The 17th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1601 to December 31, 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.
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Did the blanket pardon from 'The Three Musketeers' exist in real life?
In his novel The Three Musketeers, Dumas describes Richelieu giving the following paper to Milady de Winter:
C'est par mon ordre et pour le bien de l'Etat que le porteur du
present a fait ce ...
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Why didn't mercenary combat after the middle ages lead to the collapse of the ruling class?
The structure of society and warfare were closely connected to each other in the feudal system. The land belonged to the crown, the king assigned it to lords in return for military service, and in the ...
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Why did Fakhr-al-Din seek a treaty with Tuscany, of all places?
In an interesting vignette, it turns out that the Druze emir of Lebanon, Fakhr-al-Din, had traveled in the early 17th century to Florence and tried to conclude a military alliance with the Grand Duchy ...
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How did lower classes with aspirations to high social standing greet each other in the Paris of the 1630's?
I am running a game of En Garde over on the RPG Stack Exchange. For purposes of verisimilitude, we're wondering about station-specific greetings in Paris in the 1630's. What would be an appropriate ...
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320 views
How did people receive news before the advent of the newspaper?
I am specifically interested in the period right before the beginning of the newspaper era (which I'm broadly defining as the 18th century) so let's say 1600-1700. Was there a phenomenon like our ...
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273 views
What sort of Cardinals were Richelieu and Mazarin?
Cardinals can belong to one of three orders:
Cardinal-deacon
Cardinal-bishop
Cardinal-priest.
What were the ranks of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin?
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122 views
Robert Hookes Diary - Why would he have bought and drunk Vomit?
I have been reading extracts from Robert Hookes diary located here between the dates 1672-1680, on at least eight occasions he describes taking vomit and sometimes even using a feather to induce ...
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+50
Syphilis affecting e.g. noble courts and wider society in 17th century
I've read that one reason that the nobility attending e.g. the French kings' court in the 17th century had a passion for wigs, powdered faces, and gloves was the then prevalence of syphilis (the ...
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Was Swedish king Charles X Gustav's horse killed during Siege of Kraków (1655)?
My question is related to Siege of Kraków, which took place in 1655, between 25th of September and 13th of October, during Second Northern War, which is usually referred to as "Swedish Deluge" in ...
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130 views
How did Edward Misselden become a deputy-governor of a merchant company at 15?
According to the wikipedia article Edward Misselden, he was born in 1608 and in 1623 became a deputy-governor of the Merchant Adventurers' Company at Delft. This means he got the job at the age of 15. ...
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158 views
Were the (early 17th C) arrivers/colonists to North America (USA) outcasts from European societies?
I have heard that early pilgrims for 'the new world' (North America / USA) left because they were indigent and had no support in their homelands. I have also heard that some were criminals or ...
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79 views
What were the conditions that Peter Stuyvesant found when he arrived in America?
I have been studying Peter Stuyvesant recently, and would like to know two things about him and New Amsterdam:
What were the conditions that he found when he arrived in New Amsterdam? By this I mean ...
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127 views
What is the origin of the English Ship Building Philosophy?
I was reading an article on the Vasa the ship built under command of King Gustav Adolf, the ship sank during its launch on August 10, 1628. Part if the article mentions that the ship was somehow ...
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1answer
115 views
What corrections did the Catholic church make to the Copernicus work “De revolutionibus”?
Catholic encyclopedia says:
On 5 March, 1616, the work of Copernicus was forbidden by the Congregation of the Index "until corrected", and in 1620 these corrections were indicated. Nine sentences, ...
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93 views
What calendar was used by the kingdom of Ireland?
For some research project I have, I need to identify some important dates, in order to do that - I'd be happy to know which calendar was used by the Kingdom of Ireland, specifically during the Irish ...
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78 views
Why was Patriarch Nikon removed from power?
Why did he lose the grace of Tzar Alexey?
Which enemies conspired against him and how?
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59 views
What is the relevance of the Confession of Augsburg to the Colloquy at Poissy?
According the wikipedia article Colloquy at Poissy
Catharine [de' Medici] appointed a smaller committee of five Calvinists and five Roman Catholics. Their task was to devise a formula on which the ...
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111 views
How is it that King Philips War devastated the colonists so much, but the Colonists were not driven out?
King Philips War, or Metacom's War if you will, was pretty devastating to the Northeast Colonies in the pre-United States - yet even after this the tribes that could have realized that the English and ...
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116 views
Battle of Vienna & Morean War : what was Russia's position?
Russia doesn't appear in wikipedia's accounts of the Morean War or of the preceding Battle of Vienna. I find that mildly suprising.
Perhaps the reason is that before Peter Russia was less active with ...
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47 views
How was the dynamics of a naval battle in the 17th century?
I'm curious about the "mechanical" aspects in the course of a naval battle in the 17th century.
To explain better, here are some questions whose answers would provide a text-answer explaining the ...
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2answers
55 views
Was the French philosopher Pierre Bayle a Calvinist believer or an atheist?
European Enlightenment: The 17th century's most read philosopher produced sharp and honest literature. Yet until today the question seems to be unanswered where he really belonged (Bayle enigma).
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1972 textbook by Charles University professor on Thirty Years War
Just yesterday I came across a textbook citation on the Thirty Years War.
Here is what I (think I can) remember about the book in question: the author was professor at Charles University in Prague, ...
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47 views
Historically accurate films about the English Civil War [closed]
Last night I saw Cromwell which is good drama but absolutely grossly inaccurate. Do you know of other good films on the subject that do more justice to the history?
