Year 1701 (MDCCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday ^[1] of the 11-day slower Julian calendar. Year 1701 of the Swedish calendar was a common year starting on Tuesday, one weekday ahead of the Julian calendar. It was the first year of the 18th century.

[edit] Events of 1701

[edit] January–June

• 18 January – The electorate of Brandenburg-Prussia becomes the Kingdom of Prussia as Elector Frederick III is proclaimed King Frederick I. Prussia remains part of the Holy Roman Empire. It consists of Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia. Berlin is the capital.
• 8 March – Mecklenburg-Strelitz is created as a north German duchy.
• March – The War of the Spanish Succession begins. It is an international retaliation to Louis XIV’s acceptance in 1700 of the Spanish crown on behalf of his grandson Philip of Anjou, who became Philip V, first Bourbon king of Spain. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor forms the Grand Alliance with Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, Savoy and Prussia. Louis XIV allies France with Spain and Bavaria.
• 21 April – In Japan, the young daimyo Asano Naganori is ordered to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). A group of 47 samurai of his service begin planning to avenge his death.
• 23 May – After being convicted of murdering William Moore and for piracy, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London.
• 24 June – The Act of Settlement 1701 is passed by the Parliament of England to exclude the Catholic Stuarts from the British monarchy. Under its terms, King William III, childless, would be succeeded by Queen Mary II's sister Princess Anne and her descendants. If Anne should have no descendants, she would be succeeded by Sophia of Hanover and her descendants (hence the Hanoverian Succession in 1714).

[edit] July–December

• 24 July – Foundation of a French emporium named Fort Ponchartrain (later to become Detroit, Michigan).
• 4 August – The Great Peace of Montreal was signed, ending 100 years of war between the Iroquois Confederacy and New France and its Huron and Algonquian allies. Formerly allied with the English, the treaty assured the Iroquois would be neutral if France and England were to ever resume hostilities.
• 6 September – Death of King James VII and II (1633–1701) in exile. His supporters, the Jacobites, turn to his son James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766), later called "The Old Pretender", whom they recognise as James VIII and III.
• 9 October – The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

[edit] Undated

• Following his victories over Denmark and Russia in 1700, Karl XII of Sweden escalates the conflict in the Great Northern War by an invasion of Poland. The Swedes defeat the army of Saxony (then a Polish territory) at the River Dvina.
• The Philharmonic Society (Academia philharmonicorum) is established in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Jethro Tull (agriculturist) invented a drill for planting seeds in rows.
• Pierre Antoine Motteux's English translation of the novel Don Quixote is first published. Motteux publishes it under the name Peter Motteux. While popular among readers, it will eventually come to be known as one of the worst translations of the novel, totally betraying the spirit of Miguel de Cervantes's masterpiece.
• Robert Walpole enters Parliament and soon makes his name as a spokesman for Whig policy.

[edit] Ongoing events

• Great Northern War (1700 – 1721).
• War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714).

[edit] Births

• 27 January – Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, German historian and theologian (d. 1790)
• 28 January – Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)
• 14 February – Enrique Flórez, Spanish historian (d. 1773)
• 18 March – Niclas Sahlgren, Swedish merchant and philanthropist (d. 1776)
• 9 April – Giambattista Nolli, Italian architect and surveyor (d. 1756)
• 27 April – King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia (d. 1773)
• 14 May – William Emerson, English mathematician (d. 1782)
• 18 May – Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, English aristocrat, philanthropist and cricket patron (d. 1750)
• 4 August – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)
• 15 October – Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian saint (d. 1771)
• 18 October – Charles le Beau, French historian (d. 1778)
• 5 November – Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter (d. 1785)
• 10 November – Johann Joseph Couven, German Baroque architect (d. 1763)
• 27 November – Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer (d. 1744)

See also Category: 1701 births.

[edit] Deaths

• 14 January – Tokugawa Mitsukuni, Japanese warlord (b. 1628)
• 15 March – Jean Renaud de Segrais, French writer (b. 1624)
• 4 April – Joseph Haines, English entertainer and author
• 21 April – Asano Naganori, Japanese warlord (b. 1667)
• 23 May – Captain William Kidd, Scottish pirate (b. 1645)
• 2 June – Madeleine de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1607)
• 7 July – William Stoughton, American judge at the Salem witch trials (b. 1631)
• 20 August – Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet, English playwright (b. 1639)
• 22 August – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman (b. 1628)
• 15 September – Edmé Boursault, French writer (b. 1638)
• 16 September – King James II of England/James VII of Scotland (b. 1633)
• 3 October – Joseph Williamson, English politician (b. 1633)
• 5 November – Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, French-born English politician (b. c.1659)

See also Category: 1701 deaths.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714