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Period: Dec 24, 1294 to Nov 10, 1303
Papacy of Boniface VIII
Opposed the taxation of the clergy by the kings of France and England and issued one of the strongest declarations of papal authority over rulers, the bull Unam Sanctam. -
Nov 18, 1302
Unam Sanctam published
Philip unleashed an antipapal campaign. Increasingly placed on the defensive, Boniface made this statement against state control of national churches.
This famous statement of papal power declared that temporal authority was “subject” to the spiritual power of the church. -
Nov 7, 1309
Papacy moves to Avignon
Clement V moved the papal court to Avignon, situated on land that belonged to the pope, but maintained its independence from the king.
To escape both a Rome ridden with strife after the confrontation between Boniface and Philip and further pressure from Philip. -
Sep 14, 1321
Death of Dante Alighieri
His Vita Nuova and Divine Comedy form, with Petrarch’s sonnets, are the cornerstones of Italian vernacular literature. -
Period: May 10, 1337 to Nov 10, 1453
the Hundred Year's War
The English king Edward III started the war by asserting a claim to the French throne when the French king Charles IV died without a male heir. The French barons chose Philip VI of Valois as the new ruler.
England and France were emergent territorial powers in too close proximity to one another.
England and France also quarreled over control of Flanders. -
Jan 27, 1343
Pope Clement VI defines "treasury of merits"
The Treasury of Merit is the term used in the Roman Catholic Church describing the indulgences or exchange of God's grace among the faithful. The Treasury of Merit was one of the core complaints of Martin Luther at the start of the Reformation in his Ninety-Five Theses; Luther denied that the "Treasury of Merit" existed at all, instead favouring justification by faith. -
Nov 7, 1347
Black Death arrives in southern Italy
Black Death was probably introduced by seaborne rats from Black Sea areas and followed the trade routes from Asia into Europe, appearing in Sicily in late 1347. -
Nov 7, 1351
Boccaccio writes The Decameron
Petrarch’s student and friend; a pioneer of humanist studies.
His Decameron--- one hundred often bawdy tales told by three men and seven women in a country retreat from the plague that ravaged Florence in 1348--- is both a stinging social commentary and a sympathetic look at human behavior. -
May 7, 1358
Jacquerie rebellions in France
To secure their rights, the French privileged classes forced the peasantry to pay ever-increasing taxes and to repair their war-damaged properties without compensation. This bullying became more than the peasants could bear, and they rose up in several regions in a series of bloody rebellions known as the Jacquerie. -
Nov 7, 1377
Papacy returns to Rome
Pope Gregory XI reestablished the papacy in Rome in January 1377, ending what had come to be known as the “Babylonian Captivity” of the church in Avignon, a reference to the biblical bondage of the Israelites. The return to Rome proved to be short lived, however. -
Nov 7, 1378
Start of Great Schism
The Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church from 1378 to 1418. Several men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance (1414–1418). -
May 30, 1381
Peasants' Revolt
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Nov 7, 1409
Council of Pisa
Cardinals representing both popes convened a council on their own authority in Pisa in 1409, deposed both the Roman and the Avignon popes, and elected a new pope, Alexander V. -
Nov 7, 1414
Council of Constance
The Council condemned and executed Jan Hus and ruled on issues of national sovereignty, the rights of pagans, and just war in response to a conflict between the Kingdom of Poland and the Order of the Teutonic Knights. -
Jul 6, 1415
Jan Huss is burned for heresy
Supported vernacular translations of the Bible and were critical of traditional ceremonies and allegedly superstitious practice.
Advocated lay communion with cup as well as bread.
Questioned the validity of sacraments performed by priests in moral sin.
Accused of heresy and imprisoned. -
Oct 25, 1415
Battle of Agincourt
Henry V took advantage of internal French turmoil created by the rise to power of the duchy of Burgundy. With France deeply divided, Henry V struck hard in Normandy. -
Period: Nov 10, 1422 to Nov 10, 1461
Rule of Charles VII of France
His political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a spiritual leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic military leaders led French troops to several important victories that paved the way for the coronation of Charles VII in 1429.
Joan of Arc was executed as a relapsed heretic in 1431.
In 1456, he reopened Joan of Arc’s trial, and she was declared innocent of all the charges. -
Nov 7, 1429
Siege of Orleans by Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc declared the Kind of Heaven had called her to deliver besieged Orleans from the English. Charles VII was willing to try anything to reverse French fortunes.
