1540

Year 1540 (MDXL) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events of 1540

January - June

* January 6 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
* January - Dunstable Priory falls prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

July - December

* July 7 - Coronado captures Hawikuh, then believed to be Cíbola.
* July 9 - King Henry VIII of England divorces Anne of Cleves, his fourth Queen consort.
* July 28 - One of the most important political figures of the reign of Henry VIII of England, Thomas Cromwell, is executed on order from the king on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.

* September 3 - Gelawdewos succeeds his father Lebna Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.
* September 27 - The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is approved by Pope Paul III, in his bull "Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae".

Undated

* John Calvin's "L'Institution chrétienne" (originally in Latin) is translated into French.
* Antwerp is besieged for three days by Maarten van Rossum.
* Waltham Abbey is the final priory to fall prey to Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries.
*Humayun ends to rule.
*Musket is introduced in Japan from Europe (approximate date).

Births

* January 24 - Edmund Campion, English Jesuit and Roman Catholic martyr (d. 1581)
* January 28 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610)
* June 3 - Archduke Charles II of Austria, regent of Inner Austria (d. 1590)
* June 11 - Barnabe Googe, English poet (d. 1594)
* August 5 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant scholar (d. 1609)
* August 26 - King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583)
* October 1 - Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss Protestant clergyman (d. 1617)
* November 16 - Cecilia of Sweden (d. 1627)
*"date unknown"
**Andrea Andreani, Italian wood engraver (d. 1623)
**Christopher Hatton, English politician (d. 1591)
**George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon, English nobleman (d. 1604)
**Pierre Jeannin, French statesman (d. 1622)
**Lettice Knollys, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England (d. 1634)
**Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton (d. 1614)
**Zofia Odrowaz, Polish noblewoman (d. 1580)
**Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, Irish rebel (d. 1616)
**François Viète, French mathematician (d. 1603)
**Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1610)
*"probable"
**William Byrd, English composer (d. 1623)
**Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish military commander (d. 1604
**Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* March 30 - Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German statesman and archbishop of Salzburg (b. 1469)
* May 6 - Juan Luís Vives, Spanish scholar (b. 1492)
* May 22 - Francesco Guicciardini, Italian statesman and historian (b. 1483)
* July 28 - Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman (executed) (b. c.1485)
* July 30 - Thomas Abel, English priest (martyred) (b. c. 1497)
* July 30 - Robert Barnes, English reformer (martyred) (b. 1495)
* August 23 - Guillaume Budé, French scholar (b. 1467)
* August 24 - Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian artist (b. 1503)
* August 28 - Frederick II, Duke of Mantua (b. 1500)
* September 2 - Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (in battle) (b. 1501)
* October 5 - Helius Eobanus Hessus, German Latin poet (b. 1488)
*"date unknown"
**Elizabeth Blount, mistress of Henry VIII of England (b. 1502)
**Angela Merici, Italian religious leader and saint (b. 1474)
**Francisco de Ulloa, Spanish explorer
*"probable"
**Tristão da Cunha, Portuguese explorer (b. 1460)
**Johann Georg Faust, German alchemist (b. 1480)

: "See also ."