1586 CE

In what is now Buner District, Pakistan, Kalu Khan leads his Yousafzai-Afghan Lashkar to defeat the Mughal Army at the Karakar Pass in the Afghan-Mughal War, annihilating them by the 10s of thousands and inflicting one of the greatest defeats in Mughal history to Emperor of India Akbar the Great known as Battle of the Malandari Pass. July – Babington Plot, an attempt to assassinate Elizabeth I of England and replace her on the English throne by a rescued Mary, Queen of Scots, takes place. Anthony Babington and his co-conspirators are executed on 20 September. The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland.

In the 1580s, the 16th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • April 12 – Francis Drake and the English conquerors depart Cartagena after having looted the city and being paid a ransom of 250,000 Spanish pesos by the New Granadan Governor, Don Pedro Fernández.source
  • July 6 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland.source
  • 6 July – Treaty of Berwick signed, making peace between James VI and Elizabeth I of England.Scotlandsource
  • Elizabeth I of England and James VI of Scotland agree in the Treaty of Berwick that the MacDonnell family, claimants to the Glens of Antrim, have the right to stay in Ireland.Irelandsource
  • Sir Edward Waterhouse is appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland.Irelandsource

Conflict & Security

  • February 16 – In what is now Buner District, Pakistan, Kalu Khan leads his Yousafzai-Afghan Lashkar to defeat the Mughal Army at the Karakar Pass in the Afghan-Mughal War, annihilating them by the 10s of thousands and inflicting one of the greatest defeats in Mughal history to Emperor of India Akbar the Great known as Battle of the Malandari Pass.source
  • March 3 – Battle of Werl in the Duchy of Westphalia (Germany): Claude de Berlaymont and a large force of 4,000 troops attempt to capture Maarten Schenck van Nydeggen, who had plundered the territory of Vest Recklinghausen within the Electorate of Cologne. Schenk and his men are able to escape after five days.source
  • March–July – Babington Plot, an attempt to assassinate Elizabeth I of England and replace her on the English throne by a rescued Mary, Queen of Scots, takes place. Anthony Babington and his co-conspirators are executed on 20 September.Scotlandsource
  • May 27 – English privateers, commanded by Sir Francis Drake, carry out a raid on the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine, Florida.source
  • June 7 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Siege of Grave in the Netherlands, by Spanish General Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld-Vorderort, ends with the surrender of the garrison after a siege of four months.source
  • July 17 – In England, the Babington Plot, a scheme to murder Queen Elizabeth and to replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots, is discovered. Mary is implicated when she sends a cryptogram letter to Anthony Babington giving the go-ahead for the assassination, and the correspondence is decrypted by Thomas Phelippes.source
  • August 4 – Conspirator John Ballard is the first person to be arrested by English security agents for the plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Under torture, he implicates Anthony Babington.source
  • August 13 – In Germany, near Köln, the siege of Rheinberg by Spanish Army commander Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma begins and is ultimately won by Spain, despite a defense by the Electorate of Cologne as well as Dutch and English troops.source
  • September 22 – Battle of Zutphen: Spanish troops defeat the Dutch rebels and their English allies. English poet and courtier Sir Philip Sidney is mortally wounded.source
  • October 19– Burmese–Siamese War (1584–1593): Nanda Bayin, King of Burma, launches a two-pronged invasion of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (now Thailand) with 25,000 troops, 1,200 horses and 220 elephants. The invasion will fail, as thousands of troops die from starvation and disease and the Burmese troops will withdraw in April.source
  • December 17 – (Tenshō 14, 7th day of the 11th month) The reign of Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan ends, and Emperor Go-Yōzei ascends to the throne.source
  • Battle of Allt Camhna: the Clan Gunn and Clan Mackay defeat the Clan Sinclair.Scotlandsource
  • Battle of the Western Isles on Jura: the Clan MacDonald of Sleat and Clan MacLean give battle.Scotlandsource
  • Battle of Leckmelm: the Clan Sutherland, Mackays of Aberach and MacLeods of Assynt defeat the Clan Gunn.Scotlandsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 21 – English explorer Thomas Cavendish begins the first deliberately planned circumnavigation of the globe.source
  • António da Madalena from Portugal is the first westerner to visit Angkor Wat.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 11 – In Dresden, Christian I becomes the new Elector of Saxony, after the death of his father Augustus.source
  • February 14 – In India, Yakub Shah Chak becomes the new Sultan of Kashmir after the death of his father, the Sultan Yousuf Shah.source
  • March 12 – Greek-born Spanish artist Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, known better as El Greco, is commissioned to paint his most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which he finishes in early 1588.source
  • March 25 – Forty Martyrs of England and Wales: The most infamous case in England of a torture and execution by Peine forte et dure— slowly piling heavy stones upon a prisoner until they make a plea or die — is carried out against Margaret Clitherow of York after she refuses to enter a plea on charges of harboring Roman Catholic priests. She will be canonized as a Catholic saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.source
  • September 14 – In one of the most spectacular feats of engineering up to that time, devised by Domenico Fontana, the 82 ft tall, 327-ton Vatican obelisk is erected at St. Peter's Square in Rome after being transported between April 30 and May 17 from its previous location on orders of Pope Sixtus V.source
  • English topographer William Harrison becomes canon of Windsor.source
  • The cities of Voronezh, Samara, and Tyumen in Russia are founded.source
  • Hazira Maqbara, a mausoleum of Qutb-ud-din Muhammad Khan, is builtIndiasource
  • The Örebro Kyrkomöte (Örebro Church Meeting) is held as a protest to the pro-Catholic church policy of king John. The gathering is influnced by the Riksföreståndare and future king Charles IX of Sweden. The articles adopted during the meeting served as the charter for the church within Charles' duchySwedensource

