1538 CE

General Johann Katzianer of the Holy Roman Empire, on trial in Vienna for the disastrous Imperial campaign against the Ottoman Empire and for desertion during the Battle of Gorjani, escapes and flees to Kostajnica Fortress in Ottoman-controlled Croatia. After 14 months, Nikola IV Zrinski has Katzianer murdered. A joint delegation of Lutherans from various German cities arrives in England for meetings with King Henry VIII; Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Thomas Cromwell, the former Chief Minister of England. The siege of the Indian city of Diu ends as the Gujarat and Ottoman forces withdraw from the Portuguese held city.

In the 1530s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 14 – Leonard Grey, England's Lord Deputy of Ireland, successfully negotiates a truce in the semi-independent County Laois, formerly an Irish Kingdom, over the areas leadership. between Peter O'Moore and Rory Lysaght.source
  • February 24 – Treaty of Nagyvárad: Peace is declared between Ferdinand I, future Holy Roman Emperor and the Ottoman Empire. John Zápolya is recognized as King of Hungary (Eastern Hungarian Kingdom), while Ferdinand retains the northern and western parts of the Kingdom, and is recognized as heir to the throne.source
  • June 18 – Truce of Nice: Peace is declared between Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France.source
  • July 11 – Galway is visited by Lord Deputy of Ireland, Leonard Grey. This is the first visit of a King's Deputy to the town, and marks the start of closer relations between the sometimes-beleaguered town and the Anglo-Irish administration in Dublin. He is lavishly entertained and stays for seven days.Irelandsource
  • July 25 – The city of Guayaquil, now the largest city in the South American nation of Ecuador is founded by Spanish conqueror Francisco de Orellana in the location of a Quechua native village of the same name. Orellana names the city "Santiago de Guayaquil".source
  • August 6 – Bogotá, Colombia is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.source
  • The monarch fail to ally Sweden with the Schmalkaldic League.Swedensource

Conflict & Security

  • April 26 – Battle of Las Salinas: In Peru, Almagro is defeated by Francisco Pizarro, who then seizes Cusco.source
  • September 28 – Battle of Preveza: The Ottoman fleet of Suleiman the Magnificent, under the command of Hayreddin Barbarossa, defeats the Holy League of Emperor Charles V, under the command of Andrea Doria.source
  • November 5 – The siege of the Indian city of Diu ends as the Gujarat and Ottoman forces withdraw from the Portuguese held city.source
  • The Siege of Diu occurred in 1538, when an Ottoman imperial fleet attempted to capture the Indian city of Diu, then held by the Portuguese.Indiasource
  • The Hussain Shahi dynasty endsIndiasource
  • A meeting between the O'Toole clan and crown forces at the Pale castle of Threecastles Castle, County Wicklow ends in an altercation with deaths.Irelandsource
  • The king breaks with the reformers Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreæ.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 18 – Garcia de Noronha is appointed as the new Governor-General of Portuguese India by King João III. He sails to Goa and arrives less than three weeks later.source
  • An Ottoman ship landed at the port of Vizhinjam in 1538.Indiasource

Religion & Belief

  • February 8 – The Holy League, an alliance of Christian nations (the Papal States and the Republic of Venice, the Knights Hospitaller of Malta, Spain and the Spanish-ruled Viceroyalty of Naples and Sicily), is agreed upon under the direction of Pope Paul III and Venetian Senator Alvise Badoer.source
  • May 27 – A joint delegation of Lutherans from various German cities arrives in England for meetings with King Henry VIII; Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; and Thomas Cromwell, the former Chief Minister of England.source
  • June 18 – The formal wedding of Mary of Guise and King James V of Scotland takes place at St Andrews Cathedral.source
  • June 19 – Dissolution of the monasteries in England: The newly founded Bisham Abbey is dissolved.source
  • November 30 – Sucre, Bolivia, is founded under the name Ciudad de la Plata de la Nueva Toledo.source
  • November 30 – Dissolution of the Monasteries in England: Byland Abbey is dissolved.source
  • December 17 – Pope Paul III confirms the excommunication of Henry VIII of England from the Roman Catholic church.source
  • December – the Franciscan Friary at Cashel is rented to Edmund Butler, Archbishop of Cashel.Irelandsource
  • Ferns Abbey (abbot and canons leave 31 March).Irelandsource
  • Ulick na gCeann Burke deposes his uncle Richard Bacach Burke as The Clanricarde and Chief of the Name.Irelandsource
  • Newry Abbey becomes a secular collegiate church.Irelandsource
  • Timolin Priory (held by Edmund Eustas from 14 January).Irelandsource
  • Conrad von Pyhy appointed Lord High Chancellor of Sweden.Swedensource

