1561 - Definition and Overview

Events

• The Edict of Orleans suspends the persecution of the Huguenots.
• Mary, Queen of Scots is denied passage through England after returning from France. She arrives at Leith, Scotland on August 19.
• The first Calvinists settle in England after fleeing Flanders.
• Madrid is declared the capital of Spain by Philip II.
• St. Paul's Cathedral in London is badly damaged by fire.
• Ruy López develops modern techniques of chess playing in Spain.
• Sweden conquers Livonia (modern Estonia).

Births

• January 21 - Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, scientist and statesman (+ 1626).
• July 11 - Luís de Góngora y Argote, Spanish baroque poet. (died in 1627).
• August 20 - Jacopo Peri, Italian composer (died in 1633).
• Giulio Cesare Martinengo - Italian composer, maestro di cappella of St. Mark's before Monteverdi.

Deaths

• September 25 - Suleiman the Magnificent has his son Bayezid executed.
• Alonso Berruguete, Spanish painter, sculptor and student of Michelangelo (born in 1480)

Literature

• The Book of the Courtier (Il Cortegiano) is translated into English by Sir Thomas Hoby
• Poetics by Julius Caesar Scaliger
• Institution of the Christian Religion is translated into English by Thomas Norton
• Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is finished (started in 1534)
• Michelangelo Buonarroti finishes Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome
• Gabriele Fallopius publishes Observationes anatomicae (anatomical observations)