1601

This article is about the year 1601. For the work by Mark Twain, see 1601 (Mark Twain).

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	16th century 17th century 18th century
Decades:	1580s 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s
Years:	1598 1599 1600 1601 1602 1603 1604

1601 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1601 MDCI
Ab urbe condita	2354
Armenian calendar	1050 ԹՎ ՌԾ
Assyrian calendar	6351
Balinese saka calendar	1522–1523
Bengali calendar	1008
Berber calendar	2551
English Regnal year	43 Eliz. 1 – 44 Eliz. 1
Buddhist calendar	2145
Burmese calendar	963
Byzantine calendar	7109–7110
Chinese calendar	庚子年 (Metal Rat) 4298 or 4091     — to — 辛丑年 (Metal Ox) 4299 or 4092
Coptic calendar	1317–1318
Discordian calendar	2767
Ethiopian calendar	1593–1594
Hebrew calendar	5361–5362
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1657–1658
- Shaka Samvat	1522–1523
- Kali Yuga	4701–4702
Holocene calendar	11601
Igbo calendar	601–602
Iranian calendar	979–980
Islamic calendar	1009–1010
Japanese calendar	Keichō 6 (慶長６年)
Javanese calendar	1521–1522
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 10 days
Korean calendar	3934
Minguo calendar	311 before ROC 民前311年
Nanakshahi calendar	133
Thai solar calendar	2143–2144
Tibetan calendar	阳金鼠年 (male Iron-Rat) 1727 or 1346 or 574     — to — 阴金牛年 (female Iron-Ox) 1728 or 1347 or 575

February 8: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex

Matteo Ricci

1601 (MDCI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 1601st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 601st year of the 2nd millennium, the 1st year of the 17th century, and the 2nd year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1601, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

January 1 of this year (1601-01-01) is used as the base of file dates and of Active Directory Logon dates by Microsoft Windows. It is also the date from which ANSI dates are counted and were adopted by the American National Standards Institute for use with COBOL and other computer languages. This epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100. All versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onward count units of one hundred nanoseconds from this epoch.

Events

January–June

• January 11 – Valladolid is briefly the capital of Habsburg Spain under Phillip III between 1601 and 1606, before returning indefinitely to Madrid.
• January 17 – Treaty of Lyon: France gains Bresse, Bugey and Gex from Savoy, ceding Saluzzo in exchange.
• February 8 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, longtime favorite of Queen Elizabeth I of England, rebels against the queen; his revolt is quickly crushed.
• February 25 – Robert Devereux is beheaded.
• Spring – Possible first performance of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet.

July–December

• December 24 (Julian calendar; January 3, 1602, according to the Gregorian calendar used by the Irish and Spanish forces in the battle) – The Battle of Kinsale ends the siege of Kinsale, Ireland (begun in autumn 1601).

Date unknown

• Dutch troops attack the Portuguese in Malacca.
• Jesuit Matteo Ricci becomes the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, during the Ming Dynasty.
• A bad harvest occurs in the Tsardom of Russia, due to a rainy summer, causing the Russian famine of 1601–03.
• The Russian famine of 1601–03 kills about two million people.
• Martin Möller is accused of Crypto-Calvinism.
• The Battle of Seaton is fought.

Births

January–March

• January 8 – Baltasar Gracián y Morales, Spanish prose writer (d. 1658)
• January 19 – Guido Cagnacci, Italian painter (d. 1663)
• February 4 – Shi Kefa, Chinese Ming Dynasty official (d. 1645)
• February 21 – Carolus Mulerius, Dutch Hispanist (d. 1638)
• February 22 – Pierre Chanut, French diplomat (d. 1662)
• March 7 – Johann Michael Moscherosch, German statesman, satirist (d. 1669)
• March 19 – Alonzo Cano, Spanish painter (d. 1667)
• March 20 – Henri, Count of Harcourt (d. 1666)
• March 22 – John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore, English politician and Viscount (d. 1671)
• March 31 – Jakov Mikalja, Italian linguist and lexicographer (d. 1654)

April–June

• May – Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton (d. 1643)
• May 3 – Nathaniel Dickinson, American settler (d. 1676)
• May 27 – Antoine Daniel, Jesuit missionary at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (d. 1648)
• June 5 – John Trapp, English theologian (d. 1669)
• June 6 – Hendrick Bloemaert, Dutch painter (d. 1672)
• June 21 – Godfrey Henschen, Jesuit hagiographer (d. 1681)
• June 23 – Anna Maria of Ostfriesland, German noblewoman (d. 1634)
• June 26 – Dorothea of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg by births and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach (d. 1675)

