1590-1599 - The Turn of the Century

1590 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth is on the English throne – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 26

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 26

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 57

November 18, Elizabeth “Bess” Hardwick’s husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, dies

November 21, The foundation on Bess Hardwick’s new home, Hardwick Hall, is complete, Hardwick Hall is not her first building project, she had worked on Chatsworth for 30 years (Devices and Desires, Bess of Hardwick and the Building of Elizabethan England, Intro)

 

1591 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 27

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 27

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 58

 

1592 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 28

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 28

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 59

  

1593 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 29

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 29

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 60

William Harvey (1578-1657), leaves the King’s School in Canterbury and goes to study arts and medicine at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge (until 1599)

  

1594 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 30

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 30

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 61

  

1595 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 31

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 31

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 62

  

1596 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 32

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 32

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 63

  

1597 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain (House of Habsburg) – Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 33

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 33

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 64

Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, premiers

 

1598 

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip II is king of Spain until September 13 when his son Phillip III becomes king (House of Habsburg) – Feodor I is tsar of Russia until he dies on January 17 and his wife Irina Godunova becomes Tsarina 

Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family)

January 17, Tsar Feodor I dies in Moscow, aged 40, without leaving behind an heir to the throne, so with him dies the centuries old Rurik dynasty, and begins the “Time of Troubles,” Feodor is buried in the Archangel Cathedral, Kremlin, Feodor’s wife, Irina becomes the tsarina, but her right to the throne is disputed, and Russia is plunged into a time of anarchy and lawlessness, it will only end with the ascension of Michael I of the House of Romanov in 1613 (Wikipedia)

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 34

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 34

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 65

September 8, An expedition under the command of Juan de Oñate founds the first city of the new Province of Nuevo Mexico (the state of New Mexico in the USA) at San Juan de los Caballeros; This is the the zenith of imperial expansion, after which, Habsburg Spain will make no more great conquests or discoveries  

September 13, Philip II, king of Spain, of the House of Habsburg, dies, aged 71, at El Escorial, his monastery-palace, outside of Madrid; His son Philip III ascends the throne at 20 years old; His mother, Anna of Austria, died in 1580 when he was 2 years old

Duke Humfrey’s library in Oxford is refurbished by Thomas Bodley

 

1599  

RULERS & ROYALTY: Elizabeth I is queen of England – Philip III is king of Spain (House of Habsburg), Margaret of Austria is queen consort 

Albert Fredrick is Duke of Prussia (he is the second Duke of Prussia of the Hohenzollern family)

February 15, The Polish astronomer, Galileo Galilei, turns 35

April 18, Philip III, king of Spain, marries his first cousin, Margaret of Austria

April 25, The English playwright, William Shakespeare, turns 35

September 7, Queen Elizabeth I turns 66

Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, premiers, he also writes his play, Hamlet, somewhere between this year and 1601

William Harvey (1578-1657) leaves Cambridge and goes to study at the University of Padua, the leading medical school in Europe, there he becomes the student of Italian anatomist and surgeon Hieronymous Fabricius, who will have a considerable influence on Harvey