1567
Duke of Alba Arrives in the Netherlands
The Duke of Alba marched into Brussels with ten thousand Spanish veterans and established the Council of Troubles, quickly nicknamed the Council of Blood. He arrested, tortured, and executed thousands of suspected heretics and rebels. Dutch resistance hardened into an eighty-year war of independence. His execution of Egmont and Hoorn alienated moderate opinion and transformed a political crisis into an unwinnable guerrilla war.
Mary Queen of Scots Abdicates
Imprisoned at Lochleven Castle after the scandalous murder of her second husband and her impulsive marriage to the Earl of Bothwell, Mary Stewart was forced to sign away the Scottish throne in favor of her infant son James. She escaped a year later and fled south into a new captivity.
Luis de Camoes Returns to Lisbon
The soldier-poet Luis de Camoes, having spent seventeen years in Portuguese Asia and East Africa, returned to Lisbon carrying the manuscript of his epic poem Os Lusiadas, which celebrated Vasco da Gama's voyage and the Portuguese maritime empire. Published in 1572, it would become the Portuguese national epic. Os Lusiadas combined epic structure with eyewitness observation, making it both a literary masterpiece and an invaluable historical document.
Death of Mary of Guise
Mary of Guise, the Catholic French widow of James V of Scotland and regent for her daughter Mary Queen of Scots, had died earlier in the decade; her Scotland continued fraying. Riots, preachers, and noble conspiracies signaled a country swinging decisively toward Calvinist Presbyterianism despite her efforts. Her death removed French influence from Scotland and left the field clear for Knox and the Protestant lords to reshape its faith.