Joan provided the French inspiration and a sense of national identity and self-confidence.
Defeat the English troops. -
Feb 3, 1468
Johann Gutenberg dies
In response to the demand for books created by the expansion of lay literacy, he invented printing with movable type in the mid-fifteenth century in the German city of Mainz. -
Nov 7, 1492
Last Muslim region is captured in Spain
Ferdinand and Isabella exercised almost total control over the Spanish church as they placed religion in the service of national unity.
In 1479, monitor the activity of converted Jews and Muslims in Spain.
In 1492, the Jews were exiled and their properties were confiscated.
In 1502, nonconverting Moors in Granada were driven into exile.
To remain a loyal Catholic country. -
Nov 7, 1492
Columbus discovers America
The new power of Spain was revealed in Ferdinand and Isabella’s promotion of overseas exploration. They sponsored Christopher Columbus, who arrived at the islands of the Caribbean while sailing west in search of a shorter route to the spice markets of the Far East. -
Nov 7, 1510
Raphael paints The School of Athens
1510-1511
A man of great sensitivity and kindness.
It attests the influence of the ancient world on the Renaissance. It depicts Greek philosophers whose works Humanists had recovered and printed. -
Nov 7, 1512
Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel
Painted during the pontificate of Pope Julius II.
This labor of love and piety took four years to complete. Michelangelo insisted on doing almost everything himself.
His sculpture David is a perfect example of the Renaissance artist’s devotion to harmony, symmetry, proportion, and the glorification of the human form. -
Nov 7, 1513
Machiavelli writes The Prince
He believed that Italian political unity and independence were ends that justified any means.
He was impressed by the way Roman rulers and citizens had defended their homeland.
He also held deep republican ideals.
He wrote The Prince as a cynical satire on the way rulers actually did behave and not as a serious recommendation of unprincipled despotic rule. -
Oct 31, 1517
Martin Luther posts "Ninety Five Theses"
The Ninety-Five Theses, was written by Martin Luther in 1517 and is widely regarded as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially the sale of indulgences. -
Nov 7, 1519
Hernan Cortez lands in Mexico
A Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. -
Jan 28, 1521
The Diet of Worms
It is most memorable for the Edict of Worms, which addressed Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.
To protect the authority of the Pope and the Church, as well as to maintain the doctrine of indulgences, ecclesiastical officials convinced Charles V that Luther was a threat and persuaded him to authorize his condemnation by the Holy Roman Empire. Luther escaped arrest and remained in seclusion at Wartburg castle for several years where he continued to write and translate t -
Nov 8, 1527
The Diet of Vasteras
In 1527 at the Diet of Vasteras the bishops refused to have a public debate with those who wanted reform. They knew that their wealth was an obvious target to attack and there would be royal approval to do so. The bishops appealed to Rome for help but the sheer distance involved meant that help was impossible. Vasa threatened to abdicate over the issue and no-one was willing to tolerate the threat of civil war breaking out again or allowing Denmark the chance to re-assert her authority again. Va -
Oct 11, 1531
Death of Ulrich Zwingli
a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland
In his publications, he noted corruption in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, promoted clerical marriage, and attacked the use of images in places of worship. In 1525, Zwingli introduced a new communion liturgy to replace the Mass. Zwingli also clashed with the Anabaptists, which resulted in their persecution. -
Oct 11, 1531
Second Battle of Kappel
an armed conflict in 1531 between the Protestant and the Catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the Reformation in Switzerland. -
Jun 1, 1533
Henry VIII ＆Anne Boleyn marry
On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be valid. -
Jul 7, 1536
John Calvin returns to Geneva after exile
In July 1536, Calvin went to Geneva which became the centre of his work. He had been trying to go to Strasbourg but the spread of the Habsburg-Valois Wars made him detour to Geneva where a fiery Protestant called Guillaume Farel persuaded him to stay. -
Jul 12, 1536
Erasmus of Rotterdam dies
The most famous of the northern humanists and the “prince of the humanists,” illustrates the impact of the printing press.
Both an educational and a religious reformer.
Disciplined study of the classics and the Bible was the best way to reform both individuals and society.
Make the ancient Christian sources available in their original versions. He believed that only as people drank from the pure, unadulterated sources could moral and religious health result.
