EUROPEAN HISTORY 1500
- 1599
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1450
England is ruled by about sixty noble families most of them
related through marriage and held their own standing armies like the Duke
of Buckingham who had a two thousand man army. The once plentiful
beaver is now extinct in England. Mayors and sheriffs are permitted
to wear marten and squirrel. Rare furs such as ermine and sable are
restricted to royalty, the nobility and persons who give at least 100 pounds
to the church.
The Teutonic Order of Knights membership had dropped by a third and
inferior quality men are being admitted.
Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press using moveable type. This would be considered the most important invention of all time including into the twenty first century.
The Little Ice Age (1450-1850) lowered world wide temperatures by 1 to 2 degrees but north America and Europe were hit hardest. Some suggest low sunspot activity caused this global cooling.
1451
John Hus, a philosophy professor led a protest movement against doctrinal positions of the Roman Catholic Church. On July 6, 1415 he is burned at the stake for heresy. His followers established the first Protestant Church called the Moravian Church named after the region in Slovakia where it originated. Their motto is; "In essentials unity; in nonessentials liberty; and in all things love."
1453
England lost the Duchy of Gascony (France) and the England's Breton and Burgundian alliance broke down and England lost everything and the one hundred year war is ended.
In retaliation for two failed crusades and the Papal agreement between Greece and Rome that the Turks marched on Greece. A seventy thousand men Turkish army from the Moslem Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople and killed the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. The Turks almost reached Vienna (Austria). This action ended forever the thousand-year-old Byzantine Empire or East Roman Empire (330-1453). It is one of the last remnants of the vast Roman Empire, only the Roman Catholic Church remained. Constantinople remains Turkish to this day. The Turks, however, did not destroy the Greek Church and allowed a new patriarch to be elected. The Greeks returned to Orthodoxy. Pope Pius II (1458-1464) when he became Pope would declared a Holy War (crusade) but no Princes would join him so he assembled his own fleet.
1454
Jews are driven out of the town of Moravia, Czechoslovakia.
1455
Callistus III alias Alfonso de Borja or Borgia (1455-1458) is elected pope and immediately began organizing a crusade to recapture Constantinople. He said he is prepared to give up his life in support of this Holy War. He dispatched clergy armed with indulgences for sale throughout Europe to fund the planed war.
1456
Some thirty five thousand people died when a massive earthquake almost completely leveled Naples, Italy. Prince Vlad Dracula II of Wallachia (Romania) the madman during his reign, 1456-1462, killed between fifty and one hundred thousand people. At Brasov (Romania) in 1459 for no apparent reason he impaled thousands of Saxon Burghers and dined amid the gruesome scene. His life inspired the fictional vampire Dracula character created by Bram Stoker. Pope Callistus III (1455-1458) reopened the case of witchcraft and heresy against Joan of Arc and declared her innocence. This same year he revived the harsh legislation, allowed to lapse by his predecessors, banning the social intercourse of Roman Christians with Jews. Alexander VI alias Rodrigo de Borgia (Pope 1492-1503) purchased a Cardinalship to become one of the richest Cardinals. This is a common practice within the Roman Church at this time. He also took a concubine another common practice.
1457
Resentment against Pope Callistus III war tithes (tax) began in France and Germany as well as Naples. In Italy the favors he lavished on relatives and compatriots aroused great bitterness. To protect himself he hired Spanish commanders and garrisoned himself in the papal state.
1458
Pius II alias Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1458-1464) a secretary to Pope Felix V he had father several bastard children is elected pope. A crusade is never far from his thoughts throughout his reign. Inquisitor Nicholas Jaquerius claimed that modern witchcraft is a new sect with night flying is marked with a cloven hoof mark on their body. Mozzolino a Dominican General affirmed the new sect theory and claimed it started in 1404.
1459
Inquisition trials at Arras, France accused and burnt witches under the name Vaudois a title applied to the Waldensian heretics. The trials are plots against rich and highly placed persons. The French Parliament instituted an inquiry that annulled the sentences, ordered restitution and said masses for those executed.
