1560 - Political Events

Political Events

The Conspiracy of Amboise tries to overthrow France's Catholic House of Guise (see 1559). Louis de Bourbon, 1st Prince de Condé has organized the Huguenot rebellion, but the queen mother Catherine de' Medici declares herself regent and helps thwart the Huguenots. Some 1,200 are hanged at Amboise in March. Condé flees the court and presents himself in October to François II at Orléans, where he is arrested and sentenced to death November 26. François II dies at Orléans December 5 at age 16. His 10-year-old brother assumes the throne and will reign until 1574 as Charles IX with his mother, Catherine de' Medici, ruling the realm. She needs Condé as a counterbalance to the Guise family and remits his death sentence (see 1562).

French troops in Scotland try to assert the claims of France's queen Mary Stuart, now 17, against Elizabeth of England, whom Roman Catholics consider illegitimate (see 1559). English troops besiege the French at Leith. Mary's mother, Marie of Lorraine, dies in June. Elizabeth's secretary William Cecil overcomes her reluctance and persuades her to intervene in Scotland; and the Treaty of Edinburgh July 6 brings a temporary end to French interference in that country (but see 1561).

England's Elizabeth appoints Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd earl of Sussex, her lord lieutenant of Ireland with instructions to establish settlements at Offaly and Leix in the province of Leinster (see 1556). Sussex, 35, will remain in the post until 1566, exercising English authority for the first time in any meaningful way beyond the Pale (parts of what later will be the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare) (see O'Neill's rebellion, 1562).

Sweden's Gustav I Eriksson abdicates June 25 at age 64 after a 37-year reign that has made the country independent. His 27-year-old son has been writing love letters of marriage proposals for 2 years to Elizabeth of England; he will reign until 1568 as Erik XIV as the House of Vasa continues its suzerainty.

Former Genoese statesman and admiral Andrea Doria dies at Genoa November 25 just 5 days short of his 94th birthday.

The Auracanian Federation destroys Spanish settlements in the interior of Chile.