1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550
Contents: political eventscommerce religion literature architecture, real estate |
English authorities arrest the lord high admiral Thomas Seymour in January and send him to the Tower of London on charges of having schemed to marry Edward VI to Lady Jane Grey, 12, daughter of the duke of Suffolk, and gain as his own bride Henry VIII's daughter Elizabeth, 16. Seymour is baron Seymour of Sudeley and brother of the protector, but he is convicted of treason and executed March 20. Lord Chancellor Richard Rich, now 54, helps John Dudley, earl of Warwick, to oust Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, from his position as lord protector (regent) of the young king, and Somerset is sent to the Tower October 14, having provoked aristocratic opposition.
England declares war on France August 9 (see 1550).
The czar of Muscovy Ivan IV summons the first Russian national assembly.
The former Mughal emperor Humayun retakes Kabul for a third and final time from his disloyal brother Kamran (see 1547; 1555).
Portugal's first governor of Brazil Thome de Souza founds the city of Sao Salvador that will later be called Bahia (see exploration [São Vicente], 1530; São Paulo, 1554).
Pedro de Valdivia returns to Santiago, Chile, with orders barring him from living in the same house with Inés de Suárez, who marries Rodrigo de Quiroga, one of Valdivia's chief lieutenants (see 1543). Now 42, she will receive land and money early next year to build the Church of Our Lady of Monserrate on Cerro Blanco Hill. Valdivia will send to Spain in 1552 for his wife, Marina Ortiz de Gaete, on orders from the king (see 1554).
France's Henri II annuls last year's Edict of Châtellerault and rescinds the Gabelle (salt tax) imposed on western provinces in exchange for an "indemnity" of 450,000 livres (see 1680).
The Book of Common Prayer (first Prayer Book of Edward VI) by the archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer simplifies and condenses the Latin services of the medieval Church into a single, convenient, comprehensive English volume that will serve as an authoritative guide for English priests and worshippers. Cranmer has become an influential counselor to the young king. He discussed a draft of the book last year in a conference of scholars, and Parliament has commissioned its publication. An Act of Uniformity forbids other prayer books after May 20. The Act of Uniformity and rising prices provoke social and religious rebellions in Cornwall, Kent, and Oxfordshire (where the thirteenth Baron Grey de Wilton William Grey restores order) (see 1604).
Francis Xavier arrives at the Japanese port of Kagoshima August 15 with some companions who include one Anjiro, whom he met at Malacca and has baptized (see 1545). The Jesuit "apostle to the Indies" writes a letter calling the Japanese "the best people yet discovered," far more cultured and sophisticated than the pearl fishers of India or the headhunters of the Moluccas, but he soon finds that the "best people" are not impressed by his poverty and that he must don finery to attract them (see 1551).
Pope Paul III dies at Rome November at age 82 after a 15-year reign in which he has convened the Council of Trent, excommunicated England's Henry VIII, and persuaded France's François I and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to conclude the Truce of Nice (see 1550).
Nonfiction: The Defense and Illustration of the French Language (La Défense et illustration de la langue française) is a manifesto proclaiming France's capability of producing a modern literature as good or better than that of the Italians. Issued by the literary group La Pléide, it has been written by poet Joachim du Bellay, 27.
Physician-author Andrew Boorde dies in London's Fleet Prison in April at age 58 (approximate), having been confined for keeping "loose women" in his quarters at Winchester.
The Villa d'Este completed at Tivoli outside Rome has been designed by Piero Ligorio for Ippolito II Cardinal d'Este of Ferrara's ruling family.
The wife of Florence's Cosimo de' Medici, Eleanoro Toledo, pays 9,000 florins to buy the Pitti Palace from Buonaccorso Pitti, now 79, and completes it as the Grand Ducal Palace (see 1466).
1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550
