1586

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Events

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January – March

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.<ref>"Augustus I", Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). Vol. 2</ref>
January 18 – The 7.9 magnitude Tenshō earthquake strikes the Chubu region of Japan, triggering a tsunami and causing at least 8,000 deaths.<ref name="Yamamura">Template:Cite journal</ref>
February 11
- After a two-day battle, an English assault force led by Francis Drake captures the South American port of Cartagena de Indias, part of Spain's colony, the Viceroyalty of Peru (now Cartagena in Colombia.
- In Dresden, Christian I becomes the new Elector of Saxony, after the death of his father Augustus.
February 14 – In India, Yakub Shah Chak becomes the new Sultan of Kashmir after the death of his father, the Sultan Yousuf Shah.<ref>Haidar Malik Chadurah, History of Kashmir (Jaykay Books, 2013) p.185</ref>
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.<ref name=Sarkar>Jadunath Sarkar and Raghubir Sinh, A History of Jaipur, c. 1503-1938 (Orient Longman, 1984), pp. 68-69</ref>
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".<ref>Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 316-320</ref>
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.<ref>Johann Heinrich Hennes, Der Kampf um das Erzstift Köln zur Zeit der Kurfürsten (1878), pp. 156–162</ref>
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.<ref>Mauricia Tazartes, El Greco (Explorer Press, 2005) p.49</ref>
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.<ref>"Exeter Typhus Epidemic of 1586", in Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, 2008, by George C. Kohn (Facts on File, 2007) p.122</ref> 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."<ref>Alexander Jenkins, Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the City of Exeter and its Environs (Exeter, 1841) p. 125</ref>
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.

April – June

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.
May 27 – English privateers, commanded by Sir Francis Drake, carry out a raid on the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine, Florida.<ref>Angus Konstam, The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main - 1585-86 (Osprey, 2011) p.66-70</ref>
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.<ref>Graham Darby, The Origins and Development of the Dutch Revolt (Routledge, 2001) p.190</ref>

July – September

July 6 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Queen Elizabeth I of England and King James VI of Scotland.<ref name="CBH 1586"/>
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.
July 21 – English explorer Thomas Cavendish begins the first deliberately planned circumnavigation of the globe.<ref name=TTH>Template:Cite book</ref>
July 22 – Sir Francis Drake and his crew return to England, arriving at Portsmouth to heroes' welcome.<ref>John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake (Pimlico Press, 2006) pp. 189-190</ref>
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.
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.<ref>Peter Hamish Wilson, The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy (Penguin Group, 2009) p.210</ref>
September 14 – In one of the most spectacular feats of engineering up to that time, devised by Domenico Fontana, the Template:Convert 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.
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.<ref name="Cassell's Chronology 1586">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed
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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

October – December

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.<ref name="CBH 1586">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>Hmannan Yazawin, p. 84 (2003)</ref> The invasion will fail, as thousands of troops die from starvation and disease and the Burmese troops will withdraw in April.
October 25– Mary, Queen of Scots, is convicted of treason and sentenced to death. She will be beheaded on February 8.
November 19 – English Separatist Puritan Henry Barrowe is imprisoned.
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.

Date unknown

Flemish mathematician Simon Stevin publishes a study showing that two objects of different weight fall with the same speed.
Jacobus Gallus composes his motet O magnum mysterium.
English topographer William Harrison becomes canon of Windsor.
António da Madalena from Portugal is the first westerner to visit Angkor Wat.
English ship Vanguard, the first Royal Navy vessel to bear this name, is launched at Woolwich.
The cities of Voronezh, Samara, and Tyumen in Russia are founded.