Directory

1614 CE

Dutch merchant Adriaen Block returns to Amsterdam in the Onrust, having become the first European to enter Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River, and determined that Long Island is an island. He publishes a map of "New Netherland". The University of Groningen is established in the Dutch Republic. The Treaty of Xanten ends the War of the Jülich Succession.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • June 7 – The Addled Parliament is dissolved by King James I of England, having sat or two months without imposing any new taxes.source
  • October 2 – After Louis XIII reaches the age of 13, he is given full power as King of France and the regency of his mother is ended. Queen Regent Marie retains her position as leader of the Conseil du Roi, however, and continues to control the French government.source
  • October 27 – The French Estates General begins its last session. The session, with 464 deputies representing the nobility, the lower and middle classes, and the clergy, closes on February 23, 1615. For the next 175 years, the Kingdom of France will be governed as an absolute monarchy until the calling of a new Estates General in 1789 at the start of the French Revolution.source
  • November 12 – The Treaty of Xanten ends the War of the Jülich Succession.source
  • The Addled Parliament is assembled in England as the second parliament of King James I, and the first in more than nine years. Its members serve for two months. A new parliament will not be seated until more than six years later.source
  • The Republic of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Sweden enter into a treaty at the Hague.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 2 – Iran's Safavid dynasty Emperor, Abbas the Great, carries out the execution of his oldest son, Crown Prince Mohammad Baqer Mirza, on suspicion that his son is planning to kill him.source
  • February 14 (February 4 O.S.) – King James I of England issues his proclamation Against Private Challenges and Combats in an effort to end duels.source
  • February 20 – Matthias I, Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor, directs the restoration of Roman Catholic rule to Aachen, allowing the Army of Flanders (from the Spanish Netherlands) to lay siege to the German town.source
  • April 30 – The Kingdom of Lan Na (in modern-day northern Thailand) is invaded by 17,000 troops commanded by King Anaukpetlun of Burma (modern Myanmar). Lan Na's King Thado Kyaw is unsuccessful in getting assistance from the Kingdom of Siam, and turns to the Kingdom of Lan Xang (modern Laos), which provides assistance.source
  • May 15 – The Queen Regent of France, Marie de' Medici, convenes the Estates General to suppress a rebellion by Henri II, Prince of Condé.source
  • July 6 – Raid of Żejtun: Ottoman forces make a final attempt to conquer the island of Malta, but are beaten back by the Knights Hospitaller.source
  • July 16 – Ingrian war: The Swedish Empire wins a decisive victory against Tsarist Russia in Battle of Bronnitsy.source
  • July 16 – In reprisal for the attempt of "the False Dmitry", a man who claimed to be the son of Ivan the Terrible, to claim the throne, Tsar Michael of Russia has Dmitry's 3-year-old son, Ivan Dmitriyevich, publicly hanged in Moscow.source
  • August 24 – The Siege of Aachen begins as the Spanish Army of Flanders, commanded by Amrogio Spinola, attacks with 15,000 troops. The 600-man defense force from Brandenburg surrenders a few days later.source
  • October 13 – The second War of the Jülich Succession, which flared up a second time in May, comes to an end.source
  • November 19 – Hostilities resulting from an attempt by Toyotomi Hideyori to restore Osaka Castle begin. Tokugawa Ieyasu, father of the shōgun, is outraged at this act, and leads three thousand men across the Kizu River, destroying the fort there.source
  • December 4 – The Siege of Osaka begins in Japan.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 22 – Led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, Japan's trade expedition to New Spain (modern-day Mexico) arrives on the Mexican coast with 22 samurai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors and servants, and 40 Spaniards and Portuguese who serve as interpreters. Having reached the Americas after a voyage that began on October 28, the expedition travels to Acapulco and arrives on January 25.source
  • July – Dutch merchant Adriaen Block returns to Amsterdam in the Onrust, having become the first European to enter Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River, and determined that Long Island is an island. He publishes a map of "New Netherland".source
  • October 11 – Adriaen Block and a group of Amsterdam merchants petition the States General of the Northern Netherlands for exclusive trading rights, in the area he explored and named "New Netherland".source
  • Pocahontas, the 17-year-old daughter of Mamanatowick Wahunsenacawh of the Powhatan Algonquian native tribe in the modern-day U.S. state of Virginia, is forced into child marriage with English colonist John Rolfe at Jamestown, a year after her capture in war. She is given the name of Rebecca Rolfe and departs with John Rolfe to England in 1616, dying before she can return.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 27 – The Noordsche Compagnie is founded in the Netherlands at Vlieland as a cartel in the whaling market.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 15 – Construction begins on the Takada Castle in Japan.source
  • March 17 – The States General of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands authorizes an exclusive monopoly for trade in the New World, providing for the winning company to be able to make four voyages to the eastern coast of North America between 40° N and 45° N, encompassing the area that becomes the U.S. state of New Jersey. The New Netherland Company receives the exclusive patent, effective January 1, 1615.source

