Events of 1597

January–June

• January 24 – Battle of Turnhout: Maurice of Nassau defeats a Spanish force under Jean de Rie of Varas in the Netherlands.

• February 5 – In Nagasaki, Japan, 26 people are martyred. They practiced Catholicism and were taken captive after all forms of Christianity were outlawed the previous year.

• February 8 – Sir Anthony Shirley, England's "best-educated pirate", raids Jamaica.

• March 11 – Amiens is taken by Spanish forces.

• March 18 – Tycho Brahe's stipend is stopped.

• March 29 – Tycho Brahe leaves Ven and moves to Copenhagen (Farvergården).

• April 4 – Christian Friis and Axel Brahe go to Ven to check complaints, and a commission is established to investigate Tycho Brahe's leadership.

• April 22 – The vicar on Ven is dismissed: he had followed Tycho's orders not to perform an exorcism.

• April 23 – Probable first performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

• April 27 – Johannes Kepler marries Barbara Muhleck.

• June – Tycho Brahe is not allowed to make observations from The Watermill Tower, and he is not allowed to perform chemical experiments at his house in Farvergade.

• June 1 – Tycho writes a recommendation supporting Longomontanus, who is planning to study in Germany.

• June 2 – Tycho leaves Copenhagen and goes to Rostock.

• June 10 – Tycho is removed from his job working at Epiphany Chapel in Roskilde.

• June 24 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).

July–December

• July – The Isle of Dogs (a play now lost) is written by Thomas Nashe and Ben Jonson, and performed at the Swan Theatre.

• July 10 – Tycho Brahe's famous letter to the king Christian IV is sent from Rostock.

• July 14 – Scottish poet Alexander Montgomerie is declared an outlaw after the collapse of a Catholic plot.

• August 13 – Beginning of the Siege of Namwon.

• August 17 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.

• August 24 – Christian IV of Denmark refuses to let Tycho Brahe return to Denmark.

• August 28 – Battle of Chilcheollyang: The Japanese fleet defeats the Koreans. It is the only Japanese naval victory in the Imjin War.

• September – Tycho Brahe leaves Rostock, where plague is spreading, and travels to Wandsbæk.

• September 9 – The Battle of Myeongryang.

• October – John Gerard, a Jesuit priest, escapes from the Tower of London.

• October 20 – Tycho starts new observations in Wandsbæk, where he writes his famous elegy.

• October 26 – Battle of Myeongnyang: The Koreans, commanded by Yi Sunsin, are victorious over the Japanese.

• December 15 – Johannes Kepler writes a letter to Tycho about his book, Mysterium Cosmographicum.

• December 31 – Tycho writes his preface to the Emperor Rudolf II in his book, Mecanica.

Undated

• Jacopo Peri writes Dafne, now recognised as the first opera.

• Bali is discovered by the Dutch explorer Cornelis Houtman.

• Abbas I ends the Uzbek raids on his lands.

• Yaqob succeeds his father Sarsa Dengel as Emperor of Ethiopia.

• The first edition of Francis Bacon's Essays is published.

• 12 million pesos of silver cross the Pacific. Although it is unknown just how much silver flowed from the Spanish base of Manila in the Philippines to the Ming Dynasty of China, it is known that the main port for the Mexican silver trade—Acapulco—shipped out 150,000 to 345,000 kg (4 to 9 million teals) of silver annually from this year to 1602.

• A Dutch Expedition commanded by Frederick de Houtman returns to Amsterdam after having successfully reached the Spice Islands. This achievement opens the Spice trade, which had until then been monopolised by the Portuguese, to the Dutch, who in the next years launch several more expeditions to the Indies.

Births

• January 31 – John Francis Regis, French saint (d. 1640)

• February 24 – Vincent Voiture, French poet (d. 1648)

• March 1 – Jean-Charles de la Faille, Belgian mathematician (d. 1652)

• April 9 – John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (d. 1670)

• April 13 – Giovanni Battista Hodierna, Italian astronomer (d. 1660)

• August 21 – Roger Twysden, English antiquarian and royalist (d. 1672)

• September – Willem Kieft, Dutch merchant and director general of New Netherland (d. 1647)

• December 23 – Martin Opitz von Boberfeld, German poet (d. 1639)

• date unknown

• *Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña, Spanish missionary and explorer (d. 1676)

• *Johan van Heemskerk, Dutch poet (d. 1656)

• *Cornelis Jol, Dutch naval commander and privateer (d. 1641)

• *Wang Wei, Chinese poet (d. 1647)

Deaths

• January 29 – Elias Ammerbach, German organist (b. 1530)

• February 5 – Paul Miki, Japanese Catholic saint (b. 1564)

• February 6 – Franciscus Patricius, Italian philosopher and scientist (b. 1529)

• March 11 – Henry Drummond, Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer

• June 6 – William Hunnis, English poet

• June 9 – José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit missionary (b. 1534)

• June 20 – Willem Barents, Dutch navigator and explorer (b. c. 1550)

• October 4 – Sarsa Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1550)

• October 9 – Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Japanese shogun (b. 1537)

• December 21 – Petrus Canisius, Dutch Jesuit (b. 1521)

• date unknown

• *James Burbage, English actor

• *Luís Fróis, Portuguese missionary (b. 1532)

• *Edward Kelley, English spirit medium (b. 1555)

• *Pratap Singh, Maharana of Mewar, Indian statesman (b. 1540)