Crime & Justice in the 16th century

187 sourced entries, 1500 CE to 1598 CE, oldest first. Also see Crime & Justice across every century or everything else in the 16th century.

1500September 15 – Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) is placed under arrest, along with his two brothers, Bartolome and Diego, after appearing before Francisco de Bobadilla, who had replaced him as the Spanish Governor of the New World. ("El 15 de septiemre Bobadilla presenta sus credenciales a Colon... Colon habia ejectuado a varios espanoles cargo de gran peso contra el, asi que al fin Bobadilla resolvio enviarlos presos a Espana para que alla se les juzgase."— "On the 15th of September of 1500, Bobadilla presented his credential to Columbus. Columbus had executed several Spaniards charged with great weight against him, so Bobadilla finally decided to send them prisoners to Spain so that they could be tried there.")source
1500September 23 – Bobadilla hears testimony from 22 witnesses and concludes that the Columbus brothers intended to overthrow him; he has them placed in manacles and chains for deportation to Spain. ("La pesquisa de Bobadilla contra Colon habia comenzado el 23-IX-1500."— "Bobadilla's investigation against Colon had begun on 23 September 1500.")source
1500Saxony's mint at Annaberg begins producing guldengroschens, also known as guldiners.source
1501Dhaulpur is taken by Sikandar Lodi.source
1502April 11 – Dmitry Ivanovich Vnuk, who had been the teenage co-ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow since 1498 with his grandfather Ivan III, is arrested along with his mother, Elena of Moldavia on suspicion of conspiracy. Ivan designates his son (and Dmitry's uncle) Vasili Ivanovich as the new heir to the throne of Moscow.source
1502December 26 – Cesare Borgia kills Ramiro d'Orco; this incident is referenced in Machiavelli's The Princesource
1503Hieronymus Bosch works on the triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, although other sources suggest a 1490-1510 date range for when he worked on it.source
1503From this year until 1660, sixteen million kilograms of silver and 185,000 kilograms of gold will enter the port of Seville.source
1503Mariotto Albertinelli paints The Visitation.source
1504Sheikh Ahmed, the final leader of the Great Horde, is last heard of as a Lithuanian prisoner at Vilnius until 1527 when he was released, after which he came to rule over the Astrakhan Khanate.source
1504First known record of a Solicitor-General for Ireland.Ireland source
1505Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare invested as Knight of the Garter by Henry VIIIreland source
1507Cardinal Cisneros is appointed inquisitor general of Castile.source
1510September 3 – Sir Thomas More becomes undersheriff of the City of London.source
1513Kilberry castle is destroyed by an English pirate.Scotland source
1515March 31 – Multiple acts of the English parliament are given royal assent by King Henry VIII, including the Deepening River at Canterbury Act 1514, the Thames Watermen Act 1514, and the Felons and Murderers Act 1514.source
1517September 13 – Yunus Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Governor of Egypt after leading the Egyptian conquest, is fired by the Ottoman Sultan Selim I and then executed by decapitation.source
1519The first recorded fatal accident involving a gun in England is recorded at Welton, East Riding of Yorkshire.source
1519Richard Mór Burke, became 9th lord of ClanricardeIreland source
15207-10 November - Stockholm Bloodbath.Sweden source
1521March 6 – Martin Luther is summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms.source
1521April 26 – Martin Luther leaves Worms and disappears for around a year – he is rumored to be murdered, but is actually in hiding at the Wartburg castle.source
1522Chinese Ming dynasty War Ministry official He Ru is the first to acquire the Portuguese breech-loading culverin, while copies of them are made by two Westernized Chinese at Beijing, Yang San (Pedro Yang) and Dai Ming.source
1523April 23 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, brings the Spanish Inquisition to the Netherlands with the appointment of Frans Van der Hulst as the inquisitor general of the Seventeen Provinces, which will later become parts of the Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the southern Netherlands.source
1523The Ming dynasty Chinese navy captures two Western ships with Portuguese breech–loading culverins aboard, which the Chinese call a fo–lang–ji (Frankish culverin). According to the Ming Shi, these cannons are soon presented to the Jiajing Emperor by Wang Hong, and their design is copied in 1529.source
