January 25 – Portuguese explorer
Paulo Dias de Novais founds the settlement of São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda on the southwestern coast of Africa, now
Luanda, capital of
Angola.[1]
February 5 –
King Henry of Navarre, captive in France since 1572 and alive only because he converted to Catholicism, escapes to
Tours and formally reverts to the Protestant faith.Dupuy, Trevor N.; Johnson, Curt; Bongard, David L. (1995). [2]
February 8 –
Peter Wentworth, a Puritan M.P. of the
Parliament of England, is arrested in the middle of giving an address criticizing "rumours and messages" given to suppress freedom of speech. When he says that "the devil was the first author of them, from whom proceedeth nothing but wickedness", he is interrupted and taken to the
Tower of London for imprisonment.[3]
May 14 –
Tahmasp I, the Shah of
Safavid Iran for almost 52 years, is accidentally poisoned after being treated by the palace physician, Abu Naser Gilani. Tahmasp's death is followed by a deadly struggle for control of Iran.[7]
May 15 – Tahmap's son
Haydar Mirza Safavi declares himself the new Safavid Shah of Iran, the day after the death of his father. Later in the day, Haydar is assassinated by members of the palace guard who are loyal to Haydar's brother,
Ismail Mirza.[8] Haydar attempts to disguise himself as a woman in the royal harem, but is discovered and beheaded.
May 27 – An attempt by the Dutch Republic to end the
Siege of Zierikzee and free the city from Spain fails after Spanish forces are tipped off about a surprise attack. Dutch Admiral
Lodewijk van Boisot is killed in the battle.
June 13 – Dutch forces withdraw from their attempt to free Zierikzee, and the city is left to defend itself. The defenders then begin negotiations with the Spanish attackers, commanded by General
Cristóbal de Mondragón.
July 4 –
Alonso de Solís, who was appointed by Spain as Governor of the colony of
La Florida, is killed in the colonial capital at
San Augustin, now the U.S. city of St. Augustine, Florida.
September 2 –
Simeon Bekbulatovich, who has served since the previous October as the Grand Prince of All Russia after the
Tsar Ivan IV ("Ivan the Terrible") had taken leave of absence from the throne, steps down as Ivan returns to Moscow. Ivan rewards Bekbulatovich with the title of Grand Prince of Tver.
September 4 – In
Brussels, rebels led by Jacques de Glymes of Brabant arrest the members of the Council of State that administers the city.
September 10 – After a siege that has lasted a year and two days, the Spanish Army abandons its siege of the Dutch city of
Woerden.
September 16 – The States of Flanders convene a meeting near
Ghent, where the Roman Catholic clergy, led by Martinus Rythovius, insist on measures to protect the practice of the Catholic faith in the predominantly Protestant Low Countries.
October–December
October 12 –
Maximilian II, ruler of the
Holy Roman Empire and most of Central Europe since 1564, dies suddenly in
Regensburg while preparing for an Imperial invasion of Poland. Maximilian's 24-year-old son
Rudolf, King of the Romans as well as the King of Hungary and of Bohemia, proceeds to
Vienna to assume the Imperial Throne.
October 20 – Spanish rebels
plunder the city of Maastricht in Flanders and kill many of the civilian residents in what is later called the "Spaanse Furie" or Fury of Spain.
November 9 – Shah Ismail II of Iran begins the execution of all persons whom he believes are a threat to his rule, starting with his half-brothers
Suleiman Mirza, Governor of Shiraz, and Mustafa Mirza. Over the next seven months, Ismail arranges the execution of six other half-brothers, Mustafa, Junayd, Mahmud, Qoli, Ahmad, and Murza.
December 6 – Representatives of France's three estates convene at the
Estates General of 1576 in
Blois at the invitation of
King Henri III. Of the 383 delegates, the 187 of the Third Estate (commoners) narrowly vote in favor of outlawing Protestantism and expelling Protestant pastors from the kingdom, while the 110 of the First Estate (clergy) and 86 of the Second Estate (the nobility) strongly oppose ending hostility in the name of religious tolerance.[12]
December 19 – Representatives of the nobility of the Second Estate vote in favor of outlawing Protestantism in France.[12]
December 22 – Representatives of the clergy of the First Estate join the Second vote in favor of outlawing Protestantism.[12]By January, the Edict of Beaulieu fails and the
Sixth War of Religion begins later in 1577.