1681 CE

Oliver Plunkett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, falsely convicted in June of treason, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, the last Catholic martyr to die in England; he is canonised in 1975. Oliver Plunkett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, falsely convicted of treason, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, the last Catholic martyr to die in England. Catholic intriguer Edward Fitzharris is executed on the same day. Wu Shifan, grandson of Chinese general Wu Sangui, commits suicide at Kunming in Yunnan province, ending the 8-year Revolt of the Three Feudatories against the Kangxi Emperor and the Qing dynasty in China.

In the 1680s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 3 – The Treaty of Bakhchisarai is signed, between the Ottoman vassal Crimean Khanate and the Russian Empire.source
  • January 18 – The "Exclusion Bill Parliament", summoned by King Charles II of England in October, is dissolved after three months, with directions that new elections be held, and that a new parliament be convened in March in Oxford.source
  • 18 January – 'Exclusion Bill Parliament' dissolved.Englandsource
  • March 4 – In order to settle a debt of £16,000, King Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn, for territory west of Delaware River in America between 40° N and 42° N, later to be called Pennsylvania.source
  • 4 March – William Penn receives a royal charter to establish a sectarian colony in the Americas.Englandsource
  • March 21 – The "Oxford Parliament" is summoned in England by King Charles II and meets in Oxford rather than in Westminster, but is dissolved seven days later. No further sessions of parliament are held until after the death of Charles in 1685.source
  • 16 April – A royal decree orders the execution of a new cadastral survey. Christian V's Cadastre is completed in 1688.Denmarksource
  • The Revolt of the Three Feudatories concludesChinasource
  • The Barony of Høegholm is established by Christian V from Fævejle and Lykkesholm as well as other land in the area.Denmarksource
  • Robert Robartes, Viscount Bodmin is the English ambassador to Denmark.Denmarksource
  • 21–28 March – the Oxford Parliament meets and debates the Exclusion Bill. The Bill is rejected by the House of Lords. No further sessions of parliament are held until after the death of Charles II in 1685.Englandsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – Prince Muhammad Akbar, son of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, initiates a civil war in India. With the support of troops from the Rajput states, Akbar declares himself the new Mughal Emperor and prepares to fight his father, but is ultimately defeated.source
  • February 2 – In India, the Mughal Empire city of Burhanpur (now in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh) is sacked and looted by troops of the Maratha Empire on orders of the Maratha emperor, the Chhatrapati Sambhaji. General Hambirrao Mohite began the pillaging three days earlier.source
  • July 23 – The Bombardment of Chios during the French-Tripolitania War (1681-1685) is part of a wider campaign by France against the Barbary Pirates in the 1680s.source
  • 31 August – Protestant activist Stephen College, convicted of treason, is hanged, drawn and quartered in Oxford.Englandsource
  • September 30 – France annexes the city of Strasbourg (German: Strassburg), previously a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • 30 September – France annexes the city of Strasbourg, previously a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire.Francesource
  • October 27 – Sir John Child of England becomes the new Governor of Bombay province and, unofficially, Governor-General of all of the settlements of the East India Company in India. With the exception of a rebellion by Captain Richard Keigwin during the year 1684, Child expands British control until involving the British in a war with the Mughal Empire.source
  • November 25 – Cornelis Speelman of the Netherlands becomes the new Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and concludes an alliance with the Sultan Amangkurat II of the Mataram Sultanate on the island of Java, then uses the Dutch Army to suppress the rebellion started by the Sultan's half-brother, Prince Puger. Puger surrenders on November 28 to the ranking Dutch officer, Jacob Couper.source
  • In October, Zhao Liandong's army was the first to break through into Kunming and the others followed suit, swiftly capturing the city.Chinasource
  • Qing general Zhao Liangdong proposes a three-pronged attack on Yunnan, with imperial armies from Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan. Cai Yurong, Viceroy of Yun-Gui, led the attack on the rebels together with Zhang Tai and Laita Giyesu, conquering Mount Wuhua and besieging Kunming.Chinasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 19 – the Quaker William Bates and a small group of emigrants depart from Dublin aboard Ye Owners Adventure to settle in British America.Irelandsource
  • The Port of Honfleur, France, is re-modelled by Abraham Duquesne.source
  • Havertown and Bryn Mawr are founded in Pennsylvania by Welsh Quakers.source
  • The Port of Honfleur is remodelled by Abraham Duquesne.Francesource

