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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce science medicine religion literature art theater, film architecture, real estate food availability population |
England's James I tears out the page in the journal of the Commons bearing the Great Protestation of last December, dissolves Parliament February 8, and imprisons Sir Edward Coke, now 69, for 9 months along with John Selden, 38, earl of Southampton, and John Pym, 38. William Fiennes, 39, the 8th Lord Saye and Sele, objects to the king's imposing a benevolence and is imprisoned for 6 months (his friendship with George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, will gain him the title viscount in 1624, but Fiennes will continue his opposition to the crown).
The Battle of Wiesloch in April gives Protestant forces under Peter Ernst, graf von Mansfeld II, 42, a victory over graf von Tilly's Catholic League army. Mansfeld plunders Hesse and Alsace, but Tilly triumphs a few weeks later over the margrave of Baden-Durlach, and he battles the 22-year-old soldier of fortune Christian of Brunswick June 20 at Höchst as the Thirty Years' War continues. Christian's Protestant army numbers no more than 15,000 and has only one serviceable field gun, but despite opposition from a Catholic army about twice its size, most of it manages to cross the bridge at Höchst and join up with graf von Mansfeld to create a combined force numbering 25,000.
Spanish forces under the marquis of Spinola seize Bergen op Zoom from the Dutch as hostilities resume following the end last year of the 12-year truce (see 1625).
France's Louis XIII lays siege to Montpelier. The duc de Rohan makes peace October 18 when Louis agrees to reaffirm the 1598 Edict of Nantes, but Louis forbids political meetings. He recalls Richelieu, bishop of Lucon, to the Royal Council and appoints him cardinal.
The 19-year-old Ottoman sultan Osman II pretends to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, actually hoping to raise an army that will reform Constantinople's degenerate Janissaries. They hear of his plan, march him through the streets hurling insults, strangle him May 20, and restore the imbecilic Mustapha I (see 1623).
Persian forces take Kandahar from the Mughal Empire. With English help, they drive the Portuguese out of Hormuz on the Persian Gulf.
Navigator William Baffin is killed January 23 at age 35 during an Anglo-Persian attack on the Persian Gulf island of Qeshm. He has made surveys of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf for the East India Company; seaman Sir Richard Hawkins dies at London April 18 at age 61 (approximate).
Dutch governor-general Jan Pieterzsoon Coen sends a large expedition to the Chinese coast with a view to establishing a settlement (see 1621); the mission fails, but it does succeed in planting a settlement on the island of Taiwan (Formosa) that will lead to the development of profitable trade with both China and Japan.
The Council for New England that has succeeded the Plymouth Company grants territory between the Kennebec and Merrimack Rivers to former Newfoundland governor John Mason, 36, and his rich English associate Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 56 (see 1629).
Indian attacks March 22 destroy a number of Virginia settlements within a few hours, killing 347 colonists and destroying the first American ironworks.
Fur trader Etienne Brulé becomes probably the first European to see what will be called Lake Superior (see commerce, 1618). Fed by about 200 rivers, the immense inland sea (Lac Supérieur, or Upper Lake) will ultimately be measured at 383 miles long (east to west) and as much as 160 miles wide (north to south), with a maximum depth of 1,330 feet. The Huron will kill Brulé and eat him in 1633 (see Radisson and Groseilliers, 1658).
The Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sinks near the Florida Keys en route home from South America with a vast treasure in silver ingots, gold chains, and artifacts that will not be found until 1985.
English mathematician William Oughtred, 47, joins together the wooden rules devised last year by Edmund Gunter to create the slide rule (see Napier, 1614; technology [Schickard], 1623; technology [Pascal], 1642).
Disease takes a heavy toll among Virginia colonists and among their Indian neighbors.
The Japanese shōgun Hidetada Tokugawa orders the execution of 120 Christian missionaries and Japanese converts (see 1617). Hidetada bans all Christian literature and obliges his vassals to persecute Christians in their various realms, even though many have adopted pro-Christian policies. Execution of missionaries will reach its height in the next 3 years.
Nonfiction: Egalité des Hommes et des Femmes by Marie de Gournay, now 56, attacks the hypocrisy of society's attitude toward women, who are expected to be submissive.
Painting: Portrait of Sir Robert Shirley by Anthony Van Dyck.
Theater: The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley at London's Phoenix Theatre.
London's Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace is completed in Palladian style for James I by English architect Inigo Jones, 49, who studied in Italy from 1613 to 1614 and won appointment as surveyor of the king's works in 1615. The new royal banqueting hall adjacent to Whitehall Palace (see religion, 1529) replaces one that burned down in 1619 (see Painting, 1635).
The Plymouth Plantation receives 67 new arrivals, and earlier colonists are forced to go on short rations. The harvest is poor, and some settlers steal corn before it is harvested. Pumpkins—a squash variety known to them as "pompions"—help the Pilgrims survive (see 1623).
Virginia colonists who pick corn prematurely are subjected to public whipping.
Disease and Indian massacres reduce the population of the Virginia colony, whose numbers have quadrupled to some 1,400 in the last 5 years.
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