1525December 31 – The deadline for Spanish Muslims to convert to Christianity in the Valencia is reached, after which remaining Muslims, or those who harbor them as fugitives, becomes punishable by forced exile, imprisonment or death.source
1525The Navarre witch trials (1525-1526) begins.source
1526Morrison's Haven near Prestonpans is established as "Gilbertis-draucht".Scotland source
1526The King demands confiscation of clerical property.Sweden source
1527January 5 – Felix Manz, co-founder of the Swiss Anabaptists, is drowned in the Limmat in Zürich by the Zürich Reformed state church.source
1527Rychard Martin is succeeded as Mayor of Galway by William Morris.Ireland source
1528May 9 – King James V of Scotland, 16, held captive for more than two years under the guardianship of the Earl of Angus, is able to escape from Edinburgh to Stirling after several failed rescue attempts.source
1529March 25 – A blood libel is carried out against the Jewish community of Bosen in Hungary (now Pezinok in Slovakia), on the first day of Passover, after a boy in the town disappears. Three Jews are accused and killed. The boy is later discovered alive, having been kidnapped for the benefit of the scheme.source
1529September – Richard Gare Lynch becomes Mayor of Galway.Ireland source
1531Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor abolishes the worst abuses of the encomienda system, by pressure of Bartolomé de las Casas.source
1531A witch-hunt is conducted in the town of Schiltach, Germany.source
1532November 16 – Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca emperor Atahualpa at Cajamarca, ambushing and slaughtering a large number of his followers, without loss to themselves. He subsequently offers a ransom of approximately $50 million in gold.source
1532December 20 – The first payment for Atahualpa's ransom from the Spaniards is made as gold is delivered to Cuzco to fill up a room.source
1535May 10 – In Amsterdam, a small troop of Anabaptists, led by the minister Jacob van Geel, attacks the city hall, in an attempted coup to seize the city. In the counter-attack by the city's militia, the burgemeester, Pieter Colijns, is killed by the rebels. In another incident this year in Amsterdam, seven men and five women walk nude in the streets; and Anabaptists rebel in other cities of the Netherlands.source
1535May 20 – William Tyndale is arrested in Antwerp for heresy, in relation to his Bible translation, and imprisoned in Vilvoorde.source
1535October – Silken Thomas is sent as a prisoner to the Tower of London.Ireland source
1535November 30 – Jakob Hutter, leader of the Hutterites is arrested along with his wife in Klausen in the Tyrol region on the Italian side of the Alps. The two are taken to the prison at the fortress in Bronzolo.source
1535December – Manco Inca Yupanqui, nominally Sapa Inca, is imprisoned by the Spanish Conquistadors of Peru.source
1536May 2 – Anne Boleyn, second queen of Henry VIII of England, is arrested on the grounds of incest, adultery, and treason.source
1536May 23 – The Inquisition is implemented in Portugal.source
1536November 13 – On "a great misty morning such as hath seldom been seen", Robert Pakington, a London merchant and a member of the English Parliament, becomes the first person in Britain to be murdered with a handgun, while he is walking across the street from his home at Soper's Lane toward the Mercers' Chapel. His assailant is never caught, despite the offer of a large reward.source
1536St. Wolstan's Priory (County Kildare; 15 September).Ireland source
1536Several members of the burgher class are arrested in Stockholm and Kalmar and executed over a suspected plot against the king. The plan was supposedly to place gunpowder under the king's seat in Storkyrkan, take Tre Kronor Castle and wait for the support of the Hanseatic League.Sweden source
1537September 7 – Walter Cowley is appointed Principal Solicitor for Ireland.Ireland source
1538January 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
1540January - The reformers Olaus Petri and Laurentius Andreae are sentenced to treason but pardoned.Sweden source
1540June 10 – Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister for King Henry VIII, is arrested at meeting of the Privy Council of England at Westminster and charged with treason. Cromwell is removed from his positions as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Privy Seal, Lord Great Chamberlain and Governor of the Isle of Wight, and will be executed on July 28.source
1540November 8 – William Whorwood becomes the new Attorney General for England and Wales, succeeding Sir John Bakersource
1540Dominican Priory of St Eustace, Naas.Ireland source
