1510s

The 1510s decade ran from January 1, 1510, to December 31, 1519.

Events

1510

January–June

January – Catherine of Aragon gives birth to her first child, a stillborn daughter.
January 23 – An 18-year-old Henry VIII of England jousts anonymously at Richmond, Surrey and draws applause, before revealing his identity.
January 29 – The Mary Rose ship is laid out. The next year the ship is launched on July 29, 1511, and is afterwards towed to London to be fitted, and is finally completed in 1512. In 1545, during the Battle of the Solent, she sank.^: 2 The reason for her sinking is disputed with contemporary accounts claiming the ship was heeled over or sank by French ships with gunfire, although modern historians believe it was sunk due to being unstable.^: 22–23
February 27–November 25 – Portuguese conquest of Goa: Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Goa.
March 1 – Battle of Salt River: Indigenous ǃUriǁʼaekua decisively defeat sailors of the Portuguese Empire in South Africa.
May 12 – The Prince of Anhua rebellion begins when Zhu Zhifan, Prince of Anhua, kills all the officials invited to a banquet, and declares his intent on ousting the powerful Ming dynasty eunuch Liu Jin, during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor in China.
May 30 – Rebel leader Zhu Zhifan is defeated and captured by commander Qiu Yue, ending the Prince of Anhua rebellion.

July–December

July – The Holy League, formed to defend the Italian States, attacks French-occupied Genoa. The 1510 influenza pandemic reaches Sicily, where it is nicknamed coccolucio, before spreading to the Italian states and the rest of Europe.
August 10 – The Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy is founded when Henrich Krummedige is appointed chief captain of all those who are at sea.
September 3 – Sir Thomas More becomes undersheriff of the City of London.
October 16 – Mingyi Nyo declares independence from the Ava Kingdom in upper Burma, by establishing the Toungoo dynasty.
December 2 – Battle of Marv: Shah Ismail I's defeats the Uzbek forces of Shaybani Khan, in Khorasan.^: 67–68 Shaybani flees the battle only to be captured and killed by Ismail I troops, his head is turned into a skull cup used as a drinking goblet.^: 68–69

Date unknown

The Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III conquers Pskov.
Paolo Cortese [eo; es; fr; it; nl] publishes De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals, including advice on palatial architecture – which inspires Thomas Wolsey in his construction work at Hampton Court Palace.
Sunflowers are brought to Europe by Spaniards.

1511

January–June

March 26 – The 1511 Idrija earthquake occurs, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The epicenter is around the town of Idrija in present-day Slovenia, although some place it some 15-20 kilometers to the west, between Gemona and Pulfero in Friulian Slovenia. The earthquake affects a large territory between Carinthia, Friuli, present-day Slovenia and Croatia.
April 9
- St John's College, Cambridge, England, founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, receives its charter.
- The Şahkulu Rebellion breaks out in Anatolia.

July–December

July – Henry VIII of England's flagship, the Mary Rose, is launched at Portsmouth.
August 15 – Capture of Malacca: Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca, giving Portugal control over the Strait of Malacca, through which all sea-going trade between China and India is concentrated. The Sultanate then establishes rule from Johor, starting decades of skirmishes against the Portuguese to regain the fallen city. While taking the city, the Portuguese slaughter a large community of Chinese merchants living there. Malacca is the first city in Southeast Asia to be taken by a Western nation, gaining home rule only in 1957, when it becomes part of Malaysia.
October 1 – During the War of the League of Cambrai Pope Julius II proclaims a Holy League against French dominance in Italy. It is an alliance between the Papal States, the Swiss Confederation, Venice (which had been the opponent of the League of Cambrai) and Aragon. Emperor Maximilian and the English king Henry VIII join the League soon after.
October 12 – James IV of Scotland's great ship, the Michael, is launched at Newhaven, Edinburgh; she is the largest ship afloat at this date.
November – The Treaty of Westminster creates an alliance between Henry VIII of England and Ferdinand II of Aragon against France.
November 20 – The vessel Frol de la Mar, transporting Afonso de Albuquerque and the valuable treasure of the conquest of Malacca, sinks en route to Goa.

