- Feb 3 Alfonsus de Castro, Spanish theologist (Council of Trent), dies
- Feb 25 Eleanor of Austria, European noble - Queen of Portugal (1518-21), Queen of France (1530-47), Duchess of Touraine (1547–1558), dies at 59
- Mar 24 Anna van Buren, countess of Egmond/Buren/Lingen, dies
- Mar 25 Marcos de Niza, French Franciscan explorer (Arizona, Seven Cities of Cibola), dies at 62 or 63
- Apr 18 Roxelana, wife of Otttoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, dies at ~54
- Apr 20 Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer, dies at 72
- Apr 26 Jean Fernel, French physician (coined the term "physiology"), dies at 61
- May 31 Philip Hoby, English politician (b. 1505)
- Jun 4 Maximilian of Burgundy, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, dies at 43
Charles V (1500-1558)
Sep 21 King of Spain (1516-56) and Holy Roman Emperor (1519-56), dies of malaria at 58
- Oct 18 Maria, Queen of Hungary as wife of Louis II and Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (1531-55), dies at 53
- Oct 21 Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian-French physician and scholar (On the Subtlety of Things), dies at 74
- Nov 12 Shalom Shakna ben Joseph, Rabbi (founder of 1st Polish Yeshiva), dies
- Nov 17 Mary I 'Bloody Mary', English Queen of England (1553-58), dies at 42
- Nov 17 Reginald Pole, English cardinal, scholar and "heretic", dies at 58
- Nov 23 Charles, Earl of Lalaing, land guardian of the Netherlands, dies at 52
- Dec 29 Hermann Finck, German organist and composer, dies at 31
Assassination
Drug Overdose
Gunshot Wound
Murder
Plane Crash
Suicide