* 1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.

* 1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.

Andrea Andreani ( 1540 – 1623 ) was an Italian engraver on wood, who was among the first printmakers in Italy to use chiaroscuro, which required multiple colours.

* 1581 – Edmund Campion, English Jesuit ( b. 1540 )

* 1603 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician ( b. 1540 )

* 1592 – Alessandro Striggio, Italian composer ( b. 1540 )

Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral ( 1540 – 27 January 1596 ) was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era.

* 1540 8 September – Corsairs from the Barbary Coast ( ruled by Barbarossa ) landed at Gibraltar in sixteen galleys, looting the town and taking away many captives.

First ( 1559 ) he married Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin ( 29 August 1540 – 8 March 1578 ).

Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (; full title: Al-Sultan al -' Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Jam-i-Sultanat-i-haqiqi wa Majazi, Sayyid al-Salatin, Abu ' l Muzaffar Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun Padshah Ghazi, Zillu ' llah ; OS 7 March 1508 – OS 17 January 1556 ) was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530 – 1540 and again from 1555 – 1556.

1540 – 1623 ).

* Federico II, Duke of Mantua ( 17 May 1500 – 28 August 1540 ), married Margaret Paleologa, by whom he had issue.

* 1503 – Parmigianino, Italian artist ( d. 1540 )

* 1623 – William Byrd, English composer ( b. 1540 )

* 1540 – Charles II, Archduke of Austria ( d. 1590 )

* 1540 – King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

* 1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.

* 1488 – Helius Eobanus Hessus, German poet ( d. 1540 )

* 1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed at the order of Henry VIII of England on charges of treason.

In 1540 – 42 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled from Arizona to eastern Kansas.

English written lute music only began around 1540, however, the country produced numerous lutenists, of which John Dowland ( 1563 – 1626 ) is perhaps the most famous.

* 1540 – Maharana Pratap, Hindu ruler of Mewar ( d. 1597 )

Although Franciscus Vieta ( 1540 – 1603 ) gave the first notation of modern algebra, John Napier ( 1550 – 1617 ) invented logarithms, and Edmund Gunter ( 1581 – 1626 ) created the logarithmic scales ( lines, or rules ) upon which slide rules are based.

** Edmund Campion, English Jesuit ( martyred ) ( b. 1540 )

In 1540, the body of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond and father of Henry VII, was brought to be entombed in front of the High Altar from the dissolved Greyfriars ’ Priory in Carmarthen.

In 1540 Lady Margaret was again in disgrace with the King when she had an affair with Lord Thomas Howard's half-nephew Sir Charles Howard, the son of Thomas ' elder stepbrother Lord Edmund Howard, and a brother of Henry VIII's fifth Queen, Catherine Howard.

To these were added the archives of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, which include 16th-century manuscript verses by St Robert Southwell SJ, the letters of St Edmund Campion SJ ( 1540 – 81 ) and holographs of the 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.

* Saint Edmund Campion ( 1540 – 1581 ), English Jesuit priest and martyr

* Campion-St Edmund Campion SJ, ( 1540 – 1581 )

* 1621 – Radulph Agas, English surveyor ( b. c. 1540 )

1497 – 30 July 1540 ) was an English priest who was martyred during the reign of Henry VIII.

* November 10 – Barnabe Rich, English soldier and writer ( b. c. 1540 )

** Barnabe Googe, English poet ( b. 1540 )

** William Painter, English translator ( b. 1540 )

* January 27 – Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and soldier ( b. 1540 )

* June 15 – Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, English politician ( b. 1540 )

* November 26 – Ralph Agas, English surveyor ( b. c. 1540 )

* December 25 – Lettice Knollys, English noblewoman ( b. 1540 )

** Robert Barnes, English reformer and martyr ( d. 1540 )

* April 14 – Henry Wallop, English statesman ( b. c. 1540 )

* November 20 – Christopher Hatton, English politician ( b. 1540 )

** Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman ( d. 1540 )

William Byrd (; 1540 or late 1539 – 4 July 1623, by the Julian calendar, 14 July 1623, by the Gregorian calendar ) was an English composer of the Renaissance.

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex ( 28 July 1540 ) was an English statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.

1540 – 1624 ), was a Member of Parliament for the county of Suffolk His title of Baronette became extinct when the last son to hold the title didn't produce a son English baronetcy.

In English, the word is first attested in 1292, as a loan from Old French chevalerie (" knighthood "), an abstract noun formed in the 11th century based on chevalier (" knight " or " horseman "), ultimately from Medieval Latin caballārius (" horseman "); cavalry is from the Italian form of the same word, loaned via Middle French into English around 1540.