Events of 1539

January–June

• January 12, Treaty of Toledo. Signed by Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor, Spanish King) and Francis I (French King), agreeing to make no further alliances with England. Grew out of the disagreement between Pope Paul III and Henry VIII.

• March – Canterbury Cathedral surrenders, and reverts to its previous status of 'a college of secular canons'.

• May 30 – In Florida, Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal to find gold. He also introduces pigs into North America.

• May – The Six Articles, an Act of the Parliament of England, reaffirms certain Catholic principles in Henry VIII's Church of England.

July–December

• September 4 – Henry VIII contracts to marry Anne of Cleves.

• September 7 – Guru Angad Dev becomes the second Guru of the Sikhs.

Undated

• Protestant Reformation: Lutheranism is forcefully introduced to Iceland, despite the opposition of Bishop Jón Arason.

• Beaulieu Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Colchester Abbey, St Albans Abbey, Priory of St Mary, Nottinghamshire (Newstead Abbey) and St Mary's Abbey, York fall prey to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

• In a worse scenario than in 1531, when there was just a drought and locusts killing off the populace through starvation and cannibalism, this year in Henan province, China, during the Ming Dynasty, a severe drought with swarms of locusts is made worse by a large epidemic outbreak of the plague.

• Francis I of France issues an ordinance that places the whole of France under the jurisdiction of the royal law courts and makes French the language of those courts.

• Horse Racing began at Chester

Births

• April 5 – George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (d. 1603)

• April 7 – Tobias Stimmer, Swiss artist (d. 1584)

• October 2 – Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (d. 1584)

• November 1 – Pierre Pithou, French lawyer and scholar (d. 1596)

• December 5 – Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (d. 1604)

• date unknown

• *José Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, Portuguese explorer (d. 1590)

• *Hasegawa Tōhaku, Japanese painter (d. 1610)

• *Ikeda Katsumasa, Japanese military commander (d. 1578)

• *Laurence Tomson, Calvinist (d. 1608)

Deaths

• February 6 – John III, Duke of Cleves (b. 1491)

• February 13 – Isabella d'Este, Marquise of Mantua (b. 1474)

• March 5 – Nuno da Cunha, Portuguese governor in India (b. 1487)

• March 12 – Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, English diplomat and politician (b.1477)

• April 17 – George, Duke of Saxony (b. 1471)

• May 7 – Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism (b. 1469)

• May 7 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (b. 1466)

• July 5 – St Anthony Maria Zaccaria, Italian saint (b. 1502)

• August – Vannoccio Biringuccio, Italian metallurgist (b. 1480)

• September 8 – John Stokesley, English prelate (b. 1475)

• November 15 – Hugh Cook Faringdon, Abbot of Reading

• December 20 – Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer (b. c. 1539)

• date unknown

• *James Beaton, Scottish church leader (b. 1473)