Sorel, Agnès (c. 1422–1450) Mistress of Charles VII of
France
Agnès was born into a family of the lesser nobility in
Touraine and entered the household of René of Anjou, the
king’s brother-in-law. In this way she met Charles, who be-
came infatuated with her beauty and took her as his mis-
tress in 1444. For the remainder of her life Agnès enjoyed
an unprecedented semiofficial status as the king’s com-
panion and was treated with the respect due to a queen.
Charles showered her with lands, castles, and treasures,
and is said to have relied on her shrewd advice in many
political matters. She also bore him four children. In-
evitably, Agnès’s position led to jealousy and intrigue and
made her powerful enemies, most notably the dauphin
(the future Louis XI). When Agnès died suddenly, proba-
bly of dysentery, she was widely believed to have been poi-
soned by Louis. A trumped-up charge of murdering Agnès
was also used to bring about the downfall of the politician
and financier Jacques Coeur (c. 1395–56). After her death
Agnès became the focus of romantic legends, notably the
idea that she had been the chief instigator of Charles’s later
victories in the Hundred Years’ War.
Soto, Hernando de (c. 1496–1542) Spanish conquistador
and explorer
Soto first landed in the New World in 1514 and earned a
high reputation as a soldier in expeditions along the Cen-
tral American coast (1516–20) and during the conquest of
Nicaragua (1524). Joining PIZARRO’s expedition to Peru
(1532), he was the first to encounter the Inca emperor
Atahuallpa. Enriched by Inca spoils, he returned to Spain
(1536) and obtained the governorship of Cuba with a
grant to colonize Florida. From Tampa Bay he explored
throughout southeastern North America (1539–42) in
search of gold before dying of fever beside the Mississippi.
Spagnoli, Giovan Battista (Battista Mantovano,
Mantuan) (1448–1516) Italian poet and author of
biographical and religious works
Commonly known as Mantovano or Mantuan after his
birthplace, Spagnoli was educated at Padua, became a
Carmelite, and was elected Carmelite vicar-general in
Mantua in 1483. From 1513 until his death he served as
head of the order as a whole. He was canonized by Pope
Leo XIII in 1883. His literary reputation mainly rests on
10 Latin pastoral eclogues, eight of which were composed
while he was a student and two after he entered the
Carmelites. Imitations of VIRGILand of Petrarch and Boc-
caccio, the eclogues were published in 1498; they were
widely influential in Europe and were imitated in turn, as
in SPENSER’s Shepheardes Calender (1579). Parthenices
(Hymns to the Virgin; 1481), a series of seven poems, con-
tains a depiction of hell and an assembly of fallen angels
that became a source for comparable passages in Milton’s
Paradise Lost.
Spalatin, Georg (Georg Burckhardt) (1484–1545)
German theologian and humanist reformer
Spalatin took his name from Spalt, near Nuremberg,
where he was born. He was educated at Nuremberg and
Erfurt. He became a close friend of LUTHERand in 1514
was appointed chaplain and secretary to FREDERICK(III)
THE WISE, Elector of Saxony. From then on his activities
involved him with most of the events of the German Re-
formation. His close connection with Frederick took him
to the Diet of Augsburg (1518) and he shared in the ne-
gotiations with Thomas de CAJETAN. He also attended the
Diet of WORMS. After Frederick’s death (1525) Spalatin
served his successor John and in his later years he con-
cerned himself mainly with reforming churches and
schools in Saxony. His works included Latin translations
of the writings of Luther and MELANCHTHONand a Ger-
man translation of ERASMUS. He also wrote a history of the
Lutheran reform movement, the Chronicon et annales re-
formationis, covering the years 1463–1525. He died in Al-
tenberg, where he had lived since 1525.Spanish Armada The fleet sent by PHILIP IIof Spain to
invade England (1588). The 130 ships and 27,000 men
under the inexperienced command of the duke of Medina-
Sidonia reached the English Channel in July. Hampered by
unfavorable winds and harassed by English ships, the Ar-
mada made its way to Calais, France, and waited in vain
to rendezvous with the duke of Parma’s army from the
Netherlands. Taking advantage of the English fleet’s
greater mobility and its able captains, its commander,
Lord Howard of Effingham, ordered the attack on August
8, 1588. The Armada suffered heavy losses off Gravelines
and fled north, suffering further losses in storms off Scot-
land and Ireland. Just 76 ships limped back to Spain. The
defeat of the Armada foreshadowed Spain’s decline and
England’s emergence as a naval and imperial power.
Further reading: P. Gallagher and D. W. Cruickshank
(eds), God’s Obvious Design: Papers Read for the Spanish Ar-
mada Symposium, Sligo, 1988 (Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell
& Brewer, 1990); Neil Hanson, The Confident Hope of a
Miracle: The Real History of the Spanish Armada (New York
and London: Doubleday, 2003).Spanish Inquisition At the request of FERDINAND(II)
AND ISABELLA I, Pope Sixtus IV in 1478 united the inquisi-
tions of the Spanish kingdoms under the control of Tomás
de TORQUEMADA. The Spanish monarchs wanted to deal
with the “problem” of CONVERSOSor morranos (Jewish
converts to Christianity who secretly practiced their an-
cestral faith and rites). Torquemada has the reputation of
a cruel monster; a more accurate characterization might
be to say that he was an energetic administrator who
shared the intolerance of his age and who tried to regulate
the affairs of the Spanish Inquisition and prevent it from
pursuing policies intended only to aggrandize or enrichSSppaanniisshh IInnqquuiissiittiioonn 4 44477