Date unknown

Diego Velázquez and Hernán Cortés conquer Cuba; Velázquez is appointed Governor.
Duarte Barbosa arrives in India for the second time. He works as clerk in the factory of Cananor, and as the liaison with the Indian rajah.
After the fall of Malacca, Afonso de Albuquerque sends Duarte Fernandes on a diplomatic mission to Burma and Siam, becoming the first European to visit these countries diplomatically.
Ferdinand II of Aragon observes that "one black can do the work of four Indians".
Juan de Agramonte, a sailor from Spain, is thought possibly to have travelled to Newfoundland.
The indigenous Taíno people revolt against the Spanish in southwestern Puerto Rico near Guánica.
The first black slaves arrive in Colombia.
The Spanish conquest of Yucatán begins.
Erasmus publishes his most famous work, The Praise of Folly (Laus stultitiae).

1512

January–June

Mid-January – Following the death of Svante Nilsson, Eric Trolle is elected the new Regent of Sweden. He is, however, ousted after only six months in favour of Sten Sture the Younger.
February 18 – War of the League of Cambrai: The French carry out the Sack of Brescia.
April 11 – War of the League of Cambrai – Battle of Ravenna: French under Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, defeat the Spanish under Raymond of Cardona, but Gaston is killed in the pursuit.
May 3 – The Fifth Council of the Lateran begins.
May 12 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, leads an English expedition into France and burns the port city of Brest.
May 26 – Selim I succeeds Bayezid II, as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

July–December

July 23 – Sten Sture the Younger is elected new Regent of Sweden, deposing Eric Trolle.
August 10 – War of the League of Cambrai – Battle of Saint-Mathieu: The English navy defeats the French-Breton fleet. Both navies use ships firing cannons through ports, and each loses its principal ship — Regent and Marie-la-Cordelière — through a large explosion aboard the latter.
Summer – War of the League of Cambrai: Ferdinand II of Aragon sends Don Fadrique de Toledo, to complete the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre.
October 19 – Martin Luther becomes a doctor of theology (Doctor in Biblia).
October 21 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.
November 1 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
December 27 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.

Date unknown

António de Abreu discovers Timor Island, and reaches the Banda Islands, Ambon Island and Seram.
Francisco Serrão reaches the Moluccas.
Francisco Serrao and other shipwreck sailors with permission from the Ternate Sultanate build Fort Tolukko. It is one of the earliest, if not the first European style fortress in southeast Asia.
Juan Ponce de León discovers the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Pedro Mascarenhas discovers Diego Garcia, and reaches Mauritius in the Mascarene Islands.
Moldavia becomes a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, on the same conditions as Wallachia: the voivode will be designated by the Turks, but will be Eastern Orthodox Christians. Also, the Turks are not allowed to build mosques, to be buried, to own land or to settle in the country.
The Florentine Republic begins to be dismantled, and the Medici Family comes back into power.
The word masque is first used to denote a poetic drama.
Possible date – Nicolaus Copernicus begins to write Commentariolus, an abstract of what will eventually become his heliocentric astronomy De revolutionibus orbium coelestium; he sends it to other scientists interested in the matter by 1514.

1513

January–June

March 11 – Pope Leo X (layman Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici) succeeds Pope Julius II, as the 217th pope, despite a strong challenge by Italian cardinal Raffaele Riario and his group of seniors, or cardinals that were elected by Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, who were opposed to the relatively newer juniors that included Medici.
March 27 – Juan Ponce de León becomes the first European definitely known to sight Florida, mistaking it for another island.
April 2
- Juan Ponce de León and his expedition become the first Europeans known to visit Florida, landing somewhere on the east coast.
- Juan Garrido (as part of Juan Ponce de León's expedition) becomes the first African known to visit North America, landing somewhere on the east coast of Florida.
May – Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares lands on Lintin Island, in the Pearl River estuary.
June 6 – Italian Wars – Battle of Novara: Swiss mercenaries defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing the French to abandon Milan and Italy.

