Events of 1588

January–June

• February – The Sinhalese abandon the siege of Colombo, capital of Portuguese Ceylon.

• February 9 – The sudden death of Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, in the midst of preparations for the Spanish Armada, forces King Philip II of Spain to re-allocate the command of the fleet.

• May 12 – Day of the Barricades in Paris: Duke Henry of Guise seizes the city, forcing King Henry III to flee.

• May 28 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from Spain heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all of the ships to leave port).

July–December

• July – King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise and returns to Paris.

• July 31 – The first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets off Plymouth results in an English victory.

• August 2 – The English and Spanish fleets meet again off Dorset (The English fleet is led by Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake). The English again have the better of it.

August 6: Battle of Gravelines.

• August 6 – Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is defeated by an English naval force under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Gravelines, now in France.

• August 7 – The English and Spanish fleets again engage off the coast of Flanders. The English again are more successful.

• August 8 – August 9 – The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the Duke of Parma. The Duke of Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain.

• August 12 – The Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English cease their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed as it sails around Scotland and Ireland.

• December 23 – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, Cardinal Louis of Guise, killed, and holding the Cardinal de Bourbon a prisoner. As a result, large parts of France reject Henry III as their king, forcing him to side with Henry of Navarre

Undated

• Ahmad al-Mansur, sultan of Morocco, demands that the king of Songhay pay a heavy tribute in exchange for Saharan salt, probably as an intentional provocation. When Songhay's answer is defiant, the sultan declares war and marches his army through Sahara to Songhay.

• Russia: The regency of Boris Godunov begins.

• William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible is published.

• Christian IV of Denmark starts to rule.

• Elizabeth I: The Armada Portrait was created to celebrate the English defeat of the Spanish Armada and to assert the strength of Elizabeth herself.

Births

• March – Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian (d. 1638)

• April 5 – Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (d. 1679)

• April 15 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (d. 1653)

• May 2 – Étienne Pascal, French mathematician (d. 1651)

• May 13 – Ole Worm, Danish physician and antiquary (d. 1654)

• May 28 – Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France (d. 1672)

• June 9 – Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer and music theorist (d. 1666)

• June 11 – George Wither, English poet and satirist (d. 1667)

• September 8 – Marin Mersenne, French theologian (d. 1648)

• September 10 – Nicholas Lanier, English composer (d. 1666)

• December 10

• *Isaac Beeckman, Dutch philosopher and scientist (d. 1637)

• *Johann von Aldringen, Austrian field marshal (d. 1634)

• date unknown

• *John Danvers, English politician (d. 1655)

• *John Endecott, English politician (d. 1665)

• *Robert Filmer, English political writer (d. 1653)

• *Accepted Frewen, English churchman (d. 1664)

• *Francis Higginson, colonial American Puritan (d. 1630)

• *Jan Janssonius, Dutch cartographer (d. 1664)

• *François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer, French writer (d. 1672)

• *Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (d. 1665)

• *Luke Wadding, Irish Franciscan friar and historian (d. 1657)

Deaths

• January 5 – Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (b. 1528)

• February 24 – Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist (b. 1515)

• March 5 – Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Condé (b. 1552)

• March 10 – Theodor Zwinger, Swiss scholar (b. 1533)

• April 4 – King Frederick II of Denmark (b. 1534)

• April 19 – Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (b. c. 1528)

• June 18 – Robert Crowley, London stationer (b. 1517)

• July 17 – Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)

• August 8 – Alonso Sánchez Coello, Spanish painter (b. c. 1531)

• August 12 – Alfonso Ferrabosco, Italian composer (b. 1543)

• August 30 – Margaret Ward, English saint (birthdate unknown)

• September 3 – Richard Tarlton, English actor (b. 1530)

• September 4 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (b. 1532)

• October 1 – Ven. Edward James, English Catholic martyr (executed at Chichester)

• November 1 – Jean Daurat, French poet and scholar (b. 1508)

• December 23 – Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (b. 1550)

• date unknown

• *Giorgio Biandrata, Italian physician (b. 1515)

• *John Field, British Puritan clergyman and controversialist (b. 1545)

• *Sonam Gyatso, 3rd Dalai Lama, first Dalai Lama (b. 1543)

• *Amias Paulet, Governor of Jersey (b. 1532)

• *Edwin Sandys, English prelate (b. 1519)

• *Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher and natural scientist (b. 1509)