EVENTS
1461: Second Battle of Saint Albans
In the long-running Wars of the
Roses, a previous battle
had taken place at Saint Albans
nearly six years earlier, a very
brief incident that gave Richard, Duke of York, the upper hand in the
conflict. But soon the opposition rose once more and war broke out
again in 1459.
The Duke had been dead some time when Henry's indomitable Queen Margaret and York's son Edward both sought to capture London. It was Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (also known as the Kingmaker), who met the queen at Saint Albans, but he lost the battle, leaving his prisoner, King Henry VI, to Margaret's forces.
Margaret made a grave error when she allowed her forces to pillage the town and Abbey of Saint Albans. The people of London, hearing of this behavior, sent her a message saying she would not be welcome unless she could guarantee that her troops would not so mistreat Londoners. While Margaret thought this over, Edward York and Richard Neville entered London, where York soon was crowned King Edward IV.
1537: Appendix on the Papacy signed
In June of 1536, Pope
Paul III had issued a bull calling for a general council to deal
with the Reformation. The Schmalkaldic
League, a group of leading Protestant reformers, gathered in
Schmalkalden to consider a response. Although Martin
Luther had written something for the occasion, the league
decided against endorsing it, and instead assigned Philip
Melancthon to the task of writing a work addressing the primacy
of the pope.
Melancthon's treatise declared that the papacy's claim of supremity over church and secular kingdoms alike was false and, after addressing what the Protestants considered abuses in the papal office, recommended the office be disposed of. Upon reading the treatise to the League it was signed as a confession of faith. The treatise was published anonymously in 1540.
WHO DIED
1600: Giordano Bruno
Astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher,
Bruno
set forth several advanced scientific theories, including those of
the infinite universe and multiple worlds. He even went beyond the
Copernican
theory, which centered a finite universe of fixed stars around the
sun (although Bruno's grasp of astronomy and physics was not exactly
complete). After a successful if rather controversial career in the
sciences, he was arrested and tried by first the Venetian and then
the Roman Inquisition, who demanded he retract all his theories.
Bruno refused, and by the order of Pope
Clement VIII he was declared an impenitent heretic and burned
alive.
