July 13: Battle of Gravelines

Year 1558 (MDLVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

November 17: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

January–June

• January 7 – French troops, led by Francis, Duke of Guise, take Calais, the last continental possession of the Kingdom of England.
• January 9 – Geneva becomes independent from the Canton of Bern.
• January 22 – The Livonian War begins.
• February 2 – The University of Jena is founded in Thuringia, Germany.
• February 5 – Arauco War: Pedro de Avendaño, with sixty men, captures Caupolicán (the Mapuche Gran Toqui), who is leading their first revolt against the Spanish Empire (near Antihuala), encamped with a small band of followers.
• April 24 – Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Francis, Dauphin of France, at Notre Dame de Paris.

July–December

• July 13 – Battle of Gravelines: In France, Spanish forces led by Lamoral, Count of Egmont defeat the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes.
• July 18 – The city of Tartu, capital of the Bishopric of Dorpat (in modern-day Estonia) surrenders to Russia.
• October 17 – Postal history of Poland: King Sigismund II Augustus appoints an Italian merchant living in Kraków to organise a consolidated postal service in Poland, the origin of Poczta Polska.
• November 17 – The Elizabethan era begins in England: Catholic Queen Mary dies, and is succeeded by her younger Protestant half-sister Elizabeth, who will rule for 44 years.

Unknown

• John Knox's attack on female rulers, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women, is published anonymously from Geneva.
• Queen Elizabeth grants rest and refreshment to pilgrims and travellers who pass by the Holy Well Spring at Malvern in England.
• English explorer Anthony Jenkinson travels from Moscow to Astrakhan and Bukhara.^[1] He is the first Englishman to note that the Amu Darya changed course, to start flowing into the Aral Sea.^[2]

Births

André du Laurens

• January or February – Hendrik Goltzius, Dutch painter (d. 1617)
• January 16 – Jakobea of Baden, Margravine of Baden by birth, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg by marriage (d. 1597)
• January 29 – Paul Hentzner, German lawyer (d. 1623)
• March 7 – Johann VII, Duke of Mecklenburg, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1576-1592) (d. 1592)
• April 30 – Miko?aj Ole?nicki the younger, Polish noble (d. 1629)
• June 15 – Margrave Andrew of Burgau, German nobleman, Cardinal, Bishop of Constance and Brixen (d. 1600)
• July 9 – David Origanus, German astronomer (d. 1628)
• July 11 – Robert Greene, English dramatist (d. 1592)
• August 2 – Herman van den Bergh, Dutch soldier in the Eighty Years' War (d. 1611)
• August 8 – George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, English noble (d. 1605)
• August 19 – François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti (d. 1614)
• September 9 – Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier (d. 1602)
• September 24 – Ralph Eure, 3rd Baron Eure, English politician (d. 1617)
• October 12 – Maximilian III, Archduke of Austria (d. 1618)
• October 24 – Szymon Szymonowic, Polish writer (d. 1629)
• October 30 – Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, Marshal of France (d. 1652)
• November 27 – Mingyi Swa, Crown Prince of Burma (d. 1593)
• December 3 – Gregorio Pagani, Italian painter (d. 1605)
• December 8 – François de La Rochefoucauld, French Catholic cardinal (d. 1645)
• December 9 – André du Laurens, French physician (d. 1609)
• date unknown
  • Meir Lublin, Polish rabbi (d. 1616)
  • K?riki Masanaga, Japanese military commander (d. 1599)
  • Bessho Nagaharu, Japanese nobleman (d. 1580)
  • Olivier van Noort, first Dutchman to circumnavigate the world (d. 1627)
  • Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (d. 1586)
  • Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia (1593–1601)
  • Thomas Kyd, English playwright (d. 1594)
  • Françoise de Cezelli, French war hero (d. 1615)
• probable - Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, French merchant (d. 1628)

Deaths

Emperor Charles V

Queen Mary I of England and Cardinal Reginald Pole died on November 17, 1558

• January 28 – Jacob Micyllus, German humanist (b. 1503)
• February 25 – Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Portugal and France (b. 1498)
• February 27
  • Johann Faber of Heilbronn, controversial Catholic preacher (b. 1504)
  • Kunigunde of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, German noblewoman (b. 1524)
• March 6 – Luca Gaurico, Italian astrologer (b. 1475)
• March 24 – Anna van Egmont, Countess of Egmond and Buren (b. c. 1533)
• March 25 – Marcos de Niza, French Franciscan explorer (b. c. 1495)
• April 2 – Wolfgang of the Palatinate, Count Palatine of Neumarkt (b. 1494)
• April 15 – Hurrem Sultan, Ruthenian-born wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (b. c. 1500)
• April 20 – Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (b. 1485)
• April 26 – Jean Fernel, French physician (b. 1497)
• May 17 – Francisco de Sá de Miranda, Portuguese poet (b. 1485)
• May 19 – Juan Téllez-Girón, 4th Count of Ureña, Spanish count (b. 1494)
• May 25 – Elisabeth of Brandenburg, Duchess of Brunswick-Calenberg-Göttingen (1525-1540) (b. 1510)
• May 31 – Philip Hoby, English politician (b. 1505)
• June 28 – Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche, English courtier (b. 1506)
• July 17 – George I of Württemberg-Mömpelgard (b. 1498)
• August 11 – Justus Menius, German Lutheran pastor (b. 1499)
• September 21 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1500)
• October – Mellin de Saint-Gelais, French poet (b. c. 1491)
• October 18 – Maria of Austria, queen of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1505)
• October 21 – J. C. Scaliger, Italian scholar (b. 1484)
• November 1
  • Anne Brooke, Baroness Cobham, English noble (b. 1501)
  • Erhard Schnepf, German theologian (b. 1495)
• November 15 – Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis, Scottish politician and judge (b. 1515)
• November 17
  • (bur.) Hugh Aston, English composer (b. 1485)
  • Queen Mary I of England (b. 1516)
  • Reginald Pole, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1500)
• December 7 – Johann Forster, German theologian (b. 1496)
• December 16 – Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (b. c. 1485)
• December 19 – Cornelius Grapheus, Flemish writer (b. 1482)
• December 28 – Hermann Finck, German composer (b. 1527)
• date unknown
  • Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll, Scottish nobleman and politician (b. 1507)
  • Robert Recorde, Welsh physician and mathematician (b. c. 1512)

References