1687
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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization science religion education literature art theater, film music everyday life architecture, real estate |
England's James II appoints Richard Talbot, earl Tyrconnell, his lord deputy of Ireland in February. Now 56, Tyrconnell will make himself highly unpopular.
Ukrainian Cossack Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa-Koledinsky, 43, visits Moscow, gains favor with the prime minister Vasili Vasilievich Golitsyn, 44, and virtually purchases the hetmanship of the Cossacks July 25 (see Chmielnicki, 1657). Educated at the court of the late Polish king John II Casimir, Mazepa was caught in bed with a married Polish woman, and her husband tied him naked to the back of a wild horse. Dnieperian Cossacks rescued him on the steppe, and he has risen to leadership among them (see 1704).
The Second Battle of Mohács in southern Hungary August 12 gives Charles of Lorraine a victory over the Ottoman Turks. Supported by Max Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, Charles has advanced into Slovenia and Transylvania with a Christian army that numbers 60,000, including 45,000 Austrians, 8,500 Bavarians, and 6,000 Croats and Hungarians. The Ottoman army is larger, but it is routed, and more than 10,000 men are killed and wounded, most of them while fleeing. Losses to the Christian army total about 1,000 killed and wounded. Erlau in Hungary capitulates to Austrian forces September 14 after a century under Ottoman rule. The diet of Pressburg confers hereditary succession to the Hungarian throne upon the male line of Austria.
His Janissaries blame the Ottoman sultan Mehmet IV, now 48, for the defeat at Mohács, and they depose him November 8, throwing him into prison, where he will die in 1692. His 47-year-old brother will reign until 1691 as Suleiman II.
Venetian admiral Francesco Morosini, now 69, reconquers the Greek Peloponessus from the Ottoman Turks and even captures Athens, which he shells. Upon his return to Venice, he is heaped with honors and given the title "Peloponnesiaco."
A French squadron of six warships arrives at Bangkok with 600 soldiers. Encouraged by the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon to believe that the Siamese king Narai might give him territorial concessions and even accept conversion to Christianity, Louis XIV has sent three diplomatic missions to Siam, beginning in 1680 (see 1688).
The La Salle expedition on America's Gulf Coast is reduced to a band of 20, having failed utterly (see 1684). La Salle's men kill their leader, now 43, March 19 and leave his body to the buzzards, but they try to keep his death secret lest hostile natives attack them. Like previous explorers, they have left measles and smallpox in their wake.
Philosophia naturalis principia mathematica by Isaac Newton establishes laws of gravity and universal laws of motion, dealing a mortal blow to the strong distinction made by Aristotle between earthly and cosmic phenomena (see Leibniz, 1684). The first law: if an object is moving at a steady speed in a straight line and not pushed or pulled, its velocity will naturally remain constant (it will continue moving at a steady speed in a straight line). The second law: the velocity of a moving object will accelerate if force is placed upon it, and if pushed twice as hard it will accelerate twice as much, but if its mass is doubled it will accelerate half as much. The third law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (see Heron of Alexandria, 76). The late French astronomer Jean Picard found that the length of arc on a great circle corresponded to 1°, and Newton has used this discovery in his theoretical applications to prove that the attraction of the Earth is the principal force governing the motion of the moon in its orbit. Astronomer Edmond Halley, 31, has inspired Newton to write The Principia and has had it published at his own expense (see Halley, 1705).
Astronomer Johannes Hevelius dies at his native Gdansk (Danzig) January 28 (his 76th birthday). Edmund Halley visited him in 1679 with a sextant having telescopic sights, and he showed Halley that he could determine stellar positions quite as accurately without a telescope.
A Japanese law imposed January 28 by the shōgun Tsunayoshi Tokugawa forbids the killing of animals (see 1129). Tsunayoshi's only son has died, he has become a devout Buddhist, and beginning February 27 he forbids his people to eat fish, shellfish, or birds (see Edo fire, 1689).
The Declaration of Liberty of Conscience issued by James II April 14 grants liberty of worship to all denominations in England and Scotland.
Traité de l'éducation des filles by French clergyman François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, 36, shows a rare insight into psychology. Fénelon was appointed at age 27 to head a Paris institution for women converts; written for the daughters of French noblemen, his book expresses his belief that women should be prepared for their special roles in life, with those of the nobility being taught religion, the economics of contract law, and how to manage estates and servants. He proscribes reading of romantic novels, since they bear no resemblance to real life, and forbids instruction in Italian or Spanish lest girls read dangerous literature in those languages.
Nonfiction: Confucian Sinarum Philosophus is published in Latin at Paris with a short dedication to Louis XIV, who has supported its printing. The first Western-language version of Confucius's sayings (see 495 B.C.), it has been edited by Jesuits who include Philippe Couplet, recently returned from China with a young convert, Michael Shen, who has been taken to visit le roi de soleil at Versailles and later in the year is taken to visit England's James II at London; "Letter to a Dissenter" (pamphlet) by George Savile, marquis of Halifax, who was dismissed from public office 2 years ago by James II for opposing repeal of the Test Act and the Habeas Corpus Act.
Poetry: The Hind and the Panther by John Dryden: "By education most have been misled;/ So they believe, because they so were bred./ The priest continues what the nurse began,/ And thus the child imposes on the man"; The Country Mouse and the City Mouse by English poet Matthew Prior, 23, burlesques Dryden's The Hind and the Panther. Prior has written the poem in collaboration with Charles Montagu, 26; The Age of Louis the Great ("Le Siècle de Louis le Grand") by Paris poet-story teller Charles Perrault, 62, who was secretary to France's finance minister Jean Baptiste Colbert from 1664 until 1683.
Painting: The Chinese Convent by Godfrey Kneller, who also paints a full-length portrait of Roman Catholic convert Michael Shen in Chinese robes.
Playwright-author-politician George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, dies at Kirkby Moorside, Yorkshire, April 16 at age 59.
Music is a "corruptive influence," says François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, but he concedes that if a girl is decidedly musical it is better that she be allowed church music than be denied music altogether.
Paris Opéra director Jean Baptiste Lully dies at Paris March 22 at age 54 of blood poisoning after having stabbed himself in the foot with his long baton while conducting a "Te Deum" of thanksgiving for the king's recovery from an illness. Louis XIV has given Lully an unlimited budget and has at times appeared on stage himself to dance as Jupiter or Apollo with some of his top lords in operatic spectacles produced by Lully, spectacles that have included floating clouds, fireworks, volcanoes, and waterfalls.
Ballad: "Lillibullero" (or "Lilli burlero") by Irish nobleman Thomas Wharton, whose verses appeared last year in Robert Carr's Delightful Companion for recorder or flute. Written to discredit the English administration of Ireland under Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnell, they will be published next year in a single sheet with musical notations and be reprinted in various collections for another century.
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is founded by Scotland's James VII (Britain's James II); membership in the order, whose roots date to as early as the 8th century, is limited to the king and eight knights. Membership will be increased to 12 early in the next century and raised to 16 in 1827, with Knights of the Thistle being ranked just below Knights of the Garter.
The Parthenon and the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis at Athens sustain severe damage September 26 as a Venetian mortar shell scores a direct hit, exploding gunpowder stored in the temple by the Ottoman Turks, who continue to use the Acropolis as a fortress (see art [Elgin], 1803).
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