1717 CE

Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, was arrested in London for a plot to assist the Pretender to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart. Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart. Water Music by George Frederick Handel is first performed, on a Thames barge in London.

In the 1710s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 4 (December 24, 1716 Old Style) – The kingdoms of Great 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 November 28 (November 17) 1716.source
  • 4 January (24 December 1716 OS) – Triple Alliance treaty between France, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain against SpainFrancesource
  • 4 January – Britain, the Dutch Republic and France sign the Triple Alliance.United Kingdomsource
  • 10 April – following the dismissal of his ally Lord Townshend, Robert Walpole resigns from the government. This begins the Whig Split which lasts until 1720.United Kingdomsource
  • 12 April – writer and politician Joseph Addison is appointed Southern Secretary in the remodelled government now dominated by James Stanhoe.United Kingdomsource
  • May 27 – Spain creates the Viceroyalty of New Granada in South America from the northern section of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The viceroyalty, with a capital at Bogotá, later declares independence and splits up into what become the nations of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.source
  • July – Indemnity Act frees most Jacobites from imprisonment. The Clan Gregor are specifically excluded.Scotlandsource
  • August 3 – the title Viscount Boyne, in the province of Leinster, is created in the peerage of Ireland in favour of the Scottish military commander Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Baron Hamilton of Stackallan.Irelandsource
  • Murshid Quli Khan declares himself the first Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The Nawabs of Bengal will effectively function as near-sovereign rulers of Bengal while being nominally loyal to the Mughal Empire.source
  • The total Cape Colony population is estimated at 744 officials, 2000 burghers, and 2700 slaves.South Africasource
  • The VOC establishes an administrative post at Ziekenhuys to control the Cape Colony's eastern borders.South Africasource

Conflict & Security

  • February 1 – The Silent Sejm, in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, marks the beginning of the Russian Empire's increasing influence and control over the Commonwealth.source
  • August 17 – The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends, with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.source
  • August 22 – Spanish troops arrive on the island of Sardinia, at this time a part of the Holy Roman Empire, beginning the conquest of the island, completed by October 30.source
  • September 5 – King George I of Great Britain issues the "Proclamation for Suppressing of Pirates in the West Indies", an offer of amnesty to pirates, declaring that any pirates who surrender themselves to the government of Britain or one of its overseas territories, on or before September 5, 1718, "shall have Our Gracious Pardon of and for his or their Piracy or Piracies" committed before January 5, 1718. The amnesty is later extended to July 1, 1719.source
  • October 30 – The Spanish conquest of Sardinia, at this time part of the Holy Roman Empire, is finished two months after Spanish forces had landed on the island on August 22, as the last Sardinian outpost, Castelsardo, surrenders.source
  • November – a rift between the King and his son the Prince of Wales leads to the latter with his wife being banished from the royal household but not allowed to take their children with them. The Prince now sides with the Opposition Whigs.United Kingdomsource
  • The Charleville musket enters service in France.source
  • The 1717 Omani invasion of Bahrain removes the control of Persia over the Arabian kingdom of Bahrain.source
  • The Tatar invasions in Transylvania devastate many towns, including Cavnic, Sighet and Dej.source
  • 13–14 May – Battle of Gothenburg, battle of the Great Northern War.Denmarksource
  • The VOC restricts European settlement to address burgher unrest, frontier conflicts, and agricultural overproduction.South Africasource

Exploration & Expansion

  • The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) is set up in Cádiz.source
  • Fort Kaministiquia was founded by French merchants to be the first in a series of forts reaching westward to expand trade and seek a route to the western sea. (Daniel Greysolon Dulhut had built a fort, (Fort Caministigoyan), at the same location on the Kaministiquia River in 1679.)Canadasource
  • Planters move from Saint Thomas to Saint John. leading to Denmark claiming the island in 1718.Denmarksource
  • Horse post introduced between Glasgow, Edinburgh and points north.Scotlandsource
  • The ban on free trade with the Khoikhoi is reinstated, after previously being suspended in 1704.South Africasource

