1597

Events

The yellowed title page of Andreas Libavius's Alchemia, in Latin.

Andreas Libavius's Alchemia, an early chemistry text, is published.

January–March

January 4 – Japan's Chancellor of the Realm, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, sends 26 European Christians, arrested on December 8, 1596, on a forced march from Kyoto to Nagasaki.
January 24 – Battle of Turnhout: Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas, in the Netherlands.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 5 – In Japan, 26 European Catholic Christians are executed in Nagasaki by crucifixion. They had the misfortune of being shipwrecked on the Japanese coast on October 19, 1596.
February 8 – Sir Anthony Shirley, England's "best-educated pirate", raids Jamaica.
February 24 – The last battle of the Cudgel War is fought on the Santavuori Hill in Ilmajoki, Ostrobothnia.<ref>Nuijasota – Ilmajoki (in Finnish)</ref>
March 11 – Amiens is taken by Spanish forces.

April–June

April 10 – The Serb uprising of 1596–97 ends in defeat for the rebels, at the field of Gacko (Gatačko Polje).
April 19 – Prince Nyaungyan Min ignores the orders of King Nanda Bayin of Burma and seizes control of the Kingdom of Ava (now in Upper Myanmar)
April 23 – Probable first performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.
April 27 – Johannes Kepler marries Barbara Muhleck.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
May 13 – King Henry IV of France and England's General Thomas Baskerville begin the siege of the city of Amiens in France, which had been captured on March 11 by the Spanish Army. The city is recaptured by September 25.
May 27 – The Kingdom of Kotte, on most of the western side of the island of Sri Lanka, upon the death of King Dharmapala. With no heirs, Dharmapala had made a will bequeathing the entire kingdom to the European nation of Portugal, creating the territory of Portuguese Ceylon (Puruthugisi Lankawa or Porthueka Ilankai).
June 13 – The Staten-Generaal of the Dutch Republic approves a proposal for the Generaliteitscollege, a common board for the Republic's five separate navies, the Admiralty of Amsterdam, the Admiralty of Rotterdam, the Admiralty of Zeeland, the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier and the Admiralty of Friesland.

July–September

July 14 – Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie is declared an outlaw, after the collapse of a Catholic plot.
July 28 – After the performance of the satirical play The Isle of Dogs, written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, at the Swan Theatre, the Privy Council of England concludes that the "lewd play" is full of seditious and slanderous matter. Jonson is arrested, along with two actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaa, and the three are sent to Marshalsea Prison. A raid on the home of Thomas Nashe seizes his papers, but Nashe is not found. The three prisoners are released later in the year and return to the stage. All copies of The Isle of Dogs script are destroyed.
August 13 – The Siege of Namwon begins in Korea.
August 14 – First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia: A Dutch expedition commanded by Cornelis de Houtman returns to Amsterdam, after having successfully reached Java. This achievement opens the Spice trade, which had until then been monopolised by the Portuguese, to the Dutch, who in the next years launch several more expeditions to the Indies.
August 17 – Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.
August 19 – Rheinberg capitulates to forces led by Maurice of Naussau.
August 24 – Christian IV of Denmark-Norway refuses to let Tycho Brahe return to Denmark.
August 28 – Imjin War: Battle of Chilcheollyang – The Japanese fleet defeats the Koreans, in their only naval victory of the war.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
September 25 – Amiens is retaken from the Spanish by Anglo-French forces, led by Henry IV of France, after a four-month siege.

October–December

October 18 – The 3rd Spanish Armada, a fleet of 140 ships, departs from the port of La Coruña with 12,634 soldiers and sailors and a plan to invade the British Isles with a landing at Falmouth in Cornwall. <ref name=Tenace>"A Strategy of Reaction: The Armadas of 1596 and 1597 and the Spanish Struggle for European Hegemony"", by Edward Tenace, in The English Historical Review (2003) pp. 869–872</ref>
October 21 – The Spanish Armada reaches the English Channel without opposition. An English ship sees the invading force's approach, but is intercepted and sunk, with the survivors being taken prisoner. The Armada encounters a storm the next day. <ref name=Wernham> R. B. Wernham, The Return of the Armadas: The Last Years of the Elizabethan Wars Against Spain 1595–1603 (Clarendon Press, 1994) pp. 185–187</ref>
October 25 – Following the loss of an artillery ship and the galleon San Bartolome, Spanish Admiral Diego Brochero orders the remaining ships in the attacking Armada to disperse until the weather improves. <ref name=Wernham/>
October 26 – Battle of Myeongnyang: The Koreans, commanded by Yi Sunsin, are victorious over a Japanese invasion fleet.
November 10 – In the last major action during the war of the 3rd Spanish Armada, the galleon Bear of Amsterdam is captured as it approaches Falmouth, where an English squadron intercepts it and leads it into Dartmouth.
November 12 – Lingen capitulates to forces led by Maurice of Nassau.
November 21 – The remainder of the 3rd Spanish Armada is assembled at La Coruña. Only 108 of the original fleet of 140 ships is left, and many of the vessels require food and supplies. King Philip elects not to attempt another invasion of the British Isles.
December 6 – Queen Elizabeth of England appoints George Nicholson as the English Resident in Scotland, the London's chief diplomatic official to Edinburgh, with a letter of accreditation for Nicholson to present to King James VI of Scotland. <ref>John Duncan Mackie, Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1597-1603 (Edinburgh, 1969) p. 126.</ref>
December 7 – Lazzaro Grimaldi Cebà is elected as the new Doge of the Republic of Genoa, as the previous chief executive, Matteo Senarega completes his two-year term. Senarega is given the post of procuratore perpetuo.
December 23
- The Roman Catholic order of the Congregatio Patrum Doctrinae Christianae, which will later be more commonly known as the Christian Doctrine Fathers, is approved by Pope Clement VIII. Founded on September 29, 1592, the order continues to operate more than four centuries later and is headquartered in Rome.
- Prince Sigismund Báthory signs an agreement with Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor to abdicate the throne of Transylvania in return for the Silesian duchies of Racibórz and Opole and an annual subsidy of 50,000 thalers.

Date unknown

Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.
Yaqob succeeds his father Sarsa Dengel, as Emperor of Ethiopia at the age of 7.
Jacopo Peri writes Dafne, now recognised as the first opera.
The first edition of Francis Bacon's Essays is published.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Andreas Libavius publishes Alchemia, a pioneering chemistry textbook.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
12 million pesos of silver cross the Pacific. Although it is unknown just how much silver flowed from the Spanish base of Manila in the Philippines to the Ming Dynasty of China, it is known that the main port for the Mexican silver trade—Acapulco—shipped out 150,000 to 345,000 kg (4 to 9 million taels) of silver annually from this year to 1602.
Tobias Hess corresponds with Simon Studion and agrees with him that the Papacy must fall in 1604.