Year 1539 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1539

January - June

May 30: De Soto.

• January 12, Treaty of Toledo. Signed by Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor, Spanish King) and Francis I (French King), agreeing to make no further alliances with England. Grew out of the disagreement between Pope Paul III and Henry VIII.
• March - Canterbury Cathedral surrenders, and reverts to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'.
• April 27 - Bogotá, Colombia is founded by Nikolaus Federmann and Sebastián de Belalcázar.
• May 30 - In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. He also introduces pigs into North America.
• May - The Six Articles, an Act of the Parliament of England, reaffirms certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England.

July - December

• September 4 - Henry VIII contracts to marry Anne of Cleves.
• September 7 - Guru Angad Dev becomes the second Guru of the Sikhs.

Undated

• Protestant Reformation: Lutheranism is forcefully introduced to Iceland, despite the opposition of Bishop Jón Arason.
• Beaulieu Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Colchester Abbey, St Albans Abbey, Priory of St Mary, Nottinghamshire (Newstead Abbey) and St Mary's Abbey, York fall prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
• In a worse scenario than in 1531, when there was just a drought and locusts killing off the populace through starvation and cannibalism, this year in Henan province, China, during the Ming Dynasty, a severe drought with swarms of locusts is made worse by a large epidemic outbreak of the plague.
• Francis I of France issues an ordinance that places the whole of France under the jurisdiction of the royal law courts and makes French the language of those courts.
• Horse Racing began at Chester

Births

• April 5 - George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1603)
• April 7 - Tobias Stimmer, Swiss artist (d. 1584)
• October 2 - Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (d. 1584)
• November 1 - Pierre Pithou, French lawyer and scholar (d. 1596)
• December 5 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (d. 1604)
• date unknown
  • José Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, Portuguese explorer (d. 1590)
  • Hasegawa T-haku, Japanese painter (d. 1610)
  • Ikeda Katsumasa, Japanese military commander (d. 1578)
  • Laurence Tomson, Calvinist (d. 1608)

See also Category: 1539 births.

Deaths

• February 6 - John III, Duke of Cleves (b. 1491)
• February 13 - Isabella d'Este, Marquise of Mantua (b. 1474)
• March 5 - Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese governor in India (b. 1487)
• March 12 - Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English diplomat and politician (b.1477)
• April 17 - George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)
• May 7 - Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)
• May 7 - Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)
• July 5 - St Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian saint (b. 1502)
• August - Vannoccio Biringuccio, Italian metallurgist (b. 1480)
• September 8 - John Stokesley, English prelate (b. 1475)
• November 15 - Hugh Cook Faringdon, Abbot of Reading
• December 20 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. c. 1539)
• date unknown
  • James Beaton, Scottish church leader (b. 1473)

See also Category: 1539 deaths.