1583 CE

Ernest of Bavaria is elected as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, in opposition to Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. The opposition rapidly turns into armed struggle, the Cologne War within the Electorate of Cologne, beginning with the Destruction of the Oberstift. Fugitive Roman Catholic priest Maurice MacKenraghty is surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Lord Roche's gallowglasses, handed over to the Earl of Ormond and sent to prison at Clonmel. Cologne War: The Siege of Godesberg (begun on November 18) concludes when Catholic forces under Prince-elector-archbishop Ernest of Bavaria capture the strategic position, from defenders of the Calvinist convert Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg.

In the 1580s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

April 19 – Queen Elizabeth dissolves the English Parliament which had been convened in 1572 but last met in 1581.source
April 23 – The Kingdom of England establishes its first diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire.source
June – James VI regains his freedom following the Raid of Ruthven.Scotland source
August 5 – Sir Humphrey Gilbert, on the site of the modern-day city of St. John's, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.source
10 August - The Livonian War is ended by the Treaty of Plussa.Sweden source
November 4 – Gerolamo Chiavari is elected to a 2-year term as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa to succeed Gerolamo De Franchi Toso.source
November 24 – Philippe Hurault de Cheverny is appointed as the new Chief Minister of France by King Henri III upon the death of René de Birague, who had governed for nine years. Hurault will serve until 1589.source
Muzaffar Shah III escapes from prison and briefly re-establishes the Muzaffarid dynasty of Gujarat before Akbar established the Mughal dynastyIndia source
Jean Allard began negotiations with Henry III of France with the aim of overthrowing King John III of Sweden.Sweden source

Conflict & Security

January 18 – Francis, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.source
January 18 – François, Duke of Anjou, attacks Antwerp.France source
February 7 – In the Netherlands, the Siege of Eindhoven by the Spanish Army begins. The walled city will fall in April.source
April 23 – After a siege of 75 days, Dutch Republic commander Hendrik van Bonnivet surrenders Eindhoven to the Spanish Netherlands.source
April 25 – In a clash between a 50,000-man Persian Empire force and the Ottoman Empire for control of the Caucasus region in modern-day Russia, the Ottomans are routed.source
May 11 – In modern-day Russia, on the Caspian Sea, the three-day "Battle of Torches" ends as Ottoman Empire troops defeat forces of the Persian Empire.source
May 21 – Battle of Shizugatake in Japan: Shibata Katsuie is defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who goes on to commence construction of Osaka Castle.source
June 17 – Spanish troops under the command of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma overwhelm a combined army of Dutch, French and English soldiers at the Battle of Steenbergen in the modern-day Netherlands. The multinational force sustains 3,200 people killed or wounded.source
June 27 – Ten months after being taken hostage on August 23, 1582 in the Raid of Ruthven, the 17-year-old King James VI of Scotland is able to escape Falkland Prison and flees to safety in St. Andrews.source
July 25 – Cuncolim Revolt: The first documented battle of India's independence against a European colonial ruler is fought by the Desais of Cuncolim in Goa, against the Portuguese.source
October 24 – Jan van Hembyze becomes the last leader of the Calvinist Republic of Ghent after a coup d'etat against the ruling Count of Flanders. Hembyze's action leads days later to the siege of Ghent by Spanish General Alexander Farnese.source
December 17 – Cologne War: The Siege of Godesberg (begun on November 18) concludes when Catholic forces under Prince-elector-archbishop Ernest of Bavaria capture the strategic position, from defenders of the Calvinist convert Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg.source
Swords Castle briefly occupied by Dutch Protestants.Ireland source
Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, assumes command of the Crown forces, contains remaining activists in the Second Desmond Rebellion to West Cork and Kerry and persuades many to surrender.Ireland source

