1591

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May 15: Tsarevich Dimitri dies.

Year 1591 (MDXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• March 13 – Battle of Tondibi: In Mali, forces sent by the Saadi Dynasty ruler of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur, and led by Judar Pasha, defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.
• April 10 – English merchant James Lancaster sets off on a voyage to the East Indies.^[1]
• April 21 – Japanese tea-master Sen no Rikyū commits seppuku on the order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
• May 15 – In Russia, Tsarevich Dimitri, son of the Ivan the Terrible, is found dead in mysterious circumstances, at the palace in Uglich. The official explanation is that he has cut his own throat during an epileptic seizure. Many believe he has been murdered by his rival, Boris Godunov, who becomes tsar.
• May 24 – Sir John Norreys, with an expeditionary force sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England, takes the town of Guingamp after a brief siege, on behalf of Henry of Navarre.
• May 30 – Timbuktu is captured by an expedition of Arma people sent by the Saadi ruler of Morocco and led by Judar Pasha.
• June – Zutphen is captured by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.

July–December

• July – Deventer is captured by the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau.
• July 22 – The Durtnell (Dartnell) family of Brasted, Kent, England, begin to work as building contractors. They will still be functioning under the twelfth generation of the family in the 21st century.^[2]
• August – Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex leads an English army in support of the Protestant Henry IV of France at the Siege of Rouen.^[1]
• August–September
  • Maurice maneuvers cautiously against the Duke of Parma near Arnhem.
  • During this year's Atlantic hurricane season, probably the most severe of the pre-1600 seasons, at least eight intense hurricanes occur.
• September 1 – HMS Revenge is captured by the Spanish following battle near the Azores.
• September 14 – Hulst is captured by Maurice.
• October 21 – Nijmegen is captured by Maurice.
• October 29 – Pope Innocent IX succeeds Pope Gregory XIV as the 230th pope.

Date unknown

• The city of Hyderabad, India is founded by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah.
• The Rialto Bridge in Venice, designed by Antonio da Ponte, is completed.
• Publication of the first of the Conimbricenses commentaries on Aristotle by the Jesuits of the University of Coimbra.^[3]

Births

• January 11 – Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (d. 1646)
• January 12 – Giuseppe Ribera, Spanish painter (d. 1652)
• February 8 – Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), Italian painter (d. 1666)
• February 21 (or March 2) Girard Desargues, French mathematician (d. 1661)
• February 25 – Friedrich von Spee, German Jesuit and poet (d. 1635)
• March 15 – Alexandre de Rhodes, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1660)
• June 16 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (d. 1655)
• July 20 – Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (d. 1643)
• August 24 – Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
• date unknown
  • David Blondel, French Protestant clergyman (d. 1655)
  • Andrew Bobola, Polish Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1657)
  • Thomas Goffe, English dramatist (d. 1629)
  • William Lenthall, English politician of the Civil War period (d. 1662)

Deaths

• April 21 – Sen no Rikyu, Japanese exponent of the tea ceremony (b. 1522)
• May 1 – Elizabeth Cecil, 16th Baroness de Ros, English Noblewoman (b. c. 1574)
• May 15 – Tsarevich Dimitri, Tsarevich (b. 1582)
• June 21 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian Jesuit and saint (b. 1568)
• July 2 – Vincenzo Galilei, Italian composer (b. 1520)
• July 18 – Jacobus Gallus Carniolus, Slovenian composer (b. 1550)
• August 23 – Luis Ponce de León, Spanish lyric poet (b. 1527)
• August 27 – Katheryn of Berain, Welsh noblewoman (b. 1534)
• September 10 – Richard Grenville, English soldier and explorer (b. 1542)
• October 16 – Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
• October 19 – Juan de Luna y Celdrán, Baron of Purroy, Spanish nobleman
• November 20 – Christopher Hatton, English politician (b. 1540)
• December 14 – Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (b. 1542)
• December 18 – Marigje Arriens, Dutch woman executed for witchcraft (b. c. 1520)
• December 30 – Pope Innocent IX (b. 1519)
• date unknown
  • Crispin van den Broeck, Flemish painter (b. 1523)
  • John Erskine of Dun, Scottish religious reformer (b. 1509)
  • Toyotomi Hidenaga, Japanese nobleman (b. 1540)
  • John Stubbs, English pamphleteer (b. 1543)
  • Veronica Franco, Italian poet and courtesan (b. 1546)

References