For those of you who care about such things. 1724 was a leap year, giving us an extra day in which stuff could happen—and happen they did.

Royal Heads

King Philip V, the first Bourbon of Spain,* abdicated in favor of his sixteen-year-old son, Louis I on January 14. I have read several reasons why he made this unusual decision. The most compelling is that he was showing signs of serious mental decline snd made the responsible choice to step aside. Whatever his reasons, fate overturned his decision. Louis died of smallpox on August 31. Six days later Philip reluctantly resumed the throne to avoid a regency for his second son, Ferdinand, who was only ten. His combined reign, which totaled 45 years and 16 days, was the longest in the history of the Spanish monarchy.

Tsar Peter the Great crowned his wife Catherine I** as his co-ruler on February 8. When Peter died the following year without naming a successor, a coalition of the “new men”*** and regiments of the imperial guards proclaimed her the ruler. (Can you call it a coup if there is no one on the throne to overthrow?) Catherine ruled until her death two years later.

The Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI**** appointed his unmarried sister, the Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria, as governor of the Austrian Netherlands (modern Luxembourg and Brussels). She held the position until her death in 1741. It was not an unusual choice. The Hapsburgs regularly placed unmarried women of their royal house as regents over provinces in their widespread empire. The Netherlands in particular were ruled by an almost unbroken succession of ruling duchesses for almost sixty years—each the niece of her predecessor. Maria Elizabeth seems to have been trained for the position. She enjoyed an above average education at the hands of professors from the university in Vienna and was competent in five languages.

Yeongjo became the 21st ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea.**** He ruled for almost fifty-two years. His reign appears to have been a period of political, economic, and social reform, inspired by a deep adherence to Confucian morals. (Can anyone recommend the equivalent of The Joseon Dynasty for Dummies? Or perhaps Korean History for Dummies? This is a huge hole in my historical knowledge.)

Ideas, and Reactions to Ideas

In Qing China, the Yonghzheng Emperor banned the teaching of Christianity—sort of. Catholic missionaries had been active in China since 1602, when Matteo Ricci arrived in Beijing and in fact Jesuit priests had long proved useful as advisors to the court on astronomy and scientific matters. But missionaries working in the provinces were seen as threatening to a Confucian society. The ban reflected that division: foreign priests were allowed to remain in the capital but missionaries working outside Beijing were required to move to the Portuguese enclave at Macau. Qing subjects were prohibited from practicing Christianity—which may or may not have worked. It is hard to enforce belief.

Glassblower Gabriel Fahrenheit developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale. He had previously invented the first precision thermometer, using mercury instead of alcohol. (And because it was the obvious question to ask: Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius developed his competing temperature scale in 1742.)

Jonathan Swift, published seven satirical pamphlets under the pseudonym M.B. Drapier in which he sought to rouse public opinion in Ireland against a patent that allowed a private contractor in England to minted copper coins to be distributed in Ireland. Swift, and others, objected to the coinage because there were no safeguards to insure the purity of metal used, they believed bribery had been involved in issuing the patent, and widespread resentment about Britain’s colonial control of Ireland’s economy, including control over minting its currency. “Mr. Drapier” became a central figure in the controversy and was treated as a folk hero by the Irish after the British government withdrew the patent.

Johann Sebastian Bach led the first performance of his St John Passion in Leipzig on Good Friday. He was a new director of music at the St. Thomas church, and was the congregation’s second choice for the position. As such, he was determined to prove himself with the production of a new work with which to break the Lenten music fast. And prove himself he did.(It was a busy year for Bach. He also wrote his second cantata cycle, totaling 53 new works He also began what would be a twenty-year collaboration with librettist Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici.)

* Just in case you’re interested, Philip was born into the French royal family. But his grandmother was the half-sister of the last Hapsburg ruler of Spain, Charles V, who died childless. (His great-grandmother was also a Spanish Hapsburg.) Philip’s accession to the throne led to the War of Spanish Succession because other European powers were worried that uniting France and Spain under a single Bourbon monarch would upset the balance of power. The end result was two Bourbon kings who ruled over two important states.
** NOT to be confused with Catherine II, commonly known as Catherine the Great, who seized the throne from her husband Peter III in 1762 and reigned as empress for 34 years, 4 months, and 8 days—but who’s counting?
***Commoners whom Peter had placed in positions of power based on their competence. They stood opposed to traditional aristocrats. Or more likely, traditional aristocrats opposed them.
****It’s hard to avoid the Hapsburgs.LINK
****I hadn’t heard of him either. Which is one reason to include him here. One of the purposes of these posts is to look briefly at a broad range of historical incidents. (If any of you think these year in review posts are a quick and dirty way to create new posts in the rush of the holiday season, you would be wrong. Each one of them takes somewhere between several and many hours to produce. Just saying.)