May 17: Anne of Denmark.

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 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. After the unsuccessful search, he returned to England on October 24.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

• September 15 – Urban VII succeeds Sixtus V as the 228th pope; he dies of malaria twelve days later.

• September 15 – The Neulengbach earthquake causes significant damage and some loss of life in Lower Austria and Vienna; effects felt as far as Bohemia Silesia

• December 5 – 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 Meletius I of Alexandria 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)

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)

• February 21 – Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, English nobleman and general (b. 1528)

• 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 – Richard Hill, Richard Holiday, John Hogg and Edmund Duke, 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)

• *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)