1541November 23 – Catherine Howard, the Queen consort of England, is arrested after 16 days of questioning by Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, reveals that she had also been conducting an adulterous affair with Francis Dereham while married to King Henry VIII. She is imprisoned at Syon Abbey in Middlesex near London.source
1544April 21 – The Italian town of Agropoli, frequently targeted by pirates from North Africa, is sacked by Ottoman raiders and 100 people are taken prisoner.source
1546September 8 – The first Protestant Huguenot church in France, established by Pierre LeClerc and Etienne Mangin at Meaux 25 mi from Paris, is seized by the French Army and its 60 members are arrested. Ten women are released and 50 others put on trial for heresy. LeClerc, Mangin and 12 others are burned at the stake on October 8.source
1546December 12 – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and the Lord High Treasurer of England since 1522 is arrested along with his eldest son, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and both are imprisoned in the Tower of London. The Earl of Surrey is executed for treason on January 19; the Duke of Norfolk is sentenced to death, but before the sentence can be carried out, King Henry VIII passes away and Norfolk remains in the Tower until being pardoned in 1553.source
1546Katharina von Bora flees to Magdeburg.source
1547January 13 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey is sentenced to death for treason in England.source
1547September 10 – Conspirators led by Ferrante Gonzaga murder Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma and son of the Pope, and hang his body from a window of his palace in Piacenza.source
1547Athlone Castle is reconstructed by Sir William Brabazon.Ireland source
1547Lochwood Tower in Annandale is taken by the English.Scotland source
1549October 11 – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector of England and Lord High Treasurer since 1547, is arrested on orders of the Regency Council on charges of "ambition, vainglory, entering into rash wars" as well as malfeasance and improper use of the royal treasury.source
1549Fionnuala Ní Flaithbheartaigh conspires with her brother, Domhnall mac Ruairi Oge O Flaithbheartaigh, to murder her late husband's son Walter Fada Burke and seize his castle and lands of Inverin.Ireland source
1550May 6 – Italian Protestant Michelangelo Florio, jailed since 1548 before being brought to trial for and sentenced to death for heresy, escapes from prison and is able flee to France.source
1550The witch trial against Lasses Birgitta, referred to as the first execution for witchcraft in Sweden.Sweden source
1551February 14 – Alice Arden and her lover, Richard Mosbey, carry out the murder-for-hire of her husband, Thomas Arden of Faversham with the assistance of a highwayman known as "Black Will", two of Arden’s domestic servants (Michael Saunderson and Elizabeth Stafford) and Mosbye's sister (Cicely Pounder). The body is carried outside, and Thomas is reported as missing, but a discovery is made that the murder was committed inside the house. The conspirators are later executed.source
1551King Gustav Vasa ordered the arrest and prosecution of individuals suspected of murdering his secretary using poison and sorcery. While the trials did not fully proceed in 1551, it marked a notable moment in the history of Swedish witch trials.Sweden source
1552June 22 – Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, the Spanish Governor of Luxembourg, is taken prisoner by France and remains captive for almost five years.source
1553August 18 – John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, is tried and convicted of treason for his role in putting his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne.source
1553November 13 – Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the title of Queen of England for nine days, is convicted of high treason, along with her husband Lord Guilford Dudley, two of Dudley's brothers, and Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, after trial conducted by a special commission at Guildhall in the City of London. Referred to by the court as "Jane Dudley, wife of Guildford", Lady Jane is found to have treacherously assumed the title and the power of the monarch of England, as evidenced by a number of documents she had signed as "Jane the Quene". All five defendants are sentenced to death. Beheading is the sentence for the men, while Lady Jane is to either be "burned alive on Tower Hill or beheaded as the Queen pleases", with the decision (for a private decapitation) to be made by Queen Mary.source
1554Barnaby Skurloke or Skurlog is appointed Attorney-General for Ireland, the first use of the title in place of King's Attorney.Ireland source
