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Sir Francis Drake surprises the heavily fortified city of San Domingo on Hispaniola January 1 and forces its Spanish governor to pay a heavy ransom. He captures Cartagena on the Spanish Main in February, first plundering and then ransoming the city. Drake burns San Agostin (St. Augustine), Florida, June 7.
Former lord deputy of Ireland Sir Henry Sidney dies at Ludlow, Shropshire, May 5 at age 56.
Another plot to assassinate England's Protestant queen is discovered by spies of Elizabeth's secretary of state Sir Francis Walsingham (whose daughter is the wife of the soldier and poet Sir Philip Sidney) (see Throckmorton, 1583; 1584). Anthony Babington, 25, a Roman Catholic page to Mary, Queen of Scots, has conspired with Jesuit priest John Ballard, who is seized August 4 and betrays his confederates in a confession that is obtained in all likelihood through torture. Babington flees to St. John's Wood, disguises himself, reaches Harrow, gains shelter from a Catholic convert, but is discovered in late August and locked up in the Tower of London. He is executed at Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, September 20 along with Ballard and five others after all have been convicted of high treason. Mary denies any knowledge of Babington but Elizabeth's cryptographer Thomas Phelippes deciphers Mary's coded letters to the conspirators; Mary is convicted October 25 of involvement in the scheme and her life hangs in the balance (see 1587).
The Battle of Zutphen 17 miles northwest of Arnhem September 22 ends in victory for the Dutch Staats-General over Spanish forces (see 1585). Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, lays siege to Zutphen with about 10,000 men; Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, arrives with about 15,000 to relieve the siege, and Leicester suffers a defeat November 11. His nephew Sir Philip Sidney takes a bullet in the thigh and dies at Arnhem 26 days later at age 32, having declined to take water that he was offered on the battlefield (he insisted that it be given to another wounded man).
Poland's Stephen Báthory dies suddenly of apoplexy near Grodno December 12 at age 53 after an 11-year reign. His death ends Polish plans to unite Poland, Muscovy, and Transylvania into one great state (see 1587).
The Mughal emperor Akbar annexes the kingdom of Kashmir.
The Japanese emperor Goyozei makes Hideyoshi prime minister (Dajodaijin) at year's end and gives him the name Toyotomi (rich citizen) (see 1584; 1587).
Sir Francis Drake moves up the coast to Roanoke Island and sets sail for England June 18, taking along Sir Ralph Lane and other surviving settlers. Sir Richard Grenville arrives afterward and lands new settlers at Sir Walter Raleigh's colony (see White, 1587).
Sir Richard Grenville captures a Spanish ship on his return voyage and stops to pillage in the Azores before setting to work at organizing English defenses against a Spanish invasion (see 1587).
English navigator Thomas Cavendish, 31, sails for Brazil with three ships, discovers Port Desire (Puerto Deseado) in Patagonia, passes through the Strait of Magellan, plunders a Spanish galleon captured in South American waters, and proceeds westward. Cavendish will arrive home by way of the Philippines with Spanish gold but with only one ship, the Desire, and his voyage of 2 years and 50 days will make him the third man to circumnavigate the world (see del Cano, 1522; Drake, 1580).
Treatises on statics and hydrostatics by Simon Stevin give mathematical proof of the law of the level, prove the law of the inclined plane, and show that two unequal weights fall through the same distance in the same time (see 1585; Galileo, 1592). A military and civil engineer under Maurice of Nassau, Stevin has invented a system of sluices as a means of defense. He will enunciate the theorem of the triangle of forces and discover that downward pressure of a liquid is independent of the shape of its container.
The Little Balance (La Balancita) by Galileo Galilei describes Archimedes's method of finding the specific gravity of substances by using a balance to determine relative densities (see 1592; Archimedes, 265 B.C.)
English butcher's wife Margaret Clitherow (née Middleton), 30, is tried at York on charges of harboring priests in her house. Converted to Catholicism at age 18, she is found guilty and crushed to death. She will be revered by Catholics as the "Pearl of York" and canonized in 1970.
English Roman Catholic William Watson, 16, goes to France, is ordained a priest in April, returns home in June, and will spend the next 16 years preaching Catholicism in defiance of the law, championing the cause of secular priests against the Jesuits, whom he will blame for carrying on political intrigues with Spain and other countries and thereby causing other Catholics to be persecuted. Imprisoned on frequent occasion and sometimes tortured, he will always escape or obtain release (but see politics, 1603).
Nonfiction: The Reason and Establishment of Studies (Ratio atque institutio studiorum) by Jesuit leader Claudio Aquaviva, 43, who was elected general of the Society of Jesus 5 years ago. The book is distributed to Jesuit schools for criticism and revision; the definitive text published in 1599 will unify Jesuit teaching worldwide while providing for adaptations to meet local needs.
Scottish poet-jurist Sir Richard Maitland, Lord Lethington, dies March 20 at age 89, having remained active as a judge until 2 years ago although blind since about 1561.
Painting: The Legend of St. Mark by Tintoretto, now 68, who has been working on the four panels since 1548; The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco. Mannerist painter Luis de Morales dies at his native Badajoz May 9 at age 76 (approximate), having been called "The Divine" ("El Divino") for his emotional religious works.
Sir Francis Drake arrives home, carrying with him Virginia tobacco.
The 75-ton obelisk erected in Rome's St. Peter's Square in September after 17 months of work has required 907 men and 75 horses to move 800 feet from the Circus of Nero. Pope Sixtus V works to suppress the powerful nobility of the Papal States, rid the territory of bandits, encourage silk culture, put the finances of the Papal States on a sound basis, and beautify Rome. His Swiss-born architect Domenico Fontana, 43, has masterminded the move of the obelisk and will superintend construction of a Vatican Palace and Library, the Lateran Palace, the Santa Scala, and the completion of the dome of St. Peter's designed by Michelangelo before his death in 1564.
Hungary has famine so severe that by some accounts there are parents who eat their own children.
Sir Francis Drake carries home potatoes from Cartagena as curiosities (along with starving and disheartened Roanoke colonists) (see 1578).
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