1572

Year 1572 (MDLXXII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. January 16 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, is tried for treason, for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He is executed on June 2. February – Harrow School is founded, with a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth I of England. February 13 – Elizabeth I of England issues a proclamation which revokes all commissions, on account of the frauds which they had fostered. April 1 – Capture of Brielle: The Sea Beggars, Netherlandish Calvinist rebels, capture the port city of Brielle. This leads to a wave of uprisings in Holland and Zeeland against Spanish Habsburg rule, leaving most of those provinces (with the exception of Amsterdam) under rebel control. May 13 – Pope Gregory XIII succeeds Pope Pius V, as the 226th pope. June 25 – The Sea Beggars capture the city of Gorkum; several Roman Catholic priests are imprisoned. July 9 – The Sea Beggars hang 19 previously imprisoned Roman Catholic priests (the Martyrs of Gorkum) at Brielle. July 11 – Humphrey Gilbert leads 1,500 volunteers from England, on an expedition to assist the Sea Beggars. July 19 – Wanli Emperor of China ascends the throne at the age of nine; he will rule for 48 years. July 29–August 2 – Battle of Molodi: A large Crimean Tatar–Ottoman army which invaded Russia is routed. August 18 – Huguenot King Henry III of Navarre marries Margaret of Valois, sister of King Charles and daughter of Catherine de' Medici, in a supposed attempt to reconcile Protestants and Catholics in France. August 24 – St. Bartholomew's Day massacre: Catholics in Paris murder thousands of Protestants, including Gaspard de Coligny and Petrus Ramus, at the order of King Charles IX, with Catherine de Medici's connivance. Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Condé barely escape the same fate. This brings about the Fourth War of Religion in France. October 20 – Eighty Years' War – Relief of Goes: Soldiers of the Spanish Tercios wade across the estuary of the Scheldt, to relieve the siege of Goes in the Spanish Netherlands.