| 1533 | Germany [painting] | The German artist Hans Holbein paints The Ambassadors. |
| 1533 | England [plays] | The English poet and dramatist John Heywood publishes several plays, including The Play of the Wether and A Mery Play Between the Pardoner, the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte.Heywood's Tudor ‘interludes’ (short drama entertainments) prepare English theatre for the fully developed comedies of the Elizabethans. |
| 1533–1545 | Dai Viet [political events] | Nguyen Kim restores the south of Dai Viet to the Le dynasty, governing from Hue. The usurping Mac family remains in control of the north from Hanoi. |
| 25 January 1533 | England [political events] | King Henry VIII of England secretly marries his mistress Anne Boleyn; his divorce from Catherine of Aragon is still pending. |
| 28 February 1533 | France [births and deaths] | Michel de Montaigne, French writer, creator of the essay as a literary genre, born in Château de Montaigne, near Bordeaux, France (–1592). |
| 10 April 1533 | Denmark-Norway [political events] | King Frederick I of Denmark-Norway dies, precipitating a religious and succession crisis that leads to a three-year civil war, ‘the Count's War’. The Danish diet, dominated by Catholic bishops and nobles, refuses to accept his Lutheran son Christian, stadtholder (provincial governor) of Schleswig-Holstein, as king, favouring his other (infant) son Hans. |
| 22 June 1533 | Austria, Habsburg Monarchy, Holy Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Hungary [political events] | Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria and the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent conclude an interim peace in Hungary; the division of the country is to reflect the status quo, with Ferdinand taking the area west of the River Danube and the Ottoman ally and rival claimant to the throne, Janos Zápolya, having the rest; both are to pay tribute to Suleiman, who also vetoes future arrangements about Hungary. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V is excluded from the treaty, and continues his war against the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean. |
| 11 July 1533 | Papal States, Italy, England [political events] | Pope Clement VII excommunicates King Henry VIII of England for bigamy. Publication of the papal bull is deferred until October; on reading it, Henry appeals to the projected general council. |
| 26 July 1533 | Spain, Inca Empire [wars] | The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro executes his prisoner of eight months, Atahualpa, the Inca emperor, at Cajamarca (in modern Ecuador), despite having accepted a large ransom for his release. He then arranges to have the emperor's treacherous brother Tupac Hualpa crowned emperor, in the mistaken hope of retaining the support of Atahualpa's followers. |
| 7 September 1533 | England [births and deaths] | Queen Elizabeth I, Queen of England 1558–1603, daughter of Henry VIII, whose reign saw growth in England's political and economic power, as well as major achievements in the arts, born in Greenwich, near London, England (–1603). |
| October 1533 | France, Papal States, Italy [political events] | Henry, Duke of Orléans, second son of King Francis I of France, marries Catherine de' Medici, daughter of Duke Lorenzo II de' Medici of Urbino, and cousin of Pope Clement VII. |
| November 1533 | Germany, Holy Roman Empire [political events] | The Catholic League of Halle, led by Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg, and George, Duke of Saxony, is formed in opposition to the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. Germany is split into two armed camps. |
| 4 December 1533 | Muscovy, Russia [political events] | Ivan IV (‘the Terrible’), aged three, succeeds as Grand Prince of Moscow on the death of his father Vassily III. His mother, Yelena Glinskaya, becomes regent, assisted by her lover, Prince Obolensky-Telepniev. |