July–December

July 22 – Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway.
August 16
- Battle of Dubica (part of the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War): Croatian troops under Petar Berislavić, Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia, defeat an Ottoman army under Sanjak-bey Junuz-aga
- Battle of the Spurs (or Battle of Guinegate, part of the War of the League of Cambrai): English and allied troops under Henry VIII defeat French cavalry under Marshal La Palice.
August 23 – Thérouanne is given to Henry VIII of England after a treaty is concluded in the aftermath of the Battle of the Spurs.
September – The dispute between Johann Reuchlin and Johannes Pfefferkorn concerning the Talmud and other Jewish books, is referred to Pope Leo X.
September 9
- Battle of Flodden: King James IV of Scotland is defeated and killed by an English army under Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. James's son, the Duke of Rothesay, becomes James V, King of Scots.
- Johann Reuchlin is summoned for an inquisition trial, which was initiated by Jacob van Hoogstraaten.^: 152 The verdict of the trial was never revealed, as when it was going to be announced on October 12, the archbishop of Mainz ordered the court to go into recess on threat of resigning the court, and the trial never went on.^: 157 Eventually, in March 1514, an ecclesiastical court presided over by George, Bishop of Speyer cleared Reuchlin of any charges and ordered Hoogstraten to pay the cost of 111 guldens,^{: 158–162} although this was overturned by Leo X in a papal decision in 1520.
September 25 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, first sees what will become known as the Pacific Ocean from the Isthimus of Darién. This moment is later referenced in a poem by John Keats called "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" with the line "silent upon a peak in Darién" although he mistakenly references Hernán Cortés as the one who saw the Pacific from Darién.
September 30 – A major rock avalanche occurs in the Southern side of the Swiss Alps at Monte Crenone, which destroys the village of Biasca, floods Bellinzona, and formed a lake of 390 m.a.s.l.
October 7 – Battle of La Motta (War of the League of Cambrai): Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona decisively defeat those of the Republic of Venice under Bartolomeo d'Alviano in Schio.
December – Louis XII of France makes peace with the Pope. He attempts to make peace with Spain by offering King Ferdinand his daughter Renée to one of his grandsons along with renouncing his claims on Naples, but the proposal was never accepted.
December 17 – Appenzell becomes a member of the Swiss Confederacy.

Undated

Niccolò Machiavelli is suspected of trying to overthrow the House of Medici and is arrested and tortured. He is soon after released and he moves to his farm in San Casciano, and he writes The Prince.
Leo Africanus visits Timbuktu, second city of the Songhai Empire.
Paracelsus begins studying at Ferrara University.

1514

January–June

January 10 – A great fire breaks out, in the Rialto of Venice.
March 12 – A huge exotic embassy sent by King Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X arrives in Rome, including Hanno, an Indian elephant.
March – Louis XII of France makes peace with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
May 2 – The Poor Conrad peasant revolt against Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg begins in Beutelsbach.
May 15 – The earliest printed edition of Saxo Grammaticus' 12th century Scandinavian history Gesta Danorum, edited by Christiern Pedersen from an original found near Lund, is published as Danorum Regum heroumque Historiae, by Jodocus Badius in Paris.
June 13 – Henry Grace à Dieu, at over 1,000 tons the largest warship in the world at this time, built at the new Woolwich Dockyard in England, is dedicated.
June – Battle of Hornshole in the Scottish Borders: Young men from Hawick defeat a raiding party from England.

July–December

July 20 – King Christian II is crowned King of Norway in Oslo. This coronation was the last in Norway for 304 years until King Charles III John was crowned king in 1818.
August 7 – King Henry VIII of England concludes an independent peace treaty with France in the War of the League of Cambrai, negotiated by Thomas Wolsey.
August 23 – Battle of Chaldiran: Selim I crushes the Persian army of Shah Ismail I.
September 8 – Battle of Orsha: In one of the biggest battles of the century, Jagiellonian dynasty forces comprising Belarusians of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poles defeat the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
September 15 – Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York in England.
October 9 – Louis XII of France marries Mary Tudor (sister of King Henry VIII of England) at Abbeville, as part of the English peace with France.

Date unknown

Albrecht Dürer makes his famous engraving Melencolia I.
Paolo Ricci (Camillo Renato) moves to Augsburg.
Nicolaus Copernicus's Commentariolus, outlining his theory of heliocentrism, is written by this date.

1515

January–June

January 1 – Death of Louis XII of France and ascension of Francis, Dauphin of France.
January 25 – Francis I of France is crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims.
May 13 – Mary Tudor, Queen of France, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, are officially married at Greenwich (near London).
June 13 – Battle of Turnadag: The army of Ottoman sultan Selim I defeats the beylik of Dulkadir under Bozkurt of Dulkadir.

