Year 1537

Encyclopedia

Year 1537 (MDXXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

  • January
    • Bigod’s Rebellion, an uprising by Roman Catholics against Henry VIII of England, is crushed.
    • Battle of Ollantaytambo: Emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui is victorious against the Spanish and their Indian allies led by Hernando Pizarro.
  • January 6 – Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, is assassinated.
  • March – Diego de Almagro successfully charges Manco Inca’s siege of Cuzco, thereby saving his antagonists, the Pizarro brothers.
  • March 12 – Recife is founded by the Portuguese, in Brazil.
  • April 1 – The Archbishop of Norway Olav Engelbrektsson flees from Trondheim to Lier, Belgium.
  • April 20 – Spanish conquest of the Muisca: Bacatá, the main settlement of the Muisca Confederation, is conquered by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, effectively ending the Confederation in the Colombian Eastern Andes.
  • June 2 – Pope Paul III publishes the encyclical Sublimis Deus, which declares the natives of the New World to be rational beings with souls, who must not be enslaved or robbed.
  • June 23 – Siege of Hamar ends with the arrest of Bishop Mogens Lauritssøn, and the Catholic rebellion is definitively ended in Norway.

July–December

  • July – Rodrigo Orgóñez occupies and sacks the Inca center of Vitcos but Manco Inca Yupanqui escapes and establishes the independent Neo-Inca State elsewhere in Vilcabamba, Peru.
  • August 15 – Asunción is founded by Juan de Salazar de Espinosa.
  • August 25 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
  • August-September – The Ottoman Empire fails to capture Corfu, but does this year conquer the islands of Paros and Ios.
  • October 12 – Edward VI of England is born.
  • October 24 – Jane Seymour dies after complications giving birth to her son, Edward VI of England.

Date unknown

  • The Spaniards bring the potato to Europe.
  • Kiritimati (Acea or “Christmas Island”) is probably sighted by the Spanish mutineers from Hernando de Grijalva’s expedition.
  • Bangalore is first mentioned.
  • Dissolution of the Monasteries: Religious buildings dissolved by Henry VIII of England include: Bisham Priory, Bridlington Priory, Castle Acre Priory, Chertsey Abbey, Furness Abbey, London Charterhouse and Valle Crucis Abbey.
  • Dissolution of all Monasteries in Norway: Religious buildings dissolved by Christian III include: Bakke Abbey, Munkeby Abbey, Tautra Abbey, Nidarholm Abbey, Gimsøy Abbey and Utstein Abbey.
  • Publication of complete Bible translations into English, both based on Tyndale’s:
    • Myles Coverdale’s 1535 text, the first to be printed in England (by James Nicholson in Southwark, London)
    • The Matthew Bible edited by John Rogers under the pseudonym “Thomas Matthew” and printed in Antwerp.

Births

Willem IV van den Bergh

  • January 1 – Jan Krzysztof Tarnowski, Polish noble (d. 1567)
  • January 16 – Albrecht VII, Count of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (d. 1605)
  • January 21 – Antonio Maria Salviati, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1602)
  • February 26 – Christopher II, Margrave of Baden-Rodemachern (d. 1575)
  • March 17 – Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japanese warlord (d. 1598)
  • March 4 – Longqing Emperor, Emperor of China (d. 1572)
  • May 18 – Guido Luca Ferrero, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1585)
  • May 20 – Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist (d. 1619)
  • May 27 – Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg, son of Landgrave Philip I (d. 1604)
  • May 28 or May 31 – Shah Ismail II of Persia (d. 1577)
  • June 3 – João Manuel, Prince of Portugal, Portuguese prince (d. 1554)
  • July 20 – Arnaud d’Ossat, French diplomat and writer (d. 1604)
  • July 29 – Pedro Téllez-Girón, 1st Duke of Osuna, Spanish duke (d. 1590)
  • July 30 – Christopher, Duke of Mecklenburg and administrator of Ratzeburg (d. 1592)
  • August 9 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician (d. 1604)
  • August 15 – Shimazu Toshihisa, Japanese samurai (d. 1592)
  • October 12 – King Edward VI of England (d. 1553)
  • November 21 – Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Duke of Alba, Spanish military leader (d. 1583)
  • December 5 – Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shōgun (d. 1597)
  • December 20 – King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
  • December 24 – Willem IV van den Bergh, Stadtholder of Guelders and Zutphen (d. 1586)
  • December 26 – Albert, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (d. 1593)
  • date unknown
    • Jane Lumley, English translator (d. 1578)
    • Shimizu Muneharu, Japanese military commander (d. 1582)
    • John Almond, English Cistercian monk (d. 1585)
    • Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England (d. 1554)

Deaths

Saint Gerolamo Emiliani

Pedro de Mendoza

  • January 6
    • Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence (b. 1510)
    • Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (b. 1481)
  • January 12 – Lorenzo di Credi, Florentine painter and sculptor (b. 1459)
  • February 2 – Johann Carion, German astrologer and chronicler (b. 1499)
  • February 3 – Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, Anglo-Irish noble, rebel (executed) (b. 1513)
  • February 8
    • Otto von Pack, German conspirator (b. c. 1480)
    • Saint Gerolamo Emiliani, Italian humanitarian (b. 1481)
  • January 11 – John, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, German prince (b. 1498)
  • March 25 – Charles, Duke of Vendôme, French noble (b. 1489)
  • March 28 – Francesco of Saluzzo, Marquess of Saluzzo (b. 1498)
  • May 10 – Andrzej Krzycki, Polish archbishop (b. 1482)
  • May 24 – Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, German princess (b. 1485)
  • June 2 – Francis Bigod, English noble, rebel (executed) (b. 1507)
  • June 23 – Pedro de Mendoza, Spanish conquistador (b. 1487)
  • June 29 – Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, English noble (b. 1502)
  • July 7 – Madeleine of Valois, queen of James V of Scotland (b. 1520)
  • July 12 – Robert Aske, English lawyer, rebel (executed) (b. 1500)
  • September 4 – Johann Dietenberger, German theologian (b. c. 1475)
  • September 7 – Nikolaus von Schönberg, German Catholic cardinal (b. 1472)
  • September 20 – Pavle Bakić, last Serb Despot and medieval Serb monarch
  • October 24 – Jane Seymour, 3rd queen consort of Henry VIII of England (complications of childbirth) (b. c. 1508)
  • October 29 – Elizabeth Lucar, English calligrapher (b. 1510)
  • December 11 – Andrey of Staritsa, son of Ivan III of Russia the Great (b. 1490)
  • date unknown – John Kite, Archbishop of Armagh and Bishop of Carlisle
  • probable – Thomas Murner, German satirist (b. 1475)