1589
Henry III Assassinated
The last Valois king of France, camped with his army outside Paris, received a young Dominican friar named Jacques Clement, who claimed to carry secret messages. Clement stabbed him in the stomach with a hidden knife and was himself hacked to pieces on the spot. Henry III died the next day, childless.
Henry of Navarre Becomes Henry IV
On the assassination of Henry III, the Protestant king of Navarre became, by strict dynastic logic, Henry IV of France. Most Catholics refused to accept him. He would spend nearly a decade fighting for his throne, converting to Catholicism only after military stalemate forced the expedient on him. His famous remark Paris is worth a Mass encapsulated the pragmatic calculation that a Protestant king could rule Catholic France only by converting.
Three Henrys Die
The French Wars of Religion reached a climax when Henry III of France had the Duke of Guise assassinated at Blois and was then himself assassinated by a Dominican friar. Henry of Navarre inherited a kingdom in ruins. Three Henrys had died in a year, and a new dynasty, the Bourbons, had begun.
William Lee Invents the Stocking Frame
A Nottinghamshire clergyman named William Lee built a mechanical knitting frame that could produce woollen stockings ten times faster than hand knitters. Elizabeth refused him a patent, fearing it would put knitters out of work. Lee moved to France, and his machine would shape the Midlands hosiery industry for centuries.
Galileo Appointed at Pisa
The twenty-five-year-old Galileo Galilei was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa, a lowly post paying sixty scudi a year. He irritated his Aristotelian colleagues by rolling balls down inclined planes and timing them with his pulse. He was, for now, keeping his Copernican sympathies to himself. His experiments with inclined planes were already challenging the Aristotelian physics his colleagues taught as received truth.
Drake and Norris Attack Lisbon
An English counter-armada under Drake and John Norris tried to liberate Lisbon from Spanish control and return a Portuguese pretender to the throne. The expedition, poorly planned and worse supplied, ended in disaster, with thousands of Englishmen dying of disease and fever. Drake fell from favor with the queen. The failed counter-armada, costing eleven thousand men, demonstrated that offensive amphibious operations were far harder than the defensive victory of 1588.
Want 1589 in context? Print the whole 16th century as a one-sheet timeline chart.
Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1589?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1589. The most significant is Henry III Assassinated: The last Valois king of France, camped with his army outside Paris, received a young Dominican friar named Jacques Clement, who claimed to carry secret…
What era was 1589 part of?
1589 falls within the Renaissance (1501-1650). Reformation, conquest, and the world drawn whole.
Which regions saw notable events in 1589?
The curated events from 1589 span Europe.