Did not please church authorities. -
Nov 8, 1540
Papal recognition of the Jesuit Order
a congregation of cardinals reported favorably upon the Constitution presented, and Paul III confirmed the order through the bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae, on 27 September 1540, but limited the number of its members to sixty. This is the founding document of the Jesuits as an official Catholic religious order. -
May 24, 1543
Death of Nicholas Copernicus
a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a heliocentric model of the universe which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center.
The publication of Copernicus' book, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, is considered a major event in the history of science. -
Dec 19, 1543
Publication of Copernicus's On the Heavenly Spheres
It began the Copernican Revolution and contributed importantly to the scientific revolution. -
Dec 13, 1545
The Council of Trent
The Council issued condemnations on what it defined as Protestant heresies at the time of the Reformation and defined Church teachings in the areas of Scripture and Tradition, Original Sin, Justification, Sacraments, the Eucharist in Holy Mass and the veneration of saints. It issued numerous reform decrees. -
Oct 27, 1553
Death of Michael Servetus
He participated in the Protestant Reformation, and later developed a nontrinitarian Christology. Condemned by Catholics and Protestants alike, he was arrested in Geneva and burnt at the stake as a heretic by order of the Protestant Geneva governing council. -
Sep 25, 1555
Peace of Augsburg
a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes at the imperial city of Augsburg. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire. -
Nov 8, 1558
Act of Uniformity passed in England
It set the order of prayer to be used in the English Book of Common Prayer. All persons had to go to church once a week or be fined 12 pence, a considerable sum for the poor. By this Act Elizabeth I made it a legal obligation to go to church every Sunday. The Act of Uniformity reinforced the Book of Common Prayer. -
Period: Nov 17, 1558 to
Reign of Elizabeth I of England
called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana" or "Good Queen Bess", Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born into the royal succession, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth。 -
Period: Dec 10, 1560 to Nov 10, 1574
Reign of Charles IX of France
His mother was Catherine de Medici.
Facing popular hostility against this policy of appeasement, Charles allowed the massacre of all Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding at the instigation of his mother Catherine de' Medici. This event, known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, crippled the Huguenot movement. -
Aug 5, 1570
Peace of St-Germain-en-Laye
a treaty signed on 5 August 1570 at the royal Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ending the third of the French Wars of Religion. -
Oct 7, 1571
The Battle of Lepanto
The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean. Lepanto was the last major naval battle in the Mediterranean fought entirely between galleys and has been assigned great symbolic importance by Catholic and other historians. -
Aug 24, 1572
St. Bartholomew Day Massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion.
instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX -
Oct 8, 1572
"Spanish Fury" sweeps Habsburg Holland
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Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary had previously claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving her as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in a number of castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, and was subsequently executed. -
Defeat of Spanish Armada by the English
In the late 1580s, English raids against Spanish commerce and Queen Elizabeth I's support of the Dutch rebels in the Spanish Netherlands led King Philip II of Spain to plan the conquest of England. -
Death of Catherine de Medici
an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France. As the mother of three sons who became kings of France during her lifetime she had extensive, if at times varying, influence in the political life of France. For a time she ruled France as its regent. -
Henry III assassinated
killed by Jacques Clément
On 1 August 1589, Henry III lodged with his army at Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine, and was preparing to attack Paris -
The Edict of Nantes
Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity. -
Hampton Court Conference
discussion between King James I of England and representatives of the Church of England, including leading English Puritans. -
Publication of first part of Don Quixote
a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It follows the adventures of Alonso Quijano, an hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he decides to set out to revive chivalry, under the name Don Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who often employs a unique, earthly wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetorical orations on antiquated knighthood. Don Quixote is met by the world as it is, initiating such themes as intertextuality, realism, metatheatre, and -
Publication of Bacon's The Advancement of Learning
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Publication of Kepler's The New Astronomy
It contains the results of the astronomer Johannes Kepler's ten-year long investigation of the motion of Mars. One of the greatest books on astronomy, the Astronomia nova provided strong arguments for heliocentrism and contributed valuable insight into the movement of the planets, including the first mention of their elliptical path and the change of their movement to the movement of free floating bodies as opposed to objects on rotating spheres. -
Publication of Galileo's Starry Messenger
It was the first published scientific work based on observations made through a telescope, and it contains the results of Galileo's early observations of the imperfect and mountainous Moon, the hundreds of stars that were unable to be seen in either the Milky Way or certain constellations with the naked eye, and the Medicean Stars that appeared to be circling Jupiter. -
Publication of Galileo's Starry Messenger
It was the first published scientific work based on observations made through a telescope, and it contains the results of Galileo's early observations of the imperfect and mountainous Moon, the hundreds of stars that were unable to be seen in either the Milky Way or certain constellations with the naked eye, and the Medicean Stars that appeared to be circling Jupiter. -
Defenestration of Prague
Ferdinand, however, was a proponent of the Catholic counterreformation and not likely to be well-disposed to Protestantism or Bohemian freedoms. Bohemian Protestants opposed the royal government as they interpreted Letter of Majesty to extend not only to the land controlled by the nobility or self-governing towns but also to the King's own lands. -
Condemnation of Galileo's work by the Catholic Church
He argued that the tides were evidence for the motion of the Earth, and promoted the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus.
