1570 CE

The assassination of Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, by James Hamilton, the first known shooting of a national leader, throws Scotland into civil war. Having loaded a carbine rifle and carried it into the Linlithgow home of his uncle, the Archbishop of St Andrews, Hamilton stands at an upstairs window overlooking the street where Moray will ride by on horseback as part of cavalcade. Once Moray comes into range, Hamilton fires and fatally wounds the regent for King James VI. The ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II goes before the governing Council of the Venetian Republic and requests that Venice surrender the island of Cyprus. The Council rejects the demand and prepares to go to war with the Ottoman Empire. Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan surrenders his estate to Elizabeth I of England in exchange for a pardon for his rebellion.

In the 1570s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

June 10 – The Kingdom of Livonia is established.source
August 8 - King Charles IX signs the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ending the third war of the French wars of religion.France source
August 16 – The Treaty of Speyer is signed between John Sigismund Zápolya, Prince of Transylvania and Maximilian II, King of Hungary.source
December 13 – The Treaty of Stettin ends the Northern Seven Years' War.source
13 December – The Treaty of Stettin officially ended the Northern Seven Years' War. Although the treaty restored peace between Sweden and Denmark: Norway, many territorial disputes remained unresolved.Sweden source

Conflict & Security

January 8 – Ivan the Terrible begins the Massacre of Novgorod.source
January 23 – The assassination of Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, by James Hamilton, the first known shooting of a national leader, throws Scotland into civil war. Having loaded a carbine rifle and carried it into the Linlithgow home of his uncle, the Archbishop of St Andrews, Hamilton stands at an upstairs window overlooking the street where Moray will ride by on horseback as part of cavalcade. Once Moray comes into range, Hamilton fires and fatally wounds the regent for King James VI.source
March 28 – The ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II goes before the governing Council of the Venetian Republic and requests that Venice surrender the island of Cyprus. The Council rejects the demand and prepares to go to war with the Ottoman Empire.source
April – Battle of Shrule occurs.Ireland source
May 24 – Battle of Manila: The Spanish, led by Martín de Goiti, defeat the forces of Rajah Sulayman.source
June- Huguenot Protestant army defeats the royal army at Arnay-le-Duc.France source
July 3 – The Ottoman conquest of Cyprus begins as more than 350 Ottoman ships and over 60,000 troops land near Larnaca and then march toward the Cypriot capital, Nicosia.source
July 22 – The siege of Nicosia by the Ottoman Empire begins in Cyprus and lasts for seven weeks.source
July 30 (28th day of 6th month of Genki 1) – Battle of Anegawa: The allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu defeat the combined forces of the Azai and Asakura clans.source
21 August - Sweden renewed its military involvement in the Livonian War, continuing its efforts to strengthen its influence around the eastern Baltic Sea.Sweden source
September 9 – Nicosia falls to the Turks under the command of General Lala Mustafa Pasha. After the Ottomans breach the walls, the Venetian defenders are massacred and the women and boys are sold into slavery.source
September 25 (26th day of 8th month of Genki 1) – The 10-year-long Ishiyama Hongan-ji War begins in Japan as Oda Nobunaga stages simultaneous attacks on two fortresses (Ishiyama Hongan-ji and Nagashima) of the Ikkō-ikki faction near Osaka.source
October 10 – Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan surrenders his estate to Elizabeth I of England in exchange for a pardon for his rebellion.Ireland source
War of the League of the Indies beginsIndia source

Exploration & Expansion

April – Nageir the Moor, a courtier, leaves Scotland.Scotland source
September 10 – A party of ten Spanish Jesuit missionaries land on the Virginia Peninsula of North America to establish the Ajacán Mission, which will be massacred in February 1571.source
Spanish conquistador Juan de Salcedo (in the service of Miguel López de Legazpi) begins the conquest of the Kingdom of Maynila.source

Religion & Belief

14 February – Funeral of Regent Moray at St Giles' Cathedral.Scotland source
February 25 – Pope Pius V excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England with the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis.source
April 7 – In Scotland, Colin Campbell of Glenorchy receives permission from the Regent, the Earl of Morton, to execute the chief of Clan Gregor, his son-in-law Gregor Roy MacGregor, and carries out MacGregor's beheading at Balloch in front of the Earl of Atholl.source
April 27 – Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth I of England, and all persons who show allegiance to her, with the bull Regnans in Excelsis.source
July 14 – Pope Pius V issues Quo primum, promulgating the 1570 edition of the Roman Missal.source
August 8 – The Peace of Saint-Germain ends the Third War of Religion in France. Again, the Huguenots are promised religious freedom and political autonomy.source
Construction of the original Catedral Nuestra Señora de La Asunción, the oldest church in Venezuela, begins.source