July–December

July 2 – Manchester Grammar School is endowed by Hugh Oldham, the first free grammar school in England.
July 22 – At the First Congress of Vienna, a double wedding takes place to cement agreements. Louis, only son of King Vladislaus II of Hungary, marries Mary of Austria, granddaughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor; and Mary's brother, Archduke Ferdinand, marries Vladislaus' daughter, Anna.
August 25 – Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar founds Havana, Cuba.
September 13–14 – Battle of Marignano: The army of Francis I of France defeats the Swiss mercenaries, thanks to the timely arrival of a Venetian army. Francis restores French control of Milan.
November 15 – Thomas Wolsey is invested as a Cardinal.
December 24 – Thomas Wolsey is named Lord Chancellor of England.

Date unknown

Cardinal Wolsey orders construction to begin on what is to become Henry VIII's future summer residence Hampton Court Palace.
Bartolomé de las Casas urges Ferdinand II of Aragon to end Amerindian slavery, and recommends experimental free towns.
The Portuguese are the first Europeans to land in Timor island, as the first settlers arrive to the north coast of Madeira Island, there establishing Saint George.

Dürer's Rhinoceros is cut.
The Ottomans conquer the last beyliks of Anatolia, the Beylik of Dulkadir and the Ramadanid Emirate.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa returns to Northern Italy.

1516

January–June

January – Juan Díaz de Solís is said to have discovered the Río de la Plata (in future Argentina), although there was likely an expedition earlier in 1511-1512 by João de Lisboa and Estevão de Fróis.
January 23 – With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, his grandson, Charles of Ghent, becomes King of Spain; his mother Queen Joanna of Castile also succeeds as Queen of Aragon and co-monarch with Carlos, but remains confined at Tordesillas.
March 1 – Desiderius Erasmus publishes a new Greek edition of the New Testament, Novum Instrumentum omne, in Basel.
March 29 – The Venetian Ghetto is instituted in the Republic of Venice.
April 23 – The Reinheitsgebot is instituted in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, regulating the purity of beer permissible for sale.

July–December

July – Selim I of the Ottoman Empire declares war on the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and invades Syria.
August 13 – The Treaty of Noyon is signed. Francis I of France recognizes Charles I of Spain's claim to Naples, and Charles recognizes Francis's claim to Milan. The treaty also promised Louise of France to Charles.
August 18 – King Francis I of France and Pope Leo X sign the Concordat of Bologna, agreeing on the relationship between church and state in France.
August 24 – Battle of Marj Dabiq (Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17)): The Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeats the mamluk forces commanded by the sultan Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri.
October 28 – Battle of Yaunis Khan (Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17)): Ottoman forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mamluks near Gaza.
December 4 – Treaty of Brussels: Peace is declared between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
c. December – Thomas More's most famous work, Utopia, completed this year, is published in Leuven (in Latin).

Date unknown

Italian explorer Rafael Perestrello, a cousin of the wife of Christopher Columbus, commands an expedition from Portuguese Malacca to land on the shores of mainland southern China, and trade with Chinese merchants at Guangzhou, during the Ming Dynasty.
Portuguese soldier Fernão Lopes becomes the first known permanent inhabitant of Saint Helena.
Leonardo da Vinci accepts Francis I's invitation to France.
The predecessor of the Royal Mail, known as the Master of the Posts, is established by Henry VIII of England.
Gillingham School is founded, the oldest in Dorset, England.
Fuggerei is established in Augsburg (Bavaria), as the world's oldest social housing complex still in use.
The fall of the Nantan meteorite is possibly observed near the city of Nantan, Nandan County, Guangxi (China).

1517

January–June

January 22 – Battle of Ridaniya: The Holy Ottoman army of the sultan Selim I defeat the Mamluk army in Egypt, under Tuman bay II.
January 30 – Cairo is captured by the Ottoman Empire after a three day battle, and the Mamluk Sultanate falls.
February 8 – Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a chronicler who documents the conquest of Mexico, sets out with the Hernández de Córdoba expedition from Jaruco. They arrive at Cape Catoche twenty-one days later, and are met with hostility by the natives.
March 16 – The Fifth Council of the Lateran ends.
May 1 – Evil May Day: Xenophobic riots break out in London.

