1584
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization education literature art environment agriculture |
Ivan the Terrible, czar of Muscovy, dies at Moscow March 18 at age 53 after a 37-year reign and is succeeded by his somewhat feeble-minded 27-year-old son, who will reign until 1598 as Fyodor Ivanovich. Ivan struck his eldest surviving son 3 years ago in a momentary fit of fury, the blow proved fatal, the czar was inconsolable ever since. The boyars refused to let him abdicate, but he joined the strictest order of monks. Boris Federovich Godunov, 33, a son-in-law and court favorite of the late czar, will dominate the 14-year reign of Fyodor I, trying to conciliate the boyars by regularizing the conditions of serfdom.
Willem of Orange is murdered at Delft July 10 at age 51 (see 1583). Spain's Felipe II has for 3 years offered a large reward to anyone who would rid the world of the man he calls a traitor, the Burgundian Balthazar Gerard has shot the stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland, and Willem is succeeded by his son Maurice of Nassau, 17, who has been studying at the University of Leyden. Ghent falls to Felipe's forces, but Dutch and English volunteers set forth to liberate the city, one of the columns being led by Captain Mary Ambree (see 1585).
English conspirator Francis Throckmorton is executed July 20, having been tried in May and found guilty of treason (see 1583). Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish ambassador to England, is expelled from the country, but Roman Catholic plots to overthrow Queen Elizabeth continue (see 1586).
The younger brother of France's Henri III dies August 10; the death of François, duc d'Alençon et Anjou, leaves the ruling Valois family without a successor (see 1585).
Bern, Geneva, and Zürich form an alliance against Savoy and the Catholic cantons. The Catholic cantons will form an alliance with Spain in 1587.
The Tatar tribesmen of the warlord Kuchum ambush Russian adventurer Timofeyevich Yermak on the banks of the Irtysh River in Siberia (see 1579). Yermak is wearing a costly coat of chain mail that was given to him last year by the czar, and when he jumps into the river to escape he is dragged under and drowns, but in the next 60 years a few thousand people will gain control of a vast region extending to the Pacific (see 1637; 1741).
Hideyoshi gains hegemony over central Japan and on August 8 moves into Hideyoshi Castle at Osaka (see 1582). Begun in September of last year, the castle has been built by 30,000 workers using stones brought to the site by 1,000 boats per day (see 1587).
Burma's Nanda Bayin marches into Siam in December with a view to suppressing the Siamese patriot Phra Naret (Naresuan), 29, who was appointed governor of the Burmese province at age 16 but has renounced his allegiance. Phra Naret will defeat several Burmese armies in the Chao Phraya Valley over the course of the next 3 years (see 1590).
The Virginia colony planted on Roanoke Island by English navigator-courtier Walter Raleigh, 32, takes its names from that of England's virgin queen, who knights Raleigh for his services. Raleigh has secured the renewal of the patent on colonization granted in 1578 to his late half brother Humphrey Gilbert. He has sent out an expedition in April under the command of captains Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, both 34. They have sailed by way of the Canary Islands to Florida and thence up the coast in search of a suitable site for an English plantation in the New World, and have come to an inlet between Albemarle and Pamlico sounds (see 1585).
Sir Francis Drake attacks Puerto Rico's El Morro Castle at San Juan November 22 in an effort to seize a cargo of gold pesos that have been stored in the vaults of the fortress pending transshipment to Spain (see 1521). The Spaniards repulse Drake's forces (but see 1585). Puerto Rico's gold mines were declared depleted 14 years ago, and the island's sugar industry remains insignificant.
Emmanuel College is founded at the University of Cambridge to train Protestant preachers (see Trinity, 1546). England's chancellor of the exchequer Walter Mildmay, 62, has provided the financing for the new college.
Nonfiction: The Discourse on the Western Planting by Richard Hakluyt articulates in forceful terms the political and economic benefits to be obtained from establishing an English colony in Virginia.
Painting: The Gozzadini Family by Lavinia Fontana.
A pamphlet by Phillip Amadas and Arthur Barlow describes the soil of the New World as "sweet smelling" and speaks of vines "bowed down with grapes, the woods abounded with game, the waters with fish" in "the goodliest land under the cope of heaven."
The Discourse on the Western Planting by Richard Hakluyt describes the sweet potato as "the most delicate rootes that may be eaten, and doe farre exceed our passeneps or carets" (see 1564), but sweet potatoes will be slow to gain popularity.
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