1525 CE

Battle of Pavia: German and Spanish forces under Charles de Lannoy and the Marquis of Pescara defeat the French army, and capture Francis I of France, after his horse is wounded by Cesare Hercolani. While Francis is imprisoned in Lombardy and then transferred to Madrid, the first attempts to form a Franco-Ottoman alliance with Suleiman the Magnificent against the Habsburg Empire are made. German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire: Battle of Leipheim – The peasants suffer great losses when they are attacked by Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg and the town of Leipheim is forced to surrender. Four peasant leaders are beheaded, including Jakob Wehe and Ulrich Schoen. Henry VIII of England appoints his six-year-old illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy Duke of Richmond and Somerset.

In the 1520s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • August 30 – The French ambassador to England and King Henry VIII sign the Treaty of the More at a castle, "The More", in Hertfordshire.source
  • August 30 – Treaty of the More was signed between Henry VIII of England and queen regent Louise of Savoy restoring relation between France and England.Francesource
  • October 10 – the Earl of Angus, Scotland's Lord Warden of the Marches in charge of border security on the boundary with England, is able to work out a three-year peace treaty with the Kingdom of England and signs the initial agreement at the English border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.source
  • The Age of Samael ends, and the Age of Gabriel begins, according to Johannes Trithemius.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 24 – Battle of Pavia: German and Spanish forces under Charles de Lannoy and the Marquis of Pescara defeat the French army, and capture Francis I of France, after his horse is wounded by Cesare Hercolani. While Francis is imprisoned in Lombardy and then transferred to Madrid, the first attempts to form a Franco-Ottoman alliance with Suleiman the Magnificent against the Habsburg Empire are made.source
  • February 24 –The French army is defeated in the Battle of Pavia, this was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521–26.Francesource
  • April 4 – German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire: Battle of Leipheim – The peasants suffer great losses when they are attacked by Georg, Truchsess von Waldburg and the town of Leipheim is forced to surrender. Four peasant leaders are beheaded, including Jakob Wehe and Ulrich Schoen.source
  • May 14–15 – German Peasants' War: Battle of Frankenhausen – Insurgent peasants led by radical pastor Thomas Müntzer are defeated. Following the defeat, Müntzer is executed in front of the gates of Mühlhausen.source
  • June 23–24 – German Peasants' War: Battle of Pfeddersheim – Peasants are defeated in the last significant action of the war, in which over 75,000 peasants have been killed.source
  • Mixco Viejo, capital of the Pocomans Maya State, falls to the Spanish conquistadores of Pedro de Alvarado (in modern-day Guatemala) after a three-month siege.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • December – The first French ambassador to reach the Sublime Porte, Jean Frangipani, sets out for Constantinople.source
  • Kasur established as a city by the Kheshgi tribe of Pashtuns from Kabul who migrate to the region in 1525 from Afghanistan.source
  • The Chinese Ministry of War under the Ming dynasty orders ships having more than one mast sailing along the southeast coast to be seized, investigated, and destroyed; this in an effort to curb piracy and limit private commercial trade abroad.source

Religion & Belief

  • June 4 – 1525 Bayham Abbey riot; Villagers from Kent and Sussex, England riot and occupy Bayham Old Abbey for a week in protest against Cardinal Thomas Wolsey's order to suppress the monastery in order to fund two colleges founded by him.source
  • July 29 – Santa Marta, the first city in Colombia, is founded by Spanish conquistador Rodrigo de Bastidas.source
  • September 14 – In Switzerland, the burning of most of the book collection of the Stiftsbibliothek of the Grossmünster Abbey in Zurich begins, by order of Huldrych Zwingli, as part of the Swiss Reformation. After 20 days of destruction of a collection built since 1259 for over 250 years, only 470 volumes are left.source
  • September 24 – Jeremias I is restored to the position of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church, by order of the Ottoman Empire Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.source
  • November 25 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor acting in his capacity as the King of Spain, issues an edict ordering the expulsion or conversion of the remaining Muslims in the Crown of Aragon, similar to that issued for the Crown of Castile by Queen Isabella in 1502. The order applies to the Kingdom of Valencia and the Principality of Catalonia.source
  • December 8 – A second edict is issued in Spain directing Spanish Muslims to show proof of baptism as Christians or to leave by the deadline of December 31 (for Valencia) or January 26 (for Aragon and Catalonia).source
  • Printing of Huldrych Zwingli's New Testament 'Zürich Bible' translation into German by Christoph Froschauer begins.source
  • Printing of the first edition of William Tyndale's New Testament Bible translation into English in Cologne is interrupted by anti-Lutheran forces and Tyndale flees to Worms (finished copies reach England in 1526).source

