1543 - Political Events

Political Events

England's Henry VIII, now 52, marries Catherine Parr, 31, July 12. Formerly married to Edward Borough and then to a Lord Latimer, Catherine is a daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal, is knowledgeable about religious subjects, and will have a chastening influence on the king in his final years.

The Ottoman admiral Barbarossa (Khair ad-Din) joins with François I to bombard, besiege, and sack the imperial city of Nice.

Ottoman forces invade Persia for the third time in 9 years, recovering territory that was lost earlier and seizing new territories; hostilities will continue until 1555.

Spanish conquistador Ruy Lopez de Villalobos is driven out of the Philippine Islands by the natives a year after reaching the islands and giving them their name (see Magellan, 1521). He is captured by the Portuguese.

Japan receives her first European visitors as a Chinese ship carrying two Portuguese adventurers is wrecked on an island off Kyushu. The fastidious Japanese find the foreigners offensive (like most Europeans, the men go for months without bathing), they will come to call them Namban (Chinese for southern barbarians), but the strangers have arquebuses (muskets) that the local lord buys and duplicates. Firearms will henceforth be employed in Japanese warfare.