King James V Visits France (1536): Diplomacy and the Search for a Royal Bride

The fortress Sebezh defeats Nemirovich's Lithuanian forces when they try to besiege it in 1536.

The Muscovites now attack Liubech, …

…raze Vitebsk, and …

...build the fortresses of Velizh and ...

...Zavoloche.

Pope Paul III issues a bull calling for a general council of the Roman Catholic Church to deal with the Reformation movement.

In response, Johann Friedrich (John Frederick), Lutheran elector of Saxony, seeks to determine what issues can be negotiated with the Roman Catholics and what can not be compromised.

He therefore asks Martin Luther to review earlier statements of faith by the Reformers to determine what is essential to the faith.

After Luther prepares the articles, he invites several Reformers to Wittenberg to discuss them, and after some minor changes, eight theologians sign them.

They are then sent to the Elector in January 1537, and become known as the Schmalkaldic Articles.

Ibrahim Pasa conducts preliminary negotiations in Constantinople in January 1536 with the representative of the French king for a commercial treaty.

Süleyman, alarmed by his usurpation of the titles of sovereignty and fearing for his own throne, has the grand vizier executed on March 15.

(Christian historians will later accuse Francis of encouraging Ottoman expansion into central Europe to relieve Habsburg pressure on him, but the Ottoman advances should be ascribed less to French overtures than to Süleyman's own ambitions, together with his fears of Habsburg rule in Hungary and a possible alliance among the Habsburgs, Hungarians, and Safavids.)

The sultan regards the French king largely as a supplicant for commercial favors, which are granted in the Capitulations treaty of 1536, an agreement by which French subjects are given the freedom to travel and trade in the sultan's dominions and subjects of other states wishing to do the same are required to secure French protection.

French and other merchants and travelers in the Ottoman Empire are allowed to remain under French laws and courts in cases concerning themselves and are granted special privileges in cases involving Ottoman subjects.

Thus is established the foundation of the French predominance in the Levant, which will remain until modern times.

Sher Khan declares his independence and invades Bengal in 1536, compelling Humayun to return from his campaign in Gujarat without leaving behind occupation forces.

Sultan Bahadur returns north freely, again assuming control of his territories and continuing his opposition to Mughal authority.

The city of Lausanne, ruled for centuries by the Dukes of Savoy and the Bishop of Lausanne, comes under Bernese rule in 1536 and the Reformation is introduced.

Hans Franz Nägeli had in 1531 been captain of the Bernese forces in the campaign against the adventurer-robber baron Giangiacomo Medici, lord of Musso, and during the occupation of the frontier of the canton of Valais in the intercantonal religious struggle known as the second Kappel War.

In 1536, he commands a Bernese contingent of six thousand men in the liberation of the Duchy of Vaud from Savoyard control and leads an expedition against the Bishop of Lausanne that frees François Bonivard from the castle of Chillon.

John Calvin begins publishing his “Institutes of the Christian Religion" in 1536, designed to offer a brief summary of essential Christian belief and to defend French Protestants, currently subject to serious persecution, as true heirs of the early church.

With publication of the small book, which contains only six brief sections, Calvin fully intends to devote his life to further study.

On a trip to Strasbourg in July, however, he is forced to detour through Geneva where he hopes to stay only one night.

The fiery Guillaume Farel, who has worked for five years for the reform of this city, threatens Calvin with a curse from God, and thus persuades him to remain, as minister and teacher, to help organize Protestantism there.

Calvin soon establishes theocratic rule in the city.