1562 - Definition and Overview

Events

• Earliest English slave-trading expedition under John Hawkins. The expedition goes between Guinea and the West Indies
• January 6 - Earl of Tyrone ends his first rebellion by surrendering to Queen Elizabeth I of England
• January 17 - Huguenots were recognized under the Edict of Saint-Germain
• March 1 - Over 1,000 Huguenots are massacred by the ultra-Catholic Francis, Duke of Guise in Wassy-sur-Blaise marking the start of the First War of Religion in France. Protestant forces led by Louis I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Gaspard de Coligny quickly seize control of Orleans, Rouen, and other cities throughout France.
• May 1 Jean Ribault, French navigator, lands in Florida and later establishes a Huguenot colony at Charlesfort
• May 26 - Earl of Tyrone leads a second rebellion in Ireland
• September 20 - English forces under John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, land in Le Havre to aid the Huguenots.
• September 22 - Maximilian, son of the Emperor Ferdinand I, succeeds as King of Bohemia.
• October 26 - Rouen is captured by Royalist forces under Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, who is mortally wounded.
• November 5 - In Scotland, the rebellion of George Gordon, Earl of Huntly is crushed by James Stewart, Earl of Moray at Corrichie.
• November 20 - Maximilian of Bohemia is elected King of the Romans.
• December 19 - Battle of Dreux. An indecisive battle between Huguenots forces under Condé and Coligny, and Catholic forces under Anne de Montmorency and Guise. Notable is that the official leaders of both armies - Condé and Montmorency - were captured in the battle.

Births

• January 12 - Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy
• July 25 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese daimyo and samurai
• August 17 (baptised) - Hans Leo Hassler, German composer
• October 4 - Christian Severin Longberg, Danish astronomer
• October 19 - Archbishop George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury
• November 25 - Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and dramatist
• Samuel Daniel, English poet and historian
• Cornelis Van Haarlem, Dutch painter
• Bartholomäus Gesius, German theologian and composer
• John Bull, English composer
• Henry Constable, English poet
• Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer
• Francis Godwin, English writer and prelate

Deaths

• January 9 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord
• May 14 - Lelio Sozini, Italian Protestant theologian
• October 9 - Gabriel Fallopius, Italian anatomist
• November 12 - Pietro Martire Vermigli, Italian theologian
• November 17 - Antoine de Bourbon, father of Henry IV of France
• December 7 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer
• Thomas Appleby, English organist and composer of church music
• George Cavendish, English courtier and author
• Claudin de Sermisy, French composer
• Nicholas Grimald, English poet and theologian
• Jan van Scorel, Dutch painter