Galileo did not persuade the Church to stay out of the controversy, but instead saw heliocentrism formally declared false. It was consequently termed heretical by the Qualifiers.
Following the Inquisition's injunction against Galileo, the papal Master of the Sacred Palace ordered that Foscarini's Letter be banned, and Copernicus' De revolutionibus suspended. -
Battle of White Mountain
an army of 30,000 Bohemians and mercenaries under Christian of Anhalt were defeated by 27,000 men of the combined armies of Ferdinand II
The battle marked the end of the Bohemian period of the Thirty Years' War and decisively influenced the fate of the Czech lands for the next 300 years. -
Publication of Bacon's Novum Organum
This is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. This is now known as the Baconian method. -
Period: to
Rule of Pope Urban VIII
He was the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions. -
Period: to
Reign of King Charles i of England
Charles was the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to a Spanish Habsburg princess.
After his succession, Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal.
Beheaded in 1649. -
Battle of Breitenfeld
It was the Protestants’ first major victory of the Thirty Years War.
The victory ensured that the German states would not be forcibly reconverted to Roman Catholicism. It confirmed Sweden’s Gustavus Adolphus of the House of Vasa as a great tactical leader and induced many Protestant German states to ally with Sweden against the German Catholic League, led by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria. -
Death of King Gustavus Adolphus II of Sweden
He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe.
He is often regarded as one of the greatest military commanders of all time, with innovative use of combined arms. -
Presentation of the play Richard III
an historical play by William Shakespeare
It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England.[1] The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified as such. Occasionally, however, as in the quarto edition, it is termed a tragedy. Richard III concludes Shakespeare's first tetralogy. -
Peace of Prague
The Peace of Prague of 30 May 1635 was a treaty between the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II and the Electorate of Saxony representing most of the Protestant states of the Holy Roman Empire. It effectively brought to an end the civil war aspect of the Thirty Years' War; however, the combat actions still carried on due to the continued intervention on German soil by Spain, Sweden, and, from mid-1635, France, until the Peace of Westphalia was concluded in 1648. -
Publication of Descartes's Discourse
a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637.
one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy, and important to the evolution of natural sciences.
"Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am") -
Publication of Descartes's Discourse
a philosophical and autobiographical treatise published by René Descartes in 1637.
Discourse on The Method is best known as the source of the famous quotation "Je pense, donc je suis" ("I think, therefore I am"). -
Period: to
Rule of Louis XIV of France
His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of monarchs of major countries in European history.
He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France and, by compelling many members of the nobility to inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles, succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy.
By these means he became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution. -
Short Parliament
Charles I was forced to call the Short Parliament primarily to obtain money to finance his military struggle with Scotland in the Bishops' Wars. Like its predecessors, the new parliament had greater interest in redressing perceived grievances occasioned by the royal administration than in voting the King funds to pursue his war against the Scottish Covenanters. -
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Long Parliament
It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could be dissolved only with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War -
Publication of Augustinus
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Death of Cardinal Richelieu
Consecrated as a bishop in 1608, he later entered politics, becoming a Secretary of State in 1616. Richelieu soon rose in both the Catholic Church and the French government, becoming a Cardinal in 1622, and King Louis XIII's chief minister in 1624. He remained in office until his death in 1642; he was succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin, whose career he had fostered.
By restraining the power of the nobility, he transformed France into a strong, centralized state. -
Treaty of Westphalia
These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the independence of the Dutch Republic. -
The Fronde Revolt
The word fronde means sling, which Parisian mobs used to smash the windows of supporters of Cardinal Mazarin.
Louis XIV, impressed as a young ruler with the experience of the Fronde, came to reorganize French fighting forces under a stricter hierarchy whose leaders ultimately could be made or unmade by the King. Thus the Fronde finally resulted in the disempowerment of the territorial aristocracy and the emergence of absolute monarchy. -
Period: to
Era of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth
the period from 1649 onwards when England, along later with Ireland and Scotland,was ruled as a republic following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. -
Period: to
Reign of William III of Orange
A Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith. Largely because of that reputation, William was able to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. William's victory over James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order. His reign marked the -
Publication of Hobbe's Leviathan
The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature could be avoided by strong undivided gove -
Publication of Hobbes's Leviathan
The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.
Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could only be avoided by strong undivided government. -
Death of Cardinal Mazarin
an Italian Catholic cardinal, diplomat, and politician, who served as the chief minister of France from 1642 until his death. Mazarin succeeded his mentor, Cardinal Richelieu. He was a noted collector of art and jewels, particularly diamonds, and he bequeathed the "Mazarin diamonds" to Louis XIV in 1661, some of which remain in the collection of the Louvre museum in Paris.[2] His personal library was the origin of the Bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris. -
Publication of Cavendish's Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy
Cavendish rejects the picture of nature as a grand machine that was propounded by Hobbes and Descartes; she also rejects the alternative views of nature that make reference to immaterial spirits. Instead she develops an original system of organicist materialism, and draws on the doctrines of ancient Stoicism to attack the tenets of seventeenth-century mechanical philosophy. -
Publication of Pascal's Pensees
represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. -
Treaty of Dover
It required France to assist England in the king's aim that it would rejoin the Roman Catholic Church and England to assist France in its war of conquest against the Dutch Republic. The Third Anglo-Dutch War was a direct consequence of this treaty. -
Foundation of Paris Foundlings Hospital
originally an institution for the reception of foundlings, children who had been abandoned or exposed, and left for the public to find and save. A foundling hospital was not necessarily a medical hospital, but more commonly a children's home, offering shelter and education to foundlings. -
Death of Margaret Cavendish
Cavendish was a poet, philosopher, writer of prose romances, essayist, and playwright. Her writing addressed a number of topics, including gender, power, manners, scientific method, and philosophy.
Cavendish has been championed and criticised as a unique and groundbreaking woman writer. She rejected the Aristotelianism and mechanical philosophy of the seventeenth century, preferring a vitalist model instead. -
Death of Margaret Cavendish
Cavendish was a poet, philosopher, writer of prose romances, essayist, and playwright who published under her own name at a time when most women writers published anonymously. Her writing addressed a number of topics, including gender, power, manners, scientific method, and philosophy. Her utopian romance, The Blazing World, is one of the earliest examples of science fiction. -
Papal Plot against Charles II
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria.[1] Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at least 22 men and precipitated the Exclusion Bill Crisis. Eventually Oates' intricate web of accusations fell apart, leading to his arrest and conviction for perjury. -
Death of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
an Italian artist and a prominent architect who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age, credited with creating the Baroque style of sculpture. -
Period: to
Peter the Great becomes Tsar of Russia
In numerous successful wars he expanded the Tsardom into a huge empire that became a major European power. According to historian James Cracraft, he led a cultural revolution that replaced the traditionalist and medieval social and political system with a modern, scientific, Europe-oriented, and rationalist system. -
Siege of Vienna by the Ottomans
The battle marked the beginning of the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe. -
Period: to
Reign of James II
King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII,[2] from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Roman Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. -
Revocation of Edict of Nantes
In October 1685, Louis XIV, the grandson of Henry IV, renounced the Edict and declared Protestantism illegal with the Edict of Fontainebleau. This act, commonly called the 'revocation of the Edict of Nantes,' had very damaging results for France. -
Publication of Newton's Principia Mathematica
Widely regarded as one of the most important works in both the science of physics and in applied mathematics during the Scientific revolution, the work underlies much of the technological and scientific advances from the Industrial Revolution (usually dated from 1750) which its tools helped to create. -
Arrival in England of William III of Orange
William and his wife Mary were crowned joint monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689. Their accession, known as the ‘Glorious Revolution’, marked an important transition towards parliamentary rule as we know it today. -
Publication of Locke's Two Treatises of Government
a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilised society based on natural rights and contract theory. -
Publication of Locke's Two Treatises on Government
a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke. The First Treatise attacks patriarchalism in the form of sentence-by-sentence refutation of Robert Filmer's Patriarcha, while the Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilised society based on natural rights and contract theory. -
Publication of Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration
Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. This "letter" is addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir". -
Period: to
The Great Northern War
a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. -
Period: to
War of Spanish Succession
fought between European powers, including a divided Spain, over who had the right to succeed Charles II as King of Spain. -
Jethro Tull invents the seed drill
an English agricultural pioneer from Berkshire who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1701 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and later a horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many large landowners, and they helped form the basis of modern agriculture. -
Maria Winkelmann discovers a comet
On 21 March 1702, while making her regular nighttime observations, Maria discovered a previously unknown comet, the so-called "Comet of 1702" (C/1702 H1), becoming the first woman to make such a discovery. -
Fundation of Saint Petersburg
To protect the newly conquered lands on the Neva delta Peter the Great needed a fortress, but Nienchanz was small and badly damaged. Looking for a site for his new fortress Peter the Great chose the Island of Enisaari, which was known to the Russians as Zayachii ostrov. On May 16 1703 St. Petersburg's fortress was founded and that day became the official birthday of the city. -
Death of Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist.
