1716 CE

The Jacobite pretender to the British throne James Stuart is forced to leave France due to the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. He takes up residence in the Papal exclave in Avignon and later moves to Italy. In India, 600 imprisoned members of the failed Sikh Khalsa rebellion against the Mughal Empire are executed on orders of the Emperor Farrukhsiyar. Banda Singh Bahadur, leader of the rebellion, is brutally tortured and mutilated before being killed. During the war between the Habsburg Empire ruling Austria and the Ottoman Empire ruling Turkey, the six week siege of the fortified city of Temeşvar ends with it being surrendered by the Turks to the Austrians. Under a flag of truce, the Turks are permitted to depart but have to leave behind their artillery as they give up their claim to Hungary. Austro-Hungarian rule lasts until World War One, and in 1919, the city of Timișoara becomes part of the Kingdom of Romania.

In the 1710s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 16 – The application of the Nueva Planta decrees to Catalonia make it subject to the laws of the Crown of Castile, and abolishes the Principality of Catalonia as a political entity, concluding the unification of Spain under Philip V.source
  • 10 February – the pretender James Francis Edward Stuart flees to France with the Earl of Mar. He dismisses Lord Bolingbroke as his Secretary of State replacing him with Mar.United Kingdomsource
  • February – Charles XII gives Georg Heinrich von Görtz the responsibility of internal affairs.Swedensource
  • April – The Jacobite pretender to the British throne James Stuart is forced to leave France due to the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. He takes up residence in the Papal exclave in Avignon and later moves to Italy.Francesource
  • June 25 – With the Holy Roman Empire having been ceded the "Southern Netherlands" (modern Belgium) from Spain, Prince Eugene of Savoy arrives in Brussels as the first Governor-General of the Austrian Netherlands. Eugene soon returns home and leaves administration of the area to a dictatorial Hercule-Louis Turinetti.source
  • July 5 – Prince Ernest Augustus is created Duke of York and Albany, in the peerage of Great Britain.source
  • November 1 – Two new laws go into effect in the Highlands of Scotland to prevent a threat to Britain's ruling House of Hanover by the Jacobites who supported the restoration of the House of Stuart. The Disarming Act requires government authorisation to carry swords and firearms, and the amendments to the Treason Act 1714 permit trials for treason to take place in any court in England, regardless of where the crime was committed.source
  • 1 November – Disarming Act, passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, comes into effect, intended to prevent clansmen in the Highlands from having weapons.Scotlandsource
  • 24 December (4 January 1717 New Style) – Britain, France and the Dutch Republic sign the Triple Alliance in an attempt to maintain the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Britain having signed a preliminary alliance with France on 17 November (28 November New Style).United Kingdomsource
  • Johan Ludvig Holstein settles as a courtier and government official in Denmark.Denmarksource
  • Confiscating the estates of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde and vesting them in the Crown, and abolishing the county palatine of Tipperary.Irelandsource
  • The titles Viscount Molesworth and Baron Philipstown, of Swords in the County of Dublin, are created in the Peerage of Ireland for Robert Molesworth.Irelandsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 27 – The Tugaloo massacre changes the course of the Yamasee War, allying the Cherokee nation with the British province of South Carolina against the Creek Indian nation.source
  • January 28 – The town of Crieff, Scotland, is burned to the ground by Jacobites returning from the Battle of Sheriffmuir.source
  • January – the Duke of Argyll disperses the remainder of the Jacobite troops.United Kingdomsource
  • 24 February – execution of the Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater, and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure in London.Scotlandsource
  • March 8 – King Charles XII of Sweden leads an invasion of Norway, crossing the border at Basmo, near the modern-day town of Marker.source
  • 8 March - King Charles XII of Sweden leads an invasion of Norway, crossing the border at Basmo, near the modern-day town of Marker.Norwaysource
  • March 10 – Simon Fraser, a former Scottish rebel who had helped end the Siege of Inverness during the first Jacobite rising, is given a pardon by King George I of Great Britain.source
  • 8 April – Swedish Wismar is taken.Swedensource
  • April 13 – Austria, ruled by King Charles VI, renews its alliance with the Republic of Venice, leading the Ottoman Empire, ruled by Ahmed III, to declare war.source
  • April - The forces of Charles XII of Sweden briefly occupy Christiania.Norwaysource
  • May 26 – Two regular companies of field artillery, each 100 men strong, are raised at Woolwich, by Royal Warrant of King George I of Great Britain.source
  • 28 May – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, suffers a paralytic stroke. He recovers and remains Captain General of the army, but his duties are increasingly taken over by subordinatesUnited Kingdomsource
  • July 8–August 21 – Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Empire unsuccessfully lays siege to Corfu, the last bastion of the Republic of Venice in the Greek islands.source
  • July 8 – The Battle of Dynekilen: The Swedish fleet is defeated by a Danish–Norwegian fleet.source
  • 8 July – Battle of Dynekilen, battle of the Great Northern War.Denmarksource
  • August 3 – Natchez, one of the oldest towns on the Mississippi River, is founded by French civilians at the site of Fort Rosalie.source
  • August 4 – George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton, under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent.source
  • 4 August – George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton, under sentence of death for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1715, escapes from the Tower of London and flees into exile on the continent.Scotlandsource
  • October 12 – During the war between the Habsburg Empire ruling Austria and the Ottoman Empire ruling Turkey, the six week siege of the fortified city of Temeşvar ends with it being surrendered by the Turks to the Austrians. Under a flag of truce, the Turks are permitted to depart but have to leave behind their artillery as they give up their claim to Hungary. Austro-Hungarian rule lasts until World War One, and in 1919, the city of Timișoara becomes part of the Kingdom of Romania.source