Health & Medicine

  • European-brought diseases sweep through the Andes, killing thousands, including the Inca.source
  • The Bubonic plague spreads in southern France.source

Crime & Justice

  • December 31 – The deadline for Spanish Muslims to convert to Christianity in the Valencia is reached, after which remaining Muslims, or those who harbor them as fugitives, becomes punishable by forced exile, imprisonment or death.source
  • The Navarre witch trials (1525-1526) begins.source

Culture & Society

  • January 21 – The Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.source
  • March 20 – In the German town of Memmingen, the pamphlet The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed is published, the first human rights related document written in Europe.source
  • April 10 – Albert, Duke of Prussia commits Prussian Homage.source
  • June 13 – Martin Luther marries ex-nun Katharina von Bora. The painter Lucas Cranach the Elder is one of the witnesses.source
  • June 18 – Henry VIII of England appoints his six-year-old illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy Duke of Richmond and Somerset.source
  • August 13 – The coronation of Sophie of Pomerania as Queen consort of Denmark takes place in Copenhagen, a little more than a year after her husband's coronation as King Frederick I. She is granted Lolland and Falster, the castles in Kiel and Plön, and several villages in Holstein for her income.source

Births

  • January 29 – Lelio Sozzini, Italian Renaissance humanist and anti-Trinitarian reformer (died 1562)source
  • February 5 – Juraj Drašković, Croatian Catholic cardinal (died 1587)source
  • March 25 – Richard Edwardes, English choral musician, playwright and poet (died 1566)source
  • June 1 – Caspar Peucer, German reformer (died 1602)source
  • June 29 – Peter Agricola, German Renaissance humanist, educator, classical scholar, theologian, diplomat and statesman (died 1585)source
  • September 1 – Christoffer Valkendorff, Danish politician (died 1601)source
  • September 11 – John George, Elector of Brandenburg (died 1598)source
  • September 25 – Steven Borough, English explorer (died 1584)source
  • November 7 – Georg Cracow, German lawyer and politician (died 1575)source
  • December 1 – Tadeáš Hájek, Czech astronomer (died 1600)source
  • December 23 – John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg (died 1576)source
  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer (died 1594)source
  • Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Flemish painter (died 1569)source
  • date unknown – Maharal of Prague, Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic and philosopher (died 1609)source
  • Guillaume Le Bé, punch cutter and engraver (died 1598)Francesource
  • Claude de Sainctes, French Catholic theologist and author (died 1591)Francesource
  • René Boyvin, engraver (died 1598)Francesource
  • Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare (died 1585)Irelandsource

Deaths

  • February 24 – Louis II de la Trémoille, French military leader (born 1460) — in action at the Battle of Paviasource
  • February 24 – Richard de la Pole, last Yorkist claimant to the English throne (born 1480) — in action at the Battle of Paviasource
  • February 24 – Bartolomeo Fanfulla, Italian mercenary (born 1477) — in action at the Battle of Paviasource
  • February 24 – Galéas de Saint-Séverin, French-Italian condottiere (born 1460s)Francesource
  • February 24 – Louis II de la Trémoille, French general (born 1460)Francesource
  • February 24 – Guillaume Gouffier, French army commander (born 1488)Francesource
  • February 28 – Cuauhtémoc, last Tlatoani of the Aztec Empire (born c. 1495)source
  • February 28 – The last Aztec Emperor, Cuauhtémoc, is killed by Hernán Cortés.source
  • April 2 or April 3 – Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai, Italian Renaissance man of letters (born 1475)source
  • May 5 – Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (born 1463)source
  • May 12 – Anna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburgian royal (born 1485)source
  • May 18 – Pietro Pomponazzi, Italian philosopher (born 1462)source
  • May 27 – Thomas Müntzer, German pastor and rebel leader (born 1489) (executed)source
  • July 22 – Richard Wingfield, English diplomat (born c. 1456)source
  • October 24 – Thomas Dacre, 2nd Baron Dacre, Knight of Henry VIII of England (born 1467)source
  • November 17 – Eleanor of Viseu, queen of João II of Portugal (born 1458)source
  • December 30 – Jakob Fugger, German banker (born 1459)source
  • Date unknown - Anna Eriksdotter (Bielke), war heroine (born 1490)Swedensource