1547
Ivan IV Crowned Tsar of Russia
A sixteen-year-old grand prince named Ivan Vasilyevich had himself crowned Tsar of all the Russias in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, the first ruler to use the title formally. He would reform law, conquer Kazan and Astrakhan, and earn the epithet Grozny, meaning the Terrible. His coronation, modeled on Byzantine ritual, positioned Moscow as the Third Rome and guardian of Orthodox Christianity.
Henry VIII Dies
The enormous, suppurating King of England died at Whitehall just before dawn, having wrecked the English church, married six wives, and bankrupted the Crown. Nine-year-old Edward VI inherited a realm halfway reformed and a regency council already at one another's throats. His inventory at death included over two thousand tapestries, six thousand guns, and a debased currency that had impoverished his subjects.
Muehlberg Crushes the Schmalkaldic League
Charles V routed the Protestant Schmalkaldic League at Muehlberg on the Elbe, capturing the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse. Titian would paint the emperor on horseback in ceremonial armor. The triumph proved brief: German Protestantism would rally within five years. Titian's equestrian portrait of the victory depicted Charles as a chivalric warrior, creating one of Habsburg power's most iconic images.
Francis I Dies at Rambouillet
The Renaissance king of France, patron of Leonardo and builder of Chambord, died at Rambouillet of infections worsened by a lifetime of jousting and womanizing. His son Henry II succeeded him, married to the scheming Catherine de' Medici. The French wars of religion were three years closer. His court at Fontainebleau had established France as a Renaissance center and laid foundations for its later cultural dominance.
Edward VI Crowned
The nine-year-old Edward VI, only surviving son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was crowned in Westminster Abbey. His maternal uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, ruled as Lord Protector and pushed the English Reformation further in a Protestant direction. Six years later Edward was dead of tuberculosis. The young king proved precociously intelligent and deeply Protestant, personally supporting the most radical reforms of Cranmer's tenure.
Charles V Illness at Augsburg
The emperor suffered a debilitating attack of gout at Augsburg that left him unable to walk or even hold a pen. His mood blackened, his empire creaked, and his ambitions began to outstrip his body. His retreat to Yuste was nine years away, but the germ of exhaustion was already visible.