1603
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce transportation science medicine religion literature art theater, film architecture, real estate agriculture food availability population |
Queen Elizabeth dies at Richmond, Surrey, March 24 at age 69 after an extraordinary 45-year reign, ending 118 years of Tudor monarchy in England. Under the terms of the will left by her late father, Henry VIII, she was to have been succeeded by Lady Catherine Gray, second daughter of Henry Grey, duke of Suffolk, and sister of the late Lady Jane Grey. Lady Catherine secretly married Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, in 1560; they were imprisoned in the Tower of London until Hertford paid a heavy fine in 1563; Catherine bore two sons, but she died in 1568 and Elizabeth refused to admit that the marriage ever took place or to recognize the legitimacy of her sons. Ministered at her insistence on her deathbed by John Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, the queen exercises her royal prerogative to designate as her successor Scotland's James VI, 46-year-old son of the late Mary, Queen of Scots, who becomes James I of England and will reign until his death in 1625 over a united kingdom as the first Stuart "king of Great Britain" (as he will style himself; see United Kingdom, 1707).
Sir Walter Raleigh is tried for high treason on charges of complicity in the "Main Plot" to dethrone James I and sentenced to prison (see 1617).
John Smith kills his slave-master, escapes from captivity east of the Black Sea, and returns to England (see 1601; 1607).
Dutch admiral Jacob van Heemskerck captures the armed Portuguese treasure ship Santa Catarina in the Straits of Malacca. Appointed a full admiral after visiting Amsterdam 3 years ago, he takes booty that will bring him further promotion (see 1607).
West African ruler Idris Aloma dies after a 33-year reign in which he has rebuilt Bornu into a mighty Islamic state, the greatest power between the Niger and the Nile.
The Ottoman sultan Mehmed III dies of plague at Constantinople December 22 at age 37 after an 8-year reign. His 14-year-old son succeeds him and will reign until 1617 as Ahmed I, but women will hold the reigns of power for the next few decades in the absence of any mentally stable sultan.
The Tokugawa shōgunate that will rule Japan until 1867 is founded at Edo by Ieyasu Tokugawa, now 60, who ushers in an era of domestic peace and prosperity (see 1600; 1616).
France's Henri IV names Samuel de Champlain, 36, pilot and geographer and sends him with fur trader François du Pontgrave to explore the Saguenay and St. Lawrence Rivers. Champlain and his companion learn from les sauvages of the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls; they make an alliance with the Algonquin that will endure for 150 years (see 1604).
England's new king James I inherits a debt of more than £400,000 from the late queen Elizabeth. Having a wife and two sons, his household expenses far exceed those of the unmarried queen, who had no children and therefore sold off many of her lands and did not increase taxes. James's major sources of revenue are land rents and customs duties (see 1606).
English merchant John Mildenhall reaches India via Isfahan, Kandahar, and Lahore and presents himself as self-appointed ambassador to the Mughal emperor Akbar at Agra in hopes of obtaining commercial privileges for England (see 1608).
East India Company merchant James Lancaster returns to England from the Indies with 278 of his original 460 men and is knighted (see 1602). He sells a cargo of more than 1 million pounds of pepper at a good profit to the company (see 1601). Having made his fortune by plundering other ships, he becomes a proprietor of the company and will remain a director, sponsoring some voyages in search of a Northwest Passage (see Bantam, 1605).
Japan's Tokugawa shōgunate will move the country from a rice economy to a money economy, and while Japan will have 125 crop failures in 265 years, with some degree of famine each time, its industry, commerce, and national wealth will increase. However, a rising living standard and a large population increase will produce economic troubles.
France begins a canal project to link the Atlantic with the Mediterranean (see 1681).
Bologna alchemist and cobbler Vincenzo Cascariolo heats a mixture of heavy spar (barium sulfate) with coal and obtains a powder that glows at night; he notices that the bluish glow can be restored by exposure of the powder to sunlight, thus pioneering the study of luminescence. His discovery of what other alchemists call lapis solaris ("sunstone") raises hopes that it can transform baser metals into gold.
Mathematician François Viète, 51, seigneur de la Bigotière, dies at Paris February 23 at age 63, having pioneered modern algebra.
London has an epidemic of the Black Death that kills at least 33,000 (see 1625).
Court physician and physicist William Gilbert dies at London (or Colchester) December 10 at age 59, having served the late Queen Elizabeth and been appointed physician to the new king James I.
Roman Catholic priest William Watson is found guilty of treason for his part in the "Bye Plot" against James I and executed at Winchester December 9 at age 44 (approximate). Watson had obtained what he took to be a pledge by the new king of tolerance toward Roman Catholics. James failed to carry out the promise, and Watson conspired with a small group of Catholics and disaffected Protestants to seize the king at Greenwich and hold him captive until he agreed to their demands, but Jesuit leaders revealed the scheme to the government.
Poetry: Microcosmos by English poet John Davies (of Hereford), 38, whose work is a didactic religious treatise.
Painting: St. Bernardino by El Greco.
Masque: The Magnificent Entertainment Given to King James by Thomas Dekker 3/15 at London.
Theater: Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare at London: "Who steals my purse steals trash: 'tis something, nothing;/ 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;/ But he that filches from me my good name/ Robs me of that which not enriches him,/ And makes me poor indeed" (III, iii); "One that loved not wisely but too well" (V, ii); Sejanus, His Fall by Ben Jonson at London with the King's Men.
Japan's Kabuki theater has its beginnings in April at Kyoto, where women led by Okuni Izumo dance at the Kitani shrine playing men's roles as well as women's (but see 1629).
Castel Gandolfo is completed to plans by architect Carlo Maderno, 47, who has built the papal summer residence 45 kilometers southeast of Rome at Castelli Romani in Latium.
Paraguay's Asunción-born Spanish governor of the Rio de la Plata district Hernando Arias de Saavedra, 42, ships some cattle and horses downstream from Asunción. Landed on the Uruguyan riverbank and allowed to run wild, these animals will grow into herds so large that gauchos from Buenos Aires will cross the Rio de la Plata and begin a trade in hides that will provide the basis for the development of great Uruguayan estancias (ranches).
Felipe III sends food to starving Portuguese colonists in drought-stricken northeastern Brazil.
A Russian famine kills tens of thousands. Czar Boris orders distribution to the neediest of grain from the palace granaries.
London's population reaches 210,000, up from 200,000 in 1583 (see 1692). The city begins for the first time to keep a tally of births and deaths, compiling information kept heretofore only in church records.
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