1529
Siege of Vienna
Suleiman's army, bogged down by autumn rains, reached the walls of Vienna and began mining its bastions. The defenders, led by Count Nicholas of Salm, held for two weeks while snow fell on the Ottoman camp. Suleiman withdrew in October. Islam had reached its high-water mark in Central Europe. The failure marked the effective limit of Ottoman expansion into Central Europe, establishing the Danube frontier for two centuries.
Imam Ahmad Gragn Invades Ethiopia
The Somali imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, remembered as Gragn the Left-Handed, led a jihadi army of Adal out of Harar and into the Ethiopian highlands. Armed with Ottoman matchlocks, he burned churches and drove the Christian emperor Lebna Dengel into hiding in the mountains for a decade. The jihad destroyed churches, monasteries, and manuscripts accumulated over a thousand years, causing losses never fully recovered.
Marburg Colloquy Fails
Luther and Zwingli met at Marburg in an attempt to unite the German and Swiss wings of the Reformation. They agreed on fourteen points and split bitterly over the fifteenth: whether Christ was truly present in the Eucharist. Luther carved the words Hoc est corpus meum into the tabletop with chalk.
Treaty of Zaragoza Divides the Pacific
Spain and Portugal, still squabbling over the Spice Islands, drew another meridian around the back of the globe. Spain sold its claim to the Moluccas for three hundred and fifty thousand ducats. The Philippines, technically, were Portuguese, though the Spanish would pretend otherwise soon enough. The impossibility of measuring longitude at sea ensured Spanish and Portuguese empires would continue to overlap in maritime Asia.
Charles V Enters Bologna
The emperor arrived in Bologna to be crowned by the pope, traveling with a train of thousands and a menagerie that included an elephant. The city strained to feed them. The coronation, the last of a pope crowning an emperor, symbolized a brief reconciliation between imperial authority and Roman spiritual prestige.
Peace of Cambrai
Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Austria, the mothers of Francis I and Charles V, negotiated the Ladies' Peace at Cambrai, ending another round of the Italian Wars. It settled nothing permanently but gave both monarchs breathing space. Observers noted that two women had accomplished what their sons could not.