Religion & Belief

  • April 11 – Following the death of its last count, the Palatinate-Landsberg passes to the King of Sweden.source
  • June 23 – The Church of the East, an Eastern Orthodox rite in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), already split between two patriarchs in the Eliya line and the Shimun line, is split along a third line by the Roman Catholic Church when Mar Yousip of the Archdiocese of Amid (now Diyarbakır in Turkey) is proclaimed by Pope Innocent XI as Joseph I, "Patriarch of the Chaldean nation deprived of its patriarch", creating the "Josephite line" of the Chaldean Catholic Church.source
  • July 1 – Oliver Plunkett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, falsely convicted in June of treason, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, the last Catholic martyr to die in England; he is canonised in 1975.source
  • 1 July – Oliver Plunkett, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, falsely convicted of treason, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, London, the last Catholic martyr to die in England. Catholic intriguer Edward Fitzharris is executed on the same day.Englandsource
  • November 20 – Don Melchor de Navarra, Duke of Palata arrives in Lima after a voyage of almost 10 months from Spain and becomes the new Viceroy of Peru, succeeding the Archbishop of Lima, Melchor Liñán y Cisneros, who had administered the area since 1678.source
  • The basilica of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, designed by Baldassare Longhena in 1631, is dedicated.source
  • Twelve Jews convert to Christianity in the German Church in Stockholm, which attracts so great attention and propaganda value that the members of the royal family attends as witnesses.Swedensource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • May 15 – The Canal du Midi in France is opened officially, as the Canal Royal de Languedoc.source
  • 15 May – The Canal du Midi is opened officially, as the Canal Royal de Languedoc.Francesource
  • Frederiksholm Canal is dug out and Storm Bridge is built in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • An attempt to construct a dry dock in Copenhagen fails as it continues to take on water. A new dry dock is not completed until 1739 at Christianshavn.Denmarksource
  • The oldest house at Nyhavn in Copenhagen is built.Denmarksource
  • The construction of Kristiansten Fortress starts.Norwaysource

Science & Discovery

  • Ole Rømer returns to Denmark from Paris and is appointed as a professor at University of Copenhagen.Denmarksource

Health & Medicine

  • December 22 – King Charles II of England signs a warrant for the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London for wounded and retired soldiers.source
  • 22 December – King Charles II issues a warrant for the building of the Royal Hospital Chelsea for wounded and retired soldiers.Englandsource

Crime & Justice

  • April –The pastor Jacob Worm who is a prisoner at Copenhagen Fortress, is sentenced to death for his satirical poems directed at the king, Thomas Kingo (his father-in-law) and others, but is pardoned and instead send to Tranquebar in exile.Denmarksource
  • 2 July – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury charged with treason, and imprisoned in the Tower of London, but subsequently acquitted.Englandsource
  • August 31 – English perjurer Titus Oates is told to leave his state apartments in Whitehall; his fame begins to wane, and he is soon arrested and imprisoned for sedition.source
  • 31 August – Perjurer Titus Oates is told to leave his state apartments in Whitehall; his fame begins to wane, and he is soon arrested and imprisoned for sedition.Englandsource
  • The bell Emmanuel in Notre-Dame de Paris is recast.source
  • Collections are made in England for needy French refugees.source
  • The Dragonnades are instituted to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or converting to Catholicism. Collections are made in England for needy French refugees.Francesource
  • The Dutch portrait painter Ludowyk Smits is active in Dublin.Irelandsource
  • The court of the Great Reversion begins its activity and starts its confiscations of the property of the nobility.Swedensource

