1580s

1580s: events by year

Contents: 1580 1581 1582 1583 1584 1585 1586 1587 1588 1589

1580

January–June

• January 31 – King Henry I of Portugal dies with no direct heirs, precipitating a Succession crisis.
• March 1 – Michel de Montaigne signs the preface to his most significant work, Essays. They are published later the same year.
• March 25 – Iberian Union: King Philip II of Spain becomes King of Portugal under the name Philip I, following the death without heirs of King Henry of Portugal, in a personal union of the crowns, thus maintaining Portuguese independence (in Europe and throughout the Portuguese Empire). The Portuguese House of Habsburg (also called the Philippine Dynasty) rule lasts until 1640.
• April 6 – Dover Straits earthquake.^[1]
• June – England signs a commercial treaty with the Ottoman Empire.^[2]
• June 11 – Juan de Garay founds Buenos Aires.
• June 25 – The Book of Concord, a collection of Lutheran confessional documents, is published.

July–December

• July 12 – The Ostrog Bible, the first complete printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published.
• August 25 – Battle of Alcântara: Spanish armies, led by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, defending the claim of King Philip II of Spain to the Portuguese throne, defeat the armies of Portuguese claimant António, Prior of Crato.
• September 26 – Francis Drake completes the second circumnavigation of globe.^[3]

Date unknown

• The first session of the Jewish Vaad (Council of Four Lands) is held in Lublin, Poland; 70 delegates of Jewish local qahals meet to discuss taxation and other issues important to Jewish communities.
• Jesuit missionaries arrive at the court of Akbar, Ruler of the Moghul Empire.^[4]

1581

January–June

• March – The Parliament of England's Act against Reconciliation to Rome imposes heavy fines for practicising Roman Catholicism.^[5]
• March 25 – Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain crowned Philip I of Portugal.
• April 4 – Following his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I of England.^[3]

July–December

• July 26 – The Northern Netherlands (Union of Utrecht) proclaim their independence from Spain in the Act of Abjuration. They abjure loyalty to Philip II of Spain as their sovereign, and appoint Francois, Duke of Anjou as the new sovereign of the Netherlands. Public practise of Roman Catholicism is forbidden.
• August 28 – The army of king Stefan Batory of Poland begins its siege of the Russian garrison of Pskov
• Summer (probable) – Yermak begins the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Sibir with a band of 1,636 men.
• September – A mercenary army of Sweden under Pontus De la Gardie captures Narva from Russia.
• December 1 – Execution in England of the Jesuit priest Edmund Campion for treason.^[2]

Date unknown

• The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census and paid in silver as the accepted medium of exchange.
• Oda Nobunaga invades the Iga Province.
• John Dee practices angel magic with Barnabas Saul but with no success.

1582

January–June

• January 15 – Russia cedes Livonia and Southern-Estonia to Poland.
• February 10 – François, Duke of Anjou, arrives in the Netherlands, where he is personally welcomed by William the Silent.
• February 24 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar.
• March 9 – Edward Kelley arrives at John Dee's house.
• April 16 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma founds the settlement of Salta, Argentina.
• May–August – Robert Browne and his Brownist congregationalist companions are obliged to leave England and go to Middelburg in the Netherlands.^[6]
• June 21 – The Incident at Honnō-ji occurs in Kyoto, Japan.

July–December

• October 4 of Julian calendar (Thursday) – Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain make the next day Friday, October 15 of the Gregorian Calendar, skipping over 10 days. Other countries follow at various later dates.
• October 4 – Saint Teresa of Ávila dies. She is buried the next day, October 15.
• November 29 – Marriage of future English playwright William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway.
• December 9 of Julian calendar (Sunday) – France makes the next day Monday, December 20 of the Gregorian Calendar.

Date unknown

• Kumbum is founded in Tibet.
• In Ming Dynasty China
  • Jesuit Matteo Ricci is allowed to enter the country.
  • The earliest reference to the publishing of private newspapers in Beijing.
• The sultanate of Morocco begins to press southward in search of a greater share of the trans-Saharan trade.
• The conquest of Terceira Island in the Azores by the Spanish during the Eighty Years' War.
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacks a fortress at Takamatsu.
• The Douai-Rheims Bible New Testament is published.
• "On Embassies" published by Flavius Ursinus.^[7]

1583

January–June

• January 18 – François, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.
• March 10 – The Queen Elizabeth's Men troupe of actors is founded.
• May – Battle of Shizugatake: Shibata Katsuie is defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

July–December

• July – Spanish admiral Santa Cruz defeats the Portuguese, French, and English off Terceira.
• August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in what is now the city of St John's, Newfoundland, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.
• August 19 – Petru Cercel enters Bucharest, and becomes Prince of Wallachia.