July–December

August 15 – Portuguese merchant Fernão Pires de Andrade meets Ming Dynasty Chinese officials through an interpreter, at the Pearl River estuary and lands, at what is now in the jurisdiction of Hong Kong. Although the first European trade expeditions to China took place in 1513 and 1516 by Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello, respectively, Andrade's mission is the first official diplomatic mission of a European power to China, commissioned by a ruler of Europe (Manuel I of Portugal).
October 31 – Reformation: Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses (posting them on the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church). This story is possibly apocryphal.

Date unknown

Grand Prince Vasili III of Muscovy conquers Ryazan.
A third outbreak of the sweating sickness in England hits Oxford and Cambridge. It is said that in Oxford that upwards of 400 students died in less than a week.
The Abbasid Caliphate of Cairo, reestablished in 1261, falls to the Ottomans.

1518

January–June

April 18 – The widowed Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, marries Milanese noblewoman Bona Sforza in Wawel Cathedral and she is crowned as Queen consort of Poland.
May 26 – A transit of Venus occurs.

July–December

July – Dancing plague of 1518: A case of dancing mania breaks out in Strasbourg, in which many people die from constant dancing.
August 10 – Construction of the Manchester Grammar School is completed in England. The total cost of the project was £218 13s 5d.
October 3 – The Treaty of London temporarily ensures peace in Western Europe.

Date unknown

The Rajput Mewar Kingdom under Rana Sanga achieves a major victory over Sultan Ibrahim Lodi of Delhi.
A swarm of stinging ants devastates crops on Hispaniola.
Johann Froben publishes Erasmus's work Colloquies, which was unauthorized, and it took until 1519 that an authorized version would be published.
Henricus Grammateus publishes Ayn neu Kunstlich Buech in Vienna, containing the earliest printed use of plus and minus signs for arithmetic.
The remnants of The Abbasid Caliphate (stationed in Egypt under the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) hands over the title of caliph to the Ottoman Empire that had conquered Constantinople in 1453, 65 years earlier

1519

January–June

January 1 – Ulrich Zwingli preaches for the first time, as people's priest of the Great Minister in Zürich.
March 4 – Hernán Cortés and his conquistadores land in Mexico.
April 21 (Maundy Thursday) – Hernán Cortés reaches San Juan de Ulúa; next day (Good Friday) he sets foot on the beach of modern-day Veracruz.
June 28 – Charles I of Spain becomes Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (rules until 1556).

July–December

July 4 – Martin Luther joins the debate regarding papal authority, against Johann Eck at Leipzig.
July 10 – The Prince of Ning rebellion begins, after Zhu Chenhao declares the Ming dynasty's Zhengde Emperor a usurper, and leads his army north in an attempt to capture Nanjing.
August 15 – Panama City is founded.
August 20 – Ming Dynasty Chinese philosopher and general Wang Yangming, governor of Jiangxi, defeats Zhu Chenhao, ending the Prince of Ning rebellion. Wang has expressed the intention of using fo–lang–ji cannons in suppressing the rebellion, probably the earliest reference in China to the breech-loading Frankish culverin.
September 20 – Ferdinand Magellan departs from Spain with a fleet of five ships, to sail westbound to the Spice Islands.
October 12 – Hernán Cortés and his men, accompanied by 3,000 Tlaxcalans, enter Cholula.
November 8 – Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlan, and the court of Aztec ruler Moctezuma.

Date unknown

The first civil revolt in Anatolia takes place, led by Alevi preacher Celâl.
The Spanish invade Barbados.
Spanish conquistador and founder of Panama City, Gaspar de Espinosa, sails up the Pacific coast from Panama to Nicaragua, landing at the Gulf of Nicoya.
Havana moves from the southern to the northern part of Cuba.
A large pandemic spreads from the Greater Antilles into Central America, and perhaps as far as Peru in South America. This widespread epidemic kills off much of the indigenous populations in these areas (the first widely documented epidemic in the New World).
Central Mexico Amerindians' population reaches 25.3 million.
The Mexican Indian Wars begin.
Cacao comes to Europe.
St. Olaf's Church, Tallinn is completed in Estonia.
The first recorded fatal accident involving a gun in England is recorded at Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire.