1675 | Political Events
Political Events
Marshal Turenne scores a major victory over the Dutch at Turkheim January 5, recovers all of Alsace within a few weeks, but is killed July 27 at age 63 by almost the first shot fired in a battle at Sassbach in Baden. The French retreat across the Rhine, and Austrian generalissimo Raimondo Montecuccoli is finally allowed to retire.
Swedish allies of France's Louis XIV invade Brandenburg but are defeated June 28 by the elector of Brandenburg in the Battle of Fehrbellin; the elector retaliates by invading Pomerania (see 1679).
Poland's new king Jan III Sobieski concludes the secret Treaty of Jaworów with France in June, pledging himself to fight the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I once he has made peace with the Ottoman Turks (see 1674; 1676; treaty with Leopold, 1683).
Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy, dies at his native Turin June 12 at age 40 after a 37-year reign in which he has persecuted Waldensians, enlarged Turin, and consolidated Piedmont.
King Philip's War devastates New England as Chief Metacum rebels against a 1671 order requiring his people to pay an annual tribute of £100. Called King Philip of Potanoket by the colonists, Metacum leads the Narragansett and Wampanoag in attacks on 52 American settlements, destroying 12 or 13 of them and killing 600 New England male colonists.(see 1662; 1676).
Iroquois tribesmen defeat warriors of the rival Andaste and Mohegan tribes after years of conflict and turn their attention to diverting the western fur trade from Montreal to Albany, where the Five Nations can profit by acting as intermediaries. They attack tribes that have allied themselves with the French and threaten the colonists of New France, whose governor-general Louis de Buade, comte de Palluau et de Frontenac, tries to appease them but does nothing to build up a defensive capability (see 1682).