Directory

1685 CE

American-born British citizen Elihu Yale, for whom Yale University in the U.S. is named, completes his term as the first leader of the Madras Presidency in India, administering the colony on behalf of the East India Company, and is succeeded by William Gyfford. March – Morean War (part of the Great Turkish War): The Ottoman serasker Halil Pasha invades the Mani Peninsula, and forces it to surrender hostages. Morean War: The Republic of Venice defeats an Ottoman army at Kalamata.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March – Louis XIV passes the Code Noir, allowing the full use of slaves in the French colonies.source
  • November 8 (October 29 O.S.) – The Edict of Potsdam is issued by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg in response to France's Edict of Fontainebleau, welcoming the Protestant Huguenots of France to resettle in eastern Germany in Brandenburg. The French Colony of Magdeburg is established on December 1 in Saxony as a community separate from Magdeburg.source
  • December 10 – In what is now Thailand, King Narai of Ayutthaya signs a treaty with representatives of France at Lopburi, allowing Roman Catholic missionaries to preach the Gospel and exempting Thai Catholics from work on Sunday, as well as appointing a special court to settle disputes between Thai Christians and non-Christians.source
  • The Chinese army of the Qing dynasty attacks a Russian post at Albazin, during the reigns of the Kangxi Emperor and the dual Russian rulers Ivan V and Peter I. The event leads to the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.source

Conflict & Security

  • February–March – Morean War (part of the Great Turkish War): The Ottoman serasker Halil Pasha invades the Mani Peninsula, and forces it to surrender hostages.source
  • March 28 – An attack on a Mughal Empire envoy, Khwajah Abdur Rahim, outside of the Maratha fortress at the Bijapur Fort in India leads to a siege of the city by the forces of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The siege lasts for 15 months before Bijapur surrenders.source
  • May 7 – Morean War – Battle on Vrtijeljka: Advancing Ottoman forces prevail over defending Venetian irregulars, on a hill in the Montenegro Vilayet.source
  • May 11 – The Killing Time: Five Covenanters in Wigtown, Scotland, notably Margaret Wilson, are executed for refusing to swear an oath declaring King James of England, Scotland and Ireland as head of the church, becoming the Wigtown martyrs.source
  • June 11 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland, lands at Lyme Regis with an invasion force brought from the Netherlands, to challenge his uncle, James II, for the Crown of England.source
  • June 20 – Monmouth Rebellion: James, Duke of Monmouth declares himself at Taunton to be King, and heir to his father's Kingdoms as James II of England and Ireland, and James VII of Scotland.source
  • July 6 – Monmouth Rebellion: In the Battle of Sedgemoor, the last pitched battle fought on English soil, the armies of King James II of England defeat rebel forces under James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, and capture the Duke himself shortly after the battle.source
  • August 11 – Morean War: The 49-day Siege of Coron ends with the surrender and massacre of its garrison by the Venetians.source
  • August 25 – The Bloody Assizes begin in Winchester: Lord Chief Justice of England George Jeffreys tries over 1000 of Monmouth's rebels and condemns them to death or transportation.source
  • September 14 – Morean War: The Republic of Venice defeats an Ottoman army at Kalamata.source
  • November 11 – Morean War: The Republic of Venice captures the fortress town of Igoumenitsa from the Ottoman Empire, and razes it to the ground.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 4 – A treaty is signed between Brandenburg-Prussia and the indigenous chiefs at Takoradi in what is now Ghana to permit the German colonists to build a third fort on the Brandenburger Gold Coast.source
  • February 20 – René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, intending to establish a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi River, lands with 200 surviving colonists at Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast, believing the Mississippi to be near. He establishes Fort St. Louis.source
  • Adam Baldridge founds a pirate base at Île Sainte-Marie, Madagascar.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 6 – Catholic James Stuart, Duke of York, becomes King James II of England and Ireland, and King James VII of Scotland, in succession to his brother Charles II (1660–1685), King of England, Scotland, and Ireland since 1660. James II and VII reigns until deposed, in 1688.source
  • April 23 – The coronation of King James II of England (and his Queen Consort, Mary of Modena) takes place at Westminster Abbey.source
  • December 3 – King Charles XI of Sweden issues an order banning Jews from settling in Sweden, particularly in the capital at Stockholm "on account of the danger of the eventual influence of the Jewish religion on the pure evangelical faith."source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • September 29 – The first organised street lighting is introduced by the city of London in England, as Edward Hemming begins carrying out his contract to be paid for lighting an oil lamp "at every tenth house on main streets between 6 PM and midnight between September 29 and March 25" on nights in the autumn and winter without adequate moonlight.source

Science & Discovery

  • June 16 – A lunar eclipse is observed in the evening by François-Timoléon de Choisy, amongst others, onboard his ship in the vicinity of Madagascar. The ship was at a latitude of 37 degrees 40 minutes, and the eclipse was not visible from Europe.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 8 – Almost 200 people are arrested in Coventry by English authorities for gathering to hear readings of the sermons of the non-conformist Protestant minister Obadiah Grew .source
  • July 15 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, is executed at Tower Hill, London, England.source
  • Alice Molland becomes the last known person in England to be sentenced to death for witchcraft, in Exeter.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • October 22 – Louis XIV of France issues the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revokes the Edict of Nantes and declares Protestantism illegal, thereby depriving Huguenots of civil rights. Their Temple de Charenton-le-Pont is immediately demolished and many flee to England, Prussia and elsewhere.source

Culture & Society

  • January 6 – American-born British citizen Elihu Yale, for whom Yale University in the U.S. is named, completes his term as the first leader of the Madras Presidency in India, administering the colony on behalf of the East India Company, and is succeeded by William Gyfford.source
  • The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow in the State of New York is constructed by the original Dutch settlers (later to become famous as the site of the rampage of the "Headless Horseman" spirit in the novel The Legend of Sleepy Hollow).source

Births

  • January 6 – Manuel de Montiano, Spanish colonial administrator (d. 1762)source
  • February 9 – Francesco Loredan, Doge of Venice (d. 1762)source
  • March 12 – George Berkeley, Irish philosopher (d. 1753)source
  • March 24 – John Fane, 7th Earl of Westmorland, British politician (d. 1762)source
  • May 6 – Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prussian queen consort (d. 1735)source
  • June 6 – Spencer Phips, Acting governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1757)source
  • June 11 – Thomas Wedgwood III, English potter, father of Josiah Wedgwood (d. 1739)source
  • July 3 – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, British cavalry officer (d. 1768)source
  • October 21 – George Forbes, 3rd Earl of Granard, English Royal Navy admiral (d. 1765)source
  • October 26 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1757)source
  • November 7 – Jared Eliot, Connecticut farmer, author on horticulture (d. 1763)source
  • November 10 – Duncan Forbes, Lord Culloden, Scottish politician, judge (d. 1747)source
  • November 17 – Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, French Canadian military officer (d. 1749)source
  • December 6 – Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1712)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – Daniello Bartoli, Italian Jesuit priest (b. 1608)source
  • February 20 – Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Danish queen (b. 1628)source
  • February 24 – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, English politician and military leader (b. 1629)source
  • February 24 – Archduchess Isabella Clara of Austria, Austrian archduchess (b. 1629)source
  • March 22 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)source
  • March 30 – Friedrich Casimir, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (1641–1680) and Hanau-Münzenberg (1642–1680) (b. 1623)source
  • April 16 – Wara Dhammaraza becomes the new King of Arakan on the western coast of Burma upon the death of his brother, Thiri Thuriya.source
  • April – Adriaen van Ostade, Dutch painter and engraver (b. 1610)source
  • June 16 – Anne Killigrew, English poet and painter (b. 1660)source
  • June 30 – Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, Scottish peer (b. 1629)source
  • July 15 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II of England (beheaded) (b. 1649)source
  • July 28 – Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)source
  • September 24 – Gustaf Otto Stenbock, Swedish soldier and politician (b. 1614)source
  • November 4 – Girolamo Grimaldi-Cavalleroni, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1597)source