Questions tagged [17th-century]
The 17th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1601 to December 31, 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.
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What evidence do we have of an Mazarin and Anne affair?
In pop culture it's like common truth that cardinal Mazarin and queen Anne had a love affair. But surprisingly the sources that I consider as most reputable do not say anything about it. For example ...
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In the 18th century Letters of Recommendation were used as a means of introduction. Was there anything equivalent used in 17th century Europe?
Benjamin Franklin wrote many such letters for people wanting to travel to the US when he served as ambassador in Paris .
I have not found any reference to such letters in the 17th century. When a ...
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How did Vauban develop his parallel siege technique first used during the 1673 siege of Maastricht?
During the second to last siege before Maastricht Vauban directed the 1672 siege of Orsoy, where he used what had been the long standing zigzag of the trenches to approach the city (lower right of the ...
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What would military spies in 17th century Europe be looking for inside a city, before a siege?
In the article Een officier en een gentleman: Willem Norwood en het beleg van Maastricht, (An Officer and a Gentleman: William Norwood and the siege of Maastricht), on page 7 it mentions concern about ...
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What determined which defensive structures were built and where they were located for 17th European century cities?
Using this 1675 map of Maaseik, Belgium, for example, there are hornworks, bastions, and ravelins at specific locations around the outer wall of the city. What determines why certain structures are ...
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Why would a 17th century vinegar merchant have two cups as part of the standard supplies?
Vinegar merchants in 17th and 18th northwestern Europe sold door-to-door and to people on the street. In these two images (from the Rijksmuseum) it shows the wheelbarrow they used to transport the ...
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What are the parameters of these 16th-17th century artillery weapons?
I'm trying to find out information on various 16th and 17th century English artillery, specifically numbers like barrel length, caliber, piece weight, shot weight, etc. Anything really.
I do know ...
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What is the significance of three-side gallows in 17th Century Netherlands?
In the Netherlands the three-sided gallows/gibbet with a circular base was often elaborately decorated and seems more important than a gallows with just one cross piece. I understand that both the ...
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Was Dumas' Three Musketeers portraying 17th century France accurate? Alternatives?
Considering not only that Alexander Dumas wrote them ~200 years later, but that this and his other works were explicitly fiction, is the society portrayed in The Three Musketeers reasonably close to ...
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How was Taiwan involved in the Thirty Years' War?
According to Martyn Rady,
The Thirty Years’ War fought in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 engulfed almost the whole continent, with sideshows in Africa, the Caribbean, and even distant Taiwan. [....
user54367
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Who was Christophorus Uveida?
In Tycho Brahe’s book De mundi aetherei recentioribus phaenomenis, we can read that it was typeset by a certain Christophorus Uveida (see image).
I have tried a Google search about this person, but ...
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Why did/do they torture people to get fake "confessions"?
I've always wondered about why they would torture somebody to get a fake "confession", just so they can then execute the same person.
Why not just execute them from the beginning? Why go ...
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How did the plague doctors get rid of the infections on their gear?
Back in the day with "plague doctors", they had this scary-looking but apparently effective protection gear with the beak and gloves and hat and cape and whatnot.
Apparently, it was enough ...
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How would a musician travel from Venice to Dresden around 1700?
I'm writing a historical fiction TV pilot and I need some help from the history buffs here. One of my characters, a young, aspiring, musician needs to travel from Venice to Dresden, Germany. I suspect ...
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What were the conditions in 17th century London prisons?
Does anyone have any information, or suggestions for sources, on conditions in Newgate or other London prisons in the mid-seventeenth century?
Would prisoners be confined to cells, or could they ...
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What is "trek-leertje" and what it was used for in the 17th century Dutch Republic?
Encountered this expression in the writing of the Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. In this passage from his Arcana naturae detecta (another version little different) , he describes a tool that ...
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What's the reason behind the 17th century tradition of British monarchs being depicted on coins facing in the opposite direction to their predecessor?
I have just been informed that on Britain's new currency King Charles III will be depicted facing the opposite direction from Queen Elizabeth II. There are plenty of articles on google claiming to ...
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How could a man be made a bishop of a place while not having received major orders?
This article on Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg, which cites this Catholic Encyclopedia article describes von Wartenberg as having been made a bishop of two different places before even being ordained a ...
user58632
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Are there any good records about the alleged 17th Century bucaneer Vincenzo Alessandri?
Allegedly, there was a buccaneer and former Knight of Malta, Vincenzo Alessandri (died 1657). He has a very brief Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Alessandri), but the only ...
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Was it ever common to carry backup flintlock pistols into battle? [closed]
I've been replaying Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag recently and I noticed part of the game's progression involves carrying more and more pistols on your character. At the game's highest tier, having ...
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Do we have any records of what pirates during the golden age of piracy would actually sing?
In almost EVERY Hollywood depiction of Pirates the pirates almost always sing some sort of song/sea shanty.
But do we have any actual records of what songs the pirates of golden age of piracy (1650 to ...
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How did pirates back in the day not get killed themselves when they attacked ships? [closed]
Maybe I'm completely misinformed about how things were done "back in the day" (I imagine 1600s-1800s, when all ships were completely made out of wood with sails), but once the pirates had ...
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Are there any records of the travel times of 17th century Dutch Beurtvaart?
Are there any records of how long an average a trip on Dutch inland waterways took.
[Beurtvaart] was a Dutch line shipping system for (mostly) inland navigation, that existed from the late 15th ...
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How common was cannibalism in Christian Europe until the 17th century?
When hearing about cannibalism, a Robinson-Crusoean narrative usually comes to my mind, where primitive tribes would engage in limited warfare and probably ritualistically consume their prisoners. ...
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Did the concept of "all for one and one for all" actually exist in France in the 17th century, or did it come later?
The phrase "all for one and one for all" comes from the book "The Three Musketeers," which was set in the 1620s. But the book itself was published in 1844, which opens the ...
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What is this 17th century Swiss coin?
I am trying to find more information about a coin that my father gave me before passing.
All I know is that the coin is supposedly from the 17th century, Bern, Switzerland.
I have found similar coins, ...
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Was the concept of a solar eclipse familiar to most people in northwest Europe in the 17th century?
Is there any evidence in documents not written by astrologers, astronomers, natural philosophers, indicating the average person from northwest Europe in the 17th century would know what someone was ...
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Would the gun crews have different responsibilities aboard a 17th century ship than on the USS Constitution?
This video shows a simulated gun drill (the process of loading and firing the gun) performed by the crew of the USS Constitution. I believe the video depicts loading of black powder and the use of a ...
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Where did a ship's navigator usually work?
On a 16-1700s ship, did the navigator have his own room/section of the ship to work? If so, where? Any articles I find just talk about how the navigate, not where.
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Why did Britain, not the Netherlands, create the greatest overseas empire?
The usual answer is that control of the sea trade was wrestled by Britain in a sequence of fierce Anglo-Dutch wars 1652-84. However, one can easily make the case that the Dutch won in this conflict. ...
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Was combat beneath the pikes a common type of fight in XVII century?
As far as one can see, warfare is always defined by the leading army that at some point dominated a region. For instance in Europe in the XVII century one of the most famous and effective "army&...
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Did anyone at the time blame the Great Plague on rats or fleas?
The Great Plague of London occurred in 1665, before the advent of the germ theory of disease. Nonetheless, people back then had some general notion that the disease could be spread through social ...
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Why did Robert Walpole get painted with a crown on his right side?
In this painting of Robert Walpole by John Theodore Heins Robert is painted with a crown on his right. Robert Walpole is according to Wikipedia "a British politician who is generally regarded as ...
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Can you identify these military tunes (17th-century)?
Would anyone happen to know the names of two historic tunes (fifth and drum) in the Revolutionary War? I linked the descriptions below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbn_uipW10&loop=0&start=...
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How did Imperial military discipline compare to the Swedish in 1632? [closed]
During Albrecht von Wallenstein's second appointment as supreme commander of the Imperial Army, how did the discipline among the Imperial ranks compare to the Swedish under Gustavus Adolphus? ...
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What would be the pay for a child deck-hand in the 1600's?
There is this short story I am writing, and I want to be somewhat historically accurate in the details.
In the story, there is a young orphan boy who is serving as a deck-hand on a cargo ship from ...
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Did Louis XIV flee from the Louvre or the Palais-Royal on 5th January 1649?
When visiting the Louvre once with a guide, she mentioned that the young Louis XIV, on the night of 5 January 1649, actually escaped from Palais-Royal and not from the Louvre as it is usually ...
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Was it possible for a young Japanese woman to end up enslaved in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?
I'm inspired to ask this by the horror visual novel The Letter, which chiefly regards a haunted building called the Ermengarde mansion, in the fictional English town of Anslem, near the equally-...
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How did the Swedish army deal with prisoners of war in the Thirty Years War?
Researching for this answer to another question I found the martial law and "Articulsbrief" (norms for the mercenary soldiers) of Sweden after the reform of the military of King Gustav II ...
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Did the Third Rome theory help make Michael Romanov tsar?
Rome fell apart as the Middle Ages began, and Constantinople, the "Second Rome", was conquered as they ended. Afterwards, a famous religious argument or school of thought in Russia maintained that ...
user18968
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Did anyone in England in the 1680's wear a beard?
I'm trying to find any examples of beards in England during the 1680s.
I know they weren't popular but that doesn't mean they didn't exist at all.
A picture would be ideal, although I appreciate this ...
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What is the ruined tower in the background of this 1649 drawing of the Igeler Säule by Joan Blaeu?
The Igeler Säule is a Roman sandstone column dating back to 200-215 CE (h/t to @justCal) and together with the Drususstein (made in honour of Nero Claudius Drusus) according to Wikipedia
the only ...
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What is the meaning of the hand gesture performed by King James II in the portrait by Peter Lely?
This portrait by Peter Lely is one of the most well-known images of James II of England (aka James VII of Scotland). It is used to illustrate his Wikipedia article.
Is there some meaning behind the ...
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Which juridical reasons led the Netherlands to lose control of the seas?
It has always been my understanding that the Netherlands lost control of the seas because of land wars against France, especially Louis XIV, and because of the difficulties involved in holding ...
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Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on a boat?
Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on any sort of boat or ship?
Especially during colonialism or the golden age of piracy, no specific location so ...
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Did the Portuguese Crown sponsor Brazilian gold-seeking expeditions (bandeiras) in the 17th century?
The end of the 17th century is the beginning of the gold rush in Brazil. Shortly before there were expeditions (bandeiras) of explorers (later called bandeirantes) who were seeking precious minerals ...
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William Penn and the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania
William Penn wrote three different frames of government documents. All three are different, so therefore which one do we go by? How do we read them? And which one is the final document that PA uses?
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How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
I am extremely interested in the idea that there was a period in time when, at least in the west, people looked upon the ancients (Romans/Greeks) as possessors of wisdom that had been lost. Fermat ...
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What was the relationship between Ottoman emperor Murat IV and his mother Kosem Sultan?
Was the relationship between Murat IV and his mother Kosem Sultan really bad? Did Kosem Sultan intervene a lot when her son assumed absolute power?
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Was there a coup in the Netherlands in 1672?
From 1650 to 1672, the Dutch Republic lacked a stadtholder because the Government was dominated by Republicans who didn’t want William Prince of Orange to become stadtholder.
However in 1672, during ...
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