Planisphere notes, describing huge Chinese Junks sailing across the Indian Ocean non-stop, rounding Cape of Good Hope in 1420 and Cape Verde Islands and to the obscured Islands, was published this year.
1460
After 1460 in England there is little respect for anything except power to take the crown and the nobles are killing each other towards that end.
The term 'upper crust' originated about this time in England. The ovens provided uneven heat so the bottom got burnt and was given to the servants, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the 'upper crust'. In 1555 the meaning changed to make reference to the earths upper crust and in the early 1800's 'upper crust' was a reference to upper society.
Pope Pius II refuted the Koran, Islam and promised to personally lead a crusade.
1462
The first of the self appointed Tsar or Caesar Grand Princes Ivan III, the Great (1462-1505) began the process to unite Russia against Mongol rule. Living around Moscow or Muscovy are the Bielorussian and Russian who are believed descended from the Viking (Rus) Rurik the Red, to the east the Slav (Bielorussian or White Russians and Ukrainian or Little Russian), to the south east the Tarars ruled who are descendants of the Mongol and the Samoed, Votiak, Bashkir, Mordvian, Kazak and Kalmuk. Along the frontiers of Orthodox Christendom lived the Cossack, to the west are the Polish-Lithuanian powers that also controlled the Ukraine.
The Orkney Islands underwent an extended period of economic decline following the transfer of political control from Norway to Scotland. They refer to this period as the Age of Starvation. It is noteworthy that 60% of Orkney are genetically Norwegian Viking.
1464
Paul II alias Pietro Barbo (1464-1471) nephew of Pope Eugine IV is elected pope on condition he call a General Council within three years. Upon election he rejected the rules saying they are only guidelines.
1466
Pope Paul II imprisoned and tortured the historian Bartolomco Platina (1421-1481) because he protested the Pope abolition of papal scholars and literary college.
The Teutonic Hochmeister after years of warring finally surrendered when both sides had lost 100,000 men. Poland received Danzig henceforth to be known as Royal Prussia. The Order kept the East but in future fewer than 1/2 the Teutonic Knights are to be Poles. The Order is to pay homage for his Prussian lands to the Polish King with a humiliating ceremony. The treaty divided the Order between Prussia, Livonian and German all becoming more independent.
1468
Pope Paul II suppressed the Roman academy accusing them of cultivating pagan rituals and ideas. He also imposed a ban on the study of pagan poets by Roman children. Emperor Frederick III (1440-1493) failed to convince the pope to call a General Council. Louis XI (1461-1483) of France also requested a General Council. The papal biographer took his revenge by painting his portrait in the blackest colors.
1471
Sixtus IV alias Francesco della Rovere (1471-1484) a Franciscan is elected pope. He lavished gifts on the Duke of Milan to secure the election. He had ruthless determination and believed the end justified the means. Pope Sixtux IV (1471-1484) is the first Pope to impose a license on brothels and a special tax on priests who kept a mistress. He also established the practice of selling indulgences to be applied to the dead.
1472
Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) arranged the marriage of Tsar Ivan III of Russia and Sophia Paleologus (his second wife) a niece of the last Byzantine Emperor. The Roman Church hoped to bring Russia into the fold and to gain assistance against the Ottoman Turks. Sophia however changed from Roman Catholic to Greek Orthodoxy.
1477
The Duchy of Burgundy, the region around Dijon is annexed to France. Franche-Comte east of Burgundy would not become French for another two hundred years.
Christopher Columbus visited England this year and some suggest he likely first heard of the lands that lay to the west on this visit. It is claimed he would visit Iceland in the 1480's. Others suggest he claimed an alleged voyage this year. They likely told him of Greenland and Vineland to the west.
