1580
Iberian Union
Philip II of Spain claimed the vacant Portuguese throne after the death of his uncle, Cardinal-King Henry. Portuguese nobles who objected were intimidated, bribed, or exiled. For the next sixty years, Spain and Portugal and their combined empires in Africa, Asia, and the Americas would have a single monarch. Portuguese administrators fiercely resisted Spanish interference, maintaining separate institutions throughout the sixty-year union.
Drake Returns to Plymouth
The Golden Hind slipped into Plymouth harbor with spices, plundered silver, and a crew that had been given up for dead. Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake on the deck of his ship the following April. She had personally received an estimated twenty-four times her annual income as her share of the loot.
Montaigne Publishes the Essays
The melancholy Gascon gentleman Michel de Montaigne published the first two books of his Essais, a new literary form that wandered from cannibalism to horsemanship to the smell of old men. Every educated European began copying him. The modern essay had found its first practitioner, skeptical, chatty, and witty. His question Que sais-je? established the essay as a literary form and skeptical self-inquiry as a philosophical method.
Plague Sweeps Venice
An outbreak of bubonic plague killed perhaps fifty thousand Venetians, nearly a third of the city, within months. The senate vowed to build the church of the Redentore if the disease lifted, and commissioned Palladio to design it. The plague and the pledge both shaped the city's skyline. The Redentore church, designed by Palladio, became the site of an annual pontoon-bridge festival Venetians observe to this day.
Drake Knighted on the Golden Hind
Elizabeth I came aboard the Golden Hind at Deptford and knighted Francis Drake on the deck of his battered flagship, wearing a gold-embroidered gown. The ceremony was as politically charged as any of the voyage's actions. Spain was furious. Elizabeth kept most of her share of the loot in her personal treasury.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1580?
Saeculum lists 5 curated events from 1580. The most significant is Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain claimed the vacant Portuguese throne after the death of his uncle, Cardinal-King Henry.
What era was 1580 part of?
1580 falls within the Renaissance (1501-1650). Reformation, conquest, and the world drawn whole.
Which regions saw notable events in 1580?
The curated events from 1580 span Europe.