1539 Births

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

Events

January–June

* January – Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War – Battle of Naungyo, Burma: The Toungoos decisively defeat the Hanthawaddys.
* January 12 – Treaty of Toledo: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (and Charles I of Spain) and Francis I of France agree to make no further alliances with England. The treaty comes after Henry VIII of England's split with Rome and Pope Paul III.
* January 14 – Spain annexes Cuba.
* February 9 – The first horse race is 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 – Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay, Florida with 600 soldiers, with the goal of finding 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.
* June 26 – Battle of Chausa in modern-day Buxar, India: Sher Shah Suri defeats the Mughal emperor, Humayun (Sher Shah goes on to form the Sur Empire, and take control of nearly all Mughal territory).

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.
* 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.
* November 26 – Abbot Marmaduke Bradley and 31 monks sign the deed surrendering Fountains Abbey to the English Crown.

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.
** The 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.
* 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 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)
** Salima Sultan Begum, Empress of the Mughal Empire as a wife of Emperor Akbar (d. 1613)
* 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)
** 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)
* May 29 – Thomas Pounde, English Jesuit lay brother (d. 1613)
* 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, English 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)
* 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)
** Laurence Tomson, English Calvinist (d. 1608)
** Humphrey Gilbert, English adventurer, explorer, member of Parliament and soldier (d. 1583)

Deaths

* January 24 – Anneke Esaiasdochter, Dutch Anabaptist writer (b. 1509)
* February – Narapati of Prome, king of Prome in Burma.
* 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)
* March 19 – Lord Edmund Howard, English nobleman (b. c. 1478))
* April 17 – George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)
* April 19 – Katarzyna Weiglowa, Jewish martyr (b. 1460)
* April 30 – John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath, English noble (b. 1470)
* May 1 – Isabella of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress (b. 1503)
* May 7 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)
* May 7 or September 22 – Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)
* June 20 – Philip III, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg (1524–1539) (b. 1486)
* July 5 – St Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian saint (b. 1502)
* July 9 – Adrian Fortescue, English Roman Catholic martyr (b. 1476)
* August – Vannoccio Biringuccio, Italian metallurgist (b. 1480)
* September 8 – John Stokesley, English prelate (b. 1475)
* November 14 – Hugh Cook Faringdon, English Abbot of Reading
* December 12 – Bartolomeo degli Organi, Italian musician (b. 1474)
* December 20 – Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. c. 1506)
* ''date unknown''
** James Beaton, Scottish church leader (b. 1473)
** Cura Ocllo, Inca queen

References

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