Exploration & Expansion

Religion & Belief

  • 16 January – William Wake appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury.United Kingdomsource
  • January John Evans, Bishop of Bangor, is translated to Meath in Ireland, leaving Wales without any Welsh-speaking bishops for a prolonged period.Walessource
  • 24 February - Peter Jansen Wessel was ennobled, and given the noble family name Tordenskiold.Norwaysource
  • March 18 – Italian Jesuit missionary Ippolito Desideri arrives in Lhasa to become one of the first Europeans to attempt to bring Christianity to Buddhist Tibet.source
  • March 23 – Jeremias III becomes the new Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church.source
  • August 24 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, returns from Italy.source
  • Myles Davies – Athenae Britannicae (six vols., London)Walessource
  • Welsh translation of works by Tertullian and Cyprian, probably by John Morgan of MatchinWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • May 20 – John Law founds the Banque Générale Privée in Paris.source
  • May - John Law Scottish economist establishes Le Banque Générale in Paris.Francesource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 3 August – Martin Düssel and Christoffer Düssel are ennobled with letters patent under the name “von Falkenskiold”, founding the noble House of Falkenskiold.Denmarksource
  • 29 September – the original Portland Bill Lighthouse is first illuminated.United Kingdomsource
  • Drainage and navigation of the River Shannon.Irelandsource
  • The Norwegian Campaigns startedRussiasource

Science & Discovery

  • March 6 – At night, an aurora borealis is seen throughout Europe, from Ireland to Italy.source
  • Chalybeate mineral springs are discovered in Cheltenham.United Kingdomsource

Health & Medicine

  • May 28 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, suffers a paralytic stroke.source
  • Tsar Peter the Great of Russia studies with the physician Herman Boerhaave, at Leiden University.source

Crime & Justice

  • September 15 – "Maria", an African slave of the Dutch West India Company on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, murders the plantation overseer, Christiaan Muller, then leads a rebellion, killing Muller's family and much of the white staff on the company's plantation. The uprising is suppressed after 10 days, and Maria is executed by burning at the stake on November 9.source
  • September 26 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, eldest son of the Tsar Peter the Great and heir to the throne, flees from Saint Petersburg with his mistress, Efrosinya Fedorova, along with her brother and three servants. After spending more than a year in Austria, he returns to Russia where he is arrested and dies in prison in 1718.source
  • English pirate Edward Teach (Blackbeard) is given command of a sloop in the Bahamas.source
  • 5–10 February – The pretender James Francis Edward Stuart flees from Montrose to France. He dismisses Lord Bolingbroke as his secretary of state.Scotlandsource
  • The Jacobite John Erskine, Earl of Mar, is attainted for treason by the Parliament of Great Britain.Scotlandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 4 July - Fredrikshald is set on fire by its inhabitants as to prevent the city being taken by the forces of King Charles XII.Norwaysource
  • A fire in Wapping destroys 150 houses.United Kingdomsource

