1621 - Political Events

Political Events

Spain's Felipe III dies at Madrid March 31 at age 42 after a 23-year reign. He is succeeded by his 15-year-old son, who is crowned in April at age 16 and will reign until 1665 as Felipe IV but will leave affairs of state to his court favorite, Gaspár de Guzman, 33, to whom he gives the rank of grandee (de Guzman styles himself conde-duque de Olivares and will be Felipe's prime minister beginning in 1623). Olivares breaks the truce of 1609 with Holland and resumes war, levying new taxes as he struggles to modernize the government and centralize power in the royalty.

Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford and baron Beauchamp, dies April 6 at age 80 (approximate), having lived as quietly as possible in his final years to avoid royal displeasure.

Parliament impeaches the English lord chancellor Sir Francis Bacon on charges of having taken bribes in connection with the granting of monopoly patents that have enriched the brothers of George Villiers, 29, marquess of Buckingham and lord high admiral. Bacon confesses, but he protests that the presents he received from parties in chancery suits never affected his judgment. He is fined £40,000, banished from the court and from Parliament, and declared incapable of holding future office, but James I pardons him and remits his fine.

The House of Commons petitions James I against popery and any marriage of his son Charles to the Spanish infanta. James angrily rebukes the Commons for meddling in foreign affairs. The Commons declares in a Great Protestation December 18 "That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the king, state, and defense of the realm . . . are proper subjects and matter of council and debate in parliament" (see 1622).

French forces capture Saint-Jean-d'Angély; Charles I de Blanchefort, 43, marquis de Créquy, is wounded in the action but next year will be promoted to marshal.

The cardinal archduke Albrecht VII dies at Brussels in the Spanish Netherlands July 13 at age 61, having ruled as sovereign prince of the Low Countries with his wife, Isabella, since 1598. The 12-year truce that has suspended hostilities between Spain and the Low Countries since 1609 comes to an end with Albrecht's death, and the conflict becomes part of the ongoing Thirty Years' War (see 1622).

Sweden's Gustav II Adolf resumes war with Poland, attacking Riga with a view to conquering Livonia (later Latvia). The besieged city holds out for just over a month before surrendering September 15. Swedish forces occupy Mitau October 3, but sickness in their ranks have taken such a toll that the king has had to call in at least 10,000 reinforcements. The two sides declare a truce, and hostilities will not resume until 1625.

An Ottoman army estimated to number 400,000 tries to take the Polish city of Chocim; some 65,000 Poles and Cossacks resist the invaders; but the Polish general Jan Karol Chodkiewicz dies at Chocim September 24 at age 61 after forcing the Turks to raise their siege.

Dutch governor-general Jan Pieterszoon Coen invites the English in January to join him in an expedition to conquer the three islands that constitute the Bandas from the Portuguese (see 1620); the English decline his offer, an all-Dutch fleet proceeds to the Bandas on the pretext of punishing the Bandanese for having disregarded commercial agreements, but while Coen's successful conquest enables the Dutch East India Company to vie with the English for control of the spice trade, his wholesale slaughter and enslavement of the natives draws a reprimand from directors of the company (see 1622; Amboina, 1623).