1509
Almeida Wins the Battle of Diu
A second, decisive clash off Diu saw Almeida's smaller Portuguese fleet smash a Mamluk-Gujarati armada. The viceroy's guns redrew commercial geography: Venice's spice galleys faltered, Lisbon grew fat, and Islam lost its grip on the ocean that had been its economic lifeline for eight centuries. The victory established Portuguese naval supremacy for the rest of the century and foreshadowed the Mamluk Sultanate's fall eight years later.
Henry VIII Takes the English Throne
The seventeen-year-old Prince Henry Tudor succeeded his miserly father, tall and athletic and freshly married to his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. England celebrated a new golden age. No one guessed that this chivalric prince would one day smash the abbeys and behead two of his wives. His early reign earned him the papal title Defender of the Faith, an honor he kept even after breaking with Rome.
Portuguese First See Southern China
The captain Diogo Lopes de Sequeira reached Malacca and sent men east, reporting back to Lisbon that beyond lay the coast of a vast empire called Cathay, whose merchants wore silk and paid in silver. Portugal had not yet touched Chinese soil but was already calculating how to. The reports sparked a decades-long Portuguese effort to establish trade with the Ming, culminating in the lease of Macao.
Krishnadevaraya Crowned at Vijayanagara
A general of common birth named Krishnadevaraya ascended the throne of the vast Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara in southern India. Scholar, poet, and warrior, he would repel the Deccan sultans, rebuild temple complexes, and preside over a court remembered for its elephants, ambassadors, and Telugu verse. His reign is remembered as a golden age of Telugu literature, and Hampi may have been the second-largest city in the world.
French Shatter Venice at Agnadello
Louis XII's army broke the Venetian land forces near the village of Agnadello in a single afternoon. The Republic's mainland empire dissolved within weeks. Machiavelli, watching from Florence, drew lessons about the frailty of mercenaries that would surface years later in The Prince. Venice's diplomatic recovery demonstrated the Republic's extraordinary resilience, studied by political theorists for centuries afterward.
Erasmus Writes In Praise of Folly
Crossing the Alps to visit Thomas More in London, the Dutch humanist Erasmus composed a satirical oration in the voice of Folly herself, mocking monks, theologians, and pompous kings. Printed in Paris two years later, the book became the century's funniest bestseller and quietly undermined the Church. The dedication to Thomas More, whose surname punned with the Greek word for fool, reflected their deep humanist friendship.