1572

Year 1572 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1572

January - June

* January 16 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
* April 1 - The Sea Beggars, Netherlandish Calvinist rebels, capture the port city of Brielle. This leads to a wave of uprisings in Holland and Zealand, leaving most of those provinces (with the exception of Amsterdam), under rebel control.
* May 13 - Pope Gregory XIII succeeds Pope Pius V as the 226th pope.
* June 25 - The Sea Beggars capture the city Gorkum. Several Roman Catholic priests are put into a prison.

July - December

* July 9 - The Sea Beggars hang 19 previously imprisoned Roman Catholic priests at Brielle.
* August 18 - Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre marries Marguerite de France, sister of King Charles, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics.
* August 24 - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre: Catholics in Paris murder thousands of Protestants, including Gaspard de Coligny, at the order of King Charles IX. Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Condé barely escape the same fate. This brings about the Fourth War of Religion in France.
* November 9 - Siege of Sancerre: Catholic forces of the king lay siege to Sancerre, a Huguenot stronghold in central France. The fortified city holds out for nearly eight months without bombard artillery. It was one of the last times that slings were used in European history.
* November 11 - Tycho Brahe first observes the supernova SN 1572 in Cassiopeia.
* December - The Duke of Alva, Spanish commander in the Netherlands, lays siege to Haarlem.

Undated

* The Muromachi period ends in Japan.
* Vilcabamba, the last independent remnant of the Inca Empire, is conquered by Spanish.
* Geronimo Mercuriali from Forlì (Italy) writes the work "De morbis cutaneis" ("On the diseases of the skin"), well known as the first scientific tract about dermatology.

Births

* February 27 - Francis II, Duke of Lorraine (d. 1632)
* April 14 - Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician and philosopher (d. 1632)
* June 11 - Ben Jonson, English dramatist (d. 1637)
* November 8 - John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1619)
* December 31 - Emperor Go-Yozei of Japan (d. 1617)
*"date unknown"
**Francis van Aarssens (d. 1641)
**Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1613)
**Johann Bayer, German astronomer (d. 1625)
**Alfonso de la Cueva, marqués de Bedmar, Spanish diplomat (d. 1655)
**Arend Dickmann, Dutch admiral in the Polish Navy (d. 1627)
**John Donne, English writer and prelate (d. 1631)
**John Floyd, English Jesuit (d. 1649)
**Bartholomew Gosnold, English lawyer and explorer (d. 1607)
**Cyril Lucaris, Greek prelate and theologian (d. 1637)
**James Mabbe, English scholar and poet (d. 1642)
**Thomas Tomkins, Welsh composer (d. 1656)
*"probable" - Giovanni Bernardino Azzolini or Mazzolini or Asoleni, Italian painter (died c.1645)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* February 23 - Pierre Certon, French composer (b. c. 1510)
* February 28 - Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (b. 1505)
* March 2 - Mem de Sá, Portuguese Governor-General of Brazil (b. c. 1500)
* March 10 - William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester (b. c. 1483)
* March 27 - Girolamo Maggi, Italian Renaissance man (b. c. 1523)
* May 1 - Pope Pius V (b. 1504)
* June 2 - Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (b. 1536)
* June 9 - Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre (b. 1528)
* July 5 - Longqing Emperor of China (b. 1537)
* July 7 - King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland (b. 1520)
* August 5 - Isaac Luria, Palestinian-born Kabbalist (b. 1534)
* August 20 - Miguel López de Legaspi, Spanish conquistador of the Philippines (born [ 1510)
* August 24 - August 31 - Victims of the 'St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre':
**Gaspard de Coligny, French Protestant leader (b. 1519)
**Claude Goudimel, French composer (b. 1510)
**Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist scholar (b. 1515)
**Charles de Téligny, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1535)
* September - Denis Lambin, French classical scholar (b. 1520)
* September 24 - Túpac Amaru, last of the Incas
* September 30 - Francis Borgia, Italian Jesuit (b. 1510)
* October 24 - Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, English politician (b. 1508)
* October 29 - John Erskine, 17th Earl of Mar, regent of Scotland
* November 23 - Agnolo di Cosimo, Italian artist and poet (b. 1503)
* November 24 - John Knox, Scottish religious reformer (b. 1513)
* December 22 - François Clouet, French miniaturist (b. c. 1510)
*"date unknown"
**Richard Grafton, English merchant
**Moses Isserles, rabbi and Talmudist (b. 1530)
**Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Polish scholar (b. 1503)
**Francisco de Moraes, Portuguese author and writer (b. 1500)
**Yasumi Naomasa, Japanese military commander
**Stanisław Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (b. 1519)
*"probable" - Christopher Tye, English composer and organist (b. 1505)

: "See also ."