July–September

• July 17 – Emmanuel Maignan, French physicist and theologian (d. 1676)
• July 18 – Philip I, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe (1640–1681) (d. 1681)
• July 20 – Robert Wallop, English politician (d. 1667)
• July 23 – János Szalárdi, Hungarian historian (d. 1666)
• July 30
  • Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg by marriage (d. 1659)
  • Richard Onslow, English MP (d. 1664)
• August 9 – Matthias Sention, Sr., Connecticut settler (d. 1669)
• August 11 – John Evelyn, English politician (d. 1685)
• August 15 – John Campanius, Swedish Lutheran minister in New Sweden (d. 1683)
• August 22 – Georges de Scudéry, French novelist, dramatist and poet (d. 1667)
• September 13
  • Axel Urup, Danish general (d. 1671)
  • Jan Brueghel the Younger, Flemish painter (d. 1678)
• September 22 – Anne of Austria, queen of Louis XIII of France and regent (d. 1666)
• September 27 – King Louis XIII of France, monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1610-1643, and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610-1620 (d. 1643)

October–December

• October 7 – Florimond de Beaune, French mathematician and jurist (d. 1652)
• October 9 – Fra Bonaventura Bisi, Italian painter (d. 1659)
• October 24 – Alvise Contarini, Doge of Venice (d. 1684)
• October 25 – John Frederick, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1685)
• October 26 – Jan Reynst, Dutch art collector (d. 1646)
• November 3 – Henri, Duke of Verneuil, French bishop (d. 1682)
• November 14 – John Eudes, French missionary (d. 1680)
• November 15 – Cecco Bravo, Italian painter (d. 1661)
• December 25 – Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (1640–1675) and Saxe-Altenburg (1672–1675) (d. 1675)

Date unknown

• William Coddington, first governor of Rhode Island (d. 1678)
• Jacques Gaffarel, French librarian and astrologer (d. 1681)
• Cornelis Coning, Dutch engraver and mayor of Haarlem (d. 1671)

Probable

• William Brooke, 12th Baron Cobham, English politician (d. 1643)
• Adrian Scrope, English regicide (d. 1660)
• Rose of Turaida, famous Latvian murder victim (d. 1620)
• François Tristan l'Hermite, French dramatist (d. 1655)
• Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester (d. 1667)

Deaths

Louise of Lorraine

Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg

Henriette of Cleves

Tycho Brahe

January–March

• January 11 – Scipione Ammirato, Italian historian (b. 1531)
• January 17 – Christoffer Valkendorff, Danish politician (b. 1525)
• January 19 – Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, English statesman (b. 1534)
• January 29 – Louise of Lorraine, French queen consort (b. 1553)
• February 7 – Martin Garzez, Aragonese-born 53rd Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (b. 1526)
• February 25 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English politician (b. 1566)
• February 27 – Anne Line, English Catholic martyr (b. c. 1563)
• March 2 – Antonio del Rincón, Mexican academic (b. 1566)
• March 13 – Henry Cuffe, English politician (b. 1563)

April–June

• April 5 – Wolfgang von Dalberg, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mainz, Germany (b. 1538)
• April 10 – Mark Alexander Boyd, Scottish poet and soldier of fortune (b. 1562)
• May 10 – Hans van Steenwinckel the Elder, Flemish/Danish architect, sculptor (b. 1550)
• May 12 – Anna III, Abbess of Quedlinburg, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg (b. 1565)
• May 19 – Costanzo Porta, Italian composer (b. 1528)
• May 21 – Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne (b. 1547)
• June 11 – Françoise d'Orléans-Longueville, French princess (b. 1549)
• June 16 – Lewis Mordaunt, 3rd Baron Mordaunt, Member of Parliament and High Sheriff of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire (b. 1538)
• June 17 – Gabriel Goodman, English priest (b. 1528)
• June 24 – Henriette of Cleves, Duchess of Nevers, Countess of Rethel (b. 1542)
• June 25 – Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, English baron (b. 1555)
• June 27 – Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys (b. 1525)

July–September

• August 9 – Prince Michael the Brave of Wallachia (b. 1558)
• August 11 – Johannes Heurnius, Dutch physician (b. 1543)
• August 19 – William Lambarde, English antiquarian and politician (b. 1536)
• September 7 – John Shakespeare, English glover, father of William Shakespeare (b. 1529)
• September 12 – Meletius I Pegas, Greek Patriarch of Aleandria (b. 1549)
• September 20 – Fernando Ruiz de Castro Andrade y Portugal, Grandee of Spain (b. 1548)

October–December

• October 12 – Nicholas Brend, English landowner (b. 1560)
• October 21 – Hoshina Masanao, Japanese daimyo of the Takeda clan (b. 1542)
• October 24
  • Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (b. 1546)
  • Louis Philip, Count Palatine of Guttenberg, Palatinate-Veldenz (b. 1577)
• November 16 – Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, exiled English nobleman (b. 1542)
• December 3 – Peter Thyraeus, German theologian (b. 1546)
• December 17 – Bernardino de Cárdenas y Portugal, Duque de Maqueda, Spanish noble (b. 1553)

Date unknown

• Girolamo Dalla Casa, Italian composer
• Ogawa Suketada, Japanese daimyo (b. 1549)