in 1561
January–March •
January 4 –
Paolo Battista Giudice Calvi is elected as the new
Doge of the
Republic of Genoa, but serves for only eight months before dying in September. •
January 31 • The
Ordinance of Orléans suspends the persecution of the Protestant
Huguenots in
Kingdom of France. •
Mughal Empire General
Bairam Khan is assassinated by an Afghan warrior, Mubarak Khan Lohani, while traveling through Gujarat in India. •
February 13 –
Queen Elizabeth of England summons the Ambassador from Spain,
Álvaro de la Quadra, for a private
audience to ask how the Spanish government would react if she were to marry
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, who had recently lost his wife
Amy Robsart in a questionable accident. •
March 23 –
Lope de Aguirre, a
Basque Spanish conquistador, begins a rebellion against the Spanish Crown in an attempt to take over most of Spanish South America. •
March 29 – In India, the Mughal Empire Army, led by General
Adham Khan defeats the
Sultanate of Malwa in a battle at
Sarangpur, forcing the Sultan
Baz Bahadur to flee.
April–June •
April 9 –
Ángel de Villafañe becomes the new Governor of
Spanish Florida, assuming authority over the provinces of La Florida and of Punta de Santa Elena (now
Parris Island in the U.S. state of South Carolina). •
April 14 – The citizens of
Nuremberg see what appears to be
an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black triangular object and a large crash (with smoke) outside the city. A
news notice (an early form of newspaper) is printed on April 14, describing the event. •
April 17 –
Diego López de Zúñiga, 4th Count of Nieva becomes the fourth
Spanish Viceroy of Peru, administering most of South America after the death on March 30 of
Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza. •
April 19 – The
Edict of 19 April, confirming the recent recommendation by the
Estates General, is promulgated by the regency council for King
Charles IX of France in an attempt to prevent a civil war between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Huguenot citizens of France •
May 8 –
Madrid is declared the capital of
Spain, by
Philip II. •
June 4 • The spire of
Old St Paul's Cathedral in the
City of London catches fire and crashes through the
nave roof, probably as the result of a
lightning strike. The spire is not rebuilt. • The nobility of
Harrien-
Wierland and the town of
Reval (on June 6) of the
Livonian Order swear allegiance to
Sweden. •
June 25 –
Francis Coxe, an English astrologer, is pilloried at
Cheapside in London, and makes a public confession of his involvement in "sinistral and artes". •
June 29 –
Erik XIV is crowned
King of Sweden.
July–September •
July 12 –
Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (started in
1534) is finished. •
July –
Arauco War: The hated
encomendero Pedro de Avendaño and two other Spaniards are killed, triggering the Second Great Rebellion of the
Mapuche. •
August 19 –
Mary, Queen of Scots, is denied passage through England after returning from
France. She arrives at
Leith,
Scotland later the same day. •
August 20 –
English merchant
Anthony Jenkinson arrives in
Moscow on his second expedition to the
Grand Duchy of Moscow. •
September 2 – The
Entry of Mary, Queen of Scots into Edinburgh, a civic celebration for the Queen of Scotland, is marred by religious controversy. •
September 28 – An inconclusive three day debate begins in
Maybole,
Ayrshire, Scotland between Protestant reformer
John Knox and
Quintin Kennedy,
commendator of Crossraguel Abbey, on
transubstantiation. The Reformation, confirmed by the Scottish government in
1560, continues.
October–December •
October 10 – The
Siege of Moji in Japan ends with the defenders retaining their position. •
October 18 –
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima:
Takeda Shingen defeats
Uesugi Kenshin, in the
climax of their ongoing
conflicts. •
November 4 – Upon the death of his father,
Diogo I Nkumbi a Mpudi,
King Afonso II Mpemba a Nzinga becomes
the new monarch of the
Kingdom of Kongo, located in what is now the southern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the northern portion of Angola. Afonso II reigns for less than a month before being overthrown by his brother, Bernardo. •
November 28 – The
Treaty of Vilnius is concluded during the
Livonian War, between the
Livonian Confederation and the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. With the treaty, the non-Danish and non-Swedish part of
Livonia, with the exception of the
Free imperial city of
Riga, subjects itself to Polish king and
Grand Duke of Lithuania,
Sigismund II Augustus with the
Pacta subiectionis (Provisio ducalis). In turn, Sigismund grants protection from the
Tsardom of Russia, and confirms the Livonian estates' traditional privileges, laid out in the
Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti. •
December 1 – In the Kingdom of Kongo,
Bernardo Mpemba a Nzinga overthrows his brother, King Afonso II, and becomes King Bernardo I.
Date unknown •
Merchant Taylors' School is founded in the
City of London by
Sir Thomas White, Sir Richard Hilles, Emanuel Lucar, and
Stephen Hales. • The first
Calvinists settle in England, after fleeing
Flanders. • The Anglo-Genevan
metrical psalter is published, including the
Old 100th, the version of the
hymn All People That on Earth Do Dwell made from
Psalm 100, attributed to the probably-
Scottish clergyman and biblical translator
William Kethe, exiled in
Geneva. •
Ruy López de Segura develops modern techniques of
chess playing in Spain. •
William Baldwin's
Beware the Cat (written early
1553), an early example of extended fiction (specifically
horror fiction) in English, is published anonymously in
London. This edition appears to have been suppressed, and no copies survive. • Between 1561 and
1670, 3,229 alleged witches are executed in southwestern
Germany, most by burning. == Births ==