On this day, the Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes, who had been sent to the New World by King Philip II to report on its products, brought back live tobacco plants and seeds from Mexico to Europe. The following year, Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, sent tobacco seeds to the French court of Catherine de Medici. The queen reported that tobacco cured her of crippling headaches, and she immortalised Nicot by naming the new plant Nicotiana. In early times, smoking tobacco was primarily used as a medicine and was believed to cure anything from chronic diseases to minor aches and pains, but it soon became a fashionable pastime throughout Europe. It wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century that it started to be seen as a potential health risk.
Francisco Fernandes Brings Tobacco to Europe
5th March 1558