of 7,000 Dutch and 4,000 English soldiers to make an attack on the Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium). May 19 – Maurice of Nassau begins the Siege of Sluis, a port in the Spanish Netherlands, with 11,000 Dutch and English troops. Despite reinforcements from Spanish relief troops, the city surrenders after three months, with both sides having lost hundreds of casualties. May 20 – Five conspirators in England, led by Robert Catesby, who has invited Thomas Wintour, John Wright, Thomas Percy and Guy Fawkes, meet at the Duck and Drake Inn in London to make a plan for the assassination of King James. Peace discussions between England and Spain begin at Somerset House in London to end the Anglo-Spanish War after 19 years of fighting. May 22 – English entrepreneur Charles Leigh and a crew of 46 arrive in South America at what is now the Oyapock River in French Guiana after traveling on the ship Olive Plant. The 35 men and boys who stay create a colonial settlement which they call Oliveleigh, and make a claim to all of the area. June 9 – Thomas Percy, one of the English conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot to assassinate King James I, is appointed as one of the king's bodyguards by the Earl of Northumberland. June 15 – Ottoman–Safavid War: General Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha, commander of the eastern Ottoman Army, leads troops on a march from Constantinople to fight the Persia's Safavid Army in Armenia, but arrives too late to save the city of Yerevan. June – Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18): Shāh Abbas I of Persia's Safavid army captures the city of Yerevan from the Ottoman Empire after a siege. At this time the Shāh begins the expulsion of Armenians from Jolfa to New Julfa in his capital of Isfahan; more than 25,000 die during the exodus. July–September July 4 – The Jesuits Act 1603 (officially "An Act for the due execution of the Statutes against Jesuits, seminary Priests and recusants" is given royal assent by King James I of England to create penalties against Jesuits and Catholics who send their children abroad to Catholic colleges. July 7 – On 11 Safar 1013 AH in the Islamic calendar, the decree of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I is read aloud in the Great Mosque of Mecca, declaring that Idris ibn Hasan has been proclaimed the new Sharif of Mecca, in partnership with Idris's brother