Directory

1617 CE

On Shrove Tuesday, angry rioters burn down London's Cockpit Theatre because of its increase in the price of admission to its plays. Three rioters are killed when the actors at the theater defend themselves. Encouraged by Charles d'Albert, fifteen-year-old Louis XIII, king of France, forces his mother Marie de Medici, who has held de facto power, into retirement and has her favourite, Concino Concini, assassinated. The Treaty of Pavia is signed between Spain and Savoy, under which Savoy returns Monferrato to Mantua.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 27 – The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the Ingrian War between Sweden and Russia. Sweden gains Ingria and Kexholm.source
  • June 5 – Ferdinand II, Archduke of Inner Austria, is elected King of Bohemia. Ferdinand's forceful Catholic counter-reformation causes great unrest, amongst the Protestants and moderates in Bohemia.source
  • July 29 – The secret Oñate treaty is signed in Vienna between representatives of King Philip III of Spain reached an agreement with the junior Habsburg branch of Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, the heads of two different branches of the House of Habsburg. Spain's Ambassador to Austria, Íñigo Vélez de Guevara, 7th Count of Oñate signs on behalf of King Philip.source
  • August 4 – The Sharp Resolution is passed in the States of Holland and West Friesland, authorizing city governments to create their own mercenary armies, the waardgelders, to maintain public order.source
  • September 23 – The Peace of Busza is signed, between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.source
  • October 9 – The Treaty of Pavia is signed between Spain and Savoy, under which Savoy returns Monferrato to Mantua.source
  • November 22 – Mustafa I succeeds Ahmed I, as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.source

Conflict & Security

  • April 14 – Second Battle of Playa Honda: The Spanish navy defeats a Dutch fleet in the Philippines.source
  • April 24 – Encouraged by Charles d'Albert, fifteen-year-old Louis XIII, king of France, forces his mother Marie de Medici, who has held de facto power, into retirement and has her favourite, Concino Concini, assassinated.source
  • May 22 – Portuguese Christian Missionary João Baptista Machado de Távora is killed, becoming the first of the 205 Martyrs of Japan.source
  • November 17 – A naval battle between the Sicilians and Venetians ends inconclusively.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 24 – King James VI of Scotland authorizes the Scottish East India Company, led by Lord Glencairn to trade to the East Indies, the Levant, Greenland, Muscovy and all other islands in the north, north-west and north-eastern seas. James VI is advised that the authorization is not in conflict with charters granted by him in his capacity as King James I of England to England's East India Company, the Levant Company, and the Muscovy Company.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 7 – Francis Bacon is appointed as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England and is designated by King James I to serve as regent during the time that the King of England is away from Westminster to travel to Scotland.source
  • May 26 – Eliya VIII becomes the new Patriarch of the Church of the East and leader of the Christians of Mesopotamia.source
  • May 27 – In Germany, the Prince-Bishops of Bamberg, Eichstädt and Würzburg, and the Prince-Provost of Ellwangen, withdraw their states from the Catholic League.source
  • September 1 – The weighing ceremony of Jahangir is described by the first English ambassador to the Mughal court, Sir Thomas Roe.source

Crime & Justice

  • December 30 – Lord Clifton is imprisoned at the Tower of London for threatening Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor. Clifton is prosecuted by the Star Chamber on March 17 and eventually commits suicide in Fleet Prison.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 4 – On Shrove Tuesday, angry rioters burn down London's Cockpit Theatre because of its increase in the price of admission to its plays. Three rioters are killed when the actors at the theater defend themselves.source
  • December 24 – An unexpected storm strikes off the coast of Finnmark in Norway, sinking 10 ships and drowning at least 40 people. A little more than three years later, Mari Jørgensdatter tells interrogators that she and several other witches caused the storm, prompting the Vardø witch trials.source
  • At least seven women are sentenced to death by burning for witchcraft, at the Finspång witch trial in Sweden.source