Court preacher to Louis XIV of France, Bossuet was a strong advocate of political absolutism and the divine right of kings. He argued that government was divine and that kings received their power from God. He was also an important courtier and politician. -
Treaty of Utrecht
The treaties were concluded between the representatives of Louis XIV of France and of his grandson Philip V of Spain on one hand, and representatives of Anne, Queen of Great Britain, the Duke of Savoy, the King of Portugal and the United Provinces of the Netherlands on the other.
The treaty marked the end of French ambitions of hegemony in Europe expressed in the wars of Louis XIV and preserved the European system based on the balance of power. -
Pragmatic Sanction published and violated
The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was an edict issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to ensure that the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs could be inherited by a daughter. -
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Reign of Frederick William Hohenzollern of Prussia
He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.
The King acquired a reputation for his fondness for military display, leading to his special efforts to hire the tallest men he could find in all of Europe for a special regiment nicknamed the Potsdam Giants. He was known as the Soldier-king. -
Treaty of Rastatt
a peace treaty between France and Austria, concluded on 7 March 1714 in the German city of Rastatt, to put an end to state of war between them from the War of the Spanish Succession. -
Gold payments stopped in France in aftermath of Mississippi Bubble
The "bubble" burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes.By the end of 1720 Philippe d'Orléans, regent of France for Louis XV, had dismissed Law from his positions. Law then fled France for Venice. -
Patriarchate abolished in Russian Church
The Patriarchate was abolished by Peter the Great in 1721 and replaced by the Most Holy Governing Synod, and the Bishop of Moscow came to be called a Metropolitan again. -
Publication of Algarotti's Newtonianism for Ladies
a doctrine that involves following the principles and using the methods of natural philosopher Isaac Newton. -
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War of Jenkins's Ear
a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748
Its unusual name, coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1858, refers to an ear severed from Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship. The severed ear was subsequently exhibited before Parliament. The tale of the ear's separation from Jenkins, following the boarding of his vessel by Spanish coast guards in 1731, provided the impetus to war against the Spanish Empire, -
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War of Austrian Succession
The war began under the pretext that Maria Theresa was ineligible to succeed to the Habsburg thrones of her father, Charles VI, because Salic law precluded royal inheritance by a woman—though in reality this was a convenient excuse put forward by Prussia and France to challenge Habsburg power. Austria was supported by Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. France and Prussia were allied.
The war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. -
Publication of L'esprit des lois by Montesquieu
a treatise on political theory first published anonymously.
covering many things like the law, social life, and the study of anthropology and providing more than 3,000 commendations.
