1550

1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550

political events

The Treaty of Boulogne signed in March restores peace between England and France (see 1549). England receives 400,000 crowns and secures the release of John Knox, France regains Boulogne, and English troops withdraw from Scotland.

Maurice of Saxony lays siege to Magdeburg in October.

Ulrich, duke of Württemberg, dies at Tübingen November 6 at age 63.

Mongol forces advance to the gates of Beijing (Peking), looting and burning the city's suburbs (see 1542).

Burma's second Toungoo dynasty king Tabinshwehti is assassinated by a Mon prince at Pegu after a 19-year reign in which he has adopted many Mon customs, brought Mon soldiers into his army, and made the ancient city of Pegu his capital. Tabinshwehti's brother-in-law Braginoco (or Bayinnaung) marches with an army to Toungoo, eliminates a pretender to the throne, proclaims himself king, marches south, captures Pegu, executes the rebel leader Smim Htaw, accepts the surrender of other Mon rulers, and makes Pegu his capital, beginning a reign that will continue for 30 years (see 1554).

exploration, colonization

Helsinki is founded on the Gulf of Finland by the Swedish king Gustav I Vasa, now 54.

commerce

Augsburg banker Anton Fugger fails in an attempt to monopolize the tin production of Bohemia and Saxony. Fugger goes bankrupt after losing half a million gulden, and his failure precipitates bankruptcies throughout Europe, producing financial chaos at Augsburg and at Genoa, where millions of gulden are lost.

Prices in Europe and England rise as coins minted from Mexican and Peruvian gold and silver ingots devalue the old currencies and as population growth booms demand for food, clothing, and shelter (see 1559; Gresham, 1561).

science

Trigonometry tables are published by the mathematician Rheticus, now 36, who studied under the late Nicolaus Copernicus.

religion

The late Pope Paul III is succeeded February 7 by the Rome-born Giovanni Maria Cardinal del Monte, who will reign until 1555 as Julius III. The new pope holds the English prelate Reginald Cardinal Pole in low esteem; he allows Pole to retain his position as legate but Pole finds himself suspected of heresy.

A concordance of the entire English Bible is published by theologian-organist John Marbeck, whose Booke of Common Praier Noted adapts the plain chant of earlier rituals to the liturgy of Edward VI.

The Japanese daimyo (feudal lord) who welcomed Francis Xavier to Kyushu in August 1549 makes it a capital offense to become a Christian after midsummer.

literature

Poetry: Odes by French poet Pierre de Ronsard, 26.

art

Painting: Presentation of the Virgin by Tintoretto for Venice's Church of Santa Maria dell 'Orto; Eleanora of Toledo and Her Son by Il Bronzino; A Nobleman in His Study by Lorenzo Lotto; Deposition from the Cross by Michelangelo.

Japanese ukiyoe painting has its beginnings.

sports

Billiards is played for the first time, in Italy.

architecture, real estate

Vicenza's Villa Rotunda and Palazzo Chiericati are designed by local architect Andrea Palladio (Andrea di Pietro delia Gondola), 41, who completes the city's Palazzo Thiene.

The Lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects,Painters, and Sculptors (Le Vite de'Piu Eccellenti Architetti, Pittori e Scultori Italiani) by Italian architect-painter Giorgio Vasari, 39, is published at Florence. A pupil of Michelangelo, Vasari gives Gothic architecture its name and disparages it (see 1184), saying that medieval cathedrals were built in a style originated by the Goths ("those Germanic races untutored in the classics") and describing them as a "heap of spires, pinnacles, and grotesque decorations lacking in all the simple beauty of the classical orders."

agriculture

Corn (maize), sweet potatoes, and peanuts will be introduced in much of China in the next half-century. All will produce large yields and will spur population growth by creating abundance with declining prices.

population

Europe's population reaches an estimated 70.2 million (excluding Russia and the Ottoman Empire), up from an estimated 61.6 million in 1500. About 6.5 percent of the people live in cities of 10,000 or more, up from about 5.6 percent in 1500.

France's population reaches 15 million while Spain's is half that. About 6.5 million of Spain's population is in Castile, which has lost at least 150,000 to American emigration in the past half-century.

1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549 1550