1559

Events of 1559

January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
March 23 - Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia, defending his lands against the invasion of Nur ibn Mujahid, Sultan of Harar, is killed in battle. His brother Menas succeeds him as king.
April 3 - Peace of Cateau Cambrésis - France makes peace with England and Spain. France gives up most of its gains in Italy (including Savoy), keeping only Saluzzo, but keeps the three Lorraine bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the formerly English town of Calais.
July 10 - Francis II becomes King of France following the death of his father, Henry II in a jousting accident.
August - Led by Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano, a Spanish missionary colony, of 1500 men on 13 ships, arrives from Vera Cruz at Pensacola Bay, founding the oldest European settlement in the mainland U.S.. (St. Augustine was founded in 1565.)
September 19 - Just weeks after arrival at Pensacola, the Spanish missionary colony is decimated by a hurricane that kills hundreds, sinks five ships, with a galleon, and grounds a caravel; the 1,000 survivors divide to relocate/resupply the settlement, but suffer famine & attacks, and abandon the effort in 1561.
December 25 - Pope Pius IV succeeds Pope Paul IV as the 224th pope.

The Italian Wars conclude.
The Decameron expurgated.
A royal edict in France makes heresy punishable by death.
Elizabeth I establishes the Church of England, with the Act of Uniformity 1559 and the Act of Supremacy 1559.
Beginning of the Reformation in Scotland.
Between 1559 and 1736 almost 1000 witches are executed in England.

February - Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, a famous and able Bavarian mercenary general on the Catholic side, died 1632 from wounds received in battle from forces under the redoubtable Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty years war. The novel 1632 gives an account of his death, and several of his battles.

July 22 - Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian saint (d. 1619)
October 12 - Jacques Sirmond, French scholar and Jesuit (died 1651)
November 15 - Archduke Albert of Austria, Governor of the Low Countries (died 1621)
date unknown

Francesco Bassano the Younger, Italian painter (died 1592)
Catherine de Bourbon, sister of Henry IV of France (died 1604)
Charls Butler, English schoolmaster, clergyman, spelling reformer and influential author on diverse subjects including logic, English grammar, theology and natural history
George Chapman, English dramatist (died 1634)
Ikeda Motosuke, Japanese military commander (died 1584)
Nurhaci, Chinese founder of the Qing Dynasty (died 1626)
John Penry, Welsh Protestant martyr (died 1593)
Honinbo Sansa, Japanese player of Go (died 1623)
John Spenser, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford (died 1614)

January 1 - King Christian III of Denmark and Norway (born 1503)
January 25 - King Christian II of Denmark Norway, and Sweden (born 1481)
March 8 - Thomas Tresham I, English Catholic politician
March 16 - Anthony St. Leger, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1496)
March 23 - Emperor Gelawdewos of Ethiopia (killed in battle) (born 1522)
March 30 - Adam Ries, German mathematician (born 1492)
July 10 - King Henry II of France (killed in jousting accident) (born 1519)
August 18 - Pope Paul IV (born 1476)
September 7 - Robert Estienne, French printer (born 1503)
September 10 - Anthony Denny, confidant of Henry VIII of England (born 1501)
October 2 - Jacquet of Mantua, French composer (born 1483)
October 6 - William I, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg (born 1487)
November 5 - Kano Motonobu, Japanese painter (born 1476)
November 18 - Cuthbert Tunstall, English church leader (born 1474)
November 20 - Lady Frances Brandon, claimant to the throne of England (born 1517)
date unknown