1545 CE

A firman of the Ottoman Empire is issued for the dethronement of Radu Paisie as Prince of Wallachia. At a diet in Worms, Germany, summoned by Pope Paul III, the German Protestant princes demand a national religious settlement for Germany. Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V refuses. The elaborate Tomb of Sher Shah Suri is completed in Sasaram, three months after Sher Shah's death, in what is now India's Bihar state.

In the 1540s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 4 – Giovanni Battista De Fornari begins a 2-year term as the Doge of Genoa, succeeding Andrea Centurione Pietrasanta.source
  • October 20 – The "New Laws"(Leyes Nuevas), officially the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians are repealed less than a year after being issued by King Carlos of Spain.source
  • November 23 – King Henry VIII opens the Parliament of England for the ninth time, in a session that lasts until December 24.source
  • December 24 – King Henry VIII gives royal assent to multiple acts passed by the English Parliament on its final day, including the Dissolution of Colleges Act and the Custos Rotulorum Act.source
  • Diogo I Nkumbi a Mpudi overthrows his uncle Pedro I of Kongo to become manikongo.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 27 – Battle of Ancrum Moor: The Scots are victorious over numerically superior English forces.source
  • 27 February – Battle of Ancrum Moor, a Scottish victory in the war known as the Rough WooingScotlandsource
  • March 17 – Mircea the Shepherd enters Bucharest as the new ruler of Wallachia, now in Romania.source
  • May 20 – In Vietnam, warlord Nguyễn Kim of the Lê dynasty leads troops toward an attack on Ninh Binh when he is invited by Dương Chấp Nhất of the Mạc dynasty to dinner. General Kim is treated to a watermelon by Duong and dies the next day.source
  • 26 May – Islam Shah Suri succeeds Sher Shah Suri to become ruler of the Sur EmpireIndiasource
  • May 31 – During the Italian War, a French expeditionary force under the direction of Claude d'Annebault begins an invasion of Britain by landing in Scotland.source
  • July 18– The Battle of the Solent begins between the English and French navies in The Solent, the strait between the British mainland and the Isle of Wight.source
  • July 18–19 – Battle of the Solent between English and French fleets. The engagement is inconclusive but on July 19 Henry VIII of England's flagship, the Mary Rose, sinks.Francesource
  • July 21 – Italian Wars: Battle of Bonchurch – The English reverse an attempted French invasion of the Isle of Wight, off the coast of England.source
  • August 5 – Scottish nobleman Domhnall Dubh, also called "Black Donald", secures an alliance with King Henry VIII of England and plans an invasion of Scotland (Dubh's Rebellion) seeking to install the Earl of Lennox as the regent for Mary, Queen of Scots, rather than the incumbent Regent Arran. The rebellion attracts little support from other nobles and Dubh dies of a fever while in Ireland, before an invasion can take place.source
  • September 16 – In a one-day campaign in the Rough Wooing border war between England and Scotland, the English generals Lord Hertford and Robert Bowes carry out a mission of burning Scottish towns along the River Teviot. He writes later that with 1,500 light horsemen from 5:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon, his army "burnt 14 or 15 towns" including "Rowle, Spittel, Bedrowle, Rowlewood, The Wolles, Crossebewghe, Donnerles, Fotton, West Leas, Troonyhill, and Dupligi.source
  • October 31 – (26th day of 9th month of Tenbun 14) The Siege of Kawagoe Castle begins, as part of an unsuccessful attempt by the Uesugi clan to regain Kawagoe Castle from the Late Hōjō clan in Japan.source
  • November 10 – A truce is signed between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire following the Siege of Nice, as Emperor Charles V acknowledges the Ottoman conquests.source
  • November 15 – (10 Ramadan 952 AH) Hamida Banu Begum, Empress consort of India's Mughal Empire and wife of the Emperor Humayun, returns to the capital, Agra, after a three-year absence. She is accompanied by an army provided to Humayun by Tahmasp I, Shah of Iran.source
  • c. September – Mobye Narapati succeeds as ruler of the Ava Kingdom and offers peace to the Taungoo dynasty, ending the Taungoo–Ava War (1538–45), and leaving the Taungoo as the dominant rulers in Burma.source
  • Battle of Sokhoista: The army of the Ottoman Empire defeats an alliance of Georgian dynasties.source
  • c. July 21 – Battle of Bonchurch: The English reverse an attempted French invasion of the Isle of Wight off the coast of England as part of the Italian Wars.Francesource