Date unknown

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi commences construction of Osaka Castle in Japan.
• King James VI of Scotland signs a charter creating Tounis College (now the University of Edinburgh). For some unknown reason, the charter is dated a year earlier^{[citation needed]}, as 1582.
• The first documented battle of India's independence against a European colonial ruler is fought by the Desais of Cuncolim in Goa, against the Portuguese.
• The world's oldest, intact, still-surviving amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken, is founded.
• The Bunch Of Grapes pub is built on Narrow Street, London^[8]. Referred to by Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend as The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, it still stands today renamed The Grapes

1584

January–June

• May 17 – The conflict between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu culminates in the Battle of Nagakute.
• June 1 – With the death of the Duc d'Anjou, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre becomes heir-presumptive to the throne of France.
• June 4 – Sir Walter Raleigh sends an expedition to Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), with a view to establishing an English colony.
• June 11 – Walk (today Valka and Valga towns in Latvia and Estonia respectively) receives city rights from Polish king Stefan Bathory.

July–December

• July 5 – The Maronite College is established in Rome.
• July 10 – William I of Orange is assassinated.
• December – The Treaty of Joinville is signed secretly between the French Catholic League and Spain.

Date unknown

• Emmanuel College, Cambridge was founded by Sir Walter Mildmay.
• The first translation of the complete Bible into the Slovenian language: Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta, slovenski tolmačena skuzi Jurija Dalmatina (Wittenberg), is published by Jurij Dalmatin.
• Archangelsk is founded in northern Russia.
• Feodor I succeeds his father Ivan IV as Tsar of Russia.
• Ghent falls to the Spanish.
• Raja Ijau comes to power and rules the once Malay kingdom of Pattani.
• The Belgian cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius features Ming Dynasty-era Chinese carriages with masts and sails in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; concurrent and later Western writers also take note of this peculiar Chinese invention.
• An expedition led by Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe explores the Outer Banks of what is now North Carolina for a suitable location for England's first North American colony.

1585

January–June

• January 12 – The Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar.
• February – The Spanish seize Brussels.
• April 24 – Pope Sixtus V succeeds Pope Gregory XIII as the 227th pope.
• May 19 – Spain seizes English ships in Spanish ports,^[5] precipitating the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).

July–December

• July 7 – The Treaty of Nemours forces King Henry III of France to capitulate to the demands of the Catholic League, triggering the Eighth War of Religion (also known as the War of the Three Henrys) to begin in France.
• August 8 – John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in his quest for the Northwest Passage.
• August 14 – Queen Elizabeth I of England agrees to establish a protectorate over the Netherlands.^[5]
• August 17
  • Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under the Prince of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city. As a result, over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces. Furthermore, upon hearing of the capture of Antwerp, a relief fleet sent to raise the siege instead blockades the Schelde river, preventing any and all ships from reaching Antwerp for two centuries. This effectively destroys Antwerp's position as an important trade city and de-facto capital of the Dutch provinces. Its position is taken over by various northern cities, most prominently Amsterdam.
  • A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. This group will depart the following June.^[5]
• August 20 – The Treaty of Nonsuch is signed, committing England to support the Dutch Revolt, thus entering the Eighty Years' War.^[2]

Date unknown

• Chocolate is introduced to Europe commercially.

1586

• June 16 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir.
• July 6 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland.
• July 17 – A meeting takes place at Lüneburg between 'some evangelical Princes and Electors' and representatives of the King of Navarre, the King of Denmark and the Queen of England. The object of this meeting is the formation of an 'evangelical' league of defence against the Catholic League, called the 'Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae'.^[9]
• September 20-21 – Execution of the Babington Plotters: The 14 men convicted of the Babington Plot, which intended to murder Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Stuart, were executed over two days in St Giles Field, London. They were all hung, drawn and quartered. The executions of the first seven traitors on 20 September was carried out in a particularly cruel way.
• September 22 – Battle of Zutphen: Spanish troops defeat the Dutch rebels and their English allies.
• November 19 – Henry Barrow, English Puritan and Separatist, is imprisoned.
• December 17 – The reign of Emperor Ogimachi of Japan ends and Emperor Go-Yozei ascends to the throne of Japan.

Date unknown

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi becomes grand minister of Japan.
• William Harrison becomes canon of Windsor.
• Luis Barahona de Soto publishes Primera parte de la Angélica.
• William Camden publishes Britannia.
• Simon Stevin, a Dutch mathematician, demonstrates that two objects of different weight fall with the same speed.
• St. Augustine, Florida, and Santo Domingo in the modern day Dominican Republic are plundered and burned by English sea captain Sir Francis Drake.
• Jacobus Gallus composes his motet O magnum mysterium.
• Caesar Baronius publishes a new edition of Roman martyrology.
• The first HMS Vanguard is launched in England.
• English explorer Thomas Cavendish begins his circumnavigation of the globe.
• The cities of Voronezh, Samara, and Tyumen in Russia are founded.

