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The 1540s

784 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 16th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1540 CE69 entries

  • July 28 – Thomas Cromwell, is executed for treason publicly in London on the orders of king Henry VIII of England. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
  • July 30 – At Smithfield, London, three Lutheran pastors, Robert Barnes, Thomas Gerrard and William Jerome, are burnt at the stake on a charge of heresy and three Roman Catholic priests, Thomas Abel, Richard Fetherstone and Edward Powell, are hanged, drawn and quartered on a charge of high treason.
  • September 10 – Gibraltar is sacked by the fleet of Barbary pirate Ali Hamet, a Sardinian renegade in the service of the Ottoman Empire, and many of its leading citizens are taken as captives to Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera in Morocco. This leads to construction of the defensive Charles V Wall, at this time known as the Muralla de San Benito.

1541 CE78 entries

  • May 8 – Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River, naming it the Rio de Espiritu Santo ("River of the Holy Spirit").
  • July 9 – Estêvão da Gama departs Massawa, leaving behind 400 matchlock men and 150 slaves under his brother Cristóvão da Gama, with orders to assist the Emperor of Ethiopia to defeat Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi, who had invaded his Empire.
  • September 28 – King Charles of Spain begins the disastrous campaign against the Regency of Algiers as he assembles a fleet of 500 ships, with 24,000 soldiers, at the Spanish island of Majorca and prepares to cross the Mediterranean with the fleets of allied nations led by the Admiral Andrea Doria of the Republic of Genoa.

1542 CE78 entries

  • January 20 – The first legislature for the Voivode of Transylvania meets at Vásárhely in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Târgu Mureș in Romania).
  • July 23 – (10th day of 6th month of Tenbun 11) In Japan, a six-year rebellion within the Date clan when clan leader Date Tanemune, returning home from a day of falconry, is attacked by his oldest son, Date Harumune, and imprisoned at Kōri-Nishiyama Castle in Fukushima Prefecture. Tanemune is rescued by an aide, Koyanagigawa Munetomo, and escapes. The war lasts for six years before Harumune triumphs and becomes the new leader of the Date clan.
  • September 4 – The earliest recorded Preston Guild Court is held in Lancashire, England, in the modern sequence, which lasts unbroken until 1922.

1543 CE84 entries

  • March 21 – In Nuremberg, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) is printed during the illness of Nicholas Copernicus, offering mathematical arguments for the existence of the heliocentric universe, denying the geocentric model. According to legend, Copernicus, who had a stroke in December, is presented a copy of the book on his deathbed shortly before dying on May 24 in Frombork at the age of 70.
  • June – Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), revolutionising the science of human anatomy.
  • July 12 – King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Parr. It is Henry's sixth and last marriage and Catherine's third. Princess Elizabeth attends the wedding. This month, the Parliament of England passes the Third Succession Act, restoring the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, Henry's daughters, to the line of succession to the English throne.

1544 CE83 entries

  • January 13 - The Västerås arvförening declare Sweden to be a Hereditary monarchy, with the right of the eldest legitimate son to be heir to the throne and the younger sons to be Dukes. It is also officially declared a Protestant Kingdom: Requiem, the worship of saints and pilgrimages is banned, crucifixes is removed from the churches, and the opposition to the new religious order is declared heretics.
  • March 7 – Five Roman Catholic priests— John Larke, John Ireland, the vicar of Eltham and Robert Singleton are executed at Tyburn, outside of London, in England after being convicted of participating in the Prebendaries' Plot to remove Thomas Cranmer, the Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • April 11 – Battle of Ceresole: French forces under the Comte d'Enghien defeat forces of the Holy Roman Empire, under the Marques Del Vasto, near Turin.

1545 CE77 entries

  • February 22 – A firman of the Ottoman Empire is issued for the dethronement of Radu Paisie as Prince of Wallachia.
  • 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.
  • 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.

1546 CE86 entries

  • March 1 – Scottish Protestant reformer George Wishart, arrested on January 19, is burned at the stake at St Andrews on orders of Cardinal David Beaton of the Roman Catholic church, after being found guilty of heresy. Cardinal Beaton is assassinated less than three months later.
  • June 7 – The Treaty of Ardres (also known as the Treaty of Camp) is signed, resulting in peace between the kingdoms of England and France and ending the Italian War of 1542–1546.
  • October 28 – (4th waxing of Tazaungmon 908 ME) A second campaign begins in the Toungoo–Mrauk-U War in what is now the Asian nation of Myanmar, as King Tabinshwehti of Burma starts an invasion of the Kingdom of Mrauk U (led by Min Bin) in the Arakan Mountains. King Tabinshwehti dispatches 19,000 troops, 400 horses, and 60 elephants, with 4,000 invading by land and the other 15,000 being transported on a fleet of 800 war boats, 500 armored war boats, and 100 cargo boats through the Bay of Bengal to the coast of Mrauk U.

1547 CE81 entries

  • January 28 – King Henry VIII of England dies in London, and is succeeded by his 9-year-old son Edward VI, as King of England.
  • April 24 – Battle of Mühlberg: Emperor Charles V defeats the Lutheran forces of the Schmalkaldic League and takes John Frederick I.
  • June 21 – The apparition of Mary, mother of Jesus is seen by several women in the Sicilian city of Alcamo. She becomes the patron saint of the city and is celebrated as the Madonna of Miracles (la Madonna dei Miracoli)

1548 CE63 entries

  • April 15 – General Zhu Wan of Ming dynasty China dispatches a fleet of ships, commanded by Lu Tang, to destroy smugglers and pirates at Shangyu, a port on Liuheng Island. The fleet sets off from Wenzhou and makes its attack in June.
  • May 15 – The Diet of Augsburg approves a decree of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the "Declaration of His Roman Imperial Majesty on the Observance of Religion Within the Holy Empire Until the Decision of the General Council", informally referred to as the Augsburg Interim, directing German Protestants to resume the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, including observance of the Seven Sacraments. As a concession, the Emperor allows the continuation of some Protestant customs, including the right of Protestant clergy to marry and for believers to receive the Protestant communion of bread and wine.
  • December 17 – King João III of Portugal, creates a colonial government of Brazil, with a capital at Bahia, in order to maintain unity among various Portuguese captaincies (São Vicente, Nova Lusitania, Ilhéus and Porto Seguro) scattered along the coast. The document contains 48 articles governing the installation of the government, the organization of trade, measures for defense, treatment of the indigenous tribes, and policies toward foreigners. The King provides for a Governor-General, and appoints Tomé de Sousa as the first officeholder.

1549 CE85 entries

  • March 29 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil's first capital, is founded by Tome de Sousa.
  • July 21 – Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, delivers his most important sermon, speaking at St Paul's Cathedral to defend the Church of England's reasons for uniformly requiring the use of The Book of Common Prayer.
  • July 27 – (Tenbun 18, 3rd day of the 7th month) European Jesuit Francis Xavier arrives in Japan at the port of Kagoshima, the first Christian missionary there, but is not allowed to go to shore until three weeks later.