Year 1548 (MDXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June February 14 – Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo. April 1 – Sigismund II Augustus succeeds his father, Sigismund I the Old, as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. May 11 – The great fire in Brielle begins. June Ming Chinese naval forces commanded by Zhu Wan destroy the pirate haven of Shuangyu, frequented by Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese smugglers. John Dee starts to study at the Old University of Leuven. July–December July 7 – A marriage treaty is signed between Scotland and France, whereby five-year-old Mary, Queen of Scots, is betrothed to the future King Francis II of France. August 7 – Mary, Queen of Scots, leaves for France. October 20 – The city of La Paz, Bolivia, is founded. October 31 – At the first sejm of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, deputies demand that the king renounce his wife Barbara Radziwiłł. December – Siam attacks Tavoy, beginning the Burmese–Siamese War of 1548. Births January 5 – Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, theologian and saint (d. 1617) February 6 – Francesco Panigarola, Italian bishop (d. 1594) March 13 – Sasbout Vosmeer, Dutch Apostolic Vicar (d. 1614) March 17 – Honda Tadakatsu, Japanese general (d. 1610) March 18 – Cornelis Ketel, Dutch painter (d. 1616) April 15 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626) May – Carel van Mander, Dutch painter and poet (d. 1606) May 8 – Giacomo Boncompagni, illegitimate son of a Pope (d. 1612) May 10 – Antonio Priuli, Doge of Venice (d. 1623) July 8 – Kim Jang-saeng, Korean scholar and writer (d. 1631) July 15 – George III, Count of Erbach-Breuberg (1564–1605) (d. 1605) August 26 – Bernardino Poccetti, Italian painter (d. 1612) September 2 – Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (d. 1616) September 7 – Filippo Boncompagni, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1586) September 29 – William V, Duke of Bavaria (d. 1626) October 4 – Matsumae Yoshihiro, Japanese daimyō of Ezochi (Hokkaidō) (d. 1616) November 27 – Jacopo Mazzoni, Italian philosopher (d. 1598) December 14 – Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, Grandee of Spain (d. 1601) December 30 – David Pareus, German theologian (d. 1622) approx. date – Ma Shouzhen,