1508
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization education art theater, film population |
Maximilian I assumes the title of Roman Emperor Elect February 4 at Trent, and Pope Julius II confirms the fact that the German king shall hereafter automatically become Holy Roman Emperor. Maximilian has set out for Rome, the Venetians have refused to let him pass through their territories, he attacks the Venetians, but he signs a truce when he finds that the war is not popular with the southern German cities.
The former duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza dies in a subterranean dungeon at the castle of Loches in Touraine May 27 at age 55, having made several fruitless efforts to escape; his sister-in-law Isabella d'Este tries to send her son Federico, now 8, to safety in Genoa (she has remained at Milan despite Ludovico's urgings that she leave). France's Louis XII seizes the youth and does not allow him to return to his mother; when Louis leaves Milan for France November 7 he takes Federico with him.
Persia's Shiite Safavid shah Ismail I enters Baghdad October 21 at the head of a Kizilbash Turkman army, drives out the Purnak governor, places his chief of staff in charge of the city, and moves south against the Mushasha (but see 1534).
Pope Julius II forms the Holy League of Cambrai December 10 to recover from Venice the papal lands that the Venetians have taken on the Adriatic. France's Louis XII and Aragon's Ferdinand II join the League, expecting to obtain territory themselves, as do the Hungarians, the Savoyards, and the Ferrarese (see 1509).
A Portuguese fleet under the command of Lourenço d'Almeida defeats an Arab fleet from Malacca but Almeida is trapped by an Egyptian armada off Chaul on the coast of India and dies of wounds received in battle (see 1509). Traveler Ludovico di Varthema has resumed Christianity (see 1505), joined the Portuguese garrison at Cannanore, and fought in several engagements; sponsored by the navigator Tristan da Cunha, he has been knighted by the viceroy Francisco d'Almeida and served for 18 months as Portuguese factor at Cochin.
The Portuguese colonize Mozambique. They will rule the African country until 1975.
Spanish navigator Sebastian de Ocampo explores Cuba with a view to settlement.
Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León, 48, receives permission to explore the Caribbean island of Boriquén, which the late Christopher Columbus named San Juan Bautista in November 1493. Ponce de Léon accompanied Columbus on that second voyage and has won favor by colonizing eastern Hispaniola; he establishes the town of Caparra on the north coast of the island, and when he finds gold and a well-protected harbor he gives the name Puerto Rico to what later will be the port of San Juan (the entire island will be named "rich port" in 1511; see 1509).
The Complutensian University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) has its beginnings in a papal bull recognizing a school founded by Francisco Jiménez Cardinal de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo, at Alcalá de Henares (originally the Roman settlement of Complutum) to teach Thomist, Scotist, and Nominalist theology and Oriental languages as an instrument for the intellectual reform of the Church. Its scholars will complete the Complutensian Polyglot Bible in 1517 (it will be published about 5 years later), the Colegio de Maria de Aragon will be added in 1590, the school will be moved to Madrid in 1836, and it will grow to include other institutions as well.
Painting: The Chess Player and Self-Portrait by Dutch prodigy Lucas van Leyden (Lucas Hugensz), 14; Madonna and Saints by Lorenzo Lotto. Raphael enters the service of Pope Julius II.
Theater: The Chest (La Cassaria) by Italian poet-playwright Ludovico Ariosto, 34, 3/5 at the court of the d'Este family at Ferrara (a verse version will be produced in February 1531).
The native population of Hispaniola in the Caribbean falls to 60,000, down from 200,000 to 300,000 in 1492 (see 1514).
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