January–March •
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. •
The Mad Lover, a play by
John Fletcher, is given its first performance. •
February 27 – The
Treaty of Stolbovo ends the
Ingrian War between
Sweden and
Russia. Sweden gains
Ingria and
Kexholm. •
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. •
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. •
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.
April–June •
April 14 – Second
Battle of Playa Honda: The
Spanish navy defeats a
Dutch fleet in the
Philippines. •
April 19 – The town of
Uusikaupunki (, lit. "New Town") was founded by King
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. •
April 24 – Encouraged by
Charles d'Albert, seventeen-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. •
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. •
May 22 – Portuguese Christian Missionary João Baptista Machado de Távora is killed, becoming the first of the
205 Martyrs of Japan. •
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. •
May 26 –
Eliya VIII becomes the new
Patriarch of the Church of the East and leader of the
Christians of Mesopotamia. •
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. •
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.
July–September •
July 1 –
Willem Schouten and the crew of the Dutch ship
Eendracht return to the Netherlands after
sailing around the world in two years and 17 days, in what is only the fourth circumnavigation of the globe, and the first since 1588. The expedition had departed from
Texel on June 14, 1615 under the command of
Jacob Le Maire, who died on December 22, 1616, slightly more than six months before the return to the Netherlands. •
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. •
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. •
August 8 –
King James of England and Scotland returns to England after having spent three months in Scotland, arriving at
Wharton, Cumbria. •
August 24 – The "
Fruitbearing Society" (
Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft) of German scholars is founded in
Weimar. •
September 1 – The weighing ceremony of
Jahangir is described by the first English ambassador to the Mughal court,
Sir Thomas Roe. •
September 23 – The
Peace of Busza is signed, between the
Ottoman Empire and the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
October–December •
October 9 – The
Treaty of Pavia is signed between
Spain and Savoy, under which
Savoy returns
Monferrato to
Mantua. •
October 12 – The coronation ceremony of
King Gustav Adolf of
Sweden takes place in
Stockholm, almost six years after he succeeded to the throne. •
November 17 – A naval battle between the
Sicilians and
Venetians ends inconclusively. •
November 22 –
Mustafa I succeeds
Ahmed I, as
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. •
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. •
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. •
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.
Date unknown • At least seven women are sentenced to
death by burning for
witchcraft, at the
Finspång witch trial in Sweden. •
Giambattista Andreini's play
The Penitent Magdalene is published in
Mantua. •
The Book of Swindles, a collection of short stories on fraud in the late Ming dynasty, is published. == Births ==