Directory

1701 CE

The electorate of Brandenburg–Prussia becomes the Kingdom of Prussia, as Elector Frederick III is proclaimed King Frederick I. Prussia remains part of the Holy Roman Empire. It consists of Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Berlin is the capital. (February 6, 1700 O.S.) – The 5th Parliament of William III in England assembles. Future British Prime Minister Robert Walpole enters the House of Commons for the first time and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy. A French emporium named Fort Ponchartrain is founded along the west side of the Detroit River in North America, and later becomes the site of the city of Detroit.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 18 – The electorate of Brandenburg–Prussia becomes the Kingdom of Prussia, as Elector Frederick III is proclaimed King Frederick I. Prussia remains part of the Holy Roman Empire. It consists of Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Berlin is the capital.source
  • February 17 (February 6, 1700 O.S.) – The 5th Parliament of William III in England assembles. Future British Prime Minister Robert Walpole enters the House of Commons for the first time and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy.source
  • April 20th – Mecklenburg-Strelitz is created as a north German duchy.source
  • June 24 – The Act of Settlement 1701 is passed by the Parliament of England, to exclude the Catholic Stuarts from the British monarchy. Under its terms, King William III, childless, will be succeeded by Queen Mary II's sister Princess Anne and her descendants. If Anne should have no descendants, she will be succeeded by Sophia of Hanover and her descendants (hence the Hanoverian Succession in 1714).source
  • July 24 – A French emporium named Fort Ponchartrain is founded along the west side of the Detroit River in North America, and later becomes the site of the city of Detroit.source
  • August 4 – The Great Peace of Montreal is signed, ending 100 years of war between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France, and its Huron and Algonquian allies. Formerly allied with the English, the treaty assures the Iroquois will be neutral, if France and England ever resume hostilities.source
  • November 11 (O.S., November 22 N.S.) – The House of Commons of England is dissolved by King William III and new elections are called for all 531 seats.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 28 – Battle of Dartsedo: The Chinese storm the Tibetan border town of Dartsedo.source
  • April 21 – In Japan, the young daimyō Asano Naganori is ordered to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). A group of 47 samurai of his service begin planning to avenge his death.source
  • June 9 – Safavid troops retreat from Basra, ending a three-year occupation.source
  • July 9 – The Battle of Carpi, the first skirmish in the War of the Spanish Succession, takes place in Italy when French troops under the command of Nicolas Catinat are attacked by Austrian forces led by Prince Eugene of Savoy.source
  • July 19 – Crossing of the Düna: Following his victories over Denmark-Norway and Russia in 1700, Charles XII of Sweden escalates the conflict in the Great Northern War by an invasion of Poland. The Swedish defeat the army of Saxony (then in personal union with Poland) at the River Dvina.source
  • December 29 (O.S., January 9, 1702 N.S.) – The Battle of Erastfer takes place near what becomes Erastvere in Estonia, as a large Russian force commanded by Boris Sheremetev invades Swedish Livonia and overwhelms a smaller force led by Wolmar Anton von Schlippenbach in the first significant Russian victory in the Great Northern War.source

Science & Discovery

  • English agriculturalist Jethro Tull invents a drill for planting seeds in rows.source

Crime & Justice

  • May 23 – Scottish-born Captain William Kidd, having been imprisoned in Boston Gaol (Massachusetts) and Newgate Prison (London) and convicted by the High Court of Admiralty of piracy and the murder of one of his crew, is hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping (London). His body suffers gibbeting over the River Thames at Tilbury Point; ballads are already spreading the legend that he has left buried treasure in the Americas.source

Culture & Society

  • October 9 – The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.source
  • November 2 – King Philip V of Spain marries for the first time, to 13-year-old Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, who serves as Queen Consort until her death from tuberculosis at the age of 25.source
  • The Philharmonic Society (Academia Philharmonicorum) is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.source

Births

  • January 28 – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)source
  • January 28 – Thomas Amory, English dissenting tutor and minister and poet from Taunton (d. 1774)source
  • February 28 – Jacek Rybiński, Cistercian and the last abbot of the Oliwa monastery (d. 1782)source
  • March 14 – Antonio Alcalde Barriga, Spanish Roman Catholic prelate; member from the Order of Preachers; Bishop of Guadalajara (d. 1792)source
  • April 27 – Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1730 (d. 1773)source
  • May 18 – Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, English aristocrat, philanthropist and cricket patron (d. 1750)source
  • June 17 – Edward Antill, colonial plantation owner and winemaker (d. 1770)source
  • July 6 – Mary, Countess of Harold, English aristocrat and philanthropist (d. 1785)source
  • July 9 – Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas, French statesman and Count of Maurepas (d. 1781)source
  • August 4 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)source
  • August 9 – Karl Wilhelm von Dieskau, Prussian lieutenant general, general inspector of the artillery (d. 1777)source
  • August 21 – George Bowes, English coal proprietor, Member of Parliament (d. 1760)source
  • September 22 – Anna Magdalena Bach, accomplished German singer, second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1760)source
  • October 24 – Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, Canadian military commander (d. 1755)source

Deaths

  • January 27 – James Graham, English born colonial American politician (b. 1650)source
  • March 19 – John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (b. 1646)source
  • May 30 – Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 17th-century English politician and Jacobite (b. 1650)source
  • June 2 – Anna Stanisławska, Polish author and poet known for her sole work (b. 1651)source
  • June 9 – Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger son of Louis XIII of France and his wife (b. 1640)source
  • July 7 – William Stoughton, American judge at the Salem witch trials (b. 1631)source
  • August 6 – William Hedges, the first governor of the East India Company (b. 1632)source
  • August 20 – Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, English playwright (b. 1639)source
  • August 22 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (b. 1628)source
  • September 15 – Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)source
  • September 16 – Deposed King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) dies in exile, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. His supporters, the Jacobites, turn to his son James Francis Edward Stuart (later called "The Old Pretender"), whom they recognise as James VIII and III. Louis XIV of France, the Papal States, and Spain also recognise him as the rightful heir.source
  • September 17 – Stanislaus Papczyński, Polish priest (b. 1631)source
  • September 28 – Johannetta of Sayn-Wittgenstein, German noblewoman (b. 1632)source
  • November 1 – Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray, Scottish nobleman (b. 1634)source