Directory

1715 CE

King Philip, ruler of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon unifies the two monarchies into a single state, centralizing rule of a unified Kingdom of Spain. Less than two weeks after King Louis XIV's death, Daniel Voysin de la Noiraye, France's Secretary of State for War since 1709, steps down at the request of the new regent, the Duke of Orleans. William Aislabie resigns as the British East India Company's administrator of Bombay and the company's territories and is replaced at year's end by Charles Boone.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 22 – Voting begins for the British House of Commons and continues for the next 46 days in different constituencies on different days.source
  • February 11 – Tuscarora War: The Tuscarora and their allies sign a peace treaty with the Province of North Carolina, and agree to move to a reservation near Lake Mattamuskeet, effectively ending the Tuscarora War. Large numbers of Tuscarora subsequently move to New York.source
  • March 9 – Voting for the British House of Commons concludes, with the liberal Whig Party winning 341 of the 558 seats, and reducing the conservative Tory Party share to 217 seats. Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, becomes the Speaker of the House of Commons.source
  • March 27 – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, flees from Great Britain to France. His part in secret negotiations with France, leading to the Treaty of Utrecht, has cast suspicion on him in the eyes of the Whig government of Britain. He becomes secretary of state to the Pretender, James Edward Stuart.source
  • June 9 – King Philip, ruler of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon unifies the two monarchies into a single state, centralizing rule of a unified Kingdom of Spain.source
  • October 12 – Baron Onslow resigns as Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer and is replaced by future Prime Minister Robert Walpole.source
  • October 28 – The Treaty of Greifswald is signed between Russia and the Electorate of Hanover, with George I of Great Britain and Hanover agreeing to Russia's annexation of Swedish Ingria and Estonia, and Hanover claiming the Bremen-Verden Swedish duchies of Bremen and Verden.source
  • November 15 – The Third Barrier Treaty is signed by Britain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic.source
  • November 28 – The application of the Nueva Planta decrees, in Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands (formerly under the Crown of Aragon), bring them under the laws of the Crown of Castile.source
  • The ancient right to evaluate royal decrees publicly, before they are given the force of law by the Parlement of Paris, is restored.source

Conflict & Security

  • April 1 – The Battle of Gurdas Nangal begins during the Mughal-Sikh Wars in India, as the Mughal Army begins an eight-month siege of a fortress near Gurdaspur (in what is now the Punjab state), where Sikh General Banda Singh Bahadur and 1,250 of his men have fled. The siege ends on December 7 when the 750 survivors, including Banda Singh, are captured. By June 1716, most of the Sikh prisoners have been tortured, killed and executed, with Banda Singh dying on June 9.source
  • April 24 – The Battle of Fehmarn takes place in the Baltic Sea as part of the Great Northern War. Ten warships of Denmark, under the command of Christian Gabel, overwhelm a force of Swedish Navy ships led by Carl Wachtmeister. By the time the battle ends the next day, five Swedish ships and 1,626 crewmen have been captured, and another 353 killed. The Danish navy suffers 65 deaths.source
  • May 28 – Rioting begins in England on the birthday of King George I as supporters of the Old Pretender, James of the House of Stuart, begin mass protesting against the rule of the House of Hanover, near London in the towns of Smithfield and Highgate, and the Cheapside financial district in London.source
  • June 22 – Tsar Peter the Great of Russia witnesses the attempt of 45 Dutch and English ships to enter the small harbour at Saint Petersburg and decides that additional harbours are necessary for Russia to be able import Western goods.source
  • July 20 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–18): The fall of Nauplion, the capital of the Venetian "Kingdom of the Morea", seals the fate of the Peloponnese Peninsula, which is soon completely retaken by the Ottomans.source
  • September 14 – Less than two weeks after King Louis XIV's death, Daniel Voysin de la Noiraye, France's Secretary of State for War since 1709, steps down at the request of the new regent, the Duke of Orleans.source
  • October 2 – During the rebellion in Great Britain by supporters of the Pretender to the Throne, James Stuart, the Jacobites raid the Scottish parish of Burntisland, capture an arsenal of weapons, and begin an occupation of the area on October 9 in the name of Stuart as King James VIII of Scotland.source
  • November 13 – Jacobite rising in Scotland – Battle of Sheriffmuir: The forces of the Kingdom of Great Britain, led by John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, halt the Jacobite advance, although the action is inconclusive.source
  • November 14 – Battle of Preston: Government forces defeat the Jacobite incursion, at the conclusion of a five-day siege and action.source
  • December 22 – James Edward Stuart rejoins Jacobite rebels in Scotland, but fails to rouse his army.source
  • Filippo Juvarra starts rebuilding the church of San Filippo Neri, Turin, in which the roof had collapsed, during the siege of Turin, during the War of the Spanish Succession.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • October 12 – William Mackintosh of Borlum, leader of the Jacobite rising against Great Britain, lands with 1,500 men in Scotland after crossing the Firth of Forth from France.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 14 – James Stuart, the "Old Pretender" attempting to restore the House of Stuart to control of Great Britain as King James III of England and James VIII of Scotland, meets with Pope Clement XI for the assistance of the Roman Catholic Church in the Jacobite rising.source

Economy & Finance

  • October 11 – William Aislabie resigns as the British East India Company's administrator of Bombay and the company's territories and is replaced at year's end by Charles Boone.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • August 31 – Old Dock, Liverpool, England, the world's first enclosed commercial wet dock (Thomas Steers, engineer), opens.source
  • Karlsruhe Palace is built, resulting in the town of Karlsruhe growing up around it.source
  • Filippo Juvarra starts working on the previously postponed construction of the church of Santa Christina in Turin.source
  • Coffee is first grown in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.source

Science & Discovery

  • May 3 – A total solar eclipse is seen across southern England, Sweden and Finland (the last total eclipse visible in London for almost 900 years). English astronomer Edmond Halley (who is using the old style Julian calendar date of April 22) records the first observation noted of the phenomenon of "Baily's beads", in which higher elevations on the moon can be observed obscuring portions of the light moments before and after totality.source

Crime & Justice

  • June 29 – Britain's Treason Act 1714 takes effect, providing for forfeiture to the British Crown of property owned by any person convicted of treason in the Kingdom. The Act remains in effect until June 24, 1718.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • January 13 – A fire in London, described by some as the worst since the Great Fire of London (1666) almost 50 years earlier, starts on Thames Street when fireworks prematurely explode "in the house of Mr. Walker, an oil man"; more than 100 houses are consumed in the blaze, which continues over to Tower Street before it is controlled.source
  • July 24 – 1715 Treasure Fleet: A Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships, under General Don Juan Ubilla, leaves Havana, Cuba for Spain. Seven days later, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida (some centuries later, treasure salvage is found from these wrecks).source

Culture & Society

  • September 6 – The first major Jacobite rising in Scotland against the rule of King George I of Great Britain breaks out. The Earl of Mar raises the standard of James Edward Stuart, and marches on Edinburgh. James, the son of the deposed King James VII, arrives from France.source
  • Around this year, a breech loading firearm is made for Philip V of Spain.source

Births

  • January 9 – Robert-François Damiens, French domestic servant, executed for the attempted assassination of Louis XV (d. 1757)source
  • January 25 – Thomas Walker, distinguished Virginia physician, explorer (d. 1794)source
  • February 11 – Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British duchess (d. 1785)source
  • March 4 – James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave of Great Britain (d. 1763)source
  • March 7 – Ephraim Williams, English benefactor of Williams College, soldier in the French and Indian War (d. 1755)source
  • March 7 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet and officer (d. 1759)source
  • April 20 – James Brudenell, 5th Earl of Cardigan, English noble and politician (d. 1811)source
  • June 29 – Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, Spanish military Governor of Buenos Aires between 1757 and 1766 (d. 1778)source
  • September 26 – Lord George Graham, Royal Navy officer and MP (d. 1747)source
  • October 1 – Richard Jago, English clergyman poet and minor landscape gardener from Warwickshire (d. 1781)source
  • October 5 – Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist of the Physiocratic school (d. 1789)source
  • November 8 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, Crown Princess of Prussia (d. 1797)source
  • November 13 – Dorothea Erxleben, first German female physician (d. 1762)source
  • December 9 – Joseph Marie Terray, Controller-General of Finances during the reign of Louis XV of France (d. 1778)source

Deaths

  • January 7 – François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai (b. 1651)source
  • January 7 – Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, British botanist (b. 1630)source
  • January 29 – Bernard Lamy, French Oratorian mathematician and theologian (b. 1640)source
  • February 3 – Gottfried Vopelius, German academic (b. 1645)source
  • February 21 – Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1637)source
  • March 17 – Gilbert Burnet, Scottish Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1643)source
  • April 16 – Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron Baltimore, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1679)source
  • May 8 – Marie Mancini, Italian courtier, third of the five Mancini sisters (b. 1639)source
  • May 19 – Charles Montagu, English Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)source
  • May 30 – Roeloff Swartwout, American city founder in New York (b. 1634)source
  • June 25 – Jean-Baptiste du Casse, French admiral and buccaneer (b. 1646)source
  • October 13 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (b. 1638)source
  • November 24 – Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, queen consort of King Charles X of Sweden (b. 1636)source
  • November – Mirwais Hotak, Pashtun emir, and founder of the Hotaki Dynasty (b. 1673)source