Key events in world history, Dutch Golden Age, and Willem Drost's brief but brilliant career
Galileo Galilei tried by the Roman Inquisition and forced to recant heliocentrism
Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) presides over Galileo's condemnation.
René Descartes publishes Discours de la Méthode in Leiden, laying the foundation for rationalism and modern philosophy
Tulip mania collapses in the Dutch Republic, the first recorded speculative bubble in history
Dutch fleet under Maarten Tromp destroys Spanish fleet at the Battle of the Downs, cementing Dutch naval supremacy
Rembrandt paints The Night Watch (The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq), his most ambitious group portrait
Rembrandt's wife Saskia dies, leaving him with infant son Titus.
Pope Urban VIII dies.
Treaty of Münster ends the Eighty Years' War.
Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War in Germany.
Construction begins on Amsterdam's new Town Hall (now Royal Palace), the largest administrative building in Europe, symbol of Dutch civic pride
Drost enters Rembrandt's workshop in Amsterdam at approximately age 15-16, joining fellow pupils including Nicolaes Maes, Barent Fabritius, and others
Stadtholder William II dies suddenly of smallpox at age 24.
Drost paints The Vision of Daniel (WD-001), his earliest dated work, displaying strong Rembrandtesque chiaroscuro at age 17
First Anglo-Dutch War breaks out (May).
Drost paints Self Portrait of the Artist (WD-010) at age 19, his earliest dated self-portrait.
Johan de Witt becomes Grand Pensionary of Holland at age 27, assuming effective leadership of the Dutch Republic
Naval battles of Portland (February) and the Gabbard (June) rage during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
New Amsterdam (now New York City) is incorporated by the Dutch West India Company
Treaty of Westminster ends the First Anglo-Dutch War.
The Delft Thunderclap
Drost paints Bathsheba with King David's Letter (WD-005). Rembrandt also completes his Bathsheba at Her Bath in the same year
Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and secretly converts to Catholicism, moving to Rome.
Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Blaise Pascal experiences his "Night of Fire," a mystical vision that marks his definitive conversion to Jansenism, a Catholic reform movement influential in France and the Low Countries
Pope Innocent X dies.
Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan, Saturn's largest moon, using an improved telescope
Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker, consolidating his political alliance with Amsterdam's powerful regent class
Charles X Gustav of Sweden invades Poland, beginning the Second Northern War ("The Deluge") which disrupts Baltic trade routes vital to Dutch commerce
Drost likely departs Amsterdam for Italy.
Plague outbreak in Malta kills 20 people.
Baruch Spinoza excommunicated (cherem) from the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam for his radical philosophical ideas
Rembrandt declared bankrupt (cessio bonorum).
The Dutch capture Colombo (Sri Lanka) from the Portuguese, expanding VOC control in Asia and securing the cinnamon trade
Plague outbreak in Naples kills an estimated 100,000–150,000 people, devastating the city that was the source of Ribera's tenebrist style
Christiaan Huygens patents the pendulum clock, revolutionizing timekeeping and scientific measurement
The Dutch Republic abolishes the office of Stadtholder in Holland.
Drost and Loth collaborate on a series of the Four Evangelists in Venice (now lost).
Oliver Cromwell dies in England (September).
The Peace of the Pyrenees ends the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659).
Drost dies in Venice and is buried on February 25. He was approximately 25 years old. His final works