Notable events during this year include:
January–March
- January 22 (January 12, 1688 O.S.) – Glorious Revolution in England: The Convention Parliament is convened to determine if King James II of England, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, vacated the throne when he fled to France, at the end of 1688. The settlement of this is agreed on 8 February.[1]
- January 30 – The first performance of the opera Henrico Leone composed by Agostino Steffani takes place in Hannover to inaugurate the new royal theatre in the Leineschloss.
- February 12 – John Locke returned to London from exile in Holland.[2]
- February 23 (February 13, 1688 O.S.) – William III and Mary II are proclaimed co-rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland.[1]
- March 2 – Nine Years' War: As French forces leave, they set fire to Heidelberg Castle, and the nearby town of Heidelberg.
- March 22 (March 12 O.S.) – Start of the Williamite War in Ireland: The deposed James II of England lands with 6,000 French soldiers in Ireland, where there is a Catholic majority, hoping to use it as the base for a counter-coup.[3] However, many Irish Catholics see him as an agent of Louis XIV of France, and refuse to support him.
- March 27 – Japanese haiku master Bashō sets out on his last great voyage, which will result in the prose and verse classic Oku no Hosomichi ("Narrow Road to the Interior").
April–June
- April 4 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in central Asia.[4]
- April 11 (O.S.) – William III and Mary II are crowned in London as King and Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.[5] Ireland does not recognise them yet, while the Estates of Scotland declare King James VII of Scotland deposed.
- April 18
- April 19 - A fire in Amalienborg-palace in Copenhagen killed 180 people.
- May 11 (May 1 O.S.)
- The Battle of Bantry Bay begins during the Williamite War in Ireland as the French fleet under the Marquis de Châteaurenault is able to protect its transports, unloading supplies for James II, from the English Royal Navy under the Earl of Torrington, and withdraws unpursued.[7]
- William and Mary accept the Scottish throne a month after the Scottish Parliament votes to depose King James VII
- May 12 – Nine Years' War: With England and the Netherlands now both ruled by William III, they join the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), thus escalating the conflict, which continues until 1697. This is also the effective beginning of King William's War, the first of four North American Wars (until 1763) between English and French colonists, both sides allied to Native American tribes. The nature of the fighting is a series of raids on each other's settlements, across the Canadian and New England borders.
- May 24 – The Act of Toleration, drawn up by the Convention Parliament of England to protect Protestants but with Roman Catholics intentionally excluded, is passed; this effectively concludes the Glorious Revolution.
- May 25 – The last hearth tax is collected in England and Wales.
- May 31 – Leisler's Rebellion: Calvinist Jacob Leisler deposes lieutenant governor Francis Nicholson and assumes control of the Province of New York.
- June 5 – The Convention of Estates adjourns in Scotland after 11 weeks and its members form a new Scottish parliament.
- June 14 – The Duke of Gordon, a Scottish peer and Jacobite supporter, surrenders Edinburgh Castle to Protestant attackers after holding out for 20 days following the Glorious Revolution.
July–September
- July 25 – The Council of Wales and the Marches is abolished.
- July 27 – First Jacobite rising: Battle of Killiecrankie near Pitlochry in Perthshire – Scottish Covenanter supporters of William III and Mary II (under Hugh Mackay) are defeated by Jacobite supporters of James II, but the latter's leader, John Graham, Viscount Dundee, is killed. Hand grenades are used in action.[8]
- July 28 – English sailors break through a floating boom across the River Foyle, to end the siege of Derry after 105 days.[9]
- August 2 – Boston Revolt: Edmund Andros, former governor of the Dominion of New England, escapes from Boston to Connecticut, but is recaptured.
- August 5 – Beaver Wars: Lachine massacre – A force of 1,500 Iroquois largely destroys the village of Lachine, New France.
- August 12 – Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi, b. 1611), Pope since 1676, dies. He played a major part in founding both the League of Augsburg, against Louis XIV, and the Holy League, against the Ottoman Empire.
- August 20 – A large Williamite force under Marshal Schomberg begins the siege of Carrickfergus in the north of Ireland, which surrenders on August 27.
- August 21 – First Jacobite rising: Battle of Dunkeld – Covenanters defeat the Jacobites in Scotland.[10]
- August 23
- Roman Catholic cardinals convene in Rome for a papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Innocent XI. The conclave lasts until October 6.
- Gravely ill, the Empress Xiaoyiren is proclaimed empress by her husband, China's Kangxi Emperor, after having been Imperial Noble Consort since 1682. She dies the next day.
- August 27 – China and Russia sign the Treaty of Nerchinsk.
- September 8 – The Siege of Mainz (in the modern-day Rheinland-Pfalz state of Germany), which had started on June 1, ends after almost three months, as French General Nicolas Chalon du Blé surrenders the walled city to the armies of Austria and the Dutch Republic.
- September 9 – King William brings England into a military alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in a fight against France in the Nine Years War.
- September 24 – The Holy Roman Empire wins the Battle of Niš, fought against the Ottoman Empire during the Great Turkish War in modern-day Serbia.
- September 28–29 – A total lunar eclipse is visible in eastern America, western Europe and west Africa.[11]
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