1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710
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The first Prussian king crowns himself at Königsberg January 18. The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I has given the elector of Brandenburg Frederick III sanction to assume the monarchy in return for a promise of military aid. Now 42, the elector is married to Sophia Charlotte of Hanover and will reign until 1713 as Prussia's Friedrich I.
Retired French admiral A. H. de Cotentin, comte de Tourville, dies at Paris May 28 at age 58.
The Great Northern War continues with a Saxon siege of Riga. Sweden's Karl XII relieves the city June 10 and proceeds to invade Poland, beginning a 6-year string of victories over Poland and Saxony. Polish soldier Jan Chryzostom Pasek dies at Niedzeliska outside Krákow August 1 at age 65 (approximate), having written memoirs relating anecdotes of the Swedish and Muscovite wars.
England's former king James II (Scoland's former James VII) dies at St. Germain, France, the night of September 5 at age 67. A new Act of Settlement provides for the succession to England's throne (see 1689). Having met annually since the end of the last century, Parliament ends the divine right of monarchy to determine the dynastic succession and sets limits to future monarchic action: William III, childless, is to be succeeded by his sister-in-law Anne, and she, in turn, by the elector of Hanover, a great-grandson of the late James I. But Louis XIV proclaims James Edward England's rightful king, and the son of the deposed James II will lay claim to both the English and Scottish thrones, gaining support from "Jacobites" (Jacobus is Latin for James) who hope to profit from his accession (see 1708).
Scottish Jacobite Simon Fraser, 34, 11th Lord Lovat, is ordered to stand trial for the "rapt" of the dowager Lady Lovat, widow of the 9th lord, whom he forcibly married after the 9th lord's death, having persuaded the 9th lord to settle the liferent of his estates on his late father, the 10th lord. The dowager's relatives, the Murrays of Atholl, had Lovat tried in 1698. He was sentenced to death, but the earl of Argyll persuaded William III to grant him a partial pardon. Lovat refuses to stand trial again, is outlawed, and flees to London, whence he will proceed to France and take up with the exiled Stuarts (see 1703).
The War of the Spanish Succession begins in Europe as Philippe of Anjou gains recognition as king of Spain, especially in Castile, and the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I moves to take over Spain's Dutch and Italian possessions (see 1700). England and Holland are fearful of having the France of Louis XIV joined with Spain and form a Grand Alliance with the emperor. Maximilian II Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, sides with the French in hopes that his Wittelsbach family will supplant the Hapsburgs on the imperial throne. But Hapsburg troops will commit atrocities in Bavaria, the elector's sons will be taken as prisoners to Austria, and the Bavarian people will rise against the Hapsburgs. The elector's family will not be reunited until 1715. Eugene of Savoy joins the Grand Alliance September 7.
The Battle of Feyiase in West Africa ends in victory for Ashanti tribesmen over their onetime overlords, the Denkyira. Osei Tutu, their leader, will build a powerful empire in the next decade, enriching his people by trading in gold and slaves (see 1712).
Louisiana becomes a province of France covering most of the area drained by the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers (see 1682; 1699; 1763).
The Charter of Privileges gives Pennsylvania the most liberal government of any English colony in America (see Penn, 1682).
The Great Peace of Montreal signed August 4 at the village of Ville Marie on the banks of the St. Lawrence River brings a temporary halt to the hostilities that have persisted for decades between French colonists (and their indigenous allies among the Huron, Ojibwe, Sable Ottawa, Cree, Hochungra, Potawatomi, Mississauga, Kiskakon, Sac, Amikwa, and Mascouten) and the Iroquois, whose 39 member nations are represented at the signing of Le Grande Paix by leaders of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca who have come from as far away as James Bay to the north, New York to the south, the Maritimes to the east, and the Great Lakes to the west (some 1,300 people have come for the occasion and set up camp on the banks of the Little St. Pierre River outside the town's wooden stockade). The French recognize the sovereignty of each nation, and each nation gives a pledge of peace and goodwill in return, establishing a precedent of negotiation that will continue for well over a century.
Detroit has its origin in the French settlement Fort Pontchartrain established July 24 on the strait between Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair by Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, 43, who needs a fort to control the entrance to Lake Huron from Lake Erie and thus control trade with the Illinois country of Louisiana. The name Detroit will be based on the French word for strait.
William Dampier reaches Asuncion Island in the mid-Atlantic February 22, but the timbers of his ship Roebuck are so rotten that she springs a leak and sinks off the island's coast (see 1700). All aboard make it safely to shore and live for 5 weeks on turtles and wild goats before a returning East Indiaman rescues them. When they get back to London they find that a lieutenant left behind in Brazil by Dampier has initiated legal proceedings against his former captain (see 1702).
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is established as a missionary arm of the Church of England and immediately sets to work converting Native Americans and blacks in the English colonies, distributing Anglican prayer books in languages other than English, establishing Anglican churches where none exists and strengthening weaker ones.
London Jews build a synagogue in Bevis Marks that will stand for more than 2 centuries (see 1657). The congregation consists entirely of Sephardic (Spanish and Portuguese) Jews (see 1723).
Yale University has its beginnings in the Collegiate School established at Saybrook in the Connecticut colony. Harvard graduate clergyman James Pierpont, now 42, will by some accounts write a Saybrook Platform at the suggestion of English colonial agent Jeremiah Dummer in 1708 (see Elihu Yale, 1718).
The University of Venice is founded.
Nonfiction: Hankampu by Japanese historian Arai Hakuseki, 27, is a history of Japan's daimyo (feudal lords).
Japanese feudal lord and historian Mitsukuni Tokugawa dies at Nishiyama, Hitachi Province, January 14 at age 72, having written most of the History of Great Japan (Dai Nihon shi) that revives loyalty to the emperor. When finally finished in 1906, it will trace the history of Japan's imperial family and the way various shoguns usurped its power.
Novelist-socialite Madeleine de Scudéry dies at Paris June 2 at age 94 (approximate).
Poetry: "A Congratulatory Poem on the New Parliament" and "The Kentish Worthies" by Nahum Tate.
Poet-playwright Sir Charles Sedley dies at his Hampstead, London, home August 20 at age 62. The first collection of his work will appear next year.
Theater: Sir Harry Wildair by George Farquhar in April at London's Drury Lane Theatre; Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe, in December at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre; The Funeral, or Grief à-la-mode by English playwright-essayist Richard Steele, 29, in December at the Drury Lane Theatre.
English authorities take Captain Kidd from London's Newgate Prison March 27 for examination before the House of Commons (see 1700); unwilling to accuse his backers, including Lord Bellomont and Robert Livingston, he protests his innocence. He is tried May 8 on charges of having murdered his gunner in 1697, found guilty, convicted also on three counts of piracy, and hanged at Execution Dock, Wapping, May 23 at age 55.
A seed-planting drill invented by Berkshire farmer Jethro Tull, 27, sows three parallel rows of seeds at once and will increase crop yields by reducing seed waste (see 1782; Swift, 1726).
1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710