Disasters & Accidents

  • November 29 – A storm strikes the Isthmus of Panama and overwhelms the Spanish Navy's Flota de Tierra Firma, sinking the ship Nuestra Señora de Encarnación in the Chagres River. The Encarnación wreckage is not found until almost 340 years later, in 2011, mostly intact and still loaded with most of its cargo.source
  • December 3 – Another ship in the Flota de Terra Firma, Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, sinks in the Chagres River with the loss of its 280 crew.source
  • 18–19 April – The 1681 Trondheim fire.Norwaysource
  • The city of Sundsvall burns down.Swedensource

Culture & Society

  • 25 June – A royal decree provides for the first street lighting in Copenhagen. 500 street lights using whale oil are installed but are not to be lit on light summer nights or when the moon is out.Denmarksource
  • 29 June – King Christian V travels from Copenhagen to Kolding in just one day, leaving at 03:00 and arriving Kolding at 22:00.Denmarksource
  • August 10 – English sea captain Robert Knox of the East India Company publishes his book An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, about his adventures, 20-years imprisonment and escape from Ceylon.source
  • August 12 – Ahom King Gadadhar Singha (or Gadapani), who takes the Tai name Supaatphaa, ascends the throne.source

Births

  • March 24 – Georg Philipp Telemann, German composer (died 1767)source
  • June 26 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Swedish princess (died 1708)source
  • August 5 – Vitus Bering, Danish-born Russian explorer (died 1741)source
  • 5 August – Vitus Bering, explorer (died 1741 in Imperial Russia)Denmarksource
  • September 11 – Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, German jurist (died 1741)source
  • September 28 – Johann Mattheson, German composer (died 1764)source
  • 28 September – Sir Richard Vyvyan, 3rd Baronet, Cornish Jacobite (died 1736)Englandsource
  • October 1 – Giulia Lama, Italian painter (died 1747)source
  • November 17 – Pierre François le Courayer, French theologian (died 1776)source
  • November 28 – Jean Cavalier, French Protestant rebel leader (died 1740)source
  • Empress Xiaojingxian (28 June 1681 – 29 October 1731), of the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner Ula Nara clan, personal name Duoqimuli, was a consort of the Yongzheng Emperor. She was three years his junior.Chinasource
  • Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, princess (died 1708)Swedensource

Deaths

  • 9 January – Anne Gøye, noblewoman and book collector (born 1609)Denmarksource
  • March 6 – Michel de Marolles, French translator and churchman (born 1600)source
  • March 17 – Zheng Jing, Chinese pirate (born 1642)source
  • April 5 – John Cutt, New England merchant and politician (born 1613)source
  • April 12 – Pietro Paolini, Italian painter (born 1603)source
  • April 23 – Justus Sustermans, Flemish painter (born 1597)source
  • April – Thomas Hammond, merchant and landowner (born 1630).Norwaysource
  • May 25 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish dramatist and poet (born 1600)source
  • June 9 – William Lilly, English astrologer (born 1602)source
  • July 1 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish saint (born 1629)source
  • August 17 – Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (born 1605)source
  • August 22 – Philippe Delano, Dutch Plymouth Colony settler (born 1602)source
  • September 16 – Jahanara Begum, Mughal princess (born 1614)source
  • December 7 – Wu Shifan, grandson of Chinese general Wu Sangui, commits suicide at Kunming in Yunnan province, ending the 8-year Revolt of the Three Feudatories against the Kangxi Emperor and the Qing dynasty in China.source
  • December 8 – Gerard ter Borch, Dutch painter (born 1617)source
  • December 15 – James Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton, English politician (born 1622)source
  • Zheng Jing dies, is succeeded by his son Zheng Kezang, as regency of Kingdom of Tungning. However, Kezhang was killed by his uncle Zheng Cong in Coup of Tungning (東寧之變), and Princess Chen, Zheng's princess consort, committed suicide later. Zheng did not have any children.Chinasource
  • Nicodemus Tessin the Elder, architect (born 1615)Swedensource