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GREAT KINGS AND IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY A. D. 1469 – 1624 A.D. 1469 Marriage of one of the Great Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella joins two Spanish crowns. A.D. 1485 A king of great kings, Henry, the first Tudor, defeats Richard III at Bosworth, winning the English crown. A.D. 1492 Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, falls to the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella. A.D. 1519 Another king of great kings, Charles I of Spain becomes Holy Roman Emperor, founding the Hapsburg dynasty. A.D. 1534 England breaks with the Papacy, making Henry VIII and his heirs sole heads of the church. A.D. 1553 Mary, a Catholic, assumes the English throne and begins to persecute Protestants. A.D. 1558 On Mary’s death Elizabeth becomes queen and re-establishes Protestantism. A.D. 1565 Ivan the Terrible subdues the Russian boyars by threatening to leave the throne. A.D. 1566 The Dutch led by William the Silent, revolt against Spanish domination. A.D. 1571 A Spanish fleet destroys the Turkish navy in the battle of Lepanto. A.D. 1572 Huguenots in Paris are massacred on St. Bartholomew’s Day, starting a religious war. A.D. 1588 The British, under Drake, defeat the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada. A.D. 1594 Henry of Navarre, a former Huguenot, is made king of France at Chartres Cathedral. A.D. 1598 Henry IV issues the Edict of Nantes granting toleration to French Protestants. A.D. 1610 Henry IV is assassinated; his nine-year-old son becomes Louis XIII. A.D. 1617 Louis takes power against his mother’s will and exiles her. A.D. 1618 Prussia and Brandenburg are united under one duke; Protestant Bohemia revolts against the Hapsburg Empire, which begins the Thirty Years War. A.D. 1619 The rebelling Bohemians elect Frederick of the Palatinate their king. A.D. 1620 The Bohemia army is defeated at White Mountain; Frederick flees the country. A.D. 1624 Louis XIII makes Richelieu first minister of France. IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS IN EUROPEAN HISTORY A. D. 1626 – 1762 A.D. 1626 King Christian of Denmark invades Germany and is defeated by imperial troops under Wallenstein and Tilly. A.D. 1630 Sweden enters the Thirty Years War under Gustavus Adolphus. A.D. 1631 The imperial forces under Tilly loot and burn Madgeburg and are routed by Gustavus at the battle of Breitenfeld near Leipzig. A.D. 1632 Gustavus is killed in the battle of Lutzen. A.D. 1634 Wallenstein is dismissed from command and assassinated; a Swedish defeat at Nordlingen forces France to enter the war. A.D. 1642 Death of Richelieu. A.D. 1643 Louis XIII dies and is succeeded by his five-year-old son, Louis XIV. A.D. 1648 The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War; much of Germany is devastated. A.D. 1652 Louis enters Paris to take control of his kingdom away from Condé and the queen mother. A.D. 1662 Colbert is made finance minister of France and encourages new industries. A.D. 1672 Louis invades the Netherlands but is stopped by the resistance under William of Orange. A.D. 1685 Louis revokes the Edict of Nantes; thousands of Huguenots flee the country. A.D. 1688 William of Orange lands in England and takes the crown from James II. A.D. 1696 Peter becomes tsar and begins to modernize Russia. A.D. 1700 Louis’ grandson Philip is made king of Spain. A.D. 1701 England, Holland and the Hapsburgs declare war on France to prevent Philip from uniting France and Spain under one king. A.D. 1703 Peter builds a new capital at St. Petersburg. A.D. 1714 France loses the war and pledges to keep Spain separate. A.D. 1715 Death of Louis XIV. A.D. 1740 Frederick the Great becomes king of Prussia and occupies Silesia, causing war with Austria. A.D. 1756 The Seven Years War begins; Prussia is invaded by Austria, France, Sweden, and Russia. A.D. 1762 Catherine the Great takes the throne of Russia.
IN AUGUST of 1485, Henry Tudor landed on the Welsh coast, to fight King Richard III for the crown of England. Henry was twenty-nine years old, lean and golden-haired, with a merry face. He was head of the Lancaster family,…
IT WAS Wednesday, October 18, 1469 and Princess Isabella of Castile and Prince Ferdinand of Aragon were being married. At the end of the beautiful ceremony, the two thousand guests cheered and the entire city of Valladolid began a week…
WHEN MORE than a century of war between England and France ended in 1453, it was the French king, Charles VII, who was victorious. Although he had driven the English out of France, Charles found himself the king of a…
EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I of the Holy Roman Empire walked up to a wild lion and pulled out its tongue; his enemies set his house on fire, tried to poison him and ambushed him twenty times; wild bears attacked him three…
THE BLOOD-LETTING in Germany aroused new ambitions in many of the kings of Europe. In Denmark and Sweden, the strong Protestant king: who were taming opposition at home began looking to Germany as a land ripe for conquest. Furthermore, in…
ALL HIS LIFE Cardinal Richelieu had been a sick man, but by the spring of 1642 he was dying. He carefully made his will, leaving to the king his elegant town house, eight sets of tapestries‚ and three beds. On…
AT THE END of the 16th century, Brandenburg and Prussia were unimportant German lands, but the ruler of Brandenburg was clever and farsighted. He was John Sigismund, the head of the Hohenzollern family. In 1594 John Sigismund married the daughter…
IN THE LAST PART of the fifteenth century, the monks and courtiers of Moscow began to say that Moscow was destined to become the “Third Rome.” The first Rome, they said had been great as the centre of Christianity; but…