1588 was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

Events

• 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 Lisbon heading for the English Channel (it will take until May 30 for all ships to leave port).
• July - King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise and returns to Paris.
• July 31 - First engagement between the English and Spanish fleets off Plymouth. The English have the better of it.
• 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: 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. 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.

• Ahmad al-Mansur, sultan of Morocco, demands that the king of Songhay give a heavy tribute in exchange of a Saharan salt, probably in an intentional provocation. When Songhay's answer is defiant, he declares war and marches his army through Sahara to Songhay
• Russia, regency of Boris Godunov
• William Morgan's Welsh translation of the Bible published.

Births

• April 5 - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher (died 1679)
• April 15 - Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (died 1653)
• May 2 - Étienne Pascal, French mathematician (died 1651)
• May 13 - Ole Worm, Danish physician and antiquary (died 1654)
• May 28 - Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France (died 1672)
• June 9 - Johann Andreas Herbst, German composer and music theorist (died 1666)
• June 11 - George Wither, English poet and satirist (died 1667)
• June 18 - Robert Crowley, English printer and poet
• September 8 - Marin Mersenne, French theologian (died 1648)
• September 10 - Nicholas Lanier, English composer (died 1666)
• December 10 - Isaac Beeckman, Dutch philosopher and scientist (died 1637)
• Robert Abbot, English Puritan theologian (died 1662)
• Johann, Count von Aldringer, (died 1634)
• Johann Heinrich Alsted, German theologian (died 1638)
• John Danvers, English politician (died 1655)
• Robert Filmer, English political writer (died 1653)
• Accepted Frewen, English churchman (died 1664)
• Francis Higginson, colonial American Puritan (died 1630)
• Jan Janssonius, Dutch cartographer (died 1664)
• François de La Mothe-Le-Vayer, French writer (died 1672)
• Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (died 1665)
• Giuseppe Ribera, Italian painter (died 1656)
• Luke Wadding, Irish Franciscan friar and historian (died 1657)

See also Category:1588 births.

Deaths

• January 5 - Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (b. 1528)
• February 24 - Johann Weyer, Dutch physician and occultist
• March 10 - Theodor Zwinger, Swiss scholar (born 1533)
• April 4 - King Frederick II of Denmark (born 1534)
• April 19 - Paolo Veronese, Italian painter
• June 18 - Robert Crowley, London stationer (born 1517)
• July 17 - Sinan, Ottoman architect (b. 1489)
• August 8 - Alonso Sánchez Coello, Spanish painter
• August 12 - Alfonso Ferrabosco, Italian composer (born 1543)
• September 4 - Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (born 1532)
• November 1 - Jean Daurat, French poet and scholar (born 1508)
• December 23 - Henry I, Duke of Guise, French Catholic leader (born 1550)
• Giorgio Blandrata, Italian physician (born 1515)
• Henri I de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (born 1552)
• John Field, British Puritan clergyman and controversialist (born 1545)
• Sonam Gyatso, 3rd Dalai Lama, first Dalai Lama
• Amias Paulet, Governor of Jersey (born 1532)
• Edwin Sandys, English prelate (born 1519)
• Richard Tarlton, English actor
• Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher and natural scientist (born 1509)

See also Category:1588 deaths.

1588

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