1554John Bathe is appointed Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas following the death of Sir Thomas Luttrell.Ireland source
155526 March - Amboise ordinance punishing with a 1,000 pounds fine usurpers of nobility in France.France source
155510 July - 5 August - Jacques de Sores, in the head of a French fleet, burns and pillages Havana and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza that the Governor Hernando de Soto had built to counter acts of piracy.France source
1555John Dee is charged, but cleared, of treason in England.source
1556January 4 – In Japan, Saitō Yoshitatsu, the eldest son of Saitō Dōsan, arranges the murders of his two younger brothers, Magoshiro and Kiheiji, and forces his father to flee from the Sagiyama Castle.source
1556The false Martin Guerre appears in the French village of Artigat.source
1556Summer – The false Martin Guerre appears in the village of Artigat.France source
1557June 18 – Mass executions by burning at the stake resume in England for Protestants convicted of heresy under the law of England's Catholic ruler, Queen Mary I. On the first day, four women and three men are put to death at Maidstone at Kent. The next day, at Canterbury, another seven prisoners are burned. On June 22, ten more people (six men and four women) burn at the stake at Lewes at Sussex. In all, 24 people (12 men and 12 women) are killed in a five-day periodsource
1557Repton School, by Sir John Port.source
1557Hampton School, Hampton, London, by Robert Hammond.source
1557Brentwood School, Essex, by Sir Antony Browne.source
1559September 3 – Robert Dillon is appointed Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.Ireland source
1559Shane O'Neill is elected to succeed Conn O'Neill as The Ó Néill Mór.Ireland source
1560The great age of piracy in the Caribbean starts around this time.source
1561Ruy López de Segura develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain.source
1562January 6 – Shane O'Neill pleads his cause at the Palace of Whitehall in London before Elizabeth I of England, who recognises him as "The O'Neill" and "of Tír Eoghain". He returns to Ireland on 26 May.Ireland source
1562May 1562: Mughal general Adham Khan executed for the murder of Shams-ud-Din Ataga Khan, another Mughal general.India source
1562August 3 – A severe hailstorm causes serious damage in the German town of Wiesensteig, and leads a few days later to the demand of Mayor Ulrich von Helfenstein for the arrest of several women on charges of practicing witchcraft. Six of the women are executed, the first of 63 women and men put to death after being convicted of practicing sorcery.source
1563October 7 – Giovanni Battista Lercari is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa.source
156414 August - Action of 14 August 1564Sweden source
1564A map of Sweden, attributed to Ambrosius Thoms, was completed this year. It is presumed to have been created to aid in a coup-d’etat to liberate John III (half-brother of King Erik XIV, who would become the next King of Sweden in 1569) from Gripsholm Castle. John was imprisoned there in 1563 for treason, along with his new wife, on account of their marriage, because she was the younger sister of Poland's King Sigismund II Augustus, with whom King Erik XIV was at war.Sweden source
156611 March – Mary escapes to Dunbar Castle after convincing Lord Darnley to help her.Scotland source
156626 July - Action of 26 July 1566Sweden source
1566August 10 – The Beeldenstorm, also called the "Iconoclastic Fury", begins as Protestant Calvinists engage in widespread destruction of religious art in what are now the Netherlands and Belgium.source
1566August 25 – The vandalism of the Beeldenstorm reaches Leiden.source
1566October 28 – In Kneiphof, a city in the Duchy of Prussia (modern-day Ostrov Immanuinga Kanta in Russia), Albert, Duke of Prussia has three of the town's five councilors beheaded on charges of causing political and religious disputes with the other Prussian states. Johann Funck, Matthias Horst, and Hans Schnell are executed in the town's marketplace, while Paul Skalich and Johann Steinbach are able to flee the country.source
156710 February – Murder of Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, at the Kirk o' Field in Edinburgh by gunpowder explosion.Scotland source
1567April 12 – The Earl of Bothwell is acquitted on charges of murder in the February 10 killing of Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Upon acquittal he makes plans to become Mary's new husband.source
156712 April – James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, is acquitted on charges of murder in the killing of Lord Darnley. Upon acquittal he makes plans to become Mary's new husband.Scotland source
