1574

1571 1572 1573 1574 1575 1576 1577 1578 1579 1580

political events

France's Charles IX dies at Saint-Germain-en-Laye outside Paris May 30 at age 24, having reigned since late in 1560. He is succeeded by his 23-year-old brother Henri de Valois, who vacates the Polish throne, returns to France, and will reign until 1589 as Henri III under the domination of his mother, Catherine de' Medici.

A new religious war begins between French Catholics and Huguenots (see 1573; 1576).

The departure of Henri de Valois leaves Poland without a king (see 1575).

Leyden in the Lowlands comes under siege by the Spanish forces of Luis de Requesens y Zuñiga, who has gained a victory over Protestant rebels at Mookerheide in April and published a general pardon of Protestants June 5, offering to exchange the sales tax for a subsidy (see 1573). Willem of Orange (the Silent) has lost two brothers in battle; he cuts the dike in several places to flood the land, and his ships sail up to Leyden's city wall October 3 to relieve the siege (see 1575).

Walter Devereux, 1st earl of Essex, invites Irish chieftain Brian McPhelim to confer with him at Belfast in October. McPhelim arrives with his wife and half brother, and Essex betrays their trust by seizing them. All three are executed at Dublin (see 1573). Unable to maintain the continued cooperation of the queen and her lord deputy of Ireland, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Essex has raided Irish communities and permitted his men to massacre the inhabitants (see 1575).

The Ottoman sultan Selim II falls in his Turkish bath, cracks his skull, and dies December 12 at age 50 after a drunken 8-year reign in which his grand vizier Mehmed Sokollu has run the government. Selim's 27-year-old son has his brothers strangled in his presence and will reign until 1594 as Murad III.

Burmese forces seize the Laotian capital of Vien Chan (later Vientiane) (see 1571).

exploration, colonization

Islands discovered November 22 some 365 miles off the west coast of South America will be named the Juan Fernández Islands after the 38-year-old Spanish navigator who has found them (see Defoe, 1720).

commerce

Leyden's burgomeister Pieter Andriaanszoon collects all of the town's coins and other metal to melt down for arms manufacture, issuing small scraps of paper to be used in place of specie (see 1690).

religion

The third Sikh guru Amar Das dies at Goindwal, India, at age 95 (approximate) after a 22-year reign in which he has divided the Punjab into 22 dioceses, sent off missionaries to propagate the faith, purified it of Hindu practices, forbidden his followers to practice suttee (the Hindu custom of self-immolation by widows on their husbands' funeral pyres), encouraged widows to remarry, encouraged intercaste marriages, and extolled the lives of ordinary people, saying that they could please God and enjoy prosperity without any conflict between the two. Amar Das is succeeded by his 40-year-old son-in-law, who becomes the fourth guru and will reign until 1581 as Ram Das.

literature

Nonfiction: De jure magistratum by Protestant Reformation leader Théodore de Bèze defends the right to revolt against tyranny. Written in response to the 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, it renounces the earlier Calvinist doctrine of obedience to all civil authority (de Bèze has welcomed surviving Protestant refugees to Geneva).

Poetry: La Franciade by Pierre de Ronsard, whose national epic will remain unfinished.

art

Painting: Portrait of Doña Maria Manrique de Lara y Pernstein and One of her Daughters by Sofonisba Anguissola.

architecture, real estate

Florence's Uffizi Palaces are completed after 14 years of construction to designs by painter-architect Giorgio Vasari, who dies at Florence June 27 at age 62. The two matching palaces frame a narrow piazza and serve as offices for the grand duke of Tuscany Cosimo de' Medici.

food availability

Some 5,000 of Leyden's 15,000 people die of hunger in the 6-week siege by the Spanish, but burgomaster van der Werer cries defiance. He draws his sword and says, "You may eat me first; I will not surrender to the Spanish."

food and drink

Ships bearing white bread and herring relieve Leyden's hunger. This, together with Leyden hotspot (a stew of stale beef and root vegetables) will be served October 3 each year after 1648 to celebrate the liberation of the Netherlands. A simmering stew (cocido) left behind by the departing Spaniards (according to some accounts), hotspot is discovered by Corenelis Joppensz, an orphan boy who has been given six guilders to venture through the lines to see if the city is still surrounded.

population

An estimated 152,500 Spanish settlers are now in the Americas.

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