1603 CE

James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I in England (but the news is withheld from the Irish leaders in treaty negotiations). The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten by Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who sets up a factory to store and package the trading commodity black pepper. The formal coronation of James I as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey. Ceremonies are limited because of plague.

In the 1600s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 30 – The Nine Years War (Ireland) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown, and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.source
  • March 31 – the Nine Years War (1595–1603) is ended by the submission of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, to the English Crown and the signing of the Treaty of Mellifont.Irelandsource
  • September 20 – Samuel Champlain arrives back in France.source
  • Yaqob is deposed as Emperor of Ethiopia for the first time by Za Sellase, who appoints his cousin Za Dengel to replace him.source
  • French Huguenot Pierre de Gua is granted royal permission to settle in North America, founding the colony of Acadia.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 24 – Anglo-Spanish War: English Admiral Christopher Newport leads an unsuccessful attempt to take the Spanish-controlled Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he was attempting to pillage the area to obtain supplies. The Spanish defenders repel the fleet, and Newport leads the attackers to the coast of Central America.source
  • February 17 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties.source
  • February 25 – Dutch–Portuguese War: the Portuguese ship Santa Catarina is seized by Dutch East India Company ships off Singapore.source
  • March 24 – Tokugawa Ieyasu is granted the title of shōgun from Emperor Go-Yozei, and establishes the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo, Japan. The 265-year-long Edo period begins.source
  • May 8 – Mozes Székely is installed as the Prince of Transylvania by the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed III. Székely is killed in battle on July 17.source
  • May 13 – In modern-day northern Thailand, the rulers of Chiang Mai retake control of the Nan province and capture its ruler, Cao Cetabut.source
  • May 26 – The Battle of Sluis is fought at sea off of the Belgian Netherlands as Spanish ships try unsuccessfully to break through a blockade port of the port of Sluis. The Spanish ships are forced to return to port after at least 414 sailors are killed.source
  • September 20 – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): Led by Iranian Emperor Abbas the Great, the Safavid Army of Iran stages a surprise attack on Tabriz, which had been taken from the Safavids by the Ottoman Empire in 1588. Tabriz is recaptured after 29 days.source
  • October 6 – On the Philippine island of Luzon, the Sangley Rebellion against Spanish rule ends with the massacre of 20,000 Sangley Chinese residents in Manila.source
  • October 21 – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–1618): The Safavid Army of Iran, led by Emperor Abbas the Great, recaptures Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire after 15 years of Ottoman occupation.source
  • November 15 – Having recaptured Tabriz from the Ottoman Empire, Abbas the Great leads the Safavids in a siege of Yerevan.source
  • November – Rokugō rebellion: More than 1,000 rōnin rebel in support of their exiled lord, Onodera Yoshimichi, in Japan.source
  • A rebellion breaks out in Transylvania.source
  • Brian Óg na Samhthach Ó Ruairc, King of West Breifne is overthrown.Irelandsource
  • Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611): At Wesenberg (Rakvere), Jan Karol Chodkiewicz defeated a Swedish reinforcement force under Arvid Stålarm the Younger sent to relieve the Swedish troops in Dorpat. The town later surrendered on April.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 15 – French explorer Samuel de Champlain departs from the Channel port of Honfleur in the Calvados département in the Kingdom of France for his first voyage to the settlement of New France in what is now Canada.source
  • April 27 – The first permanent Dutch trading post in Indonesia is established in Banten by Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck, who sets up a factory to store and package the trading commodity black pepper.source
  • King Christian IV founds the fortified town of Kristianopel in Blekinge (then part of Denmark) to strengthen the border against Sweden.Denmarksource

Religion & Belief

  • April 28 – The funeral of Elizabeth I of England is held in Westminster Abbey.source
  • July 25 – The formal coronation of James I as King of England takes place at Westminster Abbey. Ceremonies are limited because of plague.source
  • November – Geoffrey Keating is one of forty students who sail for Bordeaux under the charge of the Rev. Diarmaid MacCarthy to begin their studies at the Irish College which has just been founded in that city by Cardinal François de Sourdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux.Irelandsource
  • December 29 – Yavuz Ali Pasha, who had been appointed by Mehmed III in October as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, arrives at Constantinople to begin service. He dies from illness seven months later.source
  • Ballintubber Abbey is suppressed.Irelandsource

Economy & Finance

  • The earliest of eight companies that will eventually merge to form the Kikkoman Corporation, the producers of soy sauce, is founded in Japan.source
  • Sir Edmund Pelham, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer since 1602, holds the first assizes in Ulster, at Donegal.Irelandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • May 19 – The King's Men, a troupe of English professional actors composed primarily of former members of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, is granted its royal patent by King James. The company will give the first performances of many of the plays of William Shakespeare, who is one of the company's 26 principal actors. Named in order of priority on the patent are manager Lawrence Fletcher, Shakespeare, and Richard Burbage.source

