1612 to 1619

Literature

The White Devil, or Victoria Corombona. John Webster. British. 1612. Play. Husband killed so that she might marry duke of Bracciano. Revenge for his death.

Society

1613. Dutch Merchants establish a fur trading post at the foot of Manhattan Island.

1613. Letters on the Solar Spots by Galileo Galilei advocates the Copernican system proposed in 1543. Galilelo is admonished by the Church.

1613. Spain's population falls as a consequence of wars and emigration to overseas colonies. The country becomes largely a wool-growing nation in a period of decadence and agricultural decline.

Literature

The Duchess of Malfi. John Webster. British. 1613. Play. Disastrous marriage of noblewoman and commoner. Her lovers and her children all die.

The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII. Shakespeare. British. 1613. Play. Henry's desire to wed Anne Boleyn. Wolsey tries to prevent the marriage and dies. Cranmer annuls the marriage to Katharine of Aragon.

Novelas Ejemplares (Exemplary Novels). Cervantes. Spanish. 1613. Stories dealing with the author's personal experience and practical philosophy.

Society

1614. Virginia Colony widower John Rolfe is married April 5 to Pocahontas, favorite daughter of the Powhatan Chief Wahunsonacook. Pocahontas, 18, has become Europeanized, adopted Christianity, changed her name to Rebecca, and will never see her father again.

1614. Dutch traders found Albany under the name Fort Nassau on the Hudson River.

1616. The Vatican orders Galileo Galilei to stop defending Copernican "heresy" and has him arrested.

1618. The Thirty Years' War, a conflict between Catholics and Protestants, begins, bringing devastation to mush of Europe.

1618. The Virginia House of Burgesses convenes at Jamestown, the first legislative body in the New World.

1619, The first black slaves to arrive in the Virginia Colony come in August from a Dutch privateer.

1619. Some 90 young women arrive at Jamestown from England to marry settlers who pay 120 pounds of tobacco each for the cost of transporting their brides.

1619. French mathematician philosopher Rene Descartes, 22, establishes the basics of modern mathematics, applying algebra to geometry and formulating analytic geometry. Descartes makes the breakthrough November 19 that will provide the basis for exploring natural phenomena by mathematics, but his work will not be published until 1637.

1619. The first American day of thanksgiving is celebrated November 30 by 30 Englishmen aboard the ship Margaret which touched land at what will be Hampton, Virginia.