1540s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1510s 1520s 1530s – 1540s – 1550s 1560s 1570s
Years:	1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

1540s: events by year

Contents: 1540 1541 1542 1543 1544 1545 1546 1547 1548 1549

January–June

• January – Dunstable Priory falls prey to Henry VIII of England's Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• January 6 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
• 14 Februrary - Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor enters Ghent without resistance and excjtes rebels.
• March – Waltham Abbey is the final priory to fall prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• 22 May - Pope Paul III summons a general council of the church to meet at the imperial city of Trent . Its purposes to achieve the reformation of the church, the defintion of dogma and the reunion of Christendom

July–December

• July 7 – Coronado captures Hawikuh, then known as part of Cíbola, but fails to find the legendary gold.
• July 9 – King Henry VIII of England divorces Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
• July 28 – One of the most important political figures of the reign of Henry VIII of England, Thomas Cromwell, is executed on order from the king on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
• September 3 – Gelawdewos succeeds his father Lebna Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.
• September 27 – The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is approved by Pope Paul III, in his bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae.

Date unknown

• John Calvin's L'Institution chrétienne (originally in Latin) is translated into French.
• Antwerp is besieged for three days by Maarten van Rossum.
• Humayun ends to rule.
• Paracelsus visits Villach.
• Europe is hit by a heat wave and drought lasting for about 7 months. Rivers such as the Rhine and Seine dry up and many people die from dysentery and other illnesses caused by lack of safe drinking water.
• approximate date – The musket is introduced into Japan from Europe.

January–June

• February 2 – Battle of Baçente: The Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a Moslem-occupied hillfort in northern Ethiopia.
• February 13 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.
• February 14 – Guadalajara, Mexico, is founded by the Spaniards after 3 previous attempts failed, due to aggressive opposition from local tribes.
• March 8 – Antoine Escalin des Eymars, the French ambassador, returns from Constantinople with promises of Ottoman aid in a war against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
• April 4–April 16 – Ethiopia – Battle of Jarte: The Portuguese under Christovão da Gama encounter the army of Imam Ahmad Gragn and inflict upon him two successive defeats.

July–December

• July 12 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor declares war on King Francis I of France. This time King Henry VIII of England is allied to the Emperor, while James V of Scotland and Sultan Suleiman I are allied to the French.
• August – Battle of the Hill of the Jews: During the rainy season, Christovão da Gama captures a strategic position and many badly needed horses.
• August 24 – Battle of Haddon Rig: Scotland defeats England.
• August 27 – Advice and citizenry of Hildesheim (Germany) profess themselves to the Lutheran teachings. As a pledge owner, the city Hildesheim provides for the execution of the Reformation in the city and office of Peine. The priests from the localities of Clauen, Hohenhameln, Sossmar, Schmedenstedt, Lengede and Rosenthal resume their offices in the sense of the Reformation.
• August 28 – Ethiopia – Battle of Wofla: Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp. The Portuguese are scattered; Christovão da Gama is captured and executed.
• September 4 – Earliest recorded Preston Guild Court in current sequence
• September 28 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo lands in what is now San Diego Bay and named it "San Miguel", which will later become San Diego.
• November 24 – Battle of Solway Moss: An English army invades Scotland and defeats a Scottish army.
• December 14 – Queen Mary, Queen of Scots, becomes queen at the age of only one week.

Date unknown

• The first contact of Japan with the West occurs when a Portuguese ship, blown off its course to China, lands Fernão Mendes Pinto, Diogo Zeimoto and Cristovão Borralho in Japan.
• Pope Paul III establishes the Holy Office with jurisdiction over the Roman Inquisition.

January–June

• February 21 – Battle of Wayna Daga: A joint Ethiopian-Portuguese force of 8,500 under Emperor Gelawdewos, defeats Imam Ahmad Gran's army of over 14,000, ending the Ethiopian–Adal War.
• March – King Gustav Vasa's troops crush the forces of Swedish peasant rebel Nils Dacke in battle, ending the uprising. Dacke escapes but is captured and killed in the summer.
• May – Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in Nuremberg. Denies Geocentric Model and says all planets revolve around the sun. Copernicus dies on the 24th at the age of 70.

July–December

• July 12 – King Henry VIII of England marries Catherine Parr. It is the sixth of Henry's marriages and the third of Catherine's. Princess Elizabeth attends the wedding.
• August 5 – Turkish and French troops under Hayreddin Barbarossa occupy Nice.
• September–October – Landrecies in Picardy is besieged by forces under Emperor Charles V, but withdraw on the approach of the French army.

Date unknown

• The Japanese receive the first firearms from shipwrecked Portuguese.
• Indians in Spanish colonies are declared free against the wish of local settlers.
• Martin Luther publishes On the Jews and Their Lies.
• Mikael Agricola publishes Abckiria.
• Third Succession Act: Elizabeth is restored to the order of succession to the throne of England.
• Andreas Vesalius publishes De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body), revolutionising the science of human anatomy.
• Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in Nuremberg (these last two events can be considered as leading to the Scientific Revolution.

