1677 - Political Events

Political Events

Juan José de Austria drives Spain's queen regent Maria from court early in the year along with her favorite Fernande Valenzuela (see 1669). Now 47, Don Juan makes himself chief minister, but his arrogance, paranoia, and indulgence in intrigue at the expense of the common weal makes him thoroughly unpopular. Spain's territorial empire covers much of the known world, but her soil is barely cultivated, her food costly, and her population dwindling. Spain has become a third-rate power (see 1613).

France's duc d'Orléans defeats the Dutch at Cassel.

A Dutch-Danish fleet under the command of Niels Juel defeats a Swedish fleet at the Bay of Koge in the ongoing Scanian War (see 1676).

The Dutch stadholder Willem of Orange turns 27 November 4 and is married that day at London to the duke of York's 15-year-old daughter Mary, a niece of England's Charles II. Charles's chief minister Thomas Osborne, 45, earl of Danby, has engineered the marriage to effect an alliance with France's chief opponent on the Continent, but Danby acts on the king's orders to obtain a secret yearly subsidy from Louis XIV (see 1678).