1612
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce science medicine religion literature art theater, film music tobacco marine resources |
The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II dies at Prague January 20 at age 59 after a reign of more than 35 years. Never having married (although he has sired many children by his courtesans), the eccentric, art-loving Rudolf is succeeded by his brother Matthias, 54, who raised an army against him last year. Matthias moves the court from Prague's Hradcany Palace to Vienna and obtains the remaining Hapsburg dominions; Matthias is crowned in June and will reign until 1619.
Florentine conspirator and politician Roberto Ridolfi dies at his native Florence February 18 at age 80.
England's chief minister Robert Cecil, 1st earl of Salisbury, dies at Marlborough, Wiltshire, May 24 at age 48, having given continuity to the change from Tudor to Stuart rule and run the government with great skill in the first 9 years of James I's reign. James has made Robert Carr, 21, a privy councillor in April and now makes the handsome Scottish nobleman his secretary (see 1613).
Sweden's newly-crowned king Gustav II Adolf invades the Danish province of Scania from the north, plundering its northern and western regions, burning down the medieval market town of Wä (it has been destroyed by Swedish invaders three times in earlier years), and treating the populace with great cruelty (see 1611). "We scourged, plundered, scorched, and killed totally to our own desire and discretion," he will write. Hostilities will continue until next year (see 1644; Peace of Knared, 1613).
Polish forces in Moscow surrender October 27 to a Russian peasant army that has been organized as a militia under the command of Prince Dmitri Pojarsky (see 1610; Romanovs, 1613).
A Bermuda colony is established by a shipload of men, women, and sailors who arrive on the islands that were claimed for England 3 years ago by the late Sir George Somers, who died in 1610. The colony will have 600 settlers by 1614.
A Map of Virginia by Captain John Smith describes the physical features of the country, its climate, its plants and animals, and its inhabitants.
Two English East India Company ships defeat a Portuguese fleet of four galleons off the coast of India. The emperor Jahangir is so impressed that he grants trading rights to the English at Surat.
The Dutch East India Company sends Jan Pieterszoon Coen back to the Spice Islands (Moluccas), this time with the rank of chief merchant (see 1607). Now 25, Coen will be appointed chief of the company's post at Bantam in Java in August of next year and in November 1614 will be made director general of the company's commercial operations in Asia, allowing him to gain a monopoly in cloves from the Moluccas and nutmegs from the Banda Islands (see 1618).
Astronomer Christopher Scheiner has letters about the existence of sunspots ("Tres epistulae de maculis solaribus" and "De maculis solaribus et stellis circ Jovem errantibus accuratior Disquisitio") published at Augsburg in January by his gouty friend Marc Welser, 54, under the pseudonym Apelles (see 1611). Welser sends Galileo Galilei a copy of the letters, asking for his opinion (see 1613).
Mathematician Christopher Clavius (Christoph Clau) dies at Rome February 6 at age 74, having in recent editions of his 1570 textbook on astronomy taken the view that the Copernican system of 1543 was a useful mathematical model but (in conformity to Church teachings) opposed it as a physical reality (see Galileo, 1613).
Physician Santorio Santorius devises a crude clinical thermometer, but like the pulse clock that he invented 10 years ago it will not be employed in medicine for centuries to come. Now 51, Santorius has been teaching since last year at the University of Padua, where he received his own medical degree in 1582 (see 1614; Floyer, 1707).
Japanese persecution of Christians begins as a definite policy following a series of anti-Christian edicts that began in 1606. The shōgun Ieyasu Tokugawa abandons his original friendly attitude toward missionaries after realizing that trade with Europe can be continued without their presence, which presents potential political dangers.
Nonfiction: An Apology for Actors by actor-playwright Thomas Heywood is a history of the profession and its role in society since ancient times. Heywood's many works are so popular that they are sometimes performed at two London theaters simultaneously.
Poet Battista Guarini dies at Venice October 7 at age 73.
Painting: Grand Inquisitor Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara by Toledo painter Luis Tristán, 26, who studied under El Greco from 1603 to 1607.
Theater: Cupid's Revenge by Beaumont and Fletcher in January at the court of James I; The White Devil by John Webster is performed by the Queen's Men: "Call for the robin redbreast and the wren/ Since o'er shady groves they hover,/ And with the leaves and flowers to cover/ The friendless bodies of unburied men" (V, iv) (Webster's plot is based on the tragedy of the late Vittoria Accoramboni, who was murdered in 1585); The Coxcomb by Beaumont and Fletcher with the Children of the Queen's Revels.
Composer Hans Leo Hassler dies at Frankfurt-am-Main June 8 at age 47; organist-composer Giovanni Gabrieli at his native Venice August 12 at age 55.
Tobacco cultivation gives Virginia colony settlers an export commodity that will provide them with a solid economic base. John Rolfe has obtained Nicotiana tabacum seed from the Caribbean islands and after two years in Virginia has learned from local Indians how to raise tobacco and cure the leaf that he ships to London. The James River Valley produces 1,600 pounds of leaf per acre, Jamestown becomes a boom town, the Virginia (London) Company grows prosperous, and James I is enriched by import duties that make him look more tolerantly on tobacco (see 1604; Rolfe, 1614).
The London-based Muscovy Company sends out four whaling ships, takes 17 whales, and pays its shareholders a 90 percent dividend. Its whaling ventures will have only occasional success in the next dozen years, however, and the English will virtually abandon whaling, not to resume for another 150 years.
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