1587

January–June

• February 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England, after she is implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

July–December

• July 22 – Colony of Roanoke: A group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off of North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.
• August 18 – According to legend, Saul Wahl is named king of Poland.
• August 18 – Virginia Dare, is the first English-born in America.
• August 19 – According to legend, Saul Wahl is deposed.
• August 19 – Polish and Lithuanian nobles elect Sigismund III Vasa as their king.
• August 27 – Governor John White leaves the Roanoke Colony to get more supplies from England.
• October 1 – Shāh ‘Abbās I "The Great" succeeds as Shahenshah of Iran.^[10]
• October 20 – Battle of Coutras: Huguenot forces under Henry of Navarre defeat Royalist forces under Anne de Joyeuse, favorite of King Henry. Joyeuse is killed.
• October 31 – Leiden University Library opens its doors after its founding in 1575.

Date unknown

• The first Filipinos in North America land in Morro Bay, near San Luis Obispo, California.
• The Rose (theatre) is founded in London by Philip Henslowe.
• A severe famine breaks out in China during the Ming Dynasty.
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi attacks Kyūshū.

1588

January–June

• February – The Sinhalese abandon the siege of Colombo, capital of Portuguese Ceylon.
• February 9 – The sudden death of Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, in the midst of preparations for the Spanish Armada, forces King Philip II of Spain to re-allocate the command of the fleet.
• April 4 – Christian IV becomes King of Denmark upon the death of his father Frederick II.
• May 12 – Day of the Barricades in Paris: Henry I, Duke of Guise seizes the city, forcing King Henry III to flee.
• May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Spain heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all of the ships to leave port).

July–December

• July – King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise and returns to Paris.
• July 31 – The first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets off Plymouth results in an English victory.
• August 2 – The English and Spanish fleets meet again off Dorset (The English fleet is led by Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake). The English again have the better of it.
• August 6 – Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is defeated by an English naval force under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Gravelines, now in France.
• August 7 – The English and Spanish fleets again engage off the coast of Flanders. The English again are more successful.
• August 8–August 9 – The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma. The Duke of Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain.
• August 12 – The Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English cease their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed as it sails around Scotland and Ireland.
• October 7 – The oldest biography of Nicolaus Copernicus was completed by Bernardino Baldi.
• December 5 – The Order of Augustinian Recollects was formally recognised as a separate province from the Order of Saint Augustine. Today, this event is known as the "Día de la Recolección" or the "Day of Recollection".
• December 23 – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Cardinal Louis of Guise, killed, and holding the Cardinal de Bourbon a prisoner. As a result, large parts of France reject Henry III as their king, forcing him to side with Henry of Navarre

Date unknown

• Ahmad al-Mansur, sultan of Morocco, demands that the king of Songhay pay a heavy tribute in exchange for Saharan salt, probably as an intentional provocation. When Songhay's answer is defiant, the sultan declares war and marches his army through Sahara to Songhay.
• William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible is published.
• The "Armada Portrait" of Elizabeth I of England is created to celebrate the English defeat of the Spanish Armada and to assert the strength of Elizabeth herself.

1589

January–June

• January 26 – Job is elected as the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
• February 26 – Valkendorfs Kollegium is founded in Copenhagen, Denmark.

July–December

• August – King James VI of Scotland, the future James I of England, marries Anne of Denmark.
• August 2 – Henry III of France is murdered by a fanatical Catholic monk. Henry of Navarre proclaims himself as King Henry IV of France. As many of the late King's troops refuse to support a Protestant, Henry is forced to give up the siege of Paris.
• September 21 – Battle of Arques: King Henry's forces defeat the forces of the Catholic League under Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (younger brother of Henry I, Duke of Guise).
• November 1 – Henry IV of France is repulsed in an attempt to capture Paris from the Catholic League.

Date unknown

• The Catholic League rebels against King Henry III of France, in revenge for his murder of Henry I, Duke of Guise. They proclaim the deposition of the King, and acclaim the imprisoned Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon as the rightful King of France, calling him Charles X. The King makes peace with his old rival, Henry of Navarre, and together they besiege Paris.
• San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, is completed by Domenico Fontana.
• Hiroshima, Japan is founded.
• The monks of the Pechenga Monastery, the northernmost in the world, are massacred by the Swedes.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References