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 1 – Potosí is founded by the Spanish as a mining town after the discovery of huge silver deposits in this area of modern-day Bolivia. Silver mined from Huayna Potosí Mountain provides most of the wealth on which the Spanish Empire is based until its fall in the early 19th century.source
  • June 13 – Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez sets out to navigate the northern coast of New Guinea.source
  • June 20 – Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez arrives at a large island in the South Pacific Ocean. Stopping at the Mamberamo River, Ortiz claims the island for Spain and christens it "Nueva Guinea" after concluding that the natives resemble the people on the coast of the Guinea coast of West Africa.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 1 – King Francis I of France issues the "Arrêt de Mérindol", to destroy the Protestant Waldensians of Provence.source
  • February 22 – A firman of the Ottoman Empire is issued for the dethronement of Radu Paisie as Prince of Wallachia.source
  • March 24 – At a diet in Worms, Germany, summoned by Pope Paul III, the German Protestant princes demand a national religious settlement for Germany. Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V refuses.source
  • September 16 – The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza is created in Italy by order of Pope Paul III, formerly Alessandro Farnese, to be ruled by his son, Pier Luigi Farnese.source
  • November 6 – Redmond O'Gallagher is appointed Bishop of Killala by Pope Paul III.Irelandsource
  • December 13 – The Council of Trent officially opens in northern Italy (it closes in 1563).source
  • St. Anne's Church, Augsburg converts to Lutheranism.source
  • Olaus Magnus represents Sweden at the Council of Trent.Swedensource

Economy & Finance

  • September – the English Royal Mint issues debased coinage for Ireland.Irelandsource

Science & Discovery

  • The Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano published a book on algebra, Ars Magna, that contained the first published algebraic solutions to cubic and quartic equations.source
  • The last note in the Diarium Vadstenense.Swedensource

Health & Medicine

  • In the territory of New Spain in modern-day Mexico, the Cocoliztli Epidemic of 1545–1548 begins.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • July 19 – The Royal Navy's flagship, the Mary Rose, is sunk along with 365 of its 400 crewsource

Climate & Environment

  • In China, a large failure of the harvest in Henan province occurs due to excessive rainfall, which drives up the price of wheat, and forces many to flee their rural counties; those who stay behind are forced to survive by eating leaves, bark, and human flesh.source

Culture & Society

  • May 27 – Prince Jalal Khan, the second son of the late Sher Shah Suri, is crowned as the new King of the Suri Empire and takes the regnal name of Islam Shah Suri.source
  • August 16 – The elaborate Tomb of Sher Shah Suri is completed in Sasaram, three months after Sher Shah's death, in what is now India's Bihar state.source

Births

  • January 1 – Magnus Heinason, Faroese naval hero (died 1589)source
  • March 2 – Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and scholar, founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford (died 1613)source
  • March 25 – John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg (died 1622)source
  • April 2 – Elisabeth of Valois, queen of Philip II of Spain (died 1568)source
  • April 24 – Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, English earl (died 1581)source
  • April 28 – Yi Sun-sin, Korean naval commander (died 1598)source
  • May 1 – Franciscus Junius, French theologian (died 1602)source
  • July 8 – Don Carlos of Spain, son of Philip II of Spain (died 1568)source
  • August 1 – Andrew Melville, Scottish theologian and religious reformer (died 1622)source
  • August 27 – Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma (died 1592)source
  • October 19 – John Juvenal Ancina, Italian oratorian and bishop (died 1604)source
  • November 20 – Ernst Ludwig, Duke of Pomerania (died 1592)source
  • November 25 – Ana de Jesús, Spanish Discalced Carmelite nun and spiritual writer (died 1621)source
  • December 7 – Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1567)source
  • Eleanor Butler, Countess of DesmondIrelandsource
  • Richard Tyrrell (d.1632), a commander of rebel Irish forces in the Irish Nine Years War.Irelandsource
  • Princess Anna Maria of Sweden, (died 1610)Swedensource
  • Valborg Eriksdotter, royal mistress (died 1580)Swedensource

Deaths

  • April 3 – Antonio de Guevara, Spanish chronicler and moralist (born 1481)source
  • April 10 – Costanzo Festa, Italian composer (born 1495)source
  • 10 April - William Stewart (bishop of Aberdeen)Scotlandsource
  • May 20 – Sher Shah Suri, King of the Sur Empire in northern India, is fatally injured by an explosion from one of his own cannons while leading the siege of the Kalinjar Fort and dies two days later.source
  • May 22 – Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler (born 1486)source
  • 22 May – Sher Shah Suri (born 1486)Indiasource
  • May – Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, English noblewoman (born c. 1477)source
  • June 12 – Francis I, Duke of Lorraine (b.1517).Francesource
  • June 15 – Elizabeth of Austria, Polish noble (born 1526)source
  • August 8 – King Injong of Joseon, ruler of the Korean Empire, dies at the age of 30, after only eight months as monarch. His allies suspect that he had slowly been poisoned by his stepmother, Queen Janggyeong, who had been Queen consort as the wife of King Jungjong. Queen Janggyeong's 12-year-old son Myeongjong is enthroned as the new King, with Janggyeong as the regent.source
  • August 8 – Injong of Joseon, 12th king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea (born 1515)source
  • August 22 – Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English politician and husband of Mary Tudor (born c. 1484)source
  • September 1 – Francis de Bourbon, Count of St. Pol, French noble (born 1491)source
  • September 9 – Charles II, Duke of Orléans, (born 1522)source
  • September 24 – Albert of Mainz, elector and archbishop of Mainz (born 1490)source
  • October 18 – John Taverner, English composer (born c. 1490)source
  • November 9 – Pietro Lando, the Doge of the Republic of Venice since 1538, dies and Francesco Donato is elected in his place.source
  • Domhnall Dubh, Scottish nobleman (born late 15th century).Irelandsource