* 1553 – Louise of Lorraine ( d. 1601 )

* 1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva.

* Albert Frederick ( 1553 – 1618 )

* 1489 – Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck, German statesman and reformer ( d. 1553 )

* 1625 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior ( b. 1553 )

* Principality of Anhalt-Plötzkau 1544 – 1553 and 1603 – 1665

Albert Frederick (, ; 7 May 1553 Königsberg – 28 August 1618 Fischhausen ) was duke of Prussia from 1568 until his death.

They were parents to a daughter, Louise Borgia, Duchess of Valentinois, ( 1500 – 1553 ) who first married Louis II de La Tremouille, Governor of Burgundy, and secondly Philippe de Bourbon ( 1499 – 1557 ), Seigneur de Busset.

* 1553 – King Henry IV of France ( d. 1610 )

Erasmus Alberus ( c. 1500 – 1553 ), German humanist, reformer, and poet, was born in the village of Bruchenbrücken ( now part of Friedberg, Hesse ) about the year 1500.

* 1553 – Erasmus Reinhold, German astronomer and mathematician ( b. 1511 )

Lucas Cranach the Elder ( 1472 – 1553 ), the great painter patronized by the electors of Wittenberg, was a close friend of Luther, and illustrated Luther's theology for a popular audience.

* 1553 – Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.

* 1553 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese warrior ( d. 1625 )

* 1553 – Archduke Ernest of Austria ( d. 1595 )

On 30 October 1594, John Sigismund married Anna of Prussia, daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia ( 1553 – 1618 ).

* 1615 – Margaret of Valois ( b. 1553 )

* 1521 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony ( d. 1553 )

Mary I ( 18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558 ) was the Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.

* Loades, David M. ( 1991 ) The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government and Religion in England, 1553 – 58.

* 1553 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist ( d. 1617 )

Important naval victories of the Ottoman Empire in this period include the Battle of Preveza ( 1538 ); Battle of Ponza ( 1552 ); Battle of Djerba ( 1560 ); conquest of Algiers ( in 1516 and 1529 ) and Tunis ( in 1534 and 1574 ) from Spain ; conquest of Rhodes ( 1522 ) and Tripoli ( 1551 ) from the Knights of St. John ; capture of Nice ( 1543 ) from the Holy Roman Empire ; capture of Corsica ( 1553 ) from the Republic of Genoa ; capture of the Balearic Islands ( 1558 ) from Spain ; capture of Aden ( 1548 ), Muscat ( 1552 ) and Aceh ( 1565 – 67 ) from Portugal during the Indian Ocean expeditions ; among others.

Following the Reformation, the Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey Church sold to the town in 1553 for £ 400: it became a Protestant parish church for the borough and the Lady Chapel was used as a school.

Before his execution in 1553 by Queen Mary for attempting to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, Dudley had built the new stable block and widened the tiltyard to its current form.

On 10 July 1553, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by Dudley and his supporters, and on the same day Mary's letter to the council arrived in London.

When Edward VI became ill in 1553, his advisers looked to the possible imminent accession of the Catholic Lady Mary, and feared that she would overturn all the reforms made during Edward's reign.

Most of Edward's council signed the Devise for the Succession, and when Edward VI died on 6 July 1553 from his battle with tuberculosis, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen.

Dudley's youth was overshadowed by the downfall of his family in 1553 after his father, the Duke of Northumberland, had unsuccessfully tried to establish Lady Jane Grey on the English throne.

On 6 July 1553 King Edward VI died and the Duke of Northumberland attempted to transfer the English Crown to Lady Jane Grey, his daughter-in-law who was married to his second youngest son, Guildford Dudley.

Mary's second marriage produced four children ; and through her eldest daughter Frances, Mary was the maternal grandmother of Lady Jane Grey, who was the de facto monarch of England for a little over a week in July 1553.

In 1553 the Lady Chapel became a school, the Great Gatehouse a town jail, some other buildings passed to the Crown, and the Abbey Church was sold to the town for £ 400 in 1553 by King Edward VI to be the church of the parish.

* disputed claimant: Lady Jane Grey, ( 1553 )

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, KG ( 1504 – 22 August 1553 ) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death.

On 21 May 1553 Guildford Dudley, Northumberland's second youngest son, married Lady Jane Grey, the fervently Protestant daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and, through her mother Frances Brandon, a grandniece of Henry VIII.

Lord Guildford Dudley ( also spelt Guilford ) ( c. 1535 – 12 February 1554 ) was the husband of Lady Jane Grey who, declared as his heir by King Edward VI, occupied the English throne from 6 / 10 July till 19 July 1553.

In 1553 Edward died and was succeeded — after the nine-day rule of Lady Jane Grey — by his older sister, the strongly Catholic Queen Mary.

On 16 June 1553 he was one of the twenty-six Peers who signed the settlement of the crown on Lady Jane Grey.

* John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland ( 1504 – 1553 ), English general, admiral and politician noted for trying to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne of England

Radclyffe's prominence in the kingdom was shown by his inclusion among the signatories to the letters patent of 16 June 1553 settling the crown on Lady Jane Grey as Edward's successor ; but he nevertheless won favour with Queen Mary, who employed him in arranging her marriage with Philip II of Spain, and who created him Baron Fitzwalter in August 1553.

In 1553, Dudley advanced the claim of his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, to the English throne, but when she was deposed by Queen Mary I, Dudley was convicted of high treason and executed.

It is believed that the house was the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, later Queen, ruling for a mere 9 days before being overthrown by Mary I. Jane was executed in 1553 and when her father was executed the following year the estate passed to the crown.

When King Edward VI died on 6 July 1553, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen four days later, first in Cheapside then in Fleet Street by two heralds, trumpets blowing before them.