Climate & Environment

  • February 3 – The 1716 Algiers earthquake sequence begins with a Mw 7.0 mainshock that causes severe damage and kills 20,000 in Algeria.source
  • February 10 – James Edward Stuart flees from Scotland to France with a handful of supporters, following the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715.source
  • December 12 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, is demoted from his office as Secretary of State for the Northern Department in the British government, and replaced by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope. This is a move towards the Whig Split of 1717.source
  • 12 December – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, is demoted from his office as Secretary of State for the Northern Department in the British government and replaced by James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope a prelude to the Whig Split of the following year.United Kingdomsource

Culture & Society

  • 5 July – Prince Ernest Augustus, younger brother of George I, is created Duke of York and Albany in the peerage of Great Britain.United Kingdomsource
  • 18 July – Melusine von der Schulenburg, mistress of George I, is created for life Duchess of Munster, Marchioness of Dungannon, Countess of Dungannon and Baroness Dundalk, in the Peerage of Ireland.United Kingdomsource
  • 27 July Griffith Jones becomes rector of Llanddowror, under the patronage of his brother-in-law Sir John Philipps, 4th Baronet.Walessource
  • 9 November – In London, Caroline of Ansbach, Princess of Wales, gives birth to a stillborn son, Prince Augustus George of Wales.Walessource
  • November 12 – Johann Sigismund Kusser (Cousser) is appointed "Master of the Music, attending His Majesties State in Ireland".Irelandsource
  • 13 December – John Ker, 1st Duke of Roxburghe, is appointed Secretary of State for Scotland.Scotlandsource
  • The Kangxi Dictionary is published, laying the foundation of most references to Han characters studied in the future.source
  • Peter the Great visits Copenhagen. He ascends the Round Tower on horseback while visiting Copenhagen. His wife, Catherine I, reportedly ascended behind him in a carriage.Denmarksource
  • Karl Leopold married Catherine Ivanovna of RussiaRussiasource

Births

Deaths

  • January 30 – Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien, French-born Polish consort to King John III Sobieski (born 1641)source
  • 19 February – Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, hymn and poem writer (born 1634).Norwaysource
  • February 24 – Jacobite leaders James Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater and William Gordon, 6th Viscount of Kenmure are executed in London.source
  • April 26 – John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (born 1651)source
  • April 28 – Saint Louis de Montfort, author, True Devotion to Mary (born 1673)source
  • June 2 – Ogata Kōrin, Japanese painter (born c. 1657)source
  • June 9 – In India, 600 imprisoned members of the failed Sikh Khalsa rebellion against the Mughal Empire are executed on orders of the Emperor Farrukhsiyar. Banda Singh Bahadur, leader of the rebellion, is brutally tortured and mutilated before being killed.source
  • June 9 – Banda Bahadur, Sikh military commander (executed) (born 1670)source
  • June 19 – The new Tokugawa Shogun of Japan, Tokugawa Yoshimune, assumes control of the monarchy's military after the illness and death of the six-year-old Ietsugu, last of the male descendants of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Yoshimune's ascendancy begins Year 1 of the Kyōhō Era, which continues until Year 21 in 1736.source
  • August 5 – Battle of Petrovaradin: 83,300 Austrian troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy defeat 150,000 Ottoman Turks under Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha (who is killed).source
  • 29 September – David Edwards, Independent minister, 56Walessource
  • October 28 – Stephen Fox, English politician (born 1627)source
  • 28 October – Stephen Fox, politician (born 1627)United Kingdomsource
  • November 2 – Engelbert Kaempfer, German traveler, physician (born 1651)source
  • November 14 – Gottfried Leibniz, German philosopher, scientist, and mathematician (born 1646)source
  • November 29 – Ofspring Blackall, Bishop of Exeter (born 1655)source
  • December 4 – Fifty people are killed, and 150 houses burned, when a fire breaks out in Wapping, London. The blaze comes two days after a fire at the Spring Gardens at St. James's, London, which destroyed the French Chapel there and which was put out by several rescuers, including the future King George II.source
  • Eugenios Voulgaris, Greek clericRussiasource