1500 A plague in London, which destroyed 30,000 of its inhabitants. A marriage was concluded between James IV, King of Scotland, and Margaret, the daughter of King Henry VII, which afterwards united England and Scotland under one King.
1505 Shillings first coined in England.
1513 Earl of Surrey gained the battle of Flodden-field, over the Scots, whose King, James IV, fell in the contest. King Henry invades France in person, takes Terwin and Tournay, at the siege of which, the Emperor Maximilian served under the King’s pay. At which siege likewise, was fought that battle called the battle of Spurs, because the English put some of the French troops to flight who made great use of their spurs.
1514 Enacted that surgeons should not sit on juries, nor be employed in parish offices.
1517 Oxford depopulated by stagnated waters. Martin Luther began the reformation in Germany.
1521 King Henry derived the title to him and his successors of Defender of the Faith, from writing a book against Luther. Musquets first invented. Mexico city yielded, after a prolonged siege, to Cortez, in August.
1522 Magellan performed his voyage under the auspices of Charles V, of Spain. He set sail from Seville, in Spain, in August, 1519. After spending several months on the coast of South America, searching for a passage to the Indies, he continued his voyage to the South, passed through the strait that bears his name, and after sailing three months and twenty-one days, through an unknown ocean, he discovered a cluster of fertile islands, which he named the Ladrones, or the Islands of Thieves, from the thievish disposition of the natives. The fair weather and favourable winds which he experienced induced him to bestow on this the name of the Pacific, which it still retains. Proceeding from the Ladrones, he discovered the islands which were afterwards called the Philippines in honour of Philip, King of Spain, who subjected them forty years after the voyage of Magellan. Here, in a contest with the natives, Magellan was killed, and the expedition was prosecuted under other commanders. After taking in a cargo of spices at the Moluccas, the only vessel of the squadron then fit for a long voyage, sailed for Europe by the way of the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived in Spain in September, 1522.
1530 The palace of St. James built.
1535 Brass cannon first cast in England by John Owen. Jacques Cartier discovered the St. Lawrence on that Saint’s day. He explored the north-east coast carefully, and, passing through the Strait of Belleisle, traversed the great Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and arrived in the Bay of Chaleurs in July. He was delighted with the peaceable and friendly conduct of the natives, “who,” says Hakluyt, “with one of their boats, came unto us, and brought us pieces of seals ready sodden, putting them upon pieces of wood: then, retiring themselves, they would make signs unto us, that they did give them to us.” From this hospitable place, where the natives seem to have displayed some of the politeness of modern society, Jacques Cartier proceeded to Gaspé Bay, where he erected a cross thirty feet high, with a shield bearing the three fleurs-de-lis of France, thus taking possession in the name of Francis the First. He carried off two natives from Gaspé, who were of great use to him on his succeeding voyage. It appears, however, that it was with their own consent, as they allowed themselves to be clothed in shirts, coloured coats and caps, and to have a copper chain placed about their neck, “whereat they were greatly contented, and gave their old clothes to their fellows that went back again.” Cartier coasted along the northern shores of the Gulf, when, meeting with boisterous weather, he made sail for France, and arrived at St. Malo on the 5th of September. This celebrated navigator deserves especial notice, inasmuch as he was the first who explored the shores of Canada to any considerable extent, and was the very first European who became acquainted with the existence of Hochelaga, and in 1535 pushed his way through all obstacles till he discovered and entered the village which occupied the very spot on which now stands the city of Montreal.
1536 376 monasteries suppressed.