Year 1563 (MDLXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–June February 1 – Sarsa Dengel succeeds his father Menas as Emperor of Ethiopia. January 25 – In Italy, Instituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino, a major financial group of Sanpaolo IMI, is founded. February 18 – Francis, Duke of Guise, is assassinated while besieging Orléans. March 19 – The Edict of Amboise is signed at the Château d'Amboise by Catherine de' Medici, acting as regent for her son Charles IX of France, having been negotiated between the Huguenot Louis, Prince of Condé, and Anne, duc de Montmorency, Constable of France. It accords some toleration to the Huguenots, especially to aristocrats. It officially ends the first phase of the French Wars of Religion, and the combined Huguenot and royal armies then march north to besiege the English in Le Havre. May 25 – Elizabeth College, Guernsey is founded, by order of Queen Elizabeth I of England. May 30 – At Bornholm, the Danish fleet fires on the Swedish navy, leading to a Danish defeat and precipitating the Northern Seven Years' War. July–December July 28 – The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege. August 13 – Northern Seven Years' War: War against the Kingdom of Sweden is declared by Denmark–Norway and the Free City of Lübeck. August 18 – Merchants from the Bungo Province destroy the Portuguese settlement in Yokoseura, Japan September 4 – Northern Seven Years' War: King Frederick II of Denmark, advancing from Halland, takes Älvsborg fortress from Sweden. December 4 – The Council of Trent (opened December 13, 1545) officially closes. It reaffirms all major Roman Catholic doctrines, and declares the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament to be canonical, along with the rest of the Bible. Chapter 1, Session 24, promulgates the decree Tametsi, stipulating that for a marriage to be valid, consent (the essence of marriage) as expressed in the vows has to be given publicly before witnesses, one of whom has to be the parish priest. Births January – Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire, English noblewoman (d. 1607) January 6 Johann Christoph von Westerstetten, German bishop (d. 1637) Martin Becanus, Belgian Jesuit priest (d. 1624) January 19 – Leonhard Hutter, German theologian (d. 1616) January 29 – William Slingsby, English army officer (d. 1634) January 30 – Franciscus Gomarus, Dutch