1530 - Political Events

Political Events

Spain's Carlos I is crowned Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Italy February 23 at Bologna by Pope Clement VII, the last coronation of a German king by any pope. Charles presides over the Diet of Augsburg and will reign as emperor until 1556.

Florentine military leader Francesco Ferruccio, 40, suppresses a revolt at Volterra April 27, but imperial troops advancing on Florence take Empoli, and Ferruccio falls ill at Pisa. He marches to relieve Florence in late July but meets with defeat August 3 at Gavinana, where he is wounded, captured, and murdered by the enemy commander Fabrizio Maramaldo. Florence falls August 13.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John founded in 1113 settles in Malta and will hereafter be called the Knights of Malta (see 1522; 1565).

Cardinal Wolsey dies at Leicester Abbey November 29 at age 55 (approximate) while en route from York to London, where he was to have faced trial for treason; in his long political career he has amassed a fortune second only to that of Henry VIII.

The Mughal emperor Babar dies at Agra December 26 at age 47 after a 4-year reign in which he has conquered territory extending from Afghanistan to eastern India. His son Muhammed Humayun will reign without distinction until 1540 and then again, briefly, from 1555 to early 1556.

The Inca Huascár's younger half brother Atahualpa in Peru moves south from Quito with an army of 30,000 and destroys the town of Tumebanba, beginning a civil war that will wreck the empire's economy and decimate its population (see 1524). Huascár's army of 10,000 falls back, leaving suspension bridges over the Apurimac River intact. Atahualpa crosses the Apurimac (see 1532).