Culture & Society

  • January 5 – Pocahontas and Tomocomo of the Powhatan Algonquian tribe, in the Virginia colony of America, meet King James I of England as his guests, at the Banqueting House at Whitehall.source
  • January 5 – The Mad Lover, a play by John Fletcher, is given its first performance.source
  • April 19 – The town of Uusikaupunki (, lit. "New Town") was founded by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.source
  • May 13 – King James I of England is escorted by the Earl of Home across the border to return to Scotland (where he reigns as King James VI) for the first time since the Union of the Crowns 14 years earlier in 1603. He is given lodging at Home's Dunglass Castle, East Lothian.source
  • August 8 – King James of England and Scotland returns to England after having spent three months in Scotland, arriving at Wharton, Cumbria.source
  • August 24 – The "Fruitbearing Society" (Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft) of German scholars is founded in Weimar.source
  • October 12 – The coronation ceremony of King Gustav Adolf of Sweden takes place in Stockholm, almost six years after he succeeded to the throne.source
  • December 15 – Sir Thomas Roe, a representative of England's East India Company, arrives in Ahmedabad at India's Mughal Empire, and seeks an audience with the Emperor, Shah Jahan. The Emperor receives Roe in an audience three weeks later, on January 6.source
  • The Book of Swindles, a collection of short stories on fraud in the late Ming dynasty, is published.source
  • Giambattista Andreini's play The Penitent Magdalene is published in Mantua.source

Births

  • January 19 – Lucas Faydherbe, Belgian sculptor and architect (d. 1697)source
  • January 30 – William Sancroft, 79th Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1693)source
  • February 5 – Jan Thomas van Ieperen, Flemish engraver, painter (d. 1673)source
  • March 8 – Tito Livio Burattini, Italian inventor, Egyptologist, instrument-maker (d. 1681)source
  • May 23 – Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian (d. 1692)source
  • June 2 – Maeda Toshitsugu, Japanese daimyō of the early Edo period (d. 1674)source
  • June 13 – Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1656)source
  • September 13 – Margravine Louise Charlotte of Brandenburg, Duchess of Courland by marriage (1645–1676) (d. 1676)source
  • October 10 – William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, English nobleman (d. 1684)source
  • October 28 – Cornelius Hazart, Dutch Jesuit priest, polemical author (d. 1690)source
  • November 16 – Frederick VI, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1659–1677) (d. 1677)source
  • December 4 – Federico Visconti, Cardinal Archbishop of Milan (d. 1693)source
  • December 9 – Richard Lovelace, English poet (d. 1657)source
  • December 23 – Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony, Crown Princess of Denmark (d. 1668)source

Deaths

  • January 16 – Wolf Dietrich Raitenau, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg (b. 1559)source
  • January 17 – Faust Vrančić, Croatian inventor (b. 1551)source
  • January 28 – Karl II, Duke of Münsterberg-Oels, Duke of Oels and Duke of Bernstadt (b. 1545)source
  • February 3 – Prospero Alpini, Italian physician and botanist from the Republic of Venice (b. 1553)source
  • February 11 – Giovanni Antonio Magini, Italian mathematician, cartographer and astronomer (b. 1555)source
  • March 21 – Pocahontas (Rebecka Rolfe), daughter of the Chief of the Powhatan Algonquian tribe in the English colony of Virginia and the wife of English colonist John Rolfe, dies of smallpox after an illness of three days contracted as the couple and their son were preparing to return to America. She is buried at Gravesend.source
  • August 7 – Otto, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel, Administrator of Hersfeld Abbey (b. 1594)source
  • August 24 – Rose of Lima, Peruvian saint (b. 1586)source
  • September 25 – Emperor Go-Yōzei of Japan (b. 1571)source
  • September 25 – Francisco Suárez, Spanish Jesuit priest (b. 1548)source
  • September 27 – John Ernest of Nassau-Siegen, German general (b. 1582)source
  • October 10 – Bernardino Baldi, Italian mathematician and writer (b. 1553)source
  • October 31 – Alphonsus Rodriguez, Spanish Jesuit lay brother, saint (b. 1532)source
  • November 12 – Nicolas de Neufville, seigneur de Villeroy, secretary of state under four kings of France (b. 1543)source