Exploration & Expansion

April 9 – A Burmese Army force of 16,000 men, commanded by Thado Dhamma Yaza II of Prome and Nawrahta Minsaw of Lan Na to suppress the rebellious of the Shan States in the modern-day Yunnan province of China, is welcomed by King Nanda Bayin at the royal capital, Pegu, after a successful punitive expedition. The commanders bring with them the rebel chief from the Sanda state.source
August 29 – English ship Delight, with Humphrey Gilbert's expedition, becomes the first of over 350 ships over time to run aground and be wrecked on Sable Island in the North Atlantic.source
September 9 – English ship Squirrel, the flagship of explorer, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, sinks in a storm with all hands along with all but one of Gilbert's colonial expedition. Gilbert and his men had been returning from North America after claiming Newfoundland in the name of Queen Elizabeth.source
The Ottoman fleet crosses into the Western Mediterranean and raids the Italian coastline. In Corsica, the towns of Sartene and Arbellara are sacked (summer).source

Religion & Belief

February 4 – Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, newly converted to Calvinism, formally marries Agnes von Mansfeld-Eisleben, a former canoness of Gerresheim, while retaining his position as Archbishop-Elector of Cologne.source
May 22 – Ernest of Bavaria is elected as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cologne, in opposition to Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg. The opposition rapidly turns into armed struggle, the Cologne War within the Electorate of Cologne, beginning with the Destruction of the Oberstift.source
October 18 – In South America, the Third Council of Lima comes to an end after two months after being convened to provide a consistent doctrine for the Roman Catholic Church in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Among other things, the Council approves the treatment of the native population "not like slaves but as free men" as part of evangelism and conversion to Christianity, as well as the use of the Quechua language and the Aymara language to spread the gospel. The use of Spanish is ordered for church services, and Latin is forbidden.source
November 13 – In India, the city of Allahabad (modern-day Prayagraj in the state of Uttar Pradesh) is founded as a strategic fortress by Akbar, Emperor of the Mughal Empire.Surendra Nath Sinha (1974).source
Dermot O'Hurley, appointed Archbishop of Cashel in 1581, lands on Holmpatrick Strand in County Dublin.Ireland source

Technology & Infrastructure

Building of the fort of Allahabad by Emperor Akbar.India source

Health & Medicine

June 18 – In England, the first known life insurance policy is issued. The Royal Exchange of London accepts a premium from William Gibbons, agreeing to pay a group of 30 beneficiaries a total of £383, 6s. 8d if he dies on or before June 17, 1584. Gibbons dies on May 29, 1584, and the Royal Exchange refuses to pay until a court rejects the insurer's argument that a month is actually four weeks or 28 days.source

Crime & Justice

September – fugitive Roman Catholic priest Maurice MacKenraghty is surprised on Sliabh Luachra by Lord Roche's gallowglasses, handed over to the Earl of Ormond and sent to prison at Clonmel.Ireland source
8 October – archbishop Dermot O'Hurley is arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle.Ireland source
October 16 – King Philip II of Spain orders the transfer of Abada the rhinoceros from the Casa de Campo public park of Madrid, to the menagerie at his residence at El Escorial.source
November 4 – Francis Throckmorton, instigator of the Throckmorton Plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England, is arrested. Convicted of treason, he is executed on July 10, 1584.source
November 5 – Willem IV van den Bergh, the Stadtholder of Guelders for the Dutch Republic is arrested along with his family and charged with treason on suspicion of having allowed the Spanish Army to seize Zutphen. Imprisoned for five months, he is released in March after promising to retire from public service.source
11 November – John na Seamar Burke is ambushed and killed by his brother Ulick.Ireland source
The current building housing the Bunch Of Grapes pub is built on Narrow Street in Limehouse, London. Referred to by Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend as "The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters", it still stands in the 21st century, much rebuilt and renamed 'The Grapes'.source

