Events

• March 23 - Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de Medici and Charles IX make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.
• May 13 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary Queen of Scots are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under James Stewart, Earl of Moray, her half-brother.
• May 16 - Mary Queen of Scots flees to England.
• May 19 - Queen Elizabeth I of England arrests Mary Queen of Scots.
• May 23 - Battle of Heiligerlee - Troops under William of Orange's younger brother, Louis of Nassau, defeat a smaller loyalist force under the Duke of Arenberg in an attempt to invade the Northern Netherlands.
• July 21 - Battle of Jemmingen - The main Spanish army of the Duke of Alva utterly defeats Louis of Nassau's invading army in the Northeastern Netherlands.
• August 18 - Beginning of the Third War of Religion in France after an unsuccessful attempt by the Royalists to capture Condé and Coligny, the Huguenot leaders.
• October 5 - William of Orange invades the Southeastern Netherlands.
• October 20 - Battle of Jodoigne . Spanish forces under the Duke of Alva destroy Orange's rearguard. Orange abandons his offensive.
• Beginning of the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan.
• Start of Eighty Years' War.
• Peace of Adrianople: The Ottomans agree to pay tribute to the Hapsburgs.

Births

• February 11 - Honore d'Urfe French writer
• April - Pope Urban VIII (d. 1684)
• September 3 - Adriano Banchieri, Italian composer of madrigal comedy

Deaths

• March 20 - Albert of Prussia, first duke of Prussia (b. 1490)
• July 24 - Don Carlos of Spain, son of Philip II of Spain (b. 1545)
• October 3 - Elizabeth of Valois, Queen of Philip II of Spain (b. 1545)
• December 23 - Roger Ascham, Elizabeth I's tutor
• December 31 - Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (b. 1493)
• Ashikaga Yoshihide, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1538)