Russia

The state of the Livonian Order was disintegrating. Russian raids resulted in severe destruction and caused the various cities and noblemen of Livonia to look elsewhere for protection. In 1561, the Livonian LANDTAG (diet) decided to ask King Sigismund II. Augustus of Poland for his protection. Technically, Livonia became part of Poland.

Spain

King Phillip II makes Madrid the capital of Spain. It is on a plateau 2,200 meters above sea level and is ridiculously hot in summer and cold in winter. It is not near any port or body of water so it's choice as the capital was purely because of it's central location. Although Madrid became the capital, it never became a city because the cathedral was still in Toledo.

Scotland

Mary sets up a Queen’s Horse farm beginning in 1561 when she arrives from France. Mary had had an obsession with horses since her teenage days. On coming to Scotland, she found it difficult to select only thirty horses to bring with her. She was limited by the transport available to her - two ships.  

The thirty horses, a French groom and his two sons set out from Dieppe in France, but the trip was not without problems. One horse died and it took over three weeks to get the rest to shores, not landing in Scotland at all, but turning up at Tynemouth, impounded by the English. Eventually the groom, his two sons, and some of the horses arrived at Stichill, Scotland.

Marmalade is thought to have been created in 1561 by the physician to Mary, Queen of Scots, when he mixed orange and crushed sugar to keep her seasickness at bay. It has been suggested, in fact, that the word marmalade derives from the words “Marie est malade” (Mary is sick), but it is far more likely that the derivation is from the Portuguese word marmelo for quince.

In 1561 George Buchanan is appointed as Mary's tutor. Buchanan was one of the most distinguished Latin stylists of the day, and was admired as such by Montaigne, who had studied under him in Bordeaux. Buchanan ultimately proves to be one of Mary's most implacable enemies.

Venice

Ruscelli produces a new translation of Ptolemy's Geographia and uses the geography from the Gastaldi map for this 'new', slightly enlarged map of southern Africa. 

Florence

In 1561, Baldassar Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, an Italian manual for courtly manners, is published in English and influences generations of would-be court attendants.

England

Milled coins is minted for the first time in 1561. A screw press powered by horses is used in their manufacture, under the supervision of a Frenchman, Eloye Mestrelle. The quality of the coins was vastly superior to the normal hammered coinage, but production was much slower. Mestrelle was also resented as an interloper by the mint workers because of his nationality and unpopular because his machinery was perceived as a threat to their continued employment. After ten years Mestrelle was dismissed and the milled coinage ceased. Later Mestrelle turned to counterfeiting, for which he was hanged in 1578.

Transylvania

John Sigismund becames King of Transylvania, the first and only Unitarian king in history. John is an artist, accomplished linguist and a superior monarch. He is deeply interested in religion, and sought to pacify the conflicts between Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Unitarians in his realm. His closest adviser was Dr. Giorgio Biandrata who had helped establish Antitrinitarianism in Poland. Out of personal conviction, and practical political considerations, he fostered a policy of open discussion and broad toleration of all viewpoints which made Transylvania the freest country in Europe in religious matters.

Spain

In 1562 Diego Gutiérrez, a Spanish cartographer from the respected Casa de la Contratación, and Hieronymus Cock, a noted engraver from Antwerp, collaborated in the preparation of a spectacular and ornate map of what was then referred to as the fourth part of the world, America. It was the largest engraved map of America to that time. 

The map depicts the eastern coast of North America, all of Central and South America, and portions of the western coasts of Europe and Africa. The map of America was not intended to be a scientifically or navigationally exacting document, although it was of large scale and remained the largest map of America for a century. It was, rather, a ceremonial map, a diplomatic map, as identified by the coats of arms proclaiming possession. 

Through the map, Spain proclaimed to the nations of Western Europe its American territory, clearly outlining its sphere of control, not by degrees, but with the appearance of a very broad line for the Tropic of Cancer clearly drawn on the map.

Map of the Western Hemisphere By Diego Guiterrez in 1562

New World

France begins to colonize sites in what are now South Carolina and Florida, threatening Spain's exclusive control in the area. In 1562 a new French colony was established in Florida under Jean Ribaut and René de Laudonniére only to be destroyed by the Spanish in 1565 with the subsequent establishment of the first permanent settlement in what is now the United States, Saint Augustine, as a protective station for the Spanish gold fleet returning from America to Spain.

The first wine made in the "New World" by Europeans was made in Florida by French. Huguenots using wild grapes, the predecessors of improved wine grapes.

France

In 1562, Catherine took a great leap forward in religious toleration by allowing Huguenots to hold public worship outside the boundaries of towns. They were also allowed to hold church assemblies. Catherine was a Catholic and wanted France to remain Catholic; she did not, however, want the Guises to be calling all the shots. The only way to chip away at the political power of the Guises was to increase the political power of the other major families and their Protestant allies. 

The Guises, for their part, understood what this religious tolerance was all about and quickly clamped down on it. In March, 1562, an army led by the Duke of Guise attacked a Protestant church service at Vassy in the province of Champagne and slaughtered everybody they could get their hands on: men, women, and children—all of whom were unarmed. Thus began the French Wars of Religion, which were to last for almost forty years and destroy thousands of innocent lives.