Health & Medicine

  • Japanese female entertainer Izumo no Okuni originates kabuki dance drama in Kyoto.source

Crime & Justice

  • July 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested in England on charges of treason and of conspiring with Lord Cobham in the "Main Plot" to overthrow King James for replacement by Lady Arbella Stuart.source
  • November 17 – Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason, in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle. He is found guilty, but his life is spared by King James I at this time, and he is returned to imprisonment in the Tower of London.source

Climate & Environment

  • Denmark suffered a severe famine caused by multi-year crop failures from a "volcanic winter." The acute food shortage triggered soaring prices and deadly epidemics, leading to high mortality rates.Denmarksource

Culture & Society

  • March 24 – James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England and Ireland upon the death of Elizabeth I in England (but the news is withheld from the Irish leaders in treaty negotiations).Irelandsource
  • August 17 – The Accademia dei Lincei, the oldest scientific academy in the world, is founded in Rome by Federico Cesi.source
  • Johann Bayer publishes the star atlas Uranometria, the first to cover the entire celestial sphere.source

Births

  • January 27 – Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet, English lawyer and politician, Speaker in 1660 (died 1685)source
  • January 27 – Humphrey Mackworth, English politician, lawyer and judge (died 1654)source
  • March 2 – Pietro Novelli, Italian painter (died 1647)source
  • March 18 – Simon Bradstreet, English colonial magistrate (died 1697)source
  • April 10 – Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark (died 1647)source
  • 10 April – Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark (died 1647 in Dresden)Denmarksource
  • June 3 – Pietro Paolini, Italian painter (died 1681)source
  • June 17 – Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (died 1663)source
  • July 11 – Kenelm Digby, English privateer and alchemist (died 1665)source
  • August 17 – Lennart Torstensson, Swedish Field Marshal, Privy Councillour and Governor-General (died 1651)source
  • 17 August - Lennart Torstensson, Field Marshal and military engineer (died 1651)Swedensource
  • August 24 – Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, Khan of Khiva, historian (died 1663)source
  • October 20 – Simon de Vos, Flemish painter (died 1676)source
  • November 16 – Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior of the Jasna Góra Monastery (died 1673)source
  • November 24 – John, Count of Nassau-Idstein (1629–1677) (died 1677)source
  • December 21 – Roger Williams, English theologian and colonist (died 1684)source
  • Michel Le Tellier, statesman (died 1685)Francesource
  • Approximate date – Audley Mervyn, lawyer, politician and soldier (died 1675)Irelandsource

Deaths

  • February 23 – Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician and botanist (born 1519)source
  • February 23 – Franciscus Vieta, French mathematician (born 1540)source
  • February 26 – Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, spouse of Maximilian II (born 1528)source
  • March 24 – Queen Elizabeth I of England (born 1533)source
  • March 24 – Queen Elizabeth I of England dies at Richmond Palace (having ruled since 1558). She is succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, King James VI of Scotland (where he has ruled since 1567), uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.source
  • March 24 – Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland (born 1533)Irelandsource
  • May 14 – Pope Gabriel VIII of Alexandria, leader of the Coptic Christian Church, dies after a reign of almost 16 years. He is succeeded by Pope Mark V.source
  • June 7 – Prince Şehzade Mahmud of the Ottoman Empire, the 16-year-old son of Sultan Murad III, is executed on orders of his father, on advice of the Grand Vizier, after being accused unjustly of an assassination plot.source
  • July 10 – Joan Terès i Borrull, viceroy of Catalonia (born 1538)source
  • 13 July – Axel Gyldenstierne, Governor-general of Norway (born c. 1542)Denmarksource
  • August 25 – Ahmad al-Mansur, Sultan of the Saadi Dynasty (born 1549)source
  • October 18 – Yemişçi Hasan Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, is executed on orders of Sultan Mehmed III, after failing to respond more quickly to the Safavid Empire's actions to take Tabriz. The Sultan appoints Yavuz Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt to replace Yemişçi Hasan.source
  • October – Ralph Lane, English explorer (born 1530)source
  • November 30 – William Gilbert, English scientist (plague) (born 1544)source
  • December 22 – Sultan Mehmed III of the Ottoman Empire dies, and is succeeded by his son Ahmed I.source
  • December 22 – Mehmed III, Ottoman Sultan (born 1566)source
  • Pierre Charron, Catholic theologian and philosopher (born 1541)Francesource
  • Elisabeth of Nassau-DillenburgGermanysource