History
1611
General
Population: 542 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include George Chapman (translation of Homer's Iliad), Thomas Coryate (travels) John Donne An Anatomy of the World,
Ben Johnson Catiline (tragedy), Thomas Middleton The Roaring Girl (comedy), William Shakespeare The Tempest,
Cyril Tourneur The Atheist's Tragedie, Etienne Pasquier (France), John Speed (history of Great Britain)
Art includes Reubens "Descent from the Cross",
Music includes "Parthenia", Thomas Ravenscroft (21 madrigals)
- Religion: King James Bible published
- Science: Marci de Dominis publishes scientific explanation of rainbows
- Deaths: Composer Tomas Luis de Victoria, Charles IX of Sweden, Composer Johannes Eccard, Navigator Henry Hudson,
Asia
- Japan: Earthquake and 100-foot tsunami
Dutch merchants permitted to trade in Japan – only Europeans
Europe
- General: War of Calmar declared by Denmark on Sweden until 1613
- Czechoslovakia: Archduke Matthias crowned King of Bohemia as brother gives him crown
- England: James I dissolves Parliament
Arabella Stuart imprisoned and escapes from tower of London and is recaptured
King James Bible published
George Abbot made Archbishop of Canterbury
William Laud elected president of St. John's College at Oxford
James I institutes baronetage as means of raising money
Plantation of Ulster - English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster
- Italian States: University of Rome founded
- Sweden: Charles IX of Sweden dies and Gustavus II (Gustavus Adolphus) elected King "Lion of the North" and "Snow King" – makes Axel Oxenstierna new chancellor
Middle East
- Ottoman Empire: Pestilence in Constantinople
- Persia: Erection of Masjid-i-Shah the Royal Mosque at Isfahan
South
- Virginia: Jamestown converts from social commune to private enterprise