Some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassey, France, thus igniting the French Wars of Religion which would devastate France for the next thirty.

Admiral Coligny head of the Protestant party in France is sent out for an expedition under Captain Jean Ribaut. The expedition is charged with finding a suitable location in the New World for Huguenot colonies. Ribaut explored the whole coast from the mouth of the St. John’s River to Port Royal Sound. He established a colony of 30 men on what is today Parris Island, South Carolina. This small colony did not do well and was abandoned within the year. Rene de Laudonniere, a relative of Admiral Coligny, mounted a second expedition in 1564.

Rome

In 1562, Pope Gregory changed the calendars were so that a new year began on January 1st instead of April 1st. When New Year’s Day was changed from April 1st to January 1st in 1562, many people weren’t informed or didn’t believe it. These "April Fools" were from France.

Russia

The progress of the Reformation in Belarus in the 16th century was noticed by the invading Russians. According to the Russian Alexandro-Nevskaya chronicle, when in 1562 Tsar Ivan the Terrible conquered the city of Połacak [and massacred a lot of its inhabitants], many of the Orthodox clergy there were greeting him and rejoicing since they felt it as liberation from some "Lutheran oppression": as this Russian chronicle elaborates , Lutheranism had become widespresd not only amongst the laity of the city, but even amongst certain Orthodox priesthood and monks there. Quite according to the Orthodox's expectations, Protestantism was eradicated during the 16 years of Ivan the Terrible's rule in Połacak (Połock, Polotsk).

Sweden

Catherine/Katarzyna (1526-1583) married John III Vasa King of Sweden (1569-1592) in 1562, son of Gustav Vasa, King of Sweden (1523-1560) and his second wife. John's brother was Charles IX, King of Sweden (1604-1611). John's half-brother was Eric XIV, King of Sweden (1560-1568)(son of Gustav's first wife. (This is the connection to the Swedish Dynasty, brought into Poland). Eric XIV (1569) was mad and so was his brother Magnus.

England

It was English Poor Law that lead to development and eventual regulation of family foster care in the United States. In 1562, these laws allowed the placement of poor children into indentured service until they came of age. This practice was imported to the United States and was the beginning of placing children into homes. Even though indentured service permitted abuse and exploitation, it was a step forward from almshouses where children did not learn a trade and were exposed to horrendous surroundings and unsavory adults. Various forms of indenturing children persisted into the first decade of this century.

The newly-separated Anglican church was given some formal structure in 1562 during the reign of Elizabeth I. That structure is not a management process or governing organization. The belief is written down in the Holy Bible and the Articles of Religion; tradition is in part embodied in Book of Common Prayer. The first Book of Common Prayer was produced in 1549. In it the Latin liturgy was radically simplified and translated into English, and for the first time a single 'use' was enforced throughout England. It has been revised numerous times since then, the most significant revision being the first, in 1552.

The invention of the force pump in England in the middle of the 16th Century greatly extended the development of water supply systems. In London in 1562, the first pumping waterworks was completed.

Elizabeth I nearly dies of smallpox in 1562, and Lady Mary Sidney, who nursed the
queen, is so pockmarked by the disease that she never shows her face in court.

Sir John Hawkins starts the English slave trade, taking cargoes of slaves from West Africa to the Americas.

English navigator John Hawkins defied Spanish attempts to monopolise transatlantic trade, when he sailed from Sierra Leone to Hispaniola with a highly lucrative cargo: 300 black slaves. It was the start of the infamous English slave trade , which took cheap goods to Africa to exchange for human beings, who were then sold in the Americas to fund the purchase of tobacco, sugar, and other high-earning cargoes for import to England. The trade was perilous, but hugely profitable.

Austria

In 1562, Ferdinand I granted the right to award academic degrees to a Jesuit Academy in Prague which consisted of a Faculty of Philosophy and Theology.

Spanish Riding School
In the surroundings of the Hofburg's Winter Riding School you can find the famous prancing Lipizzaner stallions. The breed was first imported from Spain by Maximilian II in 1562 and for over 400 years they have performed. It takes over three years to train a stallion and each year only five are selected from an initial intake of thirty horses.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo becames a court painter of Emperor Ferdinand I (Habsburg) and left for Vienna, then moved to Prague. During the 2 years, when  Arcimboldo served Ferdinand I, he painted several portraits of the Imperial family as well as the first series of his Four Seasons. The artistic concept of these pictures of 1563 was unique and laid the foundation of Arcimboldo’s success as a painter. The documents of the time bear witness to the fact that monarchs and his contemporaries in general were quite enthusiastic about his art.

Scotland

In 1562, Alexander Gordon refused entry to Mary Queen of Scots. She captured the castle with the help of the MacKintoshes and Frasers. Alexander Gordon was duly hanged.

Austra

Arcimboldo, a prominent painter already in his own times, was born around 1527 in Milan, where he began his artistic career. In 1562 he moved to Vienna and became royal painter for emperors Ferdinand, Maximilian and Rudolph. It is the latter who provided the inspiration for the portrait titled Vertunno.

Venice

All gondolas in Venice are black, because of a law passed in 1562 to prevent people wasting money on paint and decoration.

Naples

In 1562, kissing in public was banned in Naples; the offense was punishable by death.