in favor of a constitutional system of government and the separation of powers, the ending of slavery, the preservation of civil liberties and the law, and the idea that political institutions ought to reflect the social and geographical aspects of each community. -
Hume publishes An Enquiry into Human Nature
It was a revision of an earlier effort, Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature
The Enquiry dispensed with much of the material from the Treatise, in favor of clarifying and emphasizing its most important aspects. For example, Hume's views on personal identity do not appear. However, more vital propositions, such as Hume's argument for the role of habit in a theory of knowledge, are retained. -
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled on 24 April 1748 at the Free Imperial City of Aachen—called Aix-la-Chapelle in French and then also in English—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire. -
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Seven Years War
The war was driven by the antagonism between the great powers of Europe. Great Britain competed with both France and Spain over trade and colonies. Meanwhile rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside of the Holy Roman Empire. In the wake of the War of the Austrian Succession, the major powers "switched partners" with Prussia establishing an alliance with Britain while traditional enemies France and Austria formed an alliance of their own. -
Votaire's novel Candide published
The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds". -
Fall of Quebec to British
a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War
fought between the British Army and Navy, and the French Army, on a plateau just outside the walls of Quebec City, on land that was originally owned by a farmer named Abraham Martin, hence the name of the battle
While the French forces continued to fight and prevailed in several battles after Quebec was captured, the British did not relinquish their hold on the virtually impregnable Citadelle. -
Publication of Rousseau's The Social Contract
to set up a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality (1754).
The Social Contract helped inspire political reforms or revolutions in Europe, especially in France. The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate; as Rousseau asserts, only the people, who are sovereign, have that all-powerful right. -
Treaty of Paris
The signing of the treaty formally ended the Seven Years' War, otherwise known as the French and Indian War in the North American theatre,which marked the beginning of an era of British dominance outside Europe.The two nations returned much of the territory that they had each captured during the war, but Britain gained much of France's possessions in North America. -
Invention of Spinning Jenny
It was invented in 1764 by James Hargreaves in Stanhill, Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire in England. The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology advanced. -
Death of artist William Hogarth
an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". -
James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny
The device reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn, with a worker able to work eight or more spools at once. This grew to 120 as technology advanced. -
Stamp Act passed
imposed a direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America, and it required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.
The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War. -
Townshend Acts passed
The acts are named after Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who proposed the program.
The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise revenue in the colonies to pay the salaries of governors and judges so that they would be independent of colonial rule, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, to punish the province of New York for failing to comply with the 1765 Quartering Act, and to establish the British Parliament had the right to tax -
James Watt patents his steam engine
Watt introduced a design enhancement, the separate condenser, which avoided this waste of energy and radically improved the power, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of steam engines. Eventually he adapted his engine to produce rotary motion, greatly broadening its use beyond pumping water. -
Boston Massacre
British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others.
British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. Amid ongoing tense relations between the population and the soldiers, a mob formed around a British sentry, who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment. -
Pugachev's rebellion in Russia
1773-75 was the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in Russia after Catherine II seized power in 1762.
Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the assassinated Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom.
to consolidate support from various groups including the peasants -
Pugachev's Rebellion
the principal revolt in a series of popular rebellions that took place in Russia after Catherine II seized power in 1762.
Pugachev assumed leadership of an alternative government in the name of the assassinated Tsar Peter III and proclaimed an end to serfdom. -
Publication of Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther
Werther was an important novel of the Sturm und Drang period in German literature, and influenced the later Romantic literary movement. -
Adam Smith published Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
the book offers one of the world's first collected descriptions of what builds nations' wealth and is today a fundamental work in classical economics. Through reflection over the economics at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution the book touches upon such broad topics as the division of labour, productivity and free markets. -
US Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. -
Joseph II becomes emperor of Austrian Empire
He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa
Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism; however, his commitment to modernizing reforms subsequently engendered significant opposition, which eventually culminated in an ultimate failure to fully implement his programmes. -
The Gordon Riots in Britain
an anti-Catholic protest against the Papists Act 1778. -
Publication of the Necker Report
Louis XVI’s second finance minister, Jacques Necker, a Swiss banker, who claimed to be more attuned to the benefits of public confidence than to palace intrigue at court, thought the crown would be better able to raise funds if it were to issue a public report of its budget, and to this end he wrote and had published 100,000 copies of his Account to the King in 1781. -
British surrender at Yorktown
America declared its independence in 1776, but it took another five years to win freedom from the British. That day came on October 19, 1781
General Cornwallis brought 8,000 British troops to Yorktown. They expected help from British ships sent from New York.The British ships never arrived. That was lucky for General George Washington and the Continental army. The thirteen colonies found their opportunity to beat the world's largest empire. -
Treaty of Paris guaranteeing US Independence
ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of these, and the negotiations which produced all four treaties, see Peace of Paris (1783). -
Jacques Louis David completes Oath of the Horatii
The painting immediately became a huge success with critics and the public, and remains one of the best known painting in the Neoclassical style. -
Catherine the Great's "Charter of the Nobility" published
It recognized the corps of nobles in each province as a legal corporate body and stated the rights and privileges bestowed upon its members. The charter was divided into an introduction and four sections:
Personal rights and privileges of the gentry.
