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Year '1540' (MDXL) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Contents

Events of 1540

January - June

'well'July - December

Undated

Births

Deaths

Events of 1540

January - June

★ January 6 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.

★ January - Dunstable Priory falls prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

'well'July - December

★ July 7 - Coronado captures Hawikuh, then believed to be Cíbola.

★ 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'

Undated

★ French translation of John Calvin's ''L'Institution chrétienne'' (originally in Latin).

★ Antwerp is besieged for three days by Maarten van Rossum.

★ Waltham Abbey is the final priory to fall prey to Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Births

★ January 24 - Edmund Campion, English Jesuit and Roman Catholic martyr (died 1581)

★ January 28 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (died 1610)

★ June 3 - Archduke Charles II of Austria, regent of Inner Austria (died 1590)

★ June 11 - Barnabe Googe, English poet (died 1594)

★ August 5 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant scholar (died 1609)

★ August 26 - King Magnus of Livonia (died 1583)

★ October 1 - Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss Protestant clergyman (died 1617)

★ November 16 - Cecilia of Sweden (died 1627)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ Andrea Andreani, Italian engraver on wood (died 1623)

★
★ Christopher Hatton, English politician (died 1591)

★
★ George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon, English nobleman (died 1604)

★
★ Pierre Jeannin, French statesman (died 1622)

★
★ Lettice Knollys, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England (died 1634)

★
★ Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (died 1614)

★
★ Zofia Odrowaz, Polish noblewoman (died 1580)

★
★ Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, Irish rebel (died 1616)

★
★ François Viète, French mathematician (died 1603)

★
★ Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1610)

★ ''probable''

★
★ William Byrd, English composer (died 1623)

★
★ Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander (died 1604

★
★ Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (died 1596)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

★ March 30 - Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German statesman and archbishop of Salzburg (born 1469)

★ May 6 - Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar (born 1492)

★ May 22 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian statesman and historian (born 1483)

★ July 28 - Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman (executed) (born c1485)

★ July 30 - Thomas Abel, English priest (martyred) (born c1497)

★ July 30 - Robert Barnes, English reformer (martyred) (born 1495)

★ August 23 - Guillaume Budé, French scholar (born 1467)

★ August 24 - Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian artist (b. 1503)

★ August 28 - Frederick II, Duke of Mantua (born 1500)

★ September 2 - Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (died in battle) (born 1501)

★ October 5 - Helius Eobanus Hessus, German Latin poet (born 1488)

★ ''date unknown''

★
★ Elizabeth Blount, mistress of Henry VIII of England (born 1502)

★
★ Angela Merici, Italian religious leader and saint born in Desenzano del Garda (born 1474)

★
★ Francisco de Ulloa, Spanish explorer

★ ''probable''

★
★ Tristão da Cunha, Portuguese explorer (born 1460)

★
★ Johann Georg Faust, German alchemist (born 1480)
: ''See also .''