1539

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May 30: Hernando De Soto.

Year 1539 (MDXXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• January – Battle of Naungyo, Burma, part of the Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War.
• January 12 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (and Charles I of Spain) and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Toledo, agreeing to make no further alliances with England. The treaty comes after Henry VIII of England's split with Rome and Pope Paul III.
• February 9 – First horse race held at Chester Racecourse, the oldest in use in England.
• March – Canterbury Cathedral surrenders, and reverts to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'.
• May 30 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. He also introduces pigs into North America.
• May – The Six Articles, an Act of the Parliament of England, reaffirms certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England.^[1]

July–December

• August 15 King Francis I of France issues the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêt that places the whole of France under the jurisdiction of the royal law courts and makes French the language of those courts and the official language of legal discourse.
• September 7 – Guru Angad Dev becomes the second Guru of the Sikhs.
• October 4 – Henry VIII contracts to marry Anne of Cleves.^[2]
• November 1 Joachim II Hector introduces lutheranism in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, becoming the second Prince-Elector after the Prince-Elector of Saxony to turn Protestant.

Undated

• Protestant Reformation
  • Lutheranism is forcibly introduced into Iceland, despite the opposition of Bishop Jón Arason.
  • Beaulieu Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Colchester Abbey, Newstead Abbey, St Albans Abbey, St Mary's Abbey, York and Hartland Abbey (the last) fall prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England.
  • First edition of the Calvinist Genevan psalter is published.
• In Henan province, China, a severe drought with swarms of locusts is made worse by a major epidemic outbreak of the plague.
• The first printing press in North America is set up in Mexico City.^[3]
• Teseo Ambrogio's Introductio in Chaldaicam lingua, Syriaca atq Armenica, & dece alias linguas, published in Pavia, introduces several middle eastern languages to western Europe for the first time.

Births

• January 15 – Maeda Toshiie, Daimyo (d. 1599)
• January 28 – Nicolò Donato, Doge of Venice (d. 1618)
• February 13 – Elisabeth of Hesse, Electress Palatine by marriage (1576-1582) (d. 1582)
• February 23 – Henry XI of Legnica, thrice Duke of Legnica (d. 1588)
• February 23 – Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire as a wife of Emperor Akbar (d. 1612)
• February 27 – Franciscus Raphelengius, Dutch printer (d. 1597)
• March 5 – Christoph Pezel, German theologian (d. 1604)
• March 18 – Maria of Nassau, Countess of Nassau (d. 1599)
• April 5 – George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1603)
• April 6 – Amalia of Neuenahr, German noble (d. 1602)
• April 7 – Tobias Stimmer, Swiss artist (d. 1584)
• April 7 – Strange Jørgenssøn, Norwegian businessman (d. 1610)
• April 30 – Archduchess Barbara of Austria, Austrian archduchess (d. 1572)
• May 22 – Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (d. 1621)
• June 6 – Catherine Vasa, Regent of East Frisia (1599-1610) (d. 1610)
• June 13 – Jost Amman, Swiss printmaker (d. 1591)
• June 23 – William Darrell of Littlecote, politician (d. 1589)
• July 4 – Louis VI, Elector Palatine (d. 1583)
• September 18 – Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, Italian-French dignitary and diplomat (d. 1595)
• October 1 – Peter Vok, Czech noble (d. 1611)
• October 2 – Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (d. 1584)
• November 1 – Pierre Pithou, French lawyer and scholar (d. 1596)
• December 5 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (d. 1604)
• December 20 – Paulus Melissus, German composer (d. 1602)
• December 31 – John Radcliffe, English politician (d. 1568)
• date unknown
  • José Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, Portuguese explorer (d. 1590)
  • Hasegawa Tōhaku, Japanese painter (d. 1610)
  • Ikeda Katsumasa, Japanese military commander (d. 1578)
  • Laurence Tomson, Calvinist (d. 1608)
  • Humphrey Gilbert, English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament and soldier (d. 1583)

Deaths

• February 6 – John III, Duke of Cleves (b. 1491)
• February 13 – Isabella d'Este, Marquise of Mantua (b. 1474)
• March 5 – Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese governor in India (b. 1487)
• March 12 – Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English diplomat and politician (b.1477)
• April 17 – George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)
• May 7
  • Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)
  • Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)
• July 5 – St Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian saint (b. 1502)
• August – Vannoccio Biringuccio, Italian metallurgist (b. 1480)
• September 8 – John Stokesley, English prelate (b. 1475)
• November 15 – Hugh Cook Faringdon, Abbot of Reading
• December 20 – Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. c. 1506)
• date unknown – James Beaton, Scottish church leader (b. 1473)

References