1552

Year 1552 (MDLII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1520s  1530s  1540s  – 1550s –  1560s  1570s  1580s
Years:	1549 1550 1551 – 1552 – 1553 1554 1555

Births

• February 1 – Edward Coke, English business person (d. 1634)
• February 8 – Agrippa d'Aubigné, French poet and soldier (d. 1630)
• February 19 – Melchior Klesl, Austrian statesman and cardinal (d. 1630)
• February 28 – Joost Bürgi, Swiss clockmaker and mathematician (d. 1632)
• June 18 – Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet (d. 1637)
• July 18 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1612)
• August 24 – Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
• September 22 – Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (d. 1612)
• October 6 – Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary to China (d. 1610)
• December 29 – Henri I de Bourbon, prince de Condé (d. 1588)
• December 30 – Simon Forman, English occultist and astrologer (d. 1611)
• date unknown
  • Hans von Aachen, German mannerist painter (d. 1615)
  • Thomas Aufield, English martyr (d. 1585)
  • Jean Bertaut, French poet (d. 1611)
  • Miguel de Benavides, Spanish clergyman (d. 1605)
  • Richard Hakluyt, English writer, editor and translator (b. c. 1552 or 1553; d. 1616)
  • Philemon Holland, English translator (d. 1637)
  • Francisco Goméz de Sandoval y Rojas, Duke of Lerma, Spanish politician (d. 1625)
  • Dom Justo Takayama, Japanese daimyo (d. 1615)
  • Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (d. 1636)
  • Jack Ward, English pirate (d. 1622)

Deaths

• January 10 – Johann Cochlaeus, German humanist (b. 1479)
• January 22 – Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, English politician (b. 1509)
• February 26 – Heinrich Faber, German composer (b. 1500)
• April 18 – John Leland, English historian (b. 1502)
• May 26 – Sebastian Münster, German map maker (b. 1488)
• June 10 – Alexander Barclay, British poet (b. 1476)
• July 9 – György Szondy Hungarian soldier
• August 15 – Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
• October 14 – Oswald Myconius, Swiss Protestant reformer (b. 1488)
• October 17 – Andreas Osiander, German Protestant theologian (b. 1498)
• December 2 – Francis Xavier, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1506)
• December 20 – Katharina von Bora, wife of Martin Luther (b. 1499)