Corporate self-organization of the gentry. Assemblies of Nobility
Genealogy books.
Documents, establishing nobility. -
Louis XVI first calls for an Estates general
the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobles (Second Estate), and the common people (Third Estate). Summoned by King Louis XVI to propose solutions to his government's financial problems, the Estates-General sat for several weeks in May and June 1789 but came to an impasse as the three estates clashed over their respective powers. -
The Tennis Court Oath taken
a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution.
members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General
began to call themselves the National Assembly. -
Attack on the Bastille prison
The medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison only contained seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of the abuses of the monarchy: its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
Publication of the Droits d'homme/Rights of Man
a fundamental document of the French Revolution and in the history of human rights. It defines the individual and collective rights of all the estates of the realm as universal. -
The so-called 'Great Renunciation' of French nobles
nobles gave up their title and privilige. -
Louis XVI and his family are forced from Versailles to live in Paris
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Louis XVI and his family try to escape France
They desired to hide in Austria due to Marie's heritage, and hoped they would find safety in their newly found French Austrian agreement. Their escape only led them as far as the small town of Varennes, where they were recognized and immediately arrested. -
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her response against Rousseau
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Year One in the French Revolutionary Calendar declared
usually refers to the institution of radical, revolutionary change. This usage dates from the time of the French Revolution. After the official abolition of the French monarchy on 21 September 1792, the National Convention instituted the new French Revolutionary Calendar. It declared the day after abolition – 22 September, redesignated as 1 Vendémiaire – to be the first day of the Republic and the beginning of Year I. -
Louis XVI is executed
His execution made him the first victim of the Reign of Terror. His wife Marie Antoinette was guillotined on 16 October, the same year. -
Britain declares war on France
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La Terreur/The Terror
5 September 1793 – 28 July 1794
a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution". The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands. -
Robespierre is executed
Robespierre was guillotined without trial in the Place de la Révolution. His brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Hanriot, and twelve other followers, among them the cobbler Antoine Simon, the jailor of Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France, were also executed. -
Publication of Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion to Its Cultured Despisers
Young Friedrich Schleiermacher was a Reformed Calvinist Chaplain in Berlin when he wrote his first major work
religion as the human effort to communicate our experienced consciousness of the Divine within the human social sphere.
Schleiermacher was sensitive to the limitations of religion in the finite realm -
Consulat established in France
the government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804. By extension, the term The Consulate also refers to this period of French history. -
Napoleon establishes ties with the papacy
Napoleon realized the importance of religion as a means to increase obedience and his control over the French. It was not until the conclave of Cardinals had gathered to elect a new Pope that Napoleon decided to bury Pope Pius VI who had died several weeks earlier. He gave him a gaudy ceremony in an effort to gain the attention of the Catholic Church. This eventually led to the Concordat of 1801 -
Napoleon and Josephine crowned emperor and empress of France
Napoleon orally in September 1804 and its official title is Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December 1804. -
Battle of Austerlitz
the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition.
a French army, commanded by Emperor Napoleon I, decisively defeated a Russo-Austrian army, commanded by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, after nearly nine hours of difficult fighting. -
Treaty of Tilsit signed
two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman River. The second was signed with Prussia on 9 July. The treaties ended the War of the Fourth Coalition. -
Spanish Rebellion begins
By the summer of 1808 large parts of Spain had rebelled against the French invaders, but Napoleon believed that he was facing a series of minor insurrections.
The French were actually faced by a much wider revolt against their occupation of Spain. The Valencian Junta had a force of 7,000 regular troops and a much larger number of levies and volunteers with which to oppose the French. -
Battle of the Nations/of Leipzig
fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden led by the Russian Czar Alexander I against the French army of Napoleon I.
The battle marked the culmination of the autumn campaign of 1813 during the German campaign and involved over 600,000 soldiers, making it the largest battle in Europe prior to World War I.
Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba in May 1814. -
Congress of Vienna
a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries, but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off and remain at peace. -
Napoleon returns to rule for 100 days
marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 -
Publication of 1st edition of Shelly's Frankenstein
a novel written by British author Mary Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
the region of Geneva, where much of the story takes place
Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction.
