- Jan 30 Damião de Góis, Portuguese philosopher (b. 1502)
- Mar 5 Philip of Saint-Aldegonde, Flem viceroy Holland/Zealand/Utrecht, dies
- Apr 14 Christoffel Palts, German general strategist, dies in battle
- Apr 14 Hendrik, count of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies in battle
- Apr 14 Louis, earl of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies in battle at 35
- Apr 17 Joachim Camerarius [Liebhard Kammerer], German classical scholar, dies at 74
- Apr 21 Cosimo de Medici, Italian duke of Toscane, dies at about 54
- May 14 Guru Amar Das, third Sikh Guru, dies at 95
- May 30 Charles IX, King of France (1560-74), dies at 23
- Jun 27 Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and art historian (Vasari's Lives), dies at 62
- Sep 17 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Spanish admiral and explorer who founded St. Augustine, Florida, dies at 55
- Oct 1 Maarten van Heemskerck, Dutch painter (Christ), dies at 76
- Nov 28 Georg Major, German Protestant theologian, dies at 72
- Dec 13 Selim II "the blonde", 11th Ottoman Sultan (1566-74), dies at 50
- Dec 26 Charles Guise, archbishop/cardinal of Reims, dies at 50