Religion & Belief

  • February 6 – Following the treaty between France and Britain, the Pretender James Stuart leaves France, and seeks refuge with Pope Clement XI.source
  • February – as part of the Triple Alliance treaty between Britain and France, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the Pope.Scotlandsource
  • March 31 – Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, brings the Bangorian Controversy within the Church of England into the open by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of, King George I of Great Britain, on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36), concluding there is no Biblical justification for church government.source
  • 31 March – Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, extends the Bangorian Controversy by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of, King George on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36), concluding there is no Biblical justification for church government.United Kingdomsource
  • 31 March - In the presence of King George I of Great Britain, Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, gives a sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ", beginning the Bangorian Controversy.Walessource
  • 24 June – Grand Lodge of London and Westminster, the first Freemasonic Grand Lodge (the later United Grand Lodge of England), is founded.United Kingdomsource
  • Maharaja Pamheiba of Manipur is converted to Hinduism by Shantidas Goswami, and decrees it to be the official religion of his state.source
  • The last two volumes of Antoine Galland's Les mille et une nuits are published posthumously in Lyon of the first translation of One Thousand and One Nights into a European language, including the first translation of the story of Ali BabaFrancesource
  • Seminarium Lapponicum is established in Trondheim, a school for preparing teachers to teach in Sami language.Norwaysource
  • Approximate date – the seminary at Scalan begins to train Roman Catholic priests.Scotlandsource
  • Benjamin Hoadly – The Nature of the Kingdom, or Church of ChristWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • Drummonds Bank is founded in London by Scottish goldsmith Andrew Drummond.Scotlandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 27 March – Actress Adrienne Lecouvreur is invited to join the Comédie-Française in Paris, performing first in the title rôle of Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon's ElectreFrancesource
  • 17 July – George Frideric Handel's Water Music performed on a barge on the River Thames for King George I.United Kingdomsource
  • 19 September - Japanning of tinplate begins at Pontypool.Walessource
  • Fort Prince of Wales founded by the Hudson's Bay Company, (rebuilt later in stone in 1731.)Canadasource
  • Carrbridge Packhorse Bridge built.Scotlandsource
  • The Board of Ordnance establishes an Officer Corps of Engineers within the British Army, the immediate predecessor of the Royal Engineers.United Kingdomsource
  • Kentish Post newspaper begins publication in Canterbury.United Kingdomsource
  • The Lower Swansea valley's first copper smelting works is opened by John Lane and John Pollard (possibly his step father-in-law) at Llangyfelach, Landore.Walessource

Science & Discovery

  • Thomas Fairchild, a nurseryman at Hoxton in the East End of London, becomes the first person to produce a successful scientific plant hybrid, Dianthus Caryophyllus barbatus, known as Fairchild's Mule.source

Health & Medicine

  • October 9 – King Philip V of Spain orders the closure of all universities in Catalonia, including the historic Estudi General de Lleida.source
  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul, has her son inoculated.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 1 – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, was arrested in London for a plot to assist the Pretender to the British throne, James Francis Edward Stuart.source
  • 1 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador to Great Britain, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.Scotlandsource
  • 1 January – Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.United Kingdomsource
  • 1 July – Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, is acquitted of conspiracy with the French to put the Pretender on the throne.United Kingdomsource
  • August – Handel becomes house composer at Cannons.United Kingdomsource
  • October 18 – Trial begins in Boston for six pirates who had survived the April 26 wreck of Samuel Bellamy's ships Whydah and the Mary Anne. Five of them (John Brown, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter Cornelius Hoof and John Shuan) are convicted on October 22 of piracy and robbery and hanged on November 15.source
  • November 28 – Pirates led by Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and Benjamin Hornigold capture the French slave transport Concorde near island of Saint Vincent the West Indies. Blackbeard renames the vessel Queen Anne's Revenge, adds to its armaments, and makes it his flagship. Hornigold soon accepts a British amnesty for all pirates, and Blackbeard teams up with Stede Bonnet and begins plundering ships approaching North American ports.source
  • François-Marie Arouet is sentenced to imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, because of a satirical verse against the Régent of France and his infamous daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, who is hiding an illegitimate pregnancy and soon to give birth; Arouet will emerge with the pseudonym Voltaire and the completed text of his first play, Œdipe.source
  • Meddylieu Neillduol ar GrefyddWalessource
  • Welsh-born David Lloyd is appointed Chief Justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 26 – The Whydah Gally, flagship of English pirate Samuel Bellamy, is wrecked in a storm off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Whydah sinks with a reputed 4 1/2 tons of treasure on board, and all but two of her crew are lost, including Bellamy.source
  • 24 December - HDMS Lossen is wrecked during the Christmas storm of 1717, outside the island Vesterøy in Hvaler.Norwaysource
  • Collegium of Mining and ManufacturingRussiasource

Climate & Environment

  • February 26–March 6 – What becomes the northeastern United States is paralyzed by a series of blizzards that bury the region.source
  • September 29 – Guatemala earthquake: A 7.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city, and making authorities consider moving the capital of Guatemala to a different location.source
  • December 24–25 – Christmas flood: A disastrous flood hits the North Sea coast, between the Netherlands and Denmark; thousands die or lose their houses.source
  • 25 December – The Christmas Flood of 1717 affects the west coast of Sønderjylland.Denmarksource
  • Most recent rupture of New Zealand's Alpine Fault, with an earthquake estimated to have had a magnitude between 7.8 and 8.1.source
  • Future land grants become loan farms instead of freehold, requiring farmers to pay rent to the VOC. The 400 freehold farms already granted remain unaffected.South Africasource
  • Assisted European immigration is halted, and future development is to rely solely on slave labor.South Africasource