January–June

• January 13 – At Västerås, the estates of Sweden swear loyalty to king Gustav Vasa and to his heirs, ending the traditional electoral monarchy in Sweden.
• April 11 – Battle of Ceresole: French forces under the Comte d'Enghien defeat Imperial forces under the Marques Del Vasto near Turin.
• May – Emperor Charles V again invades eastern France.
• June 19–August 18 – The Holy Roman Empire besieges St. Dizier in eastern France.

July–December

• July 19–September 14 – English forces under Henry VIII besiege and capture Boulogne.
• September 18 – Peace of Crépy: Peace is declared between Charles and Francis. The war between France and England continues.
• September 22 – Captain Juan Bautista Pastene leads the first European expedition to the estuary of Valdivia, Chile and the Bay of Corral.
• October 9 – French forces under the Dauphin assault Boulogne, but are ultimately unsuccessful.

Date unknown

• The Mongols burn the suburbs of Peking.
• Italian botanist Luca Ghini publishes the first herbarium.
• The University of Königsberg is founded.
• Hungary is invaded by the Turks for the third time and gets robbed of the crown jewels.
• Rats make their first appearance in North America.
• Gustav I of Sweden signs an alliance with France.
• Battle of the Shirts: The Frasers and Macdonalds of Clan Ranald fight over a disputed chiefship; reportedly, 5 Frasers and 8 Macdonalds survive.
• Portuguese explorers encounter the island of Taiwan and call it Ilha Formosa ("Beautiful Island").

January–June

• February 27 – Battle of Ancrum Moor: The Scots are victorious over superior English forces.
• June 13 – Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez sets out to navigate the northern coast of New Guinea.

July–December

• July 18 – Battle of the Solent: The fleets of England and France battle to a draw. The Mary Rose sinks during the naval engagement.
• December 13 – The Council of Trent officially opens (closes 1563).

Date unknown

• Battle of Kawagoe: Two branches of the Uesugi families are defeated by the late Hōjō clan in Japan.
• Battle of Sokhoista: The Ottoman army defeats the alliance of Georgian dynasts.
• During the Ming Dynasty, a large failure of the harvest in Henan province, China 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.
• Silver is discovered at Potosí, Bolivia.

January–June

• June 7 – Treaty of Ardres, also known as the Treaty of Camp, is signed, resulting in peace between England and France.

July–December

• July 10 – The Schmalkaldic War, a political struggle between imperial forces under Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, begins.

Date unknown

• Trinity College, Cambridge and Christ Church, Oxford are founded by Henry VIII of England.
• Katharina von Bora flees to Magdeburg.
• Michelangelo Buonarroti is made chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica.
• The Spanish conquer the Yucatan.
• Rebellions in East Anglia break out against the Reformation.
• Potosí, in modern day Bolivia, is founded by the Spanish as a mining town. The silver mined from Huayna Potosí mountain in Potosi provides most of the wealth the Spanish empire would amass until its fall in the early 19th century.

January–June

• January 16 – Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia.
• January 28 – Edward VI succeeds his father Henry VIII as King of England.
• February 20 – Edward VI of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
• April – Catherine Parr, widow of King Henry VIII of England, secretly marries Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley.
• March 31 – Henry II succeeds his father Francis I as King of France.
• April 24 – Battle of Mühlberg: Emperor Charles V defeats the forces of the Schmalkaldic League.

July–December

• September 10 – Battle of Pinkie: An English army under the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector of England, defeats a Scottish army under James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, the Regent. The English seize Edinburgh.

Date unknown

• The first book in the Lithuanian language is printed (author, Martynas Mazvydas).
• Huguenots increasingly immigrate to Kent, especially Canterbury.
• The Chambre Ardente is established in Paris for trying heretics.
• John Dee visits the Low Countries to study navigation with Gemma Frisius.

January–June

• February 14 – Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo.

July–December

• July 7 – A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby 5-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to the future King Francis II of France.
• August 7 – Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves for France.
• October 31 – At the first sejm of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, deputies demand that the king renounce his wife Barbara Radziwiłł.
• December – Siam attack Tavoy beginning the Burmese–Siamese War 1548

Date unknown

• The Ming Dynasty government of China issues a decree banning all foreign trade and closes down all seaports along the coast; these Hai jin laws came during the Wokou wars with Japanese pirates, while the Portuguese began regular trade missions to China in 1449, and the ban on maritime trade was fully lifted in 1567.
• Sigismund II of Poland starts to rule.
• John Dee starts to study at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

January–June

• January – King Tabinshwehti of Burma begins his invasion of Ayutthaya in the Burmese–Siamese War 1548
• March 29 – The city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil's first capital, is founded.

July–December

• July – Agricultural workers stage Kett's Rebellion in East Anglia.
• July 27 – Francis Xavier arrives in Japan.
• November 4 – The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 is proclaimed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Seventeen Provinces are declared inseparable.

Date unknown

• Petrus Canisius starts the Counter-Reformation in Bavaria.
• The first Book of Common Prayer is published in England.
• The Prayer Book Rebellion breaks out in England.
• Excerpta antiqua published by Hervagius at Basel.
• Although trade existed between the two beforehand, in this year the Portuguese begins to send regular seasonal maritime trade missions to Ming Dynasty China at Sao João Island (also known as Shangchuan Island) near Macau.
• Burmese invasion of Ayutthaya ends in retreat.