Year 1538 (MDXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Mary of Guise, also called Mary of Lorraine, ruled Scotland as regent from 1554 until her death. A noblewoman from the Lotharingian House of Guise, she played a prominent role in 16th-century French politics. Mary became queen consort upon her marriage to King James V of Scotland in 1538. Their infant daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, ascended the throne when James died in 1542. Mary of Guise's main goal as regent was a close alliance between the powerful French Catholic nation and smaller Scotland, which she wanted to be Catholic and independent of England. She was ultimately unable to prevent the Protestant Reformation in Scotland, which after her death left her daughter in a precarious position.
Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who held the office of lord protector during the first part of the reign of their nephew King Edward VI. The Duchess was briefly the most powerful woman in England. During her husband's regency she unsuccessfully claimed precedence over the queen dowager, Catherine Parr.
Sir Robert Dormer of Wing, 1st Baronet, 1st Baron Dormer of Winge was a 17th-century English peer.
Anne Bassett was an English lady-in-waiting of the Tudor period, reputed to have been the mistress of King Henry VIII.
Magdalen Dacre, Viscountess Montagu was an English noblewoman. She was the daughter of William Dacre, 3rd Baron Dacre of Gilsland, and the second wife of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. Magdalen, a fervent Roman Catholic, was a Maid of Honour at the wedding of Mary I of England to Philip II of Spain in Winchester Cathedral. Dacre, despite being a Catholic, managed to remain in high regard with the Protestant Tudor Queen who succeeded Mary, Elizabeth I. Dacre was, according to biographer Lady Antonia Fraser in her historical biography, The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605, a fine example of "how the most pious Catholic could survive if he did not challenge the accepted order".
Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare was an English courtier. She was wife of Gerald FitzGerald, 11th Earl of Kildare, Baron of Offaly. She was born into the English Roman Catholic Browne family whose members held prominent positions at the courts of the Tudor sovereigns for three generations. Mabel served as a gentlewoman of Queen Mary I's privy chamber, and enjoyed the Queen's favour.
Sir William Dormer was a Tudor knight, captain and politician. He is best known for a broken engagement to Jane Seymour, who later became the third wife of Henry VIII.
Susan White, known as Susan Clarencius, was a favourite lady in waiting and longtime friend of Queen Mary I of England.
Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, 1st Duke of Feria (1520?–1571) was a Spanish nobleman and diplomat, and close advisor of Philip II's.
Duke of Feria is a hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain accompanied by the dignity of Grandee, granted in 1567 by Philip II to Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, 5th Count of Feria.
Jane Dudley, Duchess of Northumberland was an English courtier. She was the wife of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and mother of Guildford Dudley and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Having grown up with her future husband, who was her father's ward, she married at about age 16. They had 13 children. Jane Dudley served as a lady-in-waiting at the court of Henry VIII and was a close friend of his final wife, Catherine Parr. Reformed in religious outlook, she was also a supporter of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew.
Anne Hungerford was an English lady of the royal court during the reign of Queen Mary I, and poet.
John Giffard (1534–1613) was a Staffordshire landowner and Member of the English Parliament, notable as a leader of Roman Catholic Recusancy in the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
The Siege of Rheinfelden of 1633 or the Spanish recapture of Rheinfelden(Spanish: La Expugnación de Rheinfelden) took place in late October 1633, during the Thirty Years' War.
Sir John Killigrew of Arwenack, near Penryn, Cornwall, was the 2nd Governor of Pendennis Castle, (1568–1584) appointed by Queen Elizabeth I, as stated on his father's brass in St Budock's Church. He was MP for Lostwithiel in 1563 and twice for the family's pocket borough of Penryn, in 1571 and 1572. Although appointed a commissioner to enquire into piracy, he was himself a notorious pirate and smuggler. He was described as a man "who might sometimes keep within the law, but only out of fear of punishment".
Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa y Dormer, 2nd Duke of Feria (1559–1607) was a Spanish peer.
Margaret Harington an English woman in 16th-century Spain.
An inventory of the jewels of Mary I of England, as Princess Mary in the years 1542 to 1546 was kept by her lady in waiting Mary Finch. The manuscript is now held by the British Library. It was published by Frederic Madden in 1831. Some pieces are listed twice. Hans Holbein the Younger designed jewels for her. Two surviving drawings feature a ribbon with the inscription, "MI LADI PRINSIS".
