and grants of land (but see religion, 1542).
Turkish forces capture Buda, forcing the Hungarian government to relocate (see 1540). Bratislava will be the Hungarian capital until 1784 (see 1562).
A fire at Constantinople burns much of the Old Palace, and the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I (the Magnificent) moves his harem into the Seraglio, where it will remain until 1909 (he married his Russian slave Roxalena in 1530, becoming the first sultan to make one of his odalisques empress). Centered around the courtyard of the Valide Sultana and containing nearly 400 rooms, or odas, for the imperial odalisques, the Seraglio is located between the sultan's private apartments and those of the chief black eunuch. Now 45, Suleiman has reigned since 1520 and will remain in power until his death in 1566, but moving his harem close to the court gives the women of the Seraglio a dominant influence that will continue until 1687.
Burma's king Tabinshwehti employs Portuguese soldiers of fortune to help him capture the towns of Martaban and Moulmein (see 1539); he will take Prome next year, make Pegu his capital in 1546, and dominate territories extending south to Tavoy on the Siamese border (but see 1548).
Portugal sends troops to Ethiopia under Christopher da Gama, son of the late explorer Vasco da Gama. The Portuguese will expel the Somali chief Ahmed Gran who invaded Ethiopia in 1527.
Francisco Pizarro completes his conquest of Peru but is assassinated at Lima June 26 at age 69 or 70 by supporters of Diego de Almagro, 21, whose father and namesake Pizarro defeated and executed 3 years ago. Diego is made governor of Peru at Lima June 26, but royalists will defeat him next year and put him to death.
Pizarro's lieutenant Pedro de Valdivia, 42, founds the city of Santiago del Nuevo Extremo in Chile February 12. He has persuaded Pizarro to let him lead an expedition south from Peru, accompanied by the widow Inés de Suárez, 33, who came to South America 4 years ago in search of her husband, only to find in 1538 that he had died after the siege of Cuzco a year earlier. Inés has saved Valdivia's expedition by finding a freshwater spring in the Atacama Desert. She serves as Valdivia's nurse and overseer of the 1,000 Indian supply carriers. Valdivia leaves Santiago in early September with nearly 90 horsemen to subdue rebellious tribesmen to the south. The city is attacked September 11 by nearly 10,000 warriors; the Spaniards have taken seven native chiefs hostage, and Inés de Suárez proposes that all seven be decapitated and their heads thrown at the attackers while the city's defenders mount a cavalry charge. She herself beheads the first captive. The scheme works. Valdivia returns September 15, but the attackers have burnt most of Santiago's houses and Inés has been able to save only two young sows, a boar, a hen, a cock, and two handfuls of wheat, which are planted to produce grain in the fertile valley (see 1543).
Francisco Pizarro's half brother Gonzalo mounts an expedition to explore the territory east of Quito and appoints Francisco de Orellana his lieutenant (see 1538). His purpose is to find the cinnamon described in a letter of 28 July 1533 to Charles V by one Licenciado de la Gama. Orellana embarks aboard a brigantine in April with an advance party of 50 men, reaches the junction of the Napo and Marañon rivers, is persuaded that there is no way that he can return to Pizarro, and begins an exploration of the Amazon River system. Pizarro leaves Quito with 6,000 pigs, 300 horses, 900 dogs, and many llamas and alpacas, most of which will have been eaten, died, or run off by the time the starving expedition returns (some members will have deserted and made their way down the Amazon to the Atlantic) (see 1542).
Hernándo De Soto discovers the Mississippi River May 8 (see 1540; Marquette and Joliet, 1673).
Jacques Cartier makes a third expedition to New France (see 1536). Financed by François I, he arrives August 23 at what later will be Quebec and establishes a settlement, but it will prove short-lived. He moves upriver once again to the island that will later be the site of Montreal at the confluence of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence, but remains as he did in 1535 for only a few hours, not venturing far enough to see what lies beyond the rapids, and then hunkers down for another severe winter (see Roberval, 1542).
The physician Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim) dies at Salzburg September 24 at age 48.
John Calvin (Jean Chauvin), 32, establishes a theocratic government that will make Geneva a focal point for the defense of Protestantism throughout Europe. The French theologian was banished from Paris in 1533, and his Institution Chrétienne was published 3 years later. He tried to establish a theocracy at Geneva with Guillaume Farel, 52, 3 years ago, a popular revolt drove him out of town, but the Swiss burghers have invited him to return.
Basque missionary Francis Xavier (Francisco Javier), 35, sails for the Orient from Lisbon as Jesuit apostle to the Indies at the behest of Ignatius Loyola, first superior (or general) of the Society of Jesus (see 1540). Loyola was assigned to room with Xavier at the University of Paris in 1529 (see 1542).
Painting: The Last Judgment by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel at Rome. Measuring 60 feet in length, 33 feet in height, it is the largest, most comprehensive painting in the world.
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