The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8, by Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

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Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation

Author: Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10103]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT EVENTS V8 ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jayam Subramanian and PG Distributed Proofreaders

BINDING Vol. VIII

The binding of this volume is a facsimile of the original in the British Museum, and is considered the most artistic mosaic binding design in existence.

It was executed about 1710, by Antoine Michel Padeloup, Royal Binder of both France and Portugal.

He presented it to Francoise Marie de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan, on the anniversary of her marriage to Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who afterward became Regent of France.

During the Reign of Terror this volume found its way to England, where it was sold at a handsome price. It was bequeathed to the British Museum by Felix Slade, Esq.

THE GREAT EVENTS

BY

FAMOUS HISTORIANS

A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S HISTORY, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER-WORDS OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS

NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL

ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES, ARRANGED CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. JOHN RUDD, LL.D.

_With a staff of specialists

VOLUME VIII

The National Alumni_

1905

CONTENTS

VOLUME VIII

An Outline Narrative of the Great Events CHARLES F. HORNE

Origin and Progress of Printing (A.D. 1438) HENRY GEORGE BOHN

John Hunyady Repulses the Turks (A.D. 1440-1456) ARMINIUS VAMBERY

Rebuilding of Rome by Nicholas V, the "Builder-pope" (A.D. 1447-1455) MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT

Mahomet II Takes Constantinople (A.D. 1453) End of the Eastern Empire GEORGE FINLAY

Wars of the Roses (A.D. 1455-1485) Death of Richard III at Bosworth DAVID HUME

Ivan the Great Unites Russia and Breaks the Tartar Yoke (A.D. 1462-1505) ROBERT BELL

Culmination of the Power of Burgundy Treaty of Péronne (A.D. 1468) P.F. WILLERT

Lorenzo de'Medici Rules in Florence Zenith of Florentine Glory (A.D. 1469) OLIPHANT SMEATON

Death of Charles the Bold (A.D. 1477) Louis XI Unites Burgundy with the Crown of France PHILIPPE DE COMINES

Inquisition Established in Spain (A.D.1480), WILLIAM H. RULE JAMES BALMES

Murder of the Princes in the Tower (A.D.1483) JAMES GAIRDNER

Conquest of Granada (A.D.1490) WASHINGTON IRVING

Columbus Discovers America (A.D.1492) CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FERDINAND COLUMBUS

Conspiracy, Rebellion, and Execution of Perkin Warbeck (A.D.1492) FRANCIS BACON

Savonarola's Reforms and Death The French Invade Italy_ (A.D.1494) PASQUALE VILLARI JEAN C. L. SISMONDI

Discovery of the Mainland of North America by the Cabots (A.D.1497) SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSO

The Sea Route to India Vasco da Gama Sails around Africa (A.D.1498) GASPAR CORREA

Columbus Discovers South America (A.D.1498) CLEMENTS ROBERT MARKHAM

Establishment of Swiss Independence (A.D.1499) HEINRICH ZSCHOKKE

Amerigo Vespucci in America (A.D.1499) AMERIGO VESPUCCI

Rise and Fall of the Borgias (A.D.1502) NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

Painting of the Sistine Chapel (A.D.1508) The Splendor of Renaissance Art under Michelangelo CHARLES CLEMENT

Balboa Discovers the Pacific (A.D.1513) MANUEL JOSE QUINTANA

Universal Chronology (A.D.1438-1516) JOHN RUDD

ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME VIII

_Murder of the princes, sons of King Edward IV, in the Tower of London (page 194)1 Painting by Otto Seitz.

Facsimile of a page from Caxton's Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye—the first book printed in the English language

Louis XI at his devotions in the castle of Péronne while held a prisoner by Charles the Bold Painting by Hermann Kaulbach.

Pope Sixties V and the Grand Inquisitor Painting by Jean Paul Laurens.

AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE

TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, AND CONSEQUENCES OF

THE GREAT EVENTS

(THE LATER RENAISSANCE: FROM GUTENBERG TO THE REFORMATION)

CHARLES F. HORNE

The Renaissance marks the separation of the mediaeval from the modern world. The wide difference between the two epochs of Teutonic history arises, we are apt somewhat glibly to say, from the fact that our ancestors worshipped and were ruled by brute force, whereas we follow the broad light of intellect. Perhaps both statements require modification; yet in a general way they do suggest the change which by a thousand different agencies has, in the course of the last four centuries, been forced upon the world. Mediaeval Europe was a land not of equals, but of lords and slaves. The powerful nobles regarded themselves as of wholly different clay from the hapless peasants whom they trampled under foot, serfs so ignorant, so brutalized by want, that they were often little better than the beasts with which they herded. Gradually the tradesmen, the middle classes, forced their way to practical equality with the nobles. Then came the turn of the masses to do the same. The beginnings of the merchants' movement we have already traced in the preceding volumes; the end of the peasants' effort is perhaps even to-day scarce yet accomplished.

In dealing with modern history, therefore, every writer is apt to begin with a different date. Some go back as far as Petrarch, who reintroduced the study of ancient art and learning; that is, they regard our world as a direct continuation of the Roman, with the thousand years of the Middle Ages gaping between like an earthquake gulf of barbarism, that was bridged at last. Some take the invention of printing as a starting-point, feeling that the chief element of our progress has been the