1687 - Political Events

Political Events

England's James II appoints Richard Talbot, earl Tyrconnell, his lord deputy of Ireland in February. Now 56, Tyrconnell will make himself highly unpopular.

Ukrainian Cossack Ivan Stepanovich Mazepa-Koledinsky, 43, visits Moscow, gains favor with the prime minister Vasili Vasilievich Golitsyn, 44, and virtually purchases the hetmanship of the Cossacks July 25 (see Chmielnicki, 1657). Educated at the court of the late Polish king John II Casimir, Mazepa was caught in bed with a married Polish woman, and her husband tied him naked to the back of a wild horse. Dnieperian Cossacks rescued him on the steppe, and he has risen to leadership among them (see 1704).

The Second Battle of Mohács in southern Hungary August 12 gives Charles of Lorraine a victory over the Ottoman Turks. Supported by Max Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, Charles has advanced into Slovenia and Transylvania with a Christian army that numbers 60,000, including 45,000 Austrians, 8,500 Bavarians, and 6,000 Croats and Hungarians. The Ottoman army is larger, but it is routed, and more than 10,000 men are killed and wounded, most of them while fleeing. Losses to the Christian army total about 1,000 killed and wounded. Erlau in Hungary capitulates to Austrian forces September 14 after a century under Ottoman rule. The diet of Pressburg confers hereditary succession to the Hungarian throne upon the male line of Austria.

His Janissaries blame the Ottoman sultan Mehmet IV, now 48, for the defeat at Mohács, and they depose him November 8, throwing him into prison, where he will die in 1692. His 47-year-old brother will reign until 1691 as Suleiman II.

Venetian admiral Francesco Morosini, now 69, reconquers the Greek Peloponessus from the Ottoman Turks and even captures Athens, which he shells. Upon his return to Venice, he is heaped with honors and given the title "Peloponnesiaco."

A French squadron of six warships arrives at Bangkok with 600 soldiers. Encouraged by the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon to believe that the Siamese king Narai might give him territorial concessions and even accept conversion to Christianity, Louis XIV has sent three diplomatic missions to Siam, beginning in 1680 (see 1688).