Economy & Finance

July 22 – Thomson Snell & Passmore is founded in England, the oldest law firm in operation.source

Technology & Infrastructure

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is known to be in existence in London. By 2017, when it closes its premises in Whitechapel, it will be the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain.source

Science & Discovery

Mar's Wark at Stirling has datestones of 1570 and 1572.Scotland source

Health & Medicine

The Andean population of the Viceroyalty of Peru reaches 1.3 million.source

Crime & Justice

January – William Oge Martyn is kidnapped by the Earl of Thomond.Ireland source

Disasters & Accidents

27 February - The Danes burn Växjö: In the Northern Seven Years' War, the town of Växjö was burned by Danish troops, which resulted in substantial damage to the buildings and infrastructure.Sweden source

Climate & Environment

February 5 – Venus occults Jupiter; this will next happen in 1818.source
February 8 – An estimated 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurs in Concepción, Chile.source
November 17 – A major earthquake strikes the Italian city of Ferrara at 3:00 in the morning local time, destroying 40 percent of the buildings in the city, but causing only 171 deaths. After the initial shocks, a sequence of aftershocks continue for four years, with over 2,000 in the period from November 1570 to February 1571.source
Volcanic eruption in the Santorini caldera begins.source

Culture & Society

May 20 – Abraham Ortelius publishes the first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, in Antwerp.source
12 July – Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox is elected and proclaimed Regent of Scotland at the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.Scotland source
October 3 – Princess Anna of Austria arrives in Spain to become the Queen Consort of Spain as the bride of her uncle King Philip of Spain, whom she had married by proxy on May 4. Having traveled through the Netherlands, she asks King Philip to spare the life of the rebel Floris of Montmorency, but the King arranges the strangulation of Floris on October 14.source
November 26 - King Charles IX marries Elisabeth of Austria in the town of Mézières in Champagne.France source
Andrea Palladio publishes I quattro libri dell'architettura in Venice.source

Births

January 1 – Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Spouse of Charles I, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld (died 1649)source
January 19 – Wolfgang Hirschbach, German legal scholar (died 1620)source
April 13 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator (died 1606)source
13 April – Simon Fraser, 6th Lord LovatScotland source
May 22 – Johann II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, German duke (died 1605)source
June 7 – Sultan Murad Mirza, Mughal prince (died 1599)source
August 19 – Salamone Rossi, Italian violinist and composer (died 1630)source
August 22 – Franz von Dietrichstein, German Catholic bishop (died 1636)source
31 August - Gustav of Saxe-Lauenburg, prince (died 1597)Sweden source
October 3 – George Coke, British bishop (died 1646)source
October 4 – Péter Pázmány, Hungarian cardinal and statesman (died 1637)source
October 7 – Volkert Overlander, Dutch mayor (died 1630)source
November 1 – Phineas Pett, English shipwright and member of the Pett Dynasty (died 1647)source
November 20 – Giovanni Battista Agucchi, Italian churchman, papal diplomat, and writer on art theory (died 1632)source
November 28 – James Whitelocke, English judge (died 1632)source
December 29 – Wilhelm Lamormaini, Luxembourgian theologian (died 1648)source
Sengge Namgyal, Namgyal dynasty King of Ladakh (died 1642)India source
Col Ciotach, adventurer of Clan Donald, Laird of Colonsay (died 1647)Ireland source

Deaths

January 8 – Philibert de l'Orme, French architect (born 1510)source
January 8 - Philibert de l'Orme, French architect and writer (born 1514)France source
January 23 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated) (born c.1531)source
23 January – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, assassinated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh at Linlithgow.Scotland source
February 13 – Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, politically active Italian duchess (born 1493)source
February – Henry Balnaves, Scottish politician and religious reformer (born 1512)source
February – Henry Balnaves, lawyer and Protestant reformer.Scotland source
March 1 – Bernhard VII, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (born 1540)source
April 13 – Daniele Barbaro, Italian architect (born 1514)source
15 April – John Wood, assassinated.Scotland source
September 11 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and Protestant Reformer (born 1499)source
October 1 – Frans Floris, Flemish painter (born 1520)source
October 18 – Manuel da Nóbrega, Portuguese Jesuit missionary in Brazil (born 1517)source
October 20 – Francesco Laparelli, Italian architect (born 1521)source
October 20 – João de Barros, Portuguese historian (born 1496)source
November 27 – Jacopo Sansovino, Italian sculptor and architect (born 1486)source
November – Jacques Grévin, French dramatist (born 1539)source
December 15 – Frederick III of Legnica, Duke of Legnica (born 1520)source