1598
Edict of Nantes
Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, granting French Protestants legal recognition, freedom of worship in specified towns, and control of a number of fortified places. It ended thirty-six years of religious war and gave France an awkward, workable compromise between two faiths that had been slaughtering each other. The provision granting Huguenots fortified places created a state within a state, troubling French unity until Louis XIV's revocation in 1685.
Hideyoshi Dies at Fushimi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi died at his fortress of Fushimi near Kyoto, repeatedly begging his senior daimyo to protect his five-year-old son Hideyori. His Korean campaign collapsed within weeks, and within two years Tokugawa Ieyasu would win the battle of Sekigahara and inherit the country Hideyoshi had unified. His Korean campaign collapsed within weeks, and within two years Tokugawa Ieyasu won Sekigahara and inherited unified Japan.
Philip II Dies at the Escorial
Philip II of Spain died after a long and humiliating final illness at the Escorial, his austere granite palace-monastery outside Madrid. He had outlived his hopes of conquering England, reconquering the Netherlands, and crushing Protestantism. His desk, at the end, was buried in unanswered papers from every corner of the world.
Yi Sun-sin Killed at Noryang
In a final naval battle in the Noryang Strait, Admiral Yi Sun-sin drove the departing Japanese fleet into defeat and was struck by a stray musket ball on the command deck of his flagship. He ordered his officers to conceal his death and keep beating the war drum. Korea's savior died victorious and silent.
Peace of Vervins
Spain and France signed a peace treaty at Vervins, restoring the arrangements of Cateau-Cambresis and ending Spanish intervention in the French Wars of Religion. An exhausted Philip II was finally releasing his grip on French affairs. He had six months left to live. Philip II's death six months later left Spain's ambitions to his less capable son, presiding over the beginning of Spanish decline.
Boris Godunov Crowned Tsar
After the death of the childless Fyodor I, the Russian assembly elected the shrewd boyar Boris Godunov, brother-in-law of the late tsar, as the new tsar of Moscow. His reign would be shadowed by famine and rumors that the late tsarevich Dmitry was still alive. Russia's Time of Troubles loomed.
Irish Rebels Defeat English at Yellow Ford
Hugh O'Neill's army ambushed an English force under Sir Henry Bagenal at the Yellow Ford in Armagh and inflicted one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an English army in Ireland. Two thousand English soldiers died. The victory electrified Gaelic Ireland and alarmed London into sending Essex with a larger army.