1567April 20 – The Ainslie Tavern Bond is signed by a group of Scottish clerics and nobles, recommending Bothwell as an appropriate husband for Queen Mary and approving his acquittal after trial for the murder of her previous husband.source
1567April 24 – Bothwell takes Mary prisoner at his castle at Dunbar after preventing her from traveling from her palace to Edinburgh, then rapes her.source
156724 April – Bothwell takes Mary as a prisoner to Dunbar Castle after preventing her from travelling from Stirling Castle to Edinburgh, then rapes her.Scotland source
1567May 24 – Sture Murders: The mentally unstable King Erik XIV of Sweden and his guards murder five incarcerated nobles at Uppsala Castle.source
156724 May - Erik XIV endures a fit of insanity during which he commits the Sture Murders.Sweden source
1568May 2 – The deposed Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Lochleven Castle.source
15682 May – The deposed Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Lochleven Castle.Scotland source
156822 September - Jöran Persson is arrested and executed.Sweden source
156829 September - The King is arrested, imprisoned and deposed by his brothersSweden source
1569Sir Edmund Butler of Cloughgrenan leads a revolt against the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney, in Leinster.Ireland source
1570January – William Oge Martyn is kidnapped by the Earl of Thomond.Ireland source
1572July 9 – The Sea Beggars hang 19 previously imprisoned Roman Catholic priests (the Martyrs of Gorkum) at Brielle.source
1572Sack of Athenry by the Mac an Iarlas.Ireland source
1573February 15 – On orders of the Croatian Viceroy Juraj Drašković, Matija Gubec, the defeated leader of the Croatian–Slovene Peasant Revolt is publicly tortured with the placement of a red-hot iron crown on his head, dragged through the streets of Zagreb, and then dismembered.source
1573March 25 – Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, returns to Ireland. He is detained in Dublin but escapes about 11 November.Ireland source
1573October 20 – Planter Thomas Smith the younger is shot in Ards.Ireland source
1573Walter Ball, who subsequently became Mayor of Dublin and imprisoned his mother Margaret Ball on religious grounds, becomes an Alderman of Dublin.Ireland source
1574December 22 – Prince Murad bin-Selim of the Ottoman Empire completes the murders, by strangulation, of his four younger brothers, Süleyman, Abdüllah, Osman, and Cihangir.source
1574Essex meets Brian O'Neill of Clandeboye at his castle of Edendubhcarrig (County Antrim) where at least 200 of the clan O'Neill are treacherously massacred at a feast while O'Neill himself, his wife and brother are captured, taken to Dublin, executed and quartered. The Lordship of Clandeboye is partitioned in three by the English.Ireland source
1574The rebel Rory O'More is briefly imprisoned.Ireland source
1575March 16 – Edmund O'Donnell is hanged, drawn and quartered in Cork as a traitor, the first Jesuit executed by the English government.Ireland source
1575September 26 – Future Spanish author and playwright Miguel de Cervantes, then 28, is taken hostage by the Ottoman Albanian pirate Arnaut Mami after an attack on the Spanish galley Sol off of the Catalan coast. Cervantes spends the next five years as a slave in Algeria before his family pays a ransom to free him.source
1575Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex, has members of the clan O'Neill killed at Banbridge.Ireland source
1576February 8 – Peter Wentworth, a Puritan M.P. of the Parliament of England, is arrested in the middle of giving an address criticizing "rumours and messages" given to suppress freedom of speech. When he says that "the devil was the first author of them, from whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness", he is interrupted and taken to the Tower of London for imprisonment.source
1576Sutton Valence School, by William Lambe.source
1576Dartford Grammar School, by William d'Aeth, Edward Gwyn and William Vaughn.source
1577February 23 – The new Shah of Iran, Ismail II, has most of the advisers of his late father executed, including Prince Ibrahim Mirza. "Ebrāhīm Mīrzā", by Marianna S. Simpson, insource
1577October 19 – In Italy, Giovanni Battista Gentile Pignolo is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa for a two-year term, replacing Prospero Centurione Fattinanti.source
1577Athenry is sacked by the Mac an Iarla, the sons of the Richard Burke (Ulick and John). This follows their previous attack in 1572.Ireland source
1579November 3 – The English puritan John Stubbs, author of numerous pamphlets against the doctrines of the Church of England, is convicted of sedition, and his right hand is amputated as punishment.source