Culture & Society

  • March 2 – Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.source
  • 2 March – dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.United Kingdomsource
  • 16 May – Voltaire is sentenced to eleven months in the Bastille and banished from Paris for criticizing the Duc D'Orléans; while in prison he writes his first play, Oedipe ("Oedipus")Francesource
  • June 24 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the Modern and first Free-Masonic Grand Lodge (which merges with the Ancient Grand Lodge of England in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded in London.source
  • July 17 – Water Music by George Frederick Handel is first performed, on a Thames barge in London.source
  • August 7 – Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, sworn in as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.Irelandsource
  • September 21 – The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, what will later become the Ancient Order of Druids.source
  • 21 September – the first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, which is later to become the Ancient Order of Druids.United Kingdomsource
  • October 16 – Antonio Vivaldi's opera Tieteberga is performed for the first time, premiering at the Teatro San Moisè in Venicesource
  • 6 December – Colley Cibber's play The Non-Juror premieres at Drury Lane. Strongly anti-Jacobite, it is a popular success.United Kingdomsource
  • December 9 (November 29, O.S.) - King George I of Great Britain banishes his son and daughter-in-law, George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Ansbach, from the royal household after the Prince threatens the King's personal assistant, the Duke of Newcastle, the royal Lord Chamberlain. The altercation takes place at the baptismal ceremony for the Prince's newborn son, George William.source
  • Hugh MacCurtin's A brief discourse in vindication of the antiquity of Ireland, out of many authentick Irish histories and chronicles (based on Geoffrey Keating's History of Ireland) is published in Dublin The author is imprisoned in the city about this time.Irelandsource
  • Niels Wernersen was ennobled, and given the noble family name Werenskiold.Norwaysource

Births

  • January 5 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, English statesman (died 1793)source
  • January 18 – Jean-François-Marie de Surville, French trader and navigator (died 1770)source
  • January 29 – Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (died 1797)source
  • January 29 - Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, army officer (died 1797)Canadasource
  • 11 February - William Williams (Pantycelyn), poet, hymn-writer and religious leader (died 1791)Walessource
  • February 19 – David Garrick, English actor (died 1779)source
  • April – Pieter Barbiers, Dutch artist (died 1780)source
  • May 13 – Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, consort of the Holy Roman Emperor (died 1780)source
  • August – Sophie de Lafont, Russian educator (died 1797)source
  • September 24 – Horace Walpole, English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician (died 1797)source
  • 24 September – Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, writer (died 1797)United Kingdomsource
  • September 28 – William Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, British diplomat and statesman (died 1781)source
  • October – James Paine, English architect (died 1789)source
  • November 14 – Alexander Sumarokov, poet, play write (died 1777)Russiasource
  • November 16 – Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician and encyclopædist (died 1783)source
  • December 9 – Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German classical scholar and archaeologist (died 1768)source
  • December 27 – Pope Pius VI, born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, Italian pontiff (died 1799)source
  • December 29 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (died 1787)source

Deaths

  • January 13 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-born Swiss naturalist and scientific illustrator, who studied plants and insects and made detailed paintings of them (born 1647)source
  • February 23 – Magnus Stenbock, Swedish military officer (born 1664)source
  • March 8 – Abraham Darby I, English ironmaster, first of that name of three generations of a Quaker family that was key to the development of the Industrial Revolution (born 1678)source
  • 8 March – Abraham Darby I, first of that name of three generations of a Quaker family that was key to the development of the Industrial Revolution (born 1678)United Kingdomsource
  • April 26 – Samuel Bellamy English-born pirate (born 1689)source
  • May 10 – John Hathorne, American magistrate (born 1641)source
  • 3 June - Thomas Watson, former Bishop of St David's, 80Walessource
  • June 9 – Jeanne Guyon, French mystic (born 1648)source
  • July 1 – Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark (born 1647)source
  • August 10 – Nicolaes Witsen, Mayor of Amsterdam, Netherlands (born 1641)source
  • August 16 – William Blathwayt, English civil servant and politician (born 1649)source
  • August – William Cochrane, Scottish MP in the Parliament of Great Britainsource
  • October – Philippe Pastour de Costebelle, French naval officer and Governor of Newfoundland (born 1661)source
  • November 21 – Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter (born 1650)source
  • December 5 – Richard Onslow, 1st Baron Onslow, English politician (born 1654)source
  • December 25 – Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers, English peer and courtier (born 1650)source
  • Pierre Boucher, explorer (born 1622)Canadasource
  • (N/A) - Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, commander (born N/A)Russiasource