William Tell, a legendary hero of Switzerland…

The Florentine Luigi Alamanni, court poet to King Francis, writes his most important work in 1546: La coltivazione (“On Cultivation”), a didactic poem about rustic life.

His also writes a comedy, La Flora; a tragedy, Antigone; and many epigrams.

Alamanni is credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry.

French persecution of Protestants has increased during the past decade under King Francis.

The royal court has divided into factions under the influence of Francis' favorites and his mistress, the duchesse d'Etampes.

War with the Holy Roman Empire, together with arts patronage, has so strained the royal resources that François has had to adopt devices such as the sale of government offices and the prosecution of his own financiers.

The sixty-year-old king dies at Rambouillet on March 31, 1547, the twenty-eighth birthday of his son, who succeeds him as Henry II.

Henry, married for fourteen years to Catherine de’ Medici, whom he neglects, is dominated by his mistress, the beautiful, intelligent, and cultured Diane de Poitiers.

When Francis I was still alive, Diane had to compete at the court with Anne de Pisseleu, the king's favorite.

She had had the latter exiled on her lands upon Francis I's death.

Anne, duc de Montmorency, the constable of France, returns to favor at the accession of Henry and is restored to authority.

The French court soon becomes a center of rivalry between the families of Montmorency and Guise, and Henry’s administration expands the practice of selling government offices.

US emissary Richard Holbrooke publicly poses for pictures with leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (originally listed by the State Department as terrorists), effectively promoting the KLA to the post of Albanian leadership in Kosovo.

The militant Kosovar delegation to the Rambouillet talks, led by twenty-nine year old guerilla leader Hashim “the Snake” Thaçi, replaces Ibrahim Rugova and the older, more pacific generation of Kosovar leaders.

Negotiations quickly convene in Rambouillet, France, to resolve the crisis, but break down …

… after US envoy Richard C. A. Holbrooke, architect of the Dayton Accords, tries unsuccessfully to persuade Milosevic to sign onto a US-sponsored peace plan (March 10, 1999).