1579East Breifne is renamed Cavan (Irish An Cabhain) after the Shire's main town.Ireland source
1579William Oge Martyn attempts to capture or kill the pirate Gráinne O'Malley at her stronghold of Rockfleet.Ireland source
1580December 31 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, formerly the regent for King James VI of Scotland, is arrested during a meeting of Scotland's Privy Council at Holyrood on the accusation of James Stewart, Earl of Arran that the Earl of Morton had participated in the 1567 murder of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots and father of King James. Morton is taken to Dumbarton Castle and convicted of conspiracy to murder, and executed on June 2.source
1580William mac an Iarla Burke and his followers are hanged outside the walls of Galway by William Óge Martyn, High Sheriff of County Galway, in person, who, aware that the Mayor of Galway, Dominick Lynch, has a pardon for Burke, prevents the Mayor from arriving in time to stop the executions.Ireland source
1580Walter Ball (Alderman) became Mayor of Dublin. He is notorious for imprisoning his Catholic mother (who died in jail) as part of the imposition of the Reformation in Ireland.Ireland source
1581July 14 – English Jesuit Edmund Campion is arrested.source
1581October 15 -The Ballet Comique de la Reine was performed in the great hall of the Petit Bourbon.France source
1582August 23 – Raid of Ruthven in Scotland: Presbyterian nobles led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie kidnap King James VI of Scotland, the kingdom's 16-year-old ruler, while he is hunting in Perthshire. The Earl of Gowrie imprisons the King at Ruthven Castle as part of a coup d'etat to reform the Scottish government.source
1582September 28 – Ruthven and his co-conspirators arrange for John Maxwell, 8th Lord Maxwell, heir to former regent James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, to be installed as Scotland's regent. Douglas had been executed in 1581 for the 1567 murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and father of King James VI, who is imprisoned at Ruthven's castle.source
1582Ulick Burke secures succession to his father as 3rd Earl of Clanricarde by murdering his brother, John of the Shamrocks, and affirming his loyalty to Queen Elizabeth I of England.Ireland source
1583September – 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
15838 October – archbishop Dermot O'Hurley is arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle.Ireland source
1583October 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
1583November 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
1583November 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
158311 November – John na Seamar Burke is ambushed and killed by his brother Ulick.Ireland source
1583The 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
1584January 16 – Roman Catholic priest George Haydock, imprisoned in the Tower of London since 1582, states during an interrogation that he claimed that Queen Elizabeth, leader of the Church of England, was a heretic. Convicted of treason, he is executed on February 12.source
1584Unlawful Jurisdictions Act 1584Scotland source
1585October – Sorley Boy MacDonnell, having returned to Ireland, recaptures Dunluce Castle.Ireland source
1586September 20 – The executions of the Babington Plot perpetrators begins. Over the two day period, the 14 men convicted of the a plot are hanged, drawn and quartered (the first seven being disembowelled before death) in St Giles Field, London.source
1586October 15– Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for treason at Fotheringhay Castle in England for complicity in the Babington Plot, in a proceeding that lasts for 10 days.source
1586October 25– Mary, Queen of Scots, is convicted of treason and sentenced to death. She will be beheaded on February 8.source
1586November 19 – English Separatist Puritan Henry Barrowe is imprisoned.source
1586Robert Gardiner is appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.Ireland source
1586County Longford is shired, separating it from Westmeath.Ireland source
1588August 29 (8th day of the 7th month, Tensho 16) – In Japan, the Chancellor of the Realm, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, issues an edict for the katanagari (the :sword hunt), the confiscation of swords from any persons thought to be opposed to his rule.source
1589October 31 – Alleged serial killer and accused werewolf Peter Stumpp 'the Werewolf of Bedburg' is tortured and executed.source
1589Golf is played on Glasgow GreenScotland source
1590December 7 – North Berwick witch trials: Agnes Sampson is questioned by King James VI of Scotland, and confesses to practising witchcraft. She will be executed on January 28.source
