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The Holy Roman Emperor Matthias dies at Vienna March 20 at age 62 after a reign of less than 7 years. He is succeeded by Bohemia's Ferdinand, 40, who has just been deposed as king of Bohemia but is elected emperor at Frankfurt August 28 and will reign until 1637 as Ferdinand II.
Dutch statesman Johann van Oldenbarnevelt comes to trial after more than 6 months' imprisonment and a 24-judge ad hoc tribunal finds him guilty of having subverted the country's religion and policy. Maurice, Prince of Orange, refuses to spare his life, despite pleas from his cousin Willem Louis, count of Nassau, and van Oldenbarnevelt is beheaded on the Binnenhof at The Hague May 13 at age 71.
Spanish nobleman Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, duque de Medina-Sidonia, dies at Sanlucar at age 68 (approximate), having retained royal favor despite the loss of the great armada in 1588 and subsequent disasters.
Protestant forces under Count von Thurn besiege Vienna in November but cold, hunger, and the Catholic forces of the Bavarian elector Maximilian soon force them to withdraw (see 1618; 1620).
The sultan of Bantam overpowers his Jacatran vassal in February, forces the English to withdraw, and lays siege to the Dutch fort (see commerce, 1618). Dutch governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen returns in late May, forces the Bantams out of Jacatra May 30, burns the city, and founds the new city of Batavia (later Jakarta) on its ruins. Java will remain a valuable colony for 326 years. The English fleet has scattered, and Coen organizes a pursuit (but see 1620).
English parliamentary leader Sir Edwin Sandys gains control of the Virginia Company and establishes a representative assembly in the colony—the first elective legislative body in North America. The Virginia House of Burgesses convenes at Jamestown July 30 under the direction of Gov. Yeardley with 22 burgesses (delegates), two from each settlement, with a council and the governor himself appointed by the colonial proprietor, the Virginia Company (but see 1624).
The first black slaves to arrive in the Virginia colony come ashore at Jamestown in August from a Dutch privateer whose booty includes Spanish plate and "twenty negars" (see 1649). The shipment consists of "twenty and odd" African men and women (17 men plus three women who have been impregnated by the ship's crew en route). The privateer has traded tobacco for the slaves, and they are put to work in the colony's tobacco fields. Most African slaves are taken from the Asante (Ashanti), Coromantee, Fulani, Ibo, Mandingo, Whydah, Wolof, and Yoruba people on the continent's west coast and come to the West Indies and Brazil, where the sugar industry kills them faster than natural breeding can replace them. While two to three times as many Africans as Europeans will come to the Americas in the next 200 years, only about 5 to 7 percent will be brought to North America; slaves, nevertheless, will now begin to play a role in the North American economy.
Some 90 young women arrive at Jamestown from England to marry settlers who pay 120 pounds of tobacco each for the cost of transporting their brides.
Amsterdam opens a bourse that will rival the exchanges set up at Antwerp and Hamburg in 1531 and 1558, respectively (see Bremen, 1682).
French mathematician-philosopher René Descartes, 22, establishes the basics of modern mathematics, applying algebra to geometry and formulating analytic geometry. Serving as a soldier to the Elector of Bavaria in his war against the Bohemian Protestants, Descartes makes the breakthrough November 19 that will provide the basis for exploring natural phenomena by mathematics, but his work will not be published until 1637.
The Harmony of the World (Harmonice Mundi) by Johann Kepler at Linz shows that the planets move not in circles but in ellipses, traveling faster when they are closer to the sun (see 1609). Kepler writes out musical notations suggesting that the planets have "songs" that reach higher keys as they near the sun. His work is called heretical because only circular paths and constant speeds are considered perfect, but the celestial imperfection, Kepler explains, is to enable God to make better music (see Leibniz, 1671).
The slaves landed at Jamestown introduce to North America such African diseases as yellow fever, virulent forms of malaria, and hookworm (see 1647; Laveran, 1880; Ashford, 1899).
A Toulouse court finds Italian humanist Lucilio Vanini, 33, guilty of magic and atheism; his tongue is cut out, and he is strangled at the stake and burnt alive February 9.
German-born Dutch humanist and theologian Gerardus J. (Johannes) Voss, 42, resigns as regent of the theological college of the State-General at Leyden, where he has joined a controversy over the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. Known widely as Vossius, he will be appointed professor of rhetoric and chronology at the University of Leyden in 1622 and will later be made professor of Greek as well.
French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, 28, goes off to Indochina, where authorities permit him to proselytize. The first Frenchman to visit Vietnam, he establishes a mission and sets to work (see 1630).
The first American day of thanksgiving is celebrated November 30 by 30 Englishmen aboard the 40-ton ship Margaret that touches land at what later will be Hampton, Virginia. The new arrivals proceed up the James River and arrive December 4 at Berkeley Grant (see food, 1621).
England's Dulwich College has its beginnings in the College of God's Gift founded outside London by actor-theater proprietor Edward Alleyn, now 52. He bought the manor of Dulwich in 1605 (it had belonged to Bermondsey Abbey from 1127 to 1528) and has established a school to provide education for "12 poor scholars" and almshouses for "six poor brethren and six poor sisters" (see art [picture gallery], 1814).
Mary Ward tries to start girls' schools in England like those she has opened on the Continent (see 1609). Emphasizing the study of Latin, she denies charges that her intent is to have women preach sermons and administer the sacraments (see 1630).
Nonfiction: History of the Council of Trent by the Venetian Paolo Sarpi is published at London under the pen name Pietro Soave Polano. Now 67, Sarpi decries papal absolutism, arguing that "princes have their authority from God, and are accountable to none but him for the government of their people." The Vatican puts his work on its Index of prohibited books, but it will go through several editions in the next 10 years and be translated into five languages.
Painting: Adoration of the Magi by Diego Velázquez; Diana at the Chase by Il Domenichino; The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Peter Paul Rubens.
Sculpture: Brussels sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy casts the bronze Mannekin Pis to replace a stone statue dating to the mid-1400s.
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