1548
Year 1548 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.Events
January–June
- February 14 - Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo.
- April 1 - Sigismund II Augustus succeeds his father, Sigismund I the Old, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
- May 11 - The great fire in Brielle begins.
- June
- * Ming Chinese naval forces commanded by Zhu Wan destroy the pirate haven of Shuangyu, frequented by Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese smugglers.
- * John Dee starts to study at the Old University of Leuven.
July–December
- July 7 - A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to the future King Francis II of France.
- August 7 - Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves for France.
- October 20 - The city of La Paz, Bolivia, is founded.
- October 31 - At the first sejm of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, deputies demand that the king renounce his wife Barbara Radziwiłł.
- December - Siam attacks Tavoy, beginning the Burmese–Siamese War of 1548.
Births
January 5 - Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, theologian and saint February 6 - Francesco Panigarola, Italian bishop March 13 - Sasbout Vosmeer, Dutch Apostolic Vicar March 17 - Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general March 18 - Cornelis Ketel, Dutch painter April 15 - Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician May - Carel van Mander, Dutch painter and poet May 8 - Giacomo Boncompagni, illegitimate son of a Pope May 10 - Antonio Priuli, Doge of Venice July 8 - Kim Jang-saeng, Korean scholar and writer July 15 - George III, Count of Erbach-Breuberg August 26 - Bernardino Poccetti, Italian painter September 2 - Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect September 7 - Filippo Boncompagni, Italian Catholic cardinal September 29 - William V, Duke of Bavaria October 4 - Matsumae Yoshihiro, Japanese daimyō of Ezochi November 27 - Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher December 14 - Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, Grandee of Spain December 30 - David Pareus, German theologian approx. date - Ma Shouzhen, Chinese courtesan, painter, composer, and poet date unknown*Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher, astronomer, and occultist *Oda Nagamasu, Japanese nobleman *Luis Barahona de Soto, Spanish poet *William Stanley, English soldier *Saitō Tatsuoki, Japanese daimyō *Sidonia von Borcke, German noble and alleged witch *Tomás Luis de Victoria, Spanish composer probable*Francesco Andreini, Italian actor * Francesco Soriano, Italian composer * Mariangiola Criscuolo, Italian painter *Simon Stevin, Flemish mathematician and engineerDeaths
January 9 - Matthäus Zell, German Lutheran pastor January 23 - Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer February 26 - Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin March 23 - Itagaki Nobukata, Japanese retainer March 24 - Gissur Einarsson, first Lutheran bishop in Iceland April 1 - King Sigismund I the Old of Poland June 3 - Juan de Zumárraga, Spanish Catholic bishop of Mexico June 6 - João de Castro, Portuguese explorer June 14 - Carpentras, French composer July 4 - Philip, Duke of Palatinate-Neuburg, German duke July 29 - Gian Gabriele I of Saluzzo, Italian abbot, Marquess of Saluzzo August 2 - Henry II, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels and Count of Glatz September 5 - Catherine Parr, sixth and last Queen of Henry VIII of England September 8 - John III of Pernstein, Bohemian land-owner, Governor of Moravia and Count of Kladsko October 27 - Johannes Dantiscus, Polish poet and Bishop of Warmia November 16 - Caspar Creuziger, German humanist December 27 - Francesco Spiera, Italian Protestant jurist date unknown* Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, Mexican Catholic saint * Chief Queen Sri Suriyothai, consort of King Maha Chakkrapat of Ayutthaya * Strongilah, Jewish Ottoman businesswoman.