Science & Discovery

  • July 22 – Sir Francis Drake and his crew return to England, arriving at Portsmouth to heroes' welcome.source
  • Jacobus Gallus composes his motet O magnum mysterium.source
  • Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin publishes a study showing that two objects of different weight fall with the same speed.source
  • English ship Vanguard, the first Royal Navy vessel to bear this name, is launched at Woolwich.source

Crime & Justice

  • September 20 – The executions of the Babington Plot perpetrators begins. Over the two day period, the 14 men convicted of the a plot are hanged, drawn and quartered (the first seven being disembowelled before death) in St Giles Field, London.source
  • October 15– Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for treason at Fotheringhay Castle in England for complicity in the Babington Plot, in a proceeding that lasts for 10 days.source
  • October 25– Mary, Queen of Scots, is convicted of treason and sentenced to death. She will be beheaded on February 8.source
  • November 19 – English Separatist Puritan Henry Barrowe is imprisoned.source
  • Robert Gardiner is appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.Irelandsource
  • County Longford is shired, separating it from Westmeath.Irelandsource

Climate & Environment

  • January 18 – The 7.9 magnitude Tenshō earthquake strikes the Chubu region of Japan, triggering a tsunami and causing at least 8,000 deaths.source

Culture & Society

  • January 3 – Augustus of Wettin, the Elector of Saxony, marries Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt, the 12-year-old daughter of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt. Augustus dies less than six weeks later.source
  • February 23 – The Scottish crown jewels, recovered for King James VI by William Stewart of Caverston, are formally returned to the royal treasurer, Lord Melville. The jewels include a square gold pendant, inlaid with a large diamond and a ruby and several other diamonds, the "Great H of Scotland".source
  • March 18 – The Black Assize of Exeter begins in England as infected prisoners go on trial and an epidemic of typhus spreads quickly through the courtrooms above Exeter Prison. The disease is quickly transmitted from body lice on inmates who had been incarcerated in unsanitary conditions. In addition to prisoners who died from the disease, typhus claims the life of eight judges and 11 of the 12 jurors. Author Alexander Jenkins writes later, "A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were arraigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them."source

Births

  • January 1 – Pau Claris i Casademunt, Catalan ecclesiastic (died 1641)source
  • February 26 – Niccolò Cabeo, Italian Jesuit writer, theologian (died 1657)source
  • April 2 – Pietro Della Valle, Italian composer (died 1652)source
  • April 5 – Christopher Levett, English explorer (died 1630)source
  • April 9 – Julius Henry, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (died 1665)source
  • April 12 (bapt.) – John Ford, English dramatist and poet (died c. 1639)source
  • April 20 – Saint Rose of Lima, Spanish colonist in Lima (died 1617)source
  • July 5 – Thomas Hooker, prominent Puritan colonial leader (died 1647)source
  • July 7 – Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, English courtier (died 1646)source
  • August 14 – William Hutchinson, founder of Rhode Island (died 1642)source
  • August 17 – Johann Valentin Andrea, German theologian (died 1654)source
  • October 7 – Isaac Massa, Dutch diplomat (died 1643)source
  • November 22 – Walter Erle, English politician (died 1665)source
  • December 6 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (died 1670)source
  • Joseph Le Caron, Franciscan friar and missionary to Canada (died 1632)Francesource
  • Banarasidas, Shrimal Jain businessman and poet (died 1643)Indiasource
  • William Guild, minister (died 1657)Scotlandsource
  • Brita Andersdotter Gothenburgs first female brewer (died 1671)Swedensource

Deaths

  • January 18 – Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands (born 1522)source
  • February 11 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (born 1526)source
  • February – George Seton, 7th Lord Seton, Lord of the Parliament of Scotland (born 1531)Scotlandsource
  • March 25 – Margaret Clitherow, English Roman Catholic nun, saint and martyr (born 1556)source
  • April 8 – Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer (born 1522)source
  • May 5 – Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland (born 1529)source
  • June 1 – Martín de Azpilcueta, Spanish theologian and economist (born 1491)source
  • June 28 – Primož Trubar, Carniolan Protestant reformer (born 1508)source
  • September 20 – Sir Anthony Babington, English Catholic conspirator (executed) (born 1561)source
  • September 20 – Chidiock Tichborne, English conspirator and poet (executed) (born 1558)source
  • September 21 – Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, French Roman Catholic cardinal (born 1517)source
  • October 17 – Philip Sidney, English poet, courtier and soldier (born 1554)source
  • November 6 – Willem IV van den Bergh, Stadtholder of Guelders and Zutphen (born 1537)source
  • December 6 – Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt (born 1536)source
  • December 12 – Stefan Batory, King of Poland (born 1533)source
  • Jean de Ferrières, nobleman (born 1520)Francesource
  • Birbal, Wazīr-e Azam of the Mughal court (born 1528)Indiasource
  • Margareta Birgersdotter Grip, genealogist and writer (born 1538)Swedensource