1478
Medieval Spain had been the most racially tolerant land in Europe. Christians, Mohammedan and Jews lived side by side in peace. The proudest Christian families in Spain had intermarried with Jews. Hebrew blood flowed in the veins of the greatest prelates in the land. Some suggest that Ferdinand and Queen Isabella driven by a desire for racial purity requested the Holy Inquisition by Pope Sixtus IV. In Spain racial purity and religious orthodoxy had become mutually dependent. Many zealots believed God guides the Holy Inquisition for His praise and honor. The Inquisition in Spain employed a form of secret police and suspects are arrested in secret and placed in secret prisons and disappeared without a trace.
A Papal Bull by Pope Sixtux IV (1471-1484) this year formally created the Inquisition in Spain. Some consider this Pope the most demonic of men for this action. While the Inquisition in other European countries tended to focus on cases of heresy, Spanish inquisitors directed their energies towards persecuting the Jews, conversos (Jews converted to Catholicism), Muslims, suspected sympathizers, and certain types of criminals. The Spanish intent was to drive out Jews, Protestants and other non-believers from Spain. Bishop Creighton said of Pope Sixtux, "he lowered the moral tone of Europe." Pope Sixtux condoned the murder of Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici by his brother Girolamo. Pope Sixtux IV also annulled the decrees of the Grand Council of 1414-1417 destroying any accountability of the pope. The Inquisition is reported to have lasted until 1834. Others suggest it finished 1808 while others say it didn't finish until January 1968 when the Office of the Inquisition and began in 1233 by Pope Gregory IX.
1479
King Ferdinand (1479-1516) of Aragon, Spain married Queen Isabella (1474-1504) of Castille, Spain uniting the two Kingdoms. Castille is the larger Kingdom being a much different culture than Aragon. Queen Isabella is a rigorous ruler depriving the nobles of many of their most cherished privileges. Power is shifted to civil servants steeped in absolutist traditions of Roman Law or to priests who owed their position to royal patronage. Spanish clergymen appealed to Catholic King Ferdinand V (1479-1516) and Queen Isabella (1474-1504), promising them that confiscation of Jewish property and wealth would be worth a great deal. Father Tomas de Torquemada is the first appointed Inquisitor in 1483. During the first eighteen years of the Spanish Inquisition an estimated 8,800 people are burned and some 90,000 tortured and imprisoned. Some suggest the martyrs of the Spanish Inquisition would run into the millions before it ran its course in the nineteenth century.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Lucerne, Switzerland. 17,000 Gypsy (Roma) are transported into Moldavia by Stephan the Great for slave labour.
1480
Queen Isabella (1474-1504) of Spain and Cardinal Jimenez
de Cisneros (1436-1517) Archbishop of Toledo issued drastic Church reforms.
Concubinage is abolished reforming the moral, habits and learning of the
clergy. The appointment of foreigners to office in the Spanish Church
is strictly forbidden. The Crown appointed almost all the higher
ecclesiastical offices. In Catholic Europe nowhere has the Pope less
authority.
Ivan III finally frees Russia from 240 years of Mongol domination.
Some claim Thomas Lloyd discovered Newfoundland this year while searching for earlier accounts of Isle of Brazil. Some believe this claim and the claim of 1481 have the same source and are myth.
1481
Some suggest Thomas Croft sighted Newfoundland this year. Others dispute this claim.
1482
King Edward IV's army occupied Edinburgh and claimed lordship for Scotland's role in the hundred-year war. The Gaelic tribes meaning clan or children of one family began to mean groups of people occupying an area of land and who followed a particular chief in Scotland. Not all members of a clan are related to each other. Clan Donald of the Highland district is one of the most powerful.
King Ferdinand V (1479-1516) and Queen Isabella (1474-1504) restricted the power of Rome over the Spanish Church including the various Orders of the Knights.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in state of Brandenburg.
1483
Pope Sixtux IV (1471-1484) the demonic man confirmed Father Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498) as the Grand Inquisitor or Inquisitor General of Spain. This same year he imposed a ban on appeals to General Councils of the Roman Church. It is said of the 34 cardinals he created, six being nephews, are men of little worth. Some claim he was responsible for the murder of 2,000 people. The Inquisition has been defined as psychotic fanatics with a taste for blood, who tortured innocent people to obtain false confessions, then sent them off to be burnt at the stake.
