Duke Charles of Habsburg was officially proclaimed King of Spain (as Charles I), on March 14, 1516, after the death of his grandfather Ferdinand II on January 23, 1516. Charles was the first monarch to simultaneously rule both the Castilian and Aragonese crowns. In 1519, he became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
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What Happened in March?
The first Olympic games, the founding of dynasties, and legendary battles. Explore historic milestones from March that influenced today's world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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c. 1519, March 13
Hernán Cortés and his Spanish conquistadors arrive at the coast of Mexico, c, March 13, 1519 and land near present-day Veracruz on April 22, 1519, establishing a base there , marking the beginning of their conquest of the Aztec Empire, leading to their entry into Tenochtitlán on November 8, 1519.
Magellan and his crew first came into contact with inhabitants of the Homonhon Island, on March 17, 1521(Now part of the the Philippines). Five weeks later, on April 27 Magellan was mortally wounded by the warriors of island Mactan, chief Lapu-Lapus. He died at the age of 41.
c. 1526, March
William Tyndale, linguist and a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation completes the translation of the New Testament to English in 1526 and goes on to translate parts of the Old Testament (Pentateuch) in 1530. He was arrested in May 1535 and executed in 1536 for heresy, unable to complete the full Bible translation..
Early Bible Translations Overview:
Tyndale: (1525) (Provided the New Testament and the Old Testament from Genesis to 2 Chronicles, translated directly from Hebrew and Greek. Tyndale was arrested in 1535 and executed for heresy in 1536.
Myles Coverdale: (1535), Provided the remaining Old Testament (Ezra to Malachi) and the Apocrypha, largely translated from German (Luther) and Latin sources. Coverdale died from natural sources on January 20, 1569.
John Rogers: (1537), Compiled the existing translations, under the pseudonym "Thomas Matthew," adding marginal notes and prefaces. Rogers was executed as a heretic in 1555.
The Act in Conditional Restraint of Annates is passed by the English parliament on March 21, 1532 as an initial tactic to threaten the Pope by suspending the payment of annates to Rome but allowed for a small portion to still be sent to Rome, with the rest redirected to the Crown, if a papal annulment of King Henry VIII marriage wasn't granted within a year.
The Galapagos Islands are discovered by chance on March 10, 1535 when the ship carrying the Bishop of Panama, Dominican friar Fray Tomas de Berlanga was dragged to the Galapagos by a combination of calm and strong currents.
Berlanga was on his way to Peru by order of the Spanish monarch, Charles V, to arbitrate in a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his subordinates after the conquest of the Inca empire.
The execution of Thomas Seymour for high treason takes place in London, on March 20, 1549. He was the brother of Jane Seymour uncle of King Edward VI and husband of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII' widow.
The charges included, plotting to marry Princess Elizabeth, attempting to control King Edward VI, and trying to take over the government from his brother, the Duke of Somerset.
Thomas Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and key architect of the English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI, was burned at the stake for heresy in Oxford, on March 21, 1556. becoming one of the "Marian Martyrs", despite recanting his beliefs under pressure from Mary I.
The Peace of Longjumeau was signed on March 23, 1568 by Charles IX of France and Catherine de' Medici, ending the second war of the French Wars of Religion. The agreement was overturned later in the year by the Edict of Saint-Maur which outlawed Protestantism at the beginning of the third war of religion.
c. 1580 CE, March
Spain's King Philip II revokes William the Silent's amnesty, c. March 1580, and offers a 25,000 reward (roughly 3 million Euros), and a nobility title for William's assassination. The act ultimately lead to William's assassination on July 10, 1584 but it also renewed hostilities in the Dutch Revolt .
After William was killed, his sons, Maurice of Nassau and Frederick Henry, continued the fight for Dutch independence escalating the Eight Years' War and ultimately leading to Dutch independence from Spain in 1648.
The Portuguese succession crisis of 1580 is resolved when King Philip II of Spain is declared Philip I of Portugal, on March, 25, 1581, bringing Portugal under Spanish rule and beginning 60 years of Iberian union under the House of Habsburg.
Ivan IV, Tsar of Russia, known as Ivan the Terrible dies on March 28, 1584 after a reign of 41 years. More
The first reported performance of Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 (referred to as Harey Vj) takes place on March 3, 1592, at the Rose Theatre in Southwark.
The first recorded St. Patrick’s Day parade in the Americas takes place on March 17, 1601, on the Catholic Feast Day of St. Patrick, in the Spanish colony of modern-day St. Augustine, Florida, organized by Ricardo Arture, the colony’s Irish vicar. More than a century later, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in Boston in 1737 and in New York City in 1762.
Now, March 17 is the annual holiday of Saint Patrick, a Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland who died on March 17, 461,CE at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland. Much of what is known about St. Patrick’s life is from legend and folklore and from a book attributed to him. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is now observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church. It commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and, by connection, it celebrates the Irish culture and heritage. St. Patrick has never been actually canonized by the Catholic Church and he is considered a saint by "popular acclaim".
The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was established on March 20, 1602 to facilitate colonial trade.by controlling the spice trade, reduce competition, and fund military actions against colonial rivals like Portugal.
It effectively became the world's first true multinational "company-state" and the first company to issue publicly traded shares. It could trade, maintain armies. build forts, wage war and mint money; allowing it to commanding incredible large amount of wealth. Due primarily to financial mismanagement and corruption, the VOC was declared bankrupt .in 1798–1799.and nationalized.
The Dutch East India Company is chartered by the Netherlands government, on March 20, 1602, to pursue trade expansion in Asia. as it challenges Portuguese dominance in the Asian spice trade.
Queen Elizabeth I of England dies childless on March 24, 1603 and James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots becomes James I of England, uniting the crowns of England and Scotland under one monarch for the first time.
Irish rebel Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. signs the Treaty of Mellifont, on March 30, 1603 ending the Nine Years' War in Ireland.
The treaty required him to renounce his Irish titles and submit to English authority. Due to the continuous, mutual distrust with the English authorities, O'Neill and other Ulster chiefs left Ireland in 1607 (the "Flight of the Earls").
The March 13, 1610 publication of Galileo Galilei's "Sidereus Nuncius" announces his discovery of Jupiter's four largest moons earlier in January 1610, presenting the first telescopic proof of celestial bodies orbiting another planet, challenging Earth-centered views. The Jupiter moons by him are now known as the Galilean moons.
German physician Johannes Fabricius, who devoted much of his spare time to astronomical observations, observes sunspots through a telescope for the first time on March 9, 1611 when working with his father, David, using a camera obscura technique to safely observe these spots. Their findings published later contributed to early astronomy studies and demonstrated the Sun's rotation.