Early Modern
Pilgrimage of Grace (1536): Northern Revolt Against Henry VIII
The rebels dispersed after a royal pardon and promises in December 1536, but after new risings in early 1537 Henry had the leaders and some 200 others executed.
Region
Europe
Early Modern
Execution of Anne Boleyn (1536): Fall of Henry VIII's Queen
Anne was convicted of adultery, incest and treason on charges most historians consider false, and beheaded; Henry married Jane Seymour eleven days later.
Early Modern
Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541): Henry VIII's Seizure
More than 800 religious houses were closed, their lands passed to the crown and then largely to the gentry, and monastic life ended in England for centuries.
Early Modern
Franco-Ottoman Alliance (1536): Francis I and Suleiman
France and the Ottoman Empire cooperated against Charles V, and the capitulations became the basis of French trade and influence in the Levant for centuries.
Early Modern
Battle of Preveza (1538): Barbarossa's Naval Triumph
Ottoman victory; the Holy League fleet withdrew and Venice soon made a costly separate peace, leaving the Ottomans dominant at sea for over three decades.
Early Modern
Ardabil Carpet (1539-40): The Famous Safavid Carpet Pair
The two carpets left Iran in the 1880s; the larger one has been in the Victoria and Albert Museum since 1893 and the other in LACMA since 1953.
Early Modern
Mimar Sinan: Chief Architect of the Ottoman Golden Age
Sinan designed hundreds of buildings and created the classical style of Ottoman architecture, culminating in the Selimiye Mosque.
Early Modern
Fall of Thomas Cromwell (1540): Henry VIII's Minister Executed
Cromwell was condemned without trial by an Act of Attainder for treason and heresy and beheaded on Tower Hill; the king married Catherine Howard the same day.
Early Modern
Founding of the Jesuits (1540): Ignatius of Loyola's Society
The bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae created the Society of Jesus, which grew into the largest teaching and missionary order of the Catholic Reformation.
Early Modern
John Calvin's Geneva (1541): The Reformed Church Takes Shape
Geneva became the model Reformed church and a training centre for Protestant ministers across Europe.
Early Modern
Ottoman Capture of Buda (1541): Central Hungary Annexed
Buda became the seat of the Ottoman province of Budin, and Hungary was divided into three parts until the city was retaken in 1686.
Early Modern
New Laws of 1542: Las Casas and Indigenous Rights in the Indies
Indigenous slavery was banned and new encomiendas forbidden, but colonial resistance and a revolt in Peru forced the Crown to withdraw key clauses in 1545.