1581 (MDLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) in the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. Events January–June March 18 – The Parliament of England's Act against Reconciliation to Rome imposes heavy fines, for practising Roman Catholicism. March 25 – Iberian Union: Philip II of Spain is crowned Philip I of Portugal. April 4 – Following his circumnavigation of the world, Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I of England. July–December July 14 – English Jesuit Edmund Campion is arrested. July 26 The Northern Netherlands (Union of Utrecht) proclaim their independence from Spain in the Act of Abjuration, abjuring loyalty to Philip II of Spain as their sovereign, and appointing Francois, Duke of Anjou, as the new sovereign of the Netherlands; public practice of Roman Catholicism is forbidden. Capture of Breda: Spanish troops take Breda by surprise. A meteorite makes landfall in Thuringia, Holy Roman Empire. August 28 – The army of King Stephen Báthory of Poland begins its siege of the Russian garrison of Pskov. Summer (probable) – Yermak begins the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Sibir, with a band of 1,636 men. September – A mercenary army of Sweden, under Pontus De la Gardie, captures Narva from Russia. October 10 – King Bayinnaung, who created the largest empire in mainland southeast Asia, dies at age 65. October 15 – Ballet Comique de la Reine, the first narrative ballet, devised by Louise of Lorraine, wife of Henry III of France, and choreographed by Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx, opens in its first performance at the court of Catherine de' Medici, in the Louvre Palace in Paris, as part of the wedding celebrations for Marguerite of Lorraine. November 4 – Jean de la Cassière is restored as Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller, by Pope Gregory XIII. December 1 – In England, Jesuit priest Edmund Campion is executed for treason. Date unknown The Knights Hospitaller depose Jean de la Cassière as Grandmaster, and appoint Mathurin Romegas. The Ming Dynasty Chancellor of China, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, imposes the Single Whip Reform, by which taxes are assessed on properties recorded in the land census, and paid in silver, as the accepted medium of exchange. Oda Nobunaga invades Iga Province. The Trier witch trials begin. John Dee practices angel magic with Barnabas Saul,