1590Hugh Roe MacMahon, The MacMahon, resists the imposition of an English sheriff in County Monaghan; he is charged with treason, for which he will be executed, and his lordship divided.Ireland source
1590North Berwick witch trials beginScotland source
1591January 27 – Scottish schoolmaster John Fian becomes the first person to be executed after the North Berwick witch trials, following his conviction for the crime of witchcraft. Fian is taken to the Castlehill outside of Edinburgh and strangled after which his body is burned. Agnes Sampson is garroted the next day at Castlehill and then burned.source
15913 April – Brian O'Rourke is arrested in Glasgow and delivered to the English.Ireland source
1591May 15 – In Russia, Tsarevich Dimitri, son of Ivan the Terrible, is found dead in mysterious circumstances, at the palace in Uglich. The official explanation is that he has cut his own throat during an epileptic seizure. Many believe he has been murdered by his rival, Boris Godunov, who becomes tsar.source
15913 November – O'Rourke is hanged at Tyburn. His son, Brian Oge O'Rourke, succeeds as lord.Ireland source
159126 December – Hugh Roe O'Donnell escapes from Dublin Castle but is recaptured within days.Ireland source
1592February 7 – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, sets fire to Donibristle Castle in Scotland and murders James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray.source
15927 February – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, sets fire to Donibristle Castle and murders James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray.Scotland source
159228 June – the outlawed Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, attempts to capture Falkland Palace and the king, accompanied by Walter Scott of Harden and James Scott of Balwearie, with the English border reivers Richie Graham of Brackenhill and Thomas Musgrave of Bewcastle, and others.Scotland source
1592August – Margaret Vinstarr helps her lover John Wemyss of Logie escape from Dalkeith Palace.Scotland source
1592September 7 – The captured Madre de Deus enters Dartmouth harbour in England and is then subjected to mass theft.source
1593January 27 – The Roman Inquisition opens the seven-year trial of scholar Giordano Bruno.source
1593May 12 – English dramatist Thomas Kyd is arrested over the "Dutch church libel". "Atheist" literature found in his home is claimed to be Marlowe's.source
1593May 18 – A warrant for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe is issued. On May 20 he presents himself to the Privy Council.source
1593May 30 – Christopher Marlowe is stabbed to death in a dispute over a bill at a lodging house in Deptford.source
1594August 28 – Farkas Kovacsóczy, who has served as Chancellor of Transylvania for 16 years, is arrested on orders of Prince Sigismund Báthory, and István Jósika is appointed in his place. Kovacsóczy is imprisoned at Szamosújvár (now Gherla in Romania) and executed by strangulation on September 11.source
1594Maerten de Vos, The Tribunal of the Brabant Mint in Antwerp (Snijders&Rockox House)Belgium source
1594Enniskillen Castle is besieged and captured by the English under Captain John Dowdall. It is subsequently retaken by Rory Maguire and recaptured by William Russell (Lord Deputy of Ireland).Ireland source
1597March–October – The Great Scottish Witch Hunt of 1597.Scotland source
1597July 14 – Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie is declared an outlaw, after the collapse of a Catholic plot.source
159714 July – poet Alexander Montgomerie is declared an outlaw after the collapse of a Catholic plot.Scotland source
1597July 28 – After the performance of the satirical play The Isle of Dogs, written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, at the Swan Theatre, the Privy Council of England concludes that the "lewd play" is full of seditious and slanderous matter. Jonson is arrested, along with two actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaa, and the three are sent to Marshalsea Prison. A raid on the home of Thomas Nashe seizes his papers, but Nashe is not found. The three prisoners are released later in the year and return to the stage. All copies of The Isle of Dogs script are destroyed.source
1598July 10 – John Barrose, a Burgundian fencer who has challenged all comers and killed several, is hanged for murder. Barrose's story is dramatized by playwright Ben Jonson in Every Man in His Humour.source
1598Illustrations of Ottoman Turkish and European riflemen, with detailed illustrations of their firearms, appear in Zhao Shizhen's book Shenqipu in this year, during the Ming Dynasty of China.source