January – March January 3 – Augustus of Wettin, the Elector of Saxony, marries Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt, the 12-year-old daughter of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt. Augustus dies less than six weeks later."Augustus I", Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). Vol. 2 January 18 – The 7.9 magnitude Tenshō earthquake strikes the Chubu region of Japan, triggering a tsunami and causing at least 8,000 deaths. February 11 After a two-day battle, an English assault force led by Francis Drake captures the South American port of Cartagena de Indias, part of Spain's colony, the Viceroyalty of Peru (now Cartagena in Colombia. In Dresden, Christian I becomes the new Elector of Saxony, after the death of his father Augustus. February 14 – In India, Yakub Shah Chak becomes the new Sultan of Kashmir after the death of his father, the Sultan Yousuf Shah.Haidar Malik Chadurah, History of Kashmir (Jaykay Books, 2013) p.185 February 16 – In what is now Buner District, Pakistan, Kalu Khan leads his Yousafzai-Afghan Lashkar to defeat the Mughal Army at the Karakar Pass in the Afghan-Mughal War, annihilating them by the 10s of thousands and inflicting one of the greatest defeats in Mughal history to Emperor of India Akbar the Great known as Battle of the Malandari Pass.Jadunath Sarkar and Raghubir Sinh, A History of Jaipur, c. 1503-1938 (Orient Longman, 1984), pp. 68-69 February 23 – The Scottish crown jewels, recovered for King James VI by William Stewart of Caverston, are formally returned to the royal treasurer, Lord Melville. The jewels include a square gold pendant, inlaid with a large diamond and a ruby and several other diamonds, the "Great H of Scotland".Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 316-320 March 3 – Battle of Werl in the Duchy of Westphalia (Germany): Claude de Berlaymont and a large force of 4,000 troops attempt to capture Maarten Schenck van Nydeggen, who had plundered the territory of Vest Recklinghausen within the Electorate of Cologne. Schenk and his men are able to escape after five days.Johann Heinrich Hennes, Der Kampf um das Erzstift Köln zur Zeit der Kurfürsten (1878), pp. 156–162 March 12 – Greek-born Spanish artist Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, known better as El Greco, is commissioned to paint his most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which he finishes in early 1588.Mauricia Tazartes, El Greco (Explorer Press, 2005) p.49 March 18 – The Black Assize of Exeter begins in England as infected prisoners go on trial and an epidemic of typhus spreads quickly through the courtrooms above Exeter Prison."Exeter Typhus Epidemic of 1586", in Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, 2008, by George C. Kohn (Facts on File, 2007) p.122 The disease is quickly transmitted from body lice on inmates who had been incarcerated in unsanitary conditions. In addition to prisoners who died from the disease, typhus claims the life of eight judges and 11 of the 12 jurors. Author Alexander Jenkins writes later, "A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were arraigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them."Alexander Jenkins, Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the City of Exeter and its Environs (Exeter, 1841) p. 125 March 25 – Forty Martyrs of England and Wales: The most infamous case in England of a torture and execution by Peine forte et dure— slowly piling heavy stones upon a prisoner until they make a plea or die — is carried out against Margaret Clitherow of York after she refuses to enter a plea on charges of harboring Roman Catholic priests. She will be canonized as a Catholic saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
January – March January 3 – Augustus of Wettin, the Elector of Saxony, marries Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt, the 12-year-old daughter of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt. Augustus dies less than six weeks later."Augustus I", Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). Vol. 2 January 18 – The 7.9 magnitude Tenshō earthquake strikes the Chubu region of Japan, triggering a tsunami and causing at least 8,000 deaths. February 11 After a two-day battle, an English assault force led by Francis Drake captures the South American port of Cartagena de Indias, part of Spain's colony, the Viceroyalty of Peru (now Cartagena in Colombia. In Dresden, Christian I becomes the new Elector of Saxony, after the death of his father Augustus. February 14 – In India, Yakub Shah Chak becomes the new Sultan of Kashmir after the death of his father, the Sultan Yousuf Shah.Haidar Malik Chadurah, History of Kashmir (Jaykay Books, 2013) p.185 February 16 – In what is now Buner District, Pakistan, Kalu Khan leads his Yousafzai-Afghan Lashkar to defeat the Mughal Army at the Karakar Pass in the Afghan-Mughal War, annihilating them by the 10s of thousands and inflicting one of the greatest defeats in Mughal history to Emperor of India Akbar the Great known as Battle of the Malandari Pass.Jadunath Sarkar and Raghubir Sinh, A History of Jaipur, c. 1503-1938 (Orient Longman, 1984), pp. 68-69 February 23 – The Scottish crown jewels, recovered for King James VI by William Stewart of Caverston, are formally returned to the royal treasurer, Lord Melville. The jewels include a square gold pendant, inlaid with a large diamond and a ruby and several other diamonds, the "Great H of Scotland".Thomas Thomson, A Collection of Inventories and Other Records of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewelhouse (Edinburgh, 1815), pp. 316-320 March 3 – Battle of Werl in the Duchy of Westphalia (Germany): Claude de Berlaymont and a large force of 4,000 troops attempt to capture Maarten Schenck van Nydeggen, who had plundered the territory of Vest Recklinghausen within the Electorate of Cologne. Schenk and his men are able to escape after five days.Johann Heinrich Hennes, Der Kampf um das Erzstift Köln zur Zeit der Kurfürsten (1878), pp. 156–162 March 12 – Greek-born Spanish artist Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos, known better as El Greco, is commissioned to paint his most famous work, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which he finishes in early 1588.Mauricia Tazartes, El Greco (Explorer Press, 2005) p.49 March 18 – The Black Assize of Exeter begins in England as infected prisoners go on trial and an epidemic of typhus spreads quickly through the courtrooms above Exeter Prison."Exeter Typhus Epidemic of 1586", in Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present, 2008, by George C. Kohn (Facts on File, 2007) p.122 The disease is quickly transmitted from body lice on inmates who had been incarcerated in unsanitary conditions. In addition to prisoners who died from the disease, typhus claims the life of eight judges and 11 of the 12 jurors. Author Alexander Jenkins writes later, "A noisome and pestilential smell came from the prisoners who were arraigned at the crown bar which so affected the people present that many were seized with a violent sickness which proved mortal to the greatest part of them."Alexander Jenkins, Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the City of Exeter and its Environs (Exeter, 1841) p. 125 March 25 – Forty Martyrs of England and Wales: The most infamous case in England of a torture and execution by Peine forte et dure— slowly piling heavy stones upon a prisoner until they make a plea or die — is carried out against Margaret Clitherow of York after she refuses to enter a plea on charges of harboring Roman Catholic priests. She will be canonized as a Catholic saint in 1970 by Pope Paul VI.