1689
1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690
Contents: political eventshuman rights, social justice exploration, colonization commerce medicine religion literature art theater, film music agriculture food and drink |
English politician Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby, helps persuade the Convention Parliament to accept William and Mary as joint sovereigns (see 1688). An Act Declaring The Rights and Liberties Of The Subject And Settling the Succession Of The Crown incorporates the principles of last year's Declaration of Rights and will be a cornerstone of the English Constitution. It makes the monarchy clearly subject to the will of Parliament, outlawing former royal prerogatives that have included dispensing with the law in various cases, suspending laws without Parliament's consent, levying taxes and maintaining a peacetime army without specific authorization from Parliament, settling the succession on Mary's heirs and then on those of her sister Anne, and only then on those of William (on condition that they be Protestants) (see 1701). Danby works to reestablish himself as chief minister of the realm (see Battle of the Boyne, 1690).
A French fleet under the command of Admiral François-Louis Rousselet, 51, transports troops to Ireland in support of the deposed Catholic king James II and defeats a British fleet off the Irish coast.
Jurist George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (of Wem), dies in the Tower of London April 18 at age 43 (approximate). He tried to flee the country disguised as a sailor in December of last year but was apprehended and sent to the Tower.
Scotland's Convention of Estates meets in April at the summoning of the prince of Orange, declares that James VII has forfeited the Scottish crown, offers it to William and Mary, who accept, and is converted in June into a parliament. Scottish Episcopalians form a Jacobite party to prevent the threatened abolition of episcopacy and hold out at Edinburgh Castle until forced to surrender June 13. John Graham of Claverhouse, 40, Viscount Dundee, collects 3,000 men to oppose William and Mary. The now 60-year-old Highland chieftain Sir Ewen Cameron (of Lochiel) plays a key role in sweeping the Whig general Hugh Mackay back into Killiecrankie Pass July 17. Mackay loses nearly half his men, and the Bonny Dundee gains a victory in the Jacobite Rebellion (part of the War of the League of Augsburg), but he is killed later in the day, ending the danger of a Jacobite restoration (see 1707).
The War of the League of Augsburg against France's Louis XIV widens as England's new king William III forms a Grand Alliance May 12 with the Dutch and with the League that Savoy joined 2 years ago. The war begins the involvement of the Dutch Republic in a series of land wars that will cause the Dutch to neglect their naval strength and thus facilitate English domination of the high seas, but French lieutenant general Anne-Hilarion de Cotentin, 46, comte de Tourville, breaks the English blockade of Brest, averting an invasion of Brittany, and is promoted to vice admiral (see 1690).
Russia's regent and czarina Sophia Alekseevna, 32, is deposed following exposure of a conspiracy to seize her Moscow-born half-brother Peter, now 17, who is crowned czar in September and will reign until 1725 as Peter I. General Patrick Clark, now 47, has trained troops in the western European style and used them to help Peter in his coup. The new czar was forced into a marriage January 27 with the beautiful but stupid Eudoxia Lopukhina, but the marriage collapses by year's end as Peter devotes himself to sailing, shipbuilding, drilling, and mock battles while leaving administrative duties to others (see 1697).
The Treaty of Nerchinsk ends the first conflict between Russia and China and avoids a defeat for the Russians, who lose easy access to the Sea of Okhotsk but gain recognition as an equal state when no other European country has done so. Accepting the advice of Jesuit negotiator Jean-François Gerbillon, the Russians withdraw from territories which their pioneers have occupied in the Amur region (see 1637). They agree to set their border along the Stanovoy Range and the Argun River. The Chinese agree to let Russian caravans into Beijing (Peking), and the pact will remain the basis for Russo-Chinese relations until the late 1850s.
King William's War begins in North America as an outgrowth of the War of the League of Augsburg. The former governor-general of New France Louis de Buade, comte de Palluau et de Frontenac, is reappointed to the position from which he was recalled in 1682 and given command of an expedition to conquer the English province of New York. The Iroquois hear about the outbreak of hostilities between France and England before the news reaches Quebec, which is attacked by the tribesmen August 5 and suffers about 100 casualties, killed and captured. Frontenac finally arrives October 12, having been held up by adverse weather, and it is too late in the season for him to undertake the expedition against New York (see 1690).
Bostonians revolt at news of James II's flight from England and restore charter government after arresting Sir Edmund Andros. Sent to England for trial along with other colonial officials, Governor Andros will be acquitted, will retain royal favor, and serve from 1692 to 1697 as governor of Virginia, but his failure to announce the accession of William and Mary to the English throne in January sparks rumors that the New York province will be turned over to the French. Although New York proclaims William and Mary the rightful monarchs of England and her colonies, New York City's militia revolts, seizing Fort James May 31. A committee of public safety is organized, and a convention of representatives from East Jersey and all New York counties except Albany govern the province beginning June 27. The convention chooses German-born merchant and militia captain Jacob Leisler, 49, to be "captain of the fort" June 28, and it makes him chief military commander August 16. Leisler leads an anti-Catholic faction that has strongly opposed the claims of Willem of Orange to the English throne. Governor Dongan flees to New England along with the city's Catholic priests, and appointees of James II retain control of New York City's government until September, when Peter Delanoy becomes its first elected mayor under provisions laid down by the provincial convention. William and Mary appoint Colonel Henry Sloughter governor of New York September 2, but he will not arrive until next year. Jacob Leisler assumes the title lieutenant governor and dissolves the convention December 16, arresting alleged "papists" and instituting tax policies that alienate many of his supporters (see 1690).
Connecticut's Charter Oak gets its name as representatives of William III try to take back the colonial charter granted by Charles II in 1662. Colonists hide the charter at Hartford in a centuries-old oak that will have a circumference of 33 feet when it is blown down in 1856.
The forces of William and Mary suppress an Irish peasants' revolt.
Edo's Yoshiwara brothels have 2,800 prostitutes, according to an official census. The "happy field" moved to the city's Asakusa district after a fire in 1656 (see 1617; 1789).
Indians wipe out the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River founded by the late Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle (see 1687).
France's Louis XIV has silver furniture at Versailles melted down to pay the cost of his war with the League of Augsburg.
Austrian forces burn the Macedonian capital Skopje to the ground in order to eradicate a cholera epidemic. The city will not regain its commercial or political importance until the 19th century.
A smallpox epidemic in the Massachusetts Bay colony kills more than a thousand in 12 months.
Physician Thomas Sydenham dies at London December 29 at age 65. He has been called the "English Hippocrates," although some of his "remedies" have included such notions as putting a victim of senile decrepitude in bed with a vital young person.
Pope Innocent XI dies at Rome August 12 at age 78 after a 13-year reign in which he has condemned the extension of slavery and tried to unite Christian heads of state against the Ottoman Turks. Innocent is succeeded October 6 by the Venetian-born Pietro Vito Cardinal Ottoboni, 79, who will reign until 1691 as Alexander VIII.
Parliament passes a Toleration Act that mitigates the excesses of the 1662 Act of Uniformity, allowing Congregationalists and other "Nonconformists" to regain their positions and practice their faith without prejudice. It excuses England's Nonconformists from church attendance, but Dissenters continue to be persecuted for such reasons as non-payment of tithes (see Occasional Conformity Act, 1711).
Nonfiction: Letter Concerning Toleration by English philosopher-physician-scholar-businessman John Locke, 56, whose plainspoken work addresses the concerns of England's Protestants and Roman Catholics. Locke has returned to England early in the year after a self-imposed exile of nearly 6 years in Holland and has become commissioner of appeal; Table-Talk by the late English jurist-antiquary John Selden is a compilation of his statements as recorded by his secretary: "While you are upon earth, enjoy the good things that are here"; "No man is the wiser for his learning"; Criticisms of the Philosophy of Descartes (Censura Philosophiae Cartesianae) by French scholar-antiquary-scientist Pierre-Daniel Huet, 59, bishop of Avranches, who tries to refute such Cartesian principles as Descartes's "clear and distinct" test for the truth of an idea and his famous statement, "I think; therefore, I am" ("Cogito, ergo sum").
Painting: The Avenue, Middelharnis by Meyndert Hobbema.
Theater: Esther by Jean Racine 1/26 at Mme. de Maintenon's School for Young Ladies at Saint-Cyr. Mme. de Maintenon has objected to "worldly amusement," so the king has asked Racine to write a play without love scenes that might tempt the cast of young ladies. His audience includes the royal family and England's deposed king James II with his wife, Mary, but the pit is packed with young officers, and Mme. de Maintenon is shocked at overhearing them compare the charms of the performers, who, in turn, are so preoccupied with the court and the young men that discipline at the school begins to break down; Bury Fair by Thomas Shadwell in April at London's Drury Lane Theatre; Don Sebastian, King of Portugal by John Dryden in October at the Drury Lane Theatre.
Playwright Aphra Behn dies at London April 16 at age 48 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Arcangelo Corelli's 12 Church Trio Sonatas for Two Violins and Archlute, with Organ Basso Continuo, Opus 3 is published with a dedication to Francesco II, duke of Modena.
Opera: Dido and Aeneas 12/30 at the Chelsea boarding school for girls, operated by English dancing master Joseph Priest, with music by English composer Henry Purcell, 30, libretto by Nahum Tate.
Parliament restores export subsidies for English grain after such subsidies have lapsed (see 1673; 1688).
Fire ravages the Japanese capital of Edo and is blamed on fires used to cook meat, despite Buddhist strictures against eating meat (see 1687). The Tokugawa government issues an edict forbidding consumption of any meat other than rabbit.
1681 1682 1683 1684 1685 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690
