1590

Year 1590 was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1590

January - June

* January 11 - The Cortes of Castile approves a new subsidy, the "millones".
* March - Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, takes Breda by concealing 68 of his best men in a peat-boat to get through the impregnable defences.
* March 4 - Lancelot Andrewes, a chaplain of Queen Elizabeth I of England, preaches an outspoken sermon in her presence.
* March 14 - Battle of Ivry: Henry IV of France again defeats the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne.
* May - August - Henry IV of France unsuccessfully attempts to besiege Paris. Henry is forced to raise the siege when the Duke of Parma comes to its rescue with a Spanish army.
* May 17 - Anne of Denmark is crowned queen of Scotland.

July - December

* August 18 - John White, governor of the Colony of Roanoke, returns from a supply-trip to England and finds his settlement deserted.

* September 15 - Pope Urban VII succeeds Sixtus V as the 228th pope; he dies of malaria twelve days later.
* December 5 - Pope Gregory XIV succeeds Urban VII as the 229th pope.
* December 7 - Agnes Sampson is questioned by King James VI of Scotland and confesses to practising witchcraft.

Undated

* Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Meletius I succeeds Silvester.
* Japan is united by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
* The Spanish are pushed out of southern Gelderland by the Dutch forces.
* A group of English merchants gains the right to trade in Ottoman territory in return for supplying the sultan with iron, steel, brass and tin for his war with Persia.

Births

* January 9 - Simon Vouet, French painter (d. 1649)
* January 30 - Lady Anne Clifford, English noblewoman (d. 1676)
* March 18 - Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Spanish and Portuguese historian and poet (d. 1649)
* April 18 - Ahmed I, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1617)
* May - William Cecil, 17th Baron de Ros (d. 1618)
* May 5 - Jakub Sobieski, Polish noble (d. 1646)
* May 12 - Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1621)
* July 13 - Pope Clement X (d. 1676)
* July 26 - Johannes Crellius, Polish–German theologian (d. 1633)
* August 19 - Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (d. 1649)
*"date unknown"
**William Bradford, English leader of Plymouth Colony (d. 1657)
**Francis Burgersdyk, Dutch logician (d. 1629)
**Isaac de Caus, French landscaper (d. 1648)
**Theophilus Eaton, merchant (d. 1658)
**Isaac Manasses de Pas, Marquis de Feuquieres, French soldier (d. 1640)
**Roger Ludlow, one of the founders of the colony (later the state) of Connecticut (d. 1664)
**Boris Morozov, Russian statesman and boyar (d. 1661)
**Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese adventurer (d. 1630)
*"probable"
**William Browne, English poet (d. 1645)
**Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, Irish chronicler (d. 1643)
**Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester (d. 1646)

: "See also ."

Deaths

* February 1
**Lawrence Humphrey, president of Magdalen College, Oxford (b. 1527)
**Catherine of Ricci, Catholic prioress and saint (b. 1522)
* February 4 - Gioseffo Zarlino, Italian music theorist and composer (b. 1517)
* February 12 - François Hotman, French Protestant lawyer and writer (b. 1524)
* February 18 - Asahi no kata, Japanese lady, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sister (b. 1543)
* April 6 - Francis Walsingham, English spymaster (b. 1530)
* May 9 - Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon French church leader and pretender to the throne (b. 1523)
* May 27 - Edmund Duke, Richard Hill, Richard Holiday and John Hogg, executed Roman Catholic priests
* June 19 - Mogami Yoshimori, Japanese warlord (b. 1521)
* June 28 - Hori Hidemasa, Japanese warlord (b. 1553)
* July 10 - Archduke Charles II of Austria, regent of Inner Austria (b. 1540)
* August 10
**Hōjō Ujimasa, Japanese warlord (b. 1538)
**Hōjō Ujiteru, Japanese warlord (b. 1540？)
* August 27 - Pope Sixtus V (b. 1521)
* September 20 - Lodovico Agostini, Italian composer (b. 1534)
* September 27 - Pope Urban VII (b. 1521)
* September 29 - Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, Dutch politician and theologian (b. 1522)
* October 4 - Jacques Cujas, French legal expert (b. 1520)
* October 12 - Kano Eitoku, Japanese painter (b. 1543)
* October 23 - Bernardino de Sahagún, Franciscan missionary (b. 1499)
* November 18 - George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman (b. 1528)
* November 29 - Philipp Nikodemus Frischlin, German philologist and poet (b. 1547)
* December 20 - Ambroise Paré, French surgeon (b. 1510)
*"date unknown"
**Nicholas Bobadilla, one of the first Jesuits (b. 1511)
**José Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, Portuguese explorer (b. 1539)
**Roger Dudley, British soldier (b. 1535)
**Sorley Boy MacDonnell, Irish chieftain (b. 1505)
**Juan Bautista de Pomar, Spanish colonial historian and writer
*"probable"
**Bernard Palissy, French potter (b. 1510)

: "See also ."

Fictional 1590

* Mark Twain's book "The Mysterious Stranger" is set in Austria in 1590.
* Christopher Marlowe's play "Tamburlaine the Great" is published in 1590.