Crime & Justice

  • January 31 – General Johann Katzianer of the Holy Roman Empire, on trial in Vienna for the disastrous Imperial campaign against the Ottoman Empire and for desertion during the Battle of Gorjani, escapes and flees to Kostajnica Fortress in Ottoman-controlled Croatia. After 14 months, Nikola IV Zrinski has Katzianer murdered.source

Climate & Environment

  • September 29– The last significant volcanic eruption in the Phlegraean Fields of Italy begins and lasts one week.source
  • October 6 – The eruption the Italian volcano ends after seven days, having created Monte Nuovo.source
  • The first in a decade-long series of severe famines and epidemics sweep central and southeastern China during the Ming dynasty, made worse by a decision of 1527 to cut back on the intake of grain quotas for granaries.source
  • In China, a tsunami floods over the seawall in Haiyan County of Zhejiang province, inundating fields with saltwater, ruining many acres of crops. This drives up the price of foodstuffs, and many are forced to live off of tree bark and weeds (as Wang Wenlu states in his writing of 1545).source

Culture & Society

  • 3 March - Marriage between Svante Stensson Sture and Martha Leijonhufvud.Swedensource
  • April 6 – In India, Sher Shah Suri, who had been the Mughal Empire's Governor of the Bihar Subah province, declares the founding of the Sur Empire and crowns himself as Emperor in a ceremony at Delhi.source
  • May 9 – Mary of Guise is wed by proxy to King James V of Scotland, while she is at the Château de Châteaudun and he is in London, with neither of the two seeing each other.source
  • 9 May – James V and Mary of Guise are married by proxy at the Château de Châteaudun. The King's proxy Lord Maxwell gave the bride a diamond ring.Scotlandsource
  • May 10 – In India Mahmud Khan, 11-year-old the nephew of the late Sultan Bahadur Shah, is enthroned as Mahmud Shah III, Sultan of Gujarat.source
  • July 17 – The betrothal ceremony of 12-year-old Princess Elisabeth, niece of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to the 17-year-old Prince Sigismund II Augustus, son of King Sigismund of Poland (who is also the Grand Duke of Lithuania) and heir to the throne, takes place in Innsbruck. The two are married five years later on May 5, 1543.source
  • September 18 – Ştefan V Lăcustă of the Bogdan-Musat dynasty in Romania is appointed as the new Prince of Moldavia by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, replacing uncle, Petru Rareș.source
  • October 28 – The first university of the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is founded on the island of Hispaniola in Santo Domingo.source
  • 16 November – Mary of Guise makes her royal entry to Edinburgh on St Margaret's Day.Scotlandsource
  • Michelangelo starts work on the Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.source
  • Church of Ireland Kilkenny College is founded as Kilkenny Grammar School by Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond, and his wife, Margaret, to replace the School of the Vicars Choral.Irelandsource
  • The Variarum rerum vocabula is published in Sweden.Swedensource

Births

  • January 6 – Jane Dormer, English lady-in-waiting to Mary I (died 1612)source
  • January 10 – Louis of Nassau, Dutch general (died 1574)source
  • January 13 – Udai Singh of Marwar, Ruler of Marwar (died 1595)source
  • January 15 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1599)source
  • March 25 – Christopher Clavius, German mathematician and astronomer (died 1612)source
  • April 26 – Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Italian painter (died 1600)source
  • July 12 – Infanta Maria of Guimarães, Portuguese infanta (died 1577)source
  • July 25 – Diane de France, illegitimate daughter of Henry II of France (died 1619)source
  • July 25 – Diane de France, duchess (d.1619)Francesource
  • July 28 – Alberto Bolognetti, Italian Catholic cardinal (died 1585)source
  • September 29 – Joan Terès i Borrull, Viceroy of Catalonia (died 1603)source
  • October 2 – Saint Charles Borromeo, Spanish saint and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church (died 1584)source
  • November 16 – Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, Spanish Grand Inquisitor, missionary Archbishop of Lima (died 1606)source
  • December 10 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet (died 1612)source
  • 13 December - Sigrid Sture, noblewoman and county governor (died 1613)Swedensource
  • December 21 – Luigi d'Este, Italian Catholic cardinal (died 1586)source
  • Nicolas Barnaud, writer, physician and alchemist (d.1604)Francesource
  • Margareta Birgersdotter Grip, writer and genealogist (died 1586)Swedensource

Deaths