Science & Discovery

  • Astronomer Johannes Kepler soon begins to employ logarithms, in his description of the Solar System.source
  • Scottish mathematician John Napier publishes Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio (Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithms), outlining his discovery of logarithms, and incorporating the decimal mark.source

Health & Medicine

  • February 1 – In Japan, the practice of Christianity is banned, and an edict is issued for the expulsion of all foreign missionaries.source

Crime & Justice

  • September 1 – In England, lawyer Sir Julius Caesar becomes Master of the Rolls.source
  • October 17 – On the orders of Ahmed I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha is strangled to death by the chief of the Sultan's bodyguards.source
  • Squanto (also known as Tisquantum), a Native American of the Wampanoag Nation, is kidnapped and enslaved by Thomas Hunt, an English sea captain working with Captain John Smith. Freed in Spain, Squanto will travel for five years in Europe and North America, before returning to his home in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Twenty months later, he will be able to teach the Pilgrim Fathers the basics of farming and trade in the New World.source

Climate & Environment

  • May 14 – An earthquake strikes the Azores islands and levels the village of Vila Franca do Campo.source

Culture & Society

  • August 23 – The University of Groningen is established in the Dutch Republic.source
  • The Fama Fraternitatis is published, the first of three allegorical Rosicrucian manifestoes in the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • Possible date – John Webster's revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi is first performed in public, at the newly-reconstructed Globe Theatre in London.source

Births

  • January 5 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands (d. 1662)source
  • February 14 – John Wilkins, English bishop, academic and natural philosopher (d. 1672)source
  • February 16 – Christopher Merret, English physician and scientist (d. 1695)source
  • April 2 – Jahanara Begum, Mughal princess (d. 1681)source
  • April 11 – Helena Fourment, Dutch model, second wife of Peter Paul Rubens (d. 1673)source
  • April 25 – Hieronymus van Beverningh, Dutch diplomat and politician (d. 1690)source
  • May 10 – Zacharias Wagenaer, secretary, painter, then merchant and administrator (Dutch East-India Company) (d. 1668)source
  • July 10 – Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English royalist statesman (d. 1686)source
  • August 13 – Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, administrator of the archbishopric of Magdeburg (d. 1680)source
  • September 20 – Martino Martini, Italian missionary, cartographer and historian (d. 1661)source
  • October 20 (bapt.) – Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont, Flemish alchemist (d. 1698)source
  • November 4 – Alexander Charles Vasa, 5th son of King Sigismund III of Poland (d. 1634)source
  • November 30 – William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford of England (d. 1680)source
  • December 31 – Mechtilde of the Blessed Sacrament, French nun (d. 1698)source

Deaths

  • February 27 – John Harington, 2nd Baron Harington of Exton, England (b. 1592)source
  • April 2 – Henri de Montmorency, 3rd Duke of Montmorency, Marshal of France (b. 1534)source
  • April 7 – El Greco, or Domênikos Theotokópoulos (Greek: Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος), Cretian painter, sculptor and architect (b. 1541)source
  • June 15 – Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton, important English aristocrat and courtier (b. 1540)source
  • June 21 – Bartholomäus Scultetus, mayor of Görlitz (b. 1540)source
  • July 1 – Isaac Casaubon, French-born classical scholar (b. 1559)source
  • July 14 – Camillus de Lellis, Italian saint (b. 1550)source
  • July 16 – Tsarevich Ivan Dmitriyevich, pretender to the Russian throne, son of False Dmitry II (b. 1611)source
  • August 11 – Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (b. 1552)source
  • August 21 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian noblewoman and purported serial killer (b. 1560)source
  • September – Giovanni de Macque, Dutch composer (b. c. 1550)source
  • October 26 – Sibylla of Anhalt, Duchess consort of Württemberg (1593–1608) (b. 1564)source
  • November 15 – Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, Portuguese infanta (princess), claimant to the throne following the death of King Henry (b. 1540)source
  • November 29 – Mogami Yoshiaki, Japanese daimyō of the Yamagata domain (b. 1546)source