Culture & Society

January 1 – The Duchy of Savoy adopts the Gregorian Calendar, replacing the Julian Calendar.source
March 10 (February 28 O.S.) – The Queen Elizabeth's Men troupe of actors is founded in England by order of Queen Elizabeth to Edmund Tilney, the royal Master of the Revels.source
May 28 – The first installment of the translation by Jurij Dalmatin of the Bible into the Slovene language, Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta (The Bible, featuring the complete Old and New Testaments), is published in Wittenberg.source
August 19 – Petru Cercel enters Bucharest, and becomes Prince of Wallachia.source
September 4 – King James VI of Scotland orders a gift to Colonel William Stewart in recognition of Stewart's rescue of the King from prison. Colonel Stewart is presented with some of the jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots (the King's mother).source
October 14 – In Scotland, the University of Edinburgh holds its first classes, accepting more than 80 students as "Tounis College". In continuous operation for more than 440 years, the University will have more than 41,000 students.source
October 17 – Peter the Lame becomes Prince of Moldavia (in modern-day Romania) for the third and last time, reigning until 1591.source
The world's oldest, intact, surviving amusement park, Dyrehavsbakken, is founded north of Copenhagen.source
James VI signs a charter (dated 1582) creating the Tounis College, the modern-day University of Edinburgh.Scotland source

Births

January 31 – Peter Bulkley, English and later American Puritan (died 1659)source
March 3 – Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, English diplomat, poet, and philosopher (died 1648)source
April 10 – Hugo Grotius, Dutch philosopher and writer (died 1645)source
May 1 – Orazio Grassi, Italian Jesuit priest, architect and scientist (died 1654)source
May 26 – Susanna Hall, Daughter of William Shakespeare (died 1649)source
June 16 – Axel Oxenstierna, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (died 1654)source
16 June - Axel Oxenstierna, statesman (died 1654 in Sweden)Sweden source
June 20 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and statesman (died 1652)source
20 June - Jacob De la Gardie, statesman and soldier (died 1652 in Sweden)Sweden source
July 20 – Alban Roe, English Benedictine martyr (died 1642)source
August 19 – Daišan, Manchu politician (died 1648)source
September 23 – Christian II, Elector of Saxony from 1591 to 1611 (died 1611)source
September 24 – Albrecht von Wallenstein, Austrian general (died 1634)source
September – Girolamo Frescobaldi, Italian composer (died 1643)source
December 25 – Orlando Gibbons, English composer (died 1625)source
Nzinga, warrior sovereign queen of Ndongo and Matamba (died 1663)source
Richard Nugent, 1st Earl of Westmeath, landowner and politician (k. 1642)Ireland source
Alexander Henderson, theologian (died 1646)Scotland source

Deaths

January 28 – Pier Francesco Orsini, Italian condottiero and art patron (born 1523)source
March 24 – Hubert Goltzius, Dutch Renaissance painter-engraver (born 1526)source
March 28 – King Magnus of Livonia (born 1540)source
April – Lucas David, Prussian historian (born 1503)source
26 May – Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (born 1542)Scotland source
June 9 – Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1525)source
June 14 – Shibata Katsuie, Japanese military commander (born 1522)source
June – Babullah of Ternate, Sultan of Ternate (born 1528)source
July 6 – Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 1519)source
September 9 – Humphrey Gilbert, English explorer (born c. 1537)source
September 16 – Catherine Jagiellon, queen of John III of Sweden (born 1526)source
16 September - Catherine Jagiellon, queen (born 1526)Sweden source
November 11 – Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, Irish rebel (born c. 1533)source
11 November – Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, is killed at Glenaginty in the Slieve Mish Mountains (near Tralee in County Kerry) by the Moriarty clan of Castledrum on the Dingle Peninsula, bringing an end to the Desmond Rebellions and resulting in the extinction of the Desmond palatinate.Ireland source
November 24 – René de Birague, French cardinal and chancellor (born 1506)source
December 16 – Ivan Fyodorov, Russian printersource
December 31 – Thomas Erastus, Swiss theologian (born 1524)source
Rodolfo Acquaviva, Jesuit missionary at the court of Akbar dies (born 1550)India source