Two Dominican Monks, Miguel de Morillo and Juad de San Martin also headed the Inquisition in Spain. In Seville 700 Conversos are burned, 5000 were arrested, repented and were not executed. Many however were still imprisoned and their property confiscated.
1484
Giuliano della Rovere (future Pope Julius II) (1503-1513) and nephew of Pope Sixtus IV intrigued to elect a puppet pope. Innocent VIII alias Giovanni Battiste Cibo (1484-1492) is elected pope. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) had fathered several illegitimate children and he now provided for them by arranging marriages into princely houses. He created unneeded office selling them to raise funds. He issued a bull ordering the Inquisition in Germany to proceed with the utmost severity against witches. Witches are those wicked women, reverting to Satan, and seduced by the illusions and phantasms of demons, believe and profess that they ride at night with the goddess Diana on certain beasts. Witches have slain infants yet in mother’s womb; also the offspring of cattle have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vine, the fruits of trees and all other abominations. Any unexplained event resulted in the cry burn the witches. It is estimated that 100,000 witches are burnt in Germany and 300,000 throughout Europe by the 17th century.
1485
By the time of the Battle of Bosworth the old nobility had nearly destroyed itself and almost half the lords of the sixty noble families had been killed as there is no incentive to take prisoners. Henry VII (1485-1509) began a century of Tudor rule (1485-1603) and he believed that war and glories are bad for business and that business is good for the State. He therefore avoided quarrels with Scotland or France.
1486
King Henry VII (1485-1509) who is half Welsh made an important trade agreement with the Netherlands that allowed English trade to grow, he acquired all lands from the defeated or dead nobility and he forbade anyone, except himself, to keep a standing army. He never spent money unless he had to and only spent lavishly on his fleet of merchant ships that he believed are the future. Pope Innocent VIII recognized Henry VII as rightful king of England on the grounds of conquest, inheritance and national choice. This same year he banned discussion and study of the thesis of Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) the exponent of Renaissance Platoism.
1487
Dulmo and Estreito sailed westward to find the fabled island of Antillia and are presumed lost at sea.
1489
Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492), a demonic man, entered into agreement with the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512) for 40,000 ducats yearly and the gift of the Holy Lance (supposed to have pierced Christ’s side at his crucifixion) to detain his fugitive brother at Rome. Pope Innocent VIII believed in the ancient Celtic practice of shunamitism that is the belief that a younger person can transfer vital energies to an older one. The Pope employed healthy children to stroke him and so transfer their energy to him. This form of sex therapy is also practiced in Greece.
1490
Syphilis first appeared in Italy in the 1490's and by 1495 is reported in France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Greece. By 1497 it had appeared in England and Scotland, and two years later is reported in Hungary and Russia. The Russians blamed the Poles, the English and Turks called it the French disease; the French termed it the Italian illness and they in turn referred to it as the Spanish disease. The Spanish called it the sickness of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), declaring it had come from what is now Haiti. Some claim it is brought back by the infamous Christopher Columbus's crew of 1492. Other research suggests that syphilis is first noted in ancient Italy about 700 B.C. this would make it a Greek disease.
1492
Father Torquemada of Spain orders the Jews to convert to Christianity or leave the country. Ferdinand V (1479-1516) and Isabella (1474-1504) expelled the Jews (1492) from Granada and the Moors (1502) from Castile after the taking of Granada. Pope Innocent awarded Ferdinand (1479-1516) of Spain and his successors the title Catholic Kings. Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) proclaimed a racist edict against the Jews in Spain to banish them from the peninsula. A hundred thousand Jews fled Spain and an estimated 100,000 pretended to be converts to avoid persecution. Some suggest 200,000 Jews fled Spain. Tens of thousands died before reaching safety, many being killed on the way.
Portugal is importing 1,000 slaves per year into Lisbon for sale.
Spain conquers Granada, ending the Moorish Kingdom.
The first anti-Gypsy laws are passed in Spain.
Christopher Columbus was on the road out of Spain on his way to Paris when a messenger overtook him with news that the Spanish King Ferdinard had changed his mind and would finance a westward voyage to India.
Alexander VI alias Rodrigo de Borgia (1492-1503) nephew of Pope Callistus III (1455-1458) and the second richest cardinal is elected pope. He lived an openly licentious life, fathering several bastard children awarding them rich diocese. He often left his daughter Lucrezia as virtual regent in charge of official papal business during his absence. Some believe this may be the basis of the Pope Joan legend. It is said the pope loved his children to excess but married his daughter age 13 to a man twice her age to expand his political power. One of his bastard children was Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois (1475-1507) son of the then Cardinal and his mistress in Spain. He was made archbishop of Valencia this year and cardinal in 1493. Two other sons were Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Gandia and Benevento Borgia.
1493
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) at the instance of the Castilian sovereigns divides the new world between Spain and Portugal drawing a line of demarcation a hundred leagues west of the Azores. This is interesting given that Christopher Columbus proposed he discovered Asia. It is common knowledge at this time that China is a highly civilized country obviously living better than Europe without the blessings of Roman Christianity. This anomaly would trouble the church for centuries.
Roma are expelled from Milan.
1494
Future Pope Julius II alias Giuliano della Rovere (1503-1513) fled Italy to France fearing assassination by Pope Alexander VI. Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere urged Charles VIII (1483-1498) of France to order the invasion of Italy with an army of 40,000 men setting a pattern for French foreign policy and remained at war until 1559. The Borgis faction defeats the Cardinal who’s bid for the papacy. Giuliano became Pope Julius II (1503-1513). The treaty of Tordesillas modified Pope Alexander's VI demarcation of the new world because it favored Spain and granted the monarchs control of the church in the lands they colonized.
The Black Death or Bubonic Plague (Bacillus Yersinia Pestis) arrive Iceland killing 1/2 of the people between 1494-1495.
1495
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) formed the Holy League designed to expel the invaders and included Spain, Milan, Venice and later England. French soldiers in Naples spread syphilis throughout Europe. It is believed to be a new strain as it killed its host within months of contracting the disease. Syphilis has been around Europe, in Italy since 700 B.C. In 1496 Italy is free of the French armies.
1496
The Reichstag (parliament) in Landau and Freiburg declares Gypsy (Roma) traitors to the Christian countries, spies in the pay of the Turks, and carriers of the plague.
1497
Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) Paulo da Gama, Nicolao Coelho and 150 sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope (Cape concealed for so many centuries) using the maps of Fra Mauro's planisphere of 1459. Fra Mauro was working for the Portuguese Government when making his planisphere and is most likely based on Chinese maps.
Vasco Da Gama the Portuguese barbarian and pirate sailed around the Cape of Good Hope attacking Swalili city after city. Ancient trading traditions of hospitality towards strangers is destroyed as a result of this action. Juan duke of Gandia the favorite son of Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) is murdered and thrown into the river and suspicion fell on his brother Bishop Cesare. The Pope refused to believe his own son is guilty of this murder. Many at this time believe that the Papacy is totally corrupt.
1498
The inquisitor, Dominican Friar Thomas of Torquemada, Spain in fifteen years, his victims or martyrs totaled 114,000 of which 10,220 are burned to death. The Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola and his two chief lieutenants are burned at the stake in Florence for proclaiming the unforgivable corruption of the church and the need for universal reform.
Four Gypsies accompany Christopher Columbus on his third voyage to the New World.
1499
The French King Louis XII (1498-1515) ordered his army to reoccupy Italy to gain Milan. Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) abetted King Louis XII Italian plans and his desire for a divorce in return for French support for the ambitious secular career of the Popes son Cesare Borgia.
Medina del Campo in Spain orders Gitanos Gypsies) to find a trade and master, cease traveling with other Gitanos (Gypsy), all within sixty days. Punishment for failure to obey is 100 lashes and banishment. Repeat offences are punished by amputation of ears, sixty days in chains, and banishment. Third-time offenders become the slaves of those who capture them.
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