Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (1488-1559) was a Spanish explorer of the New World. In 1527 he survived Narváez expedition and spent eight years traveling across what is now the US Southwest. He became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes. Eventually he reconnected with the Spanish in Mexico and sailed back …
Category Archives: 16th century
Richard III
Richard III (1452-1485) put his dead brother’s son on the throne, schemed to take the crown, and started a war. He imprisoned his two young nephews in the Tower of London. Still a lot more is in question thanks to his successor Henry VII erasing his predecessor from history. The last king from the Plantagenet …
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake (1540 – 1596) was an English knight, a navel officer, a pirate, and the favorite sea dog of Queen Elizabeth I. Privateer Queen Elizabeth I issued a special mandate encouraging attacking and stealing the bounty of Spanish ships. With the mandate Drake became a privateer. He helped fund Britain’s war against Spain. …
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German professor of theology, a composer, a priest, and a monk. Horrified by the indulgences of the Roman Catholic Church he became a major initiator of the Protestant Reformation. Protestant Reformation The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement. It swept through Europe in the 1500s. The Reformation divided the …