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Maria Luisa of Savoy, queen of Spain's Felipe V, dies in February. The French noblewoman Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, princesse des Ursins, now 71, arranged Felipe's marriage to Maria Luisa, who ruled her husband and was herself ruled by Ursins, who now arranges Felipe's marriage to Isabella Farnese, who exiles the princesse from Spain in late December.
Former British colonial governor Sir Edmund Andros dies at his native London February 24 at age 76.
The Treaty of Rastatt March 6 ends the war between Austria and Spain; the Spanish Netherlands becomes the Austrian Netherlands, and Spain gives up her possessions in Italy and Luxembourg along with those in Flanders.
The House of Hanover that will rule Britain for more than 2½ centuries comes to power August 1 upon the death of the gouty Queen Anne at age 48 after a 12-year reign. Last monarch of the House of Stuart, Anne is succeeded under terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement by Hanover's boorish Prince George Louis, 54, a great-grandson of England's James I who inherited his position in January 1698 and has never been educated. Accompanied by two of his three mistresses (he divorced his wife in 1694), the new king lands in England September 18, is crowned a month later, and will reign until 1727 as George I. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu will write of him, "In private life he would have been called an honest blockhead . . . He could speak no English, and was past the age of learning it. Our customs and laws were all mysteries to him, which he neither tried to understand, nor was capable of understanding if he had endeavoured it." The House of Hanover will be renamed the House of Windsor in 1917.
Sweden's Karl XII returns to Stockholm through Hungary, but the Great Northern War continues.
A Turkish-Venetian war begins as the Turks capture Corinth and Venetian stations in Candia (Crete).
Economist Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert, dies October 10 at age 64.
The Longitude Act passed by Parliament July 8 provides for a £20,000 prize to anyone who can devise a means of determining a ship's longitude within 30 nautical miles at the end of a 6-weeks' voyage (see 1707; Greenwich, 1676; Harrison, 1728).
The Virginia colony's lieutenant governor Alexander Spotswood, 38, establishes iron furnaces on the Rapidan River and imports German ironworkers to settle in the colony (see 1723).
Daniel Fahrenheit devises a thermometer that uses mercury in place of alcohol (see 1709; medicine [Allbutt's clinical thermometer], 1866).
London physician John Woodward publishes Emanuel Timoni's account of smallpox variolation in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions, arousing interest in Britain and America (see 1713; 1718).
Physician-educator Bernardino Ramazzini dies at Padua November 5 at age 81, having pioneered the field of occupational medicine.
Parliament passes the Schism Act in a new move to crack down on the schools of religious Dissenters, but Queen Anne dies before the act can fully be implemented (see 1711). Dissenters support the new Hanoverian monarchy and the Whig Party.
Japanese philosopher-teacher Ekiken Kaibara dies at age 84. His booklet for students "Onnadaigaku" contains Confucianist ethical principles that will guide treatment of women for centuries: young people are to be segregated by sex beginning at age 7, and marriages are arranged for them; until she is married, a woman must obey her father; after marriage, she must obey her husband, and after his death she must obey her oldest son; a marriage not condoned by the parents is deemed an adulterous relationship; to be considered virtuous, a woman must be obedient and submissive; women with ability, brains, or talent are troublesome, but a woman is expected to be good at weaving, sewing, cooking, and washing; above all, she is a child-producing machine: in rural areas, marriages will often not be registered until the bride has proven her ability to bear children, and if she cannot bear children she is expected to leave (although she may be permitted to remain if she is good natured and her husband is able to sire a child by his mistress). A wife's duty is to serve her husband with absolute obedience and never to criticize or disparage him. She may not complain if he visits brothels and is even expected to pay his brothel bills.
Poetry: The Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Public Benefit by Dutch-born London philosopher-satirist Bernard Mandeville, 44, whose octosyllabic verse first appeared in 1705 in The Grumbling Hive. Every virtue is basically some form of selfishness, says Mandeville, human nature is essentially vile, and "it is requisite that great numbers be poor" in order that society may be happy (see Young, 1771).
Theater: The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe 2/2 at London's Drury Lane Theatre.
Cantata: "Ich hatte viel Bekummernis" by court concertmeister Johann Sebastian Bach 6/17 at Weimar's Schlosskirche.
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