Timeline May 1574

Events in May 1574 3

• 1550 – 1574 Charles IX of France (1550-1574) Died 30 May 1574, aged 23 Charles IX ruled France through the height of the Wars of Religion, including the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572. He died of tuberculosis at Vincennes without a legitimate heir. The throne passed to his brother Henry III.
• 1574 Relief of Leiden Dutch rebels break a year-long Spanish siege by flooding the land Spanish forces besieged the rebel city of Leiden during the Eighty Years' War, reducing its population to starvation. On 3 October 1574, William of Orange's forces breached dikes and sailed a fleet of flat-bottomed boats across the flooded polders to relieve the city. The relief became a founding legend of the Dutch Republic.
• 1574 Henry III becomes King of France Succeeds his brother Charles IX after abandoning the Polish throne On the death of his brother Charles IX, Henry III inherited the French crown, having secretly fled Poland earlier that year to claim it. His reign would be dominated by the ongoing Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots.