Do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell.
- The Duke of Monmouth
My fault was one which a prince might well have forgiven. I did but
relieve a poor family and lo, I must die for it.
- Elisabeth Gaunt
Born in 1685:
Died in 1685:
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English poet Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon.
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Japanese military strategist Yamaga Soko, probable inventor of
the term Bushido.
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Chinese painter and poet Li Yin.
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Chinese poet Nalan Xinde.
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Spanish painter Carreño de Miranda.
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Spanish painter Francisco Herrara the Younger.
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Spanish composer Juan Madrid Hidalgo.
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Dutch painter Herman Saftleven.
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Dutch painter Adriaen Ostade.
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Dutch painter Herman Saftleven.
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"Belgian" mathematician René François Walter de Sluze.
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English mathematician John Pell.
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Austrian physician and composer Johann Caspar Horn.
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Italian painter Giovanni Battista Salvi, aka "Sassoferrato"
after his birthplace.
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English playwright Thomas Otway.
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English nobleman and supporter of Oliver Cromwell, Charles Howard,
1st Earl of Carlisle.
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English statesman Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington.
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Dumitrascu Cantacuzino, prince of Moldavia, a vassal of The
Ottoman Empire. Constantine Cantemir succeeds him.
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English King Charles II. His brother suceeds him as James
II (James VII of Scotland).
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Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, see below.
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James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, see below.
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English Anabaptist adherent Elisabeth Gaunt and hundreds of
others, see below.
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Former Japanese Emperor Go-Saiin.
Events of 1685:
-
John Wallis produces a rigorous mathematical solution of the famous Chinese
Rings Puzzle.
-
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, lands at
Matagorda Bay, Texas, and, thinking he has found the mouth of the Mississippi
River, builds Fort St. Louis there. Upon realizing his mistake,
he leaves on an expedition to find it. La Salle will never return.
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There are other claimants to the throne of England. Charles converted
to Catholicism on his deathbed, James is a much more fervent Catholic.
This makes Protestants in England and Scotland nervous.
-
Campbell, Earl of Argyll, sentenced to death in absentia by James (Duke
of York at the time), convinces one of Charles's illegitimate sons, the
(Protestant) Duke of Monmouth, to make a play for the throne.
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Monmouth lands with 150 men at Lyme Regis, and gains much support
in the West Country.
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Campbell invades Scotland on Monmouth's behalf, but is captured
and executed in Edinburgh.
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Monmouth's untrained force is crushed by John Churchill, later Duke of
Marlborough, at the Battle of Sedgemoor.
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A troop of cavalry led by a certain colonel Kirke ranges the West Country
dragging in anyone suspected of paticipating. The ability to pay ransom
was the determinant of guilt or innocence.
-
Later, James sends Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys around the West
Country to draw and quarter those who had ransomed themselves (later called
"the bloody assizes").
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Monmouth himself is beheaded at the Tower of London; the
Royal Hangman Jack Ketch makes sure that it is a slow and painful death.
-
Elizabeth Gaunt is found to have hidden some of the rebels out of
charity, and is burnt at the stake at Tyburn.
-
Louis XIV:
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issues a Code Noir declaring that
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all slaves in French possessions shall be Catholic
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all overseers shall be Catholic
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non-Catholics may not own slaves
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slaves shall be given Holy Days off to worship.
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children of slaves and their masters are to be freed.
French colonists decide this proclamation infringes their property right
too much and ignore it.
-
revokes the Edict of Nantes, forbidding the Huguenot religion
and imposing harsh penalties on anyone practicing it. Elector Frederick
William of Brandenburg issues the Edict of Potsdam offering refuge to French Huguenots.
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sends an ambassador to king Narai of Siam, with the idea of converting
him to Christianity.
-
A challenge to his authority dispensed with, James begins replacing Protestant
officials with Catholics. He also begins having trouble with Parliament.
Although divided into Tory and Whig parties who disagree on royal prerogative,
James begins losing votes and is forced to prolong the session. However,
James grants the English East India Company permission to pursue their
interests independently of local authorities.
-
The Ottoman Empire was badly defeated two years before, and The
Western powers smell blood. Already, Venice and Austria have formed an
unHoly Alliance with the object of rolling back Turkey-in-Europe:
-
Venice, under Francesco Morosini conquers the Peloponessus.
-
Louis XIV proposes a curious plan, assuming that Constantinople is soon
to be captured, dividing the Empire up between Venice, Poland,
and France. This cuts too many of the other Powers out of the pie
and the plan is rejected.
-
Chinese Emperor Kangxi opens China's ports to Western trade.
-
Several Russians are taken prisoner in border skirmishes along the Amur
River (Heilongjiang). These prisoners, among them a Russian Orthodox
priest, are taken to Beijing where they meet Emperor Kangxi. Kangxi
allows them to set up a Russian Orthodox church in a temple of Guandi,
God of War. This is now the site of the Russian Embassy in Beijing.
1684 - 1685 - 1686
How They Were Made - 17th Century