January 20 – Francis Drake, unable to receive a ransom for the town of Nombre de Dios, orders the town and all Spanish ships in harbor to be burned. At the same time, General Baskerville leads 750 men on a mission to clear the Isthmus of Spanish parties.[2]
January 27 – With an epidemic of dysentery spreading through the English forces of Drake and Baskerville, Drake orders survivors to retreat to the English ships, anchored off of the island of Escudo de Veraguas. Drake dies of dystentery two days later on his flagship, Defiance.[3]
March 11 – The Battle of Pinos is fought between the English Navy (with 14 warships) and the Spanish Navy (with 13 galleons) off of the coast Cuba's Isla de Pinos, with 325 English Navy men killed or captured, while Spain drives Baskerville's ships to retreat and sustains 80 dead or wounded.[4]
July 18 – Queen Elizabeth I of England issues "an open warrant to the Lord Mayor of London and the aldermen and his brethren, and to all other vice-admirals, mayors, and other public officers whatsoever to whom it may appertain" directing that Africans in the realm will be deported. Citing a request from Casper van Senden "to have licence to take up so many blackamoors here in this realm and to transport them into Spain and Portugal," the Queen notes that "Her majesty... considering the reasonableness of his request to transport so many blackamoors from hence, doth think it a very good exchange and that those kind of people may be well spared in this realm being so populous and numbers of able persons the subjects of the land and Christian people that perish for want of service, whereby through their labor they might be maintained."[6][7]
August 18 – The siege of the Dutch city ofHulst is completed after a month as Spanish forces under the command of Albert, son of the late Holy Roman Emperor Maxmimilan II, force the surrender of the city.
August 29 – The coronation of Christian IV as King of Denmark and King of Norway takes place at the Vor Frue Kirke cathedral in Copenhagen. The Bishop of Zealand, Peder Virstrup, places the crown upon the head of King Christian IV, who had become the monarch in 1588 at the age of 11.
October 10 – The Union of Brest: The Ukrainian Church west of the Dnieper becomes known as the Ukrainian Rite of Catholicism, whereas the East officially renounces the authority of the Pope.[8]
October 18 – The Second Armada, a Spanish fleet sent to attack England in revenge for the raid on Cadiz, is wrecked in storms off Cape Finisterre; nearly 5,000 men and 44 ships are lost including five galleons
November 25 – The Cudgel War begins in Finland (at the time part of Sweden), when poor peasants rise up against the troops, nobles and cavalry who have taxed them.[10]
December 31 – King Henry IV of France (who was originally King Henry III of the Spanish Navarre) declares Navarre to be permanently separate of France.
The fourth of a five year run of poor harvests, largely caused by the weather, a pattern typical of the last third of the century. This causes famine throughout Europe, which leads to food riots in Britain.[11]
^David Marley, Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict in the Western Hemisphere (ABC-CLIO, 2008) pp. 136-137
^Kenneth R. Andrews, The Last Voyage of Drake and Hawkins (Routledge, 2017) pp. 204-05
^John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake (Penguin Books, 2004) pp. 313
^Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Armada Española desde la unión de los reinos de Castilla y Aragón (Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, 1898) p. 115
^John Daniell, A Compendium of the History of Cornwall (Netherton & Worth, 1880) p. 156
^"Elizabeth I, Letters Permitting Deportation of Blackamoors from England, Acts of the Privy Council, Vol. 26 (1596-97), ed. John Roche Dasent (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1902)", in 'Othello" A Broadview Internet Shakespeare Edition (Broadview Press, 2017) pp.299-300
^Emily C. Bartels (April 2006). "Too Many Blackamoors: Deportation, Discrimination, and Elizabeth I". SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900. 46 (2). Rice University: 305–322. doi:10.1353/sel.2006.0012. JSTOR3844644. S2CID154728438. In 1596, Queen Elizabeth issued an 'open letter' to the Lord Mayor of London, announcing that 'there are of late divers black-moores brought into this realme, of which kinde of people there aire allready here to manie,' and ordering that they be deported from the country.
^Oechslin, Werner (1972). "BUONAMICI, Francesco". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 15. Archived from the original on January 23, 2020.
