Explore 129 historical events from 1540–1549.
Alexander Farnese was an Italian noble and military leader, who was Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592, as well as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 t…
Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (died 1592)
Sher Shah Suri, also known by his title Sultan Adil, was the Sultan of Hindustan, as the first Sur Emperor, from 1540 until his death in 1545. Prior to his ascension, he also serve…
Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler (born 1486)
Abraomas Kulvietis was a Lithuanian jurist and a professor at Königsberg Albertina University, as well as a reformer of the church.
Abraomas Kulvietis, Lithuanian Lutheran lawyer and jurist (born 1509)
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk was an English military leader and courtier. Through his third wife, Mary Tudor, he was the brother-in-law of King Henry VIII.
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician and husband of Mary Tudor (born c. 1484)
Piotr Gamrat of Sulima arms was Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland.
Piotr Gamrat, Polish archbishop (born 1487)
The Mary Rose was a carrack in the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She was launched in 1511 and served for 34 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. A…
The English warship Mary Rose sank outside Portsmouth during the Battle of the Solent; it was raised from the seabed…
The Burning of Edinburgh in 1544 by an English army was the first major action of the war of the Rough Wooing. The Provost of Edinburgh was compelled to allow the English to sack L…
The Burning of Edinburgh by an English army is the first action of the Rough Wooing
The Italian War of 1542–1546 was a conflict late in the Italian Wars, pitting Francis I of France and Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and …
Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.
Giovanni Battista Pastene (1507–1580) was a Genoese maritime explorer who, while in the service of the Spanish crown, explored the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chi…
The expedition of Juan Bautista Pastene makes landfall in San Pedro Bay, southern Chile, claiming the territory for…
Renata of Lorraine was a noblewoman of the House of Lorraine who became a Duchess of Bavaria by her marriage to Duke William V.
Renata of Lorraine, Duchess consort of Bavaria (died 1602)
William Gilbert, also known as Gilberd, was an English physician, physicist and natural philosopher. He passionately rejected both the prevailing Aristotelian philosophy and the Sc…
William Gilbert, English physician, physicist, and astronomer (died 1603)
Bogislaw XIII of Pomerania, son of Philip I and Maria of Saxony, was a prince of Stettin and Wolgast, and a member of the Griffins.
Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania (died 1606)
Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden KG, PC, KS, JP, was an English barrister and judge who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1533 to 1544.
Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, English lawyer and judge, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1488)
René of Chalon, also known as Renatus of Chalon, was the prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht and Gelre.
René of Châlon (born 1519)
Clément Marot was a French Renaissance poet. He was influenced by the writers of the late 15th century and paved the way for the Pléiade, and is undoubtedly the most important poet…
Clément Marot, French poet (born 1496)
Antoine, known as the Good, was Duke of Lorraine from 1508 until his death in 1544. Raised at the French court, Antoine would campaign in Italy twice: once under Louis XII and the …
Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (born 1489)
The Rough Wooing, also known as the Eight Years' War, was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century. Following the English Reformation, the break from the Catholic Church…
During the Rough Wooing, an English army carried out the Burning of Edinburgh
The Battle of Solway Moss took place on Solway Moss near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border in November 1542 between English and Scottish forces.
Having been defeated in the battle of Solway Moss in the previous year, the Scots conclude the peace treaty of…
Henry VIII was King of England and Ireland from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547.
King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.
António da Mota was a Portuguese trader and explorer who, in 1543, together with Fernão Mendes Pinto and Francisco Zeimoto, became one of the first Europeans to set foot in Japan.
António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan.
Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication on 24 July 1567.
Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling.
Christine of Hesse was Duchess consort of Holstein-Gottorp as the spouse of Duke Adolf of Holstein-Gottorp. She exerted some political influence as a widow after 1586.
Christine of Hesse, Duchess consort of Holstein-Gottorp (died 1604)
Claudio Acquaviva, SJ was an Italian Jesuit priest. Elected in 1581 as the fifth Superior General of the Society of Jesus, he has been referred to as the second founder of the Jesu…
Claudio Acquaviva, Italian priest, 5th Superior General of the Society of Jesus (died 1615)
Finnish is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two of…
The first Finnish-language book, the Abckiria by Mikael Agricola, is published in Stockholm.