1591

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Events

January–March

January 27 – Scottish schoolmaster John Fian becomes the first person to be executed after the North Berwick witch trials, following his conviction for the crime of witchcraft. Fian is taken to the Castlehill outside of Edinburgh and strangled after which his body is burned. Agnes Sampson is garroted the next day at Castlehill and then burned.<ref>Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland, volume 2 (Bannatyne Club 1833) pp. 241, 348</ref>
February 7 – Pope Gregory XIV, who had succeeded Pope Urban VII in December, appoints Cardinal Marco Antonio Colonna and six other cardinals to a commission to revise the Sixtine Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible, published in 1590 under the editorship of Pope Sixtus V, to which the College of Cardinals has taken exception. The revision of the revision, dubbed the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, will be completed in 1592 and be the official version used by the Catholic Church until 1979.
February 25 – Poet Edmund Spenser is granted an annual pension of 50 pounds sterling by Queen Elizabeth I of England in recognition of his publication of The Faerie Queen. The pension is paid in quarterly installments of 12s. 10d. on March 25, June 24, September 29 and December 25.<ref>Richard A. McCabe, The Oxford Handbook of Edmund Spenser (Oxford University Press, 2010) p. 112</ref>
March 1 – Pope Gregory XIV excommunicates King Henry IV of France and orders the clergy, nobles, judicial functionaries and the Third Estate of France to renounce the nation's king.<ref name=Ott>Michael Ott, "Pope Gregory XIV", in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7 (Robert Appleton Company, 1910)</ref>
March 13 – Battle of Tondibi: In Mali, forces sent by the Saadi dynasty ruler of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur, and led by Judar Pasha, defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 21 – Pope Gregory XIV issues the papal bull Cogit nos, prohibiting the placing of bets on the outcome of papal elections, the length of time that a pope will reign, or who will be appointed as a cardinal.<ref name=Ott/>

April–June

April 10
- The emancipation of Filipino slaves in the Spanish Philippines along with reparations to former slaves, with the threat of excommunication of any Spanish slaveholder who refuses to comply, is ordered by Pope Gregory XIV in the papal bull Cum Sicuti.<ref name=Ott/>
- English merchant James Lancaster sets off on a voyage to the East Indies.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology">Template:Cite book</ref>
April 21 – Japanese tea-master Sen no Rikyū commits seppuku, on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
May 15 – In Russia, Tsarevich Dimitri, son of Ivan the Terrible, is found dead in mysterious circumstances, at the palace in Uglich. The official explanation is that he has cut his own throat during an epileptic seizure. Many believe he has been murdered by his rival, Boris Godunov, who becomes tsar.
May 24 – Sir John Norreys, with an expeditionary force sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England, takes the town of Guingamp in Brittany after a brief siege, on behalf of Henry of Navarre.
May 30
- Timbuktu is captured by an expedition of Arma people sent by the Saadi ruler of Morocco and led by Judar Pasha.
- Zutphen is captured by the Dutch and English, under Maurice of Nassau.
June 10 – Deventer is captured by the Dutch, under Maurice of Nassau.
June 26 – The siege of the Spanish Netherlands city of Delfzijl is started by Maurice, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who leads a Dutch and English Army against the Spanish defenders. Delfzijl falls after six days, and is surrendered on July 2.

July–September

July 13 – A Crimean army, led by the Tatar Khan Ğazı II Giray, begins a siege of Moscow.
July 15 – The Battle of the Berlengas takes place off of the coast of Portugal as the Earl of Cumberland's five English privateers are surprised by five Spanish galleys commanded by General Francisco Coloma, commander of the Armada de Guarda Costa. Cumberland's ship, the Golden Noble, is captured.
July 18 (6 Shawal 999 AH) – In India, the four-day Battle of Bhuchar Mori ends in the Gujarat state, as General Mirza Aziz Koka leads the Mughal Empire gains a decisive victory over Nawanagar, led by the Sultan Muzaffar Shah III.<ref>Abu Fazl (translated by Henry Beveridge), Victory of the K. Azim M. Koka and the Disgrace of Mozaffar Gujrati in The Akbarnama (Packard Humanities Institute, 1862).</ref>
July 22 – The Durtnell (Dartnell) family of Brasted, Kent, England, begin to work as building contractors. The business continues under thirteen generations of the family until ceasing to trade in 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
July 25 – Siege of Knodsenburg: Dutch Republic stadtholder Maurice of Nassau and English General Francis Vere defeat the Duke of Parma outside Nijmegen after a four-day siege.
August 1 – Serdar Ferhad Pasha is appointed the new Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire by Sultan Murad III, replacing Koca Sinan Pasha following a revolt of the Janissaries.
August 9 – The Khan of the Crimean Tatara, Ğazı II Giray, is wounded by the defenders against his siege of Moscow. Gazi's brother, Fetih I Giray, continues the siege, which is finally settled with a peace agreement and payment of 10,000 rubles in 1594.<ref>Ahmet Türk, The Crimean Khanate Under the Reign of Ğazı II Giray (Bilkent University, 2006)</ref>
August 29 – Peter the Lame, ruler of the Principality of Moldavia (part of modern-day Romania and of Moldova) abdicates in Iași after having reigned for most of the previous 17 years. Peter's downfall comes after he is unable to raise the money paid as tribute to the Ottoman Empire. He is replaced by Aaron the Tyrant (Aron Vodă).<ref>Constantin Rezachevici, Cronologia critică a domnilor din Țara Românească și Moldova a. 1324–1881 (Editura Enciclopedică, 2001) p. 432 ("A Criticism and Chronology of the Lords of Wallachia and Moldova, 1324–1881")</ref>
August 30 – The Battle of Flores begins off Flores Island (Azores). By September 1, the Spanish fleet is victorious over the English and captures the English ship Revenge, fatally wounding Richard Grenville.<ref name=Colledge>J. J. Colledge and Ben Warlow, Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Pen & Sword Books Limited, 2021)</ref>
September 4 – The Kunohe rebellion, which was started by Kunohe Masazane on March 13 on northern Honshu island in Japan's Mutsu Province (in the modern-day Iwate Prefecture), is suppressed by the samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Chancellor of the Realm. The victory completes the unification of Japan.<ref>Stephen Turnbull, The Samurai Sourcebook (Cassell & Company, 1998) p. 241</ref>
September 5 – A storm near the Azores in the North Atlantic begins, sinking a large number of the Spanish ships, including the recently-captured HMS Revenge.<ref name=Colledge/> During August and September, at least eight intense hurricanes occur in the most severe of the pre-1600 seasons on record.
September 14 – Siege of Hulst: Hulst is captured by Maurice of Orange, the staatholder of the Dutch Republic.

October–December

October 8 – The Separation Edict, a law imposing an immobile social class structure in Japan, is promulgated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
October 16 – Pope Gregory XIV dies from an attack of gallstones and leaves the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church vacant for the third time in 14 months. The Pope, formerly Cardinal Niccolò Sfondrati, had served for only 10 months after being elected on December 5, 1590.
October 19 – The Islamic calendar year 1000 A.H. begins with the first day of the month of Muharram, with concerns that the new year will herald the end of the world. When the year ends on October 7, 1592, without an apocalypse, the official interpretation among Ottoman Muslims is that the Ottoman Empire "had come closer to perfection than any other Muslim state.<ref>"Gareth Jenkins, Political Islam in Turkey: Running West, Heading East? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) p.44</ref>
October 21 – The city of Nijmegen is captured from Spanish occupiers by Maurice of Orange, the staatholder of the Dutch Republic.
October 26 – The Portuguese invasion of the Jaffna Kingdom begins on the north side of the island of Sri Lanka.
October 29 – Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti is elected on the third ballot to succeed the late Pope Gregory XIV, after Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo withdraws his candidacy.<ref>"Konklave vom 27.-29.10.1591 zur Wahl von Papst Innozenz IX", VaticanHistory.de, or Archive.org</ref> and takes the name Pope Innocent IX.<ref name="Grove1997">Template:Cite book</ref>
November 4 – The coronation of Pope Innocent IX takes place in Rome as Cardinal Andreas von Österreich places the crown on the head of Giovanni Facchinetti.
November 6 – Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War: The Ottoman Empire successfully captures the Croatian rebel fort of Ripač.
November 11 – King Henry IV of France begins the siege of Rouen, the Spanish-held capital of Normandy.<ref>Philip Benedict, Rouen During the Wars of Religion (Cambridge University Press, 2004) p.218</ref> The Spanish Navy arrives after five months and King Henry abandons the siege on April 20.
November 27 – In Italy, Giovanni Giustiniani Campi is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa after a 12-day search for a successor to Battista Negrone.<ref>Sergio Buonadonna and Mario Marcenaro, Rosso doge: I dogi della Repubblica di Genova dal 1339 al 1797 (De Ferrari Editore, 2000)</ref>
December 10 – Four Roman Catholic priests and three laymen are executed in England in a campaign against the Roman Catholic Church.
December 18 – Pope Innocent IX begins a tour of the seven pilgrimage churches around Rome, despite being unwell, and his illness worsens. He dies 12 days later.
December 27 – Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell leads the attack on the Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. Having been alerted by a premature attack on the palace's prison, King James VI of Scotland and Queen Anne are able to take refuge within the castle, and the raid fails. Seven of Bothwell's men are subsequently captured and hanged.<ref>"Account of the attempt upon Holyroodhouse, 1591", by J. R., in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (October 1817), p.31</ref>
December 30 – Pope Innocent IX dies only two months after having been elected as the Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, leaving the Papacy vacant for the 4th time in 16 months.

Date unknown

The city of Hyderabad, India, is founded by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Rialto Bridge in Venice, designed by Antonio da Ponte, is completed.
The first of the Conimbricenses commentaries on Aristotle, by the Jesuits of the University of Coimbra, is published.<ref>Commentarii Collegii Conimbricensis Societatis Jesu in octo libros physicorum Aristotelis Stagyritæ.</ref>
The Siamese-Cambodian War begins.
The defeated Askia dynasty move to the Dendi province in modern-day Niger.