1602
year
1602 (MDCII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1602nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 602nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 2nd year of the 17th century, and the 3rd year of the 1600s decade. As of the start of 1602, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
Events
January–March
January 3 – Battle of Kinsale: The English defeat Irish rebels and their Spanish allies. (The battle happens on this date according to the Gregorian calendar used by the Irish and Spanish but on Thursday, 24 December, 1601 according to the old Julian calendar used by the English.)
February 2 (Candlemas night) – In London, the first known production of William Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night takes place.
March 20 – The United East India Company is established by the United Provinces States-General in Amsterdam, with the stated intention of capturing the spice trade from the Portuguese.
April–June
April 20 – The Danish–Icelandic Trade Monopoly is established.
May 25 (May 15 Old Style) – English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing in the Concord, becomes the first European at Cape Cod.
June 2 – Dutch explorer Joris van Spilbergen lands on the eastern side of the island of Sri Lanka, at Santhamuruthu, and begins the process of attempting to establish a relationship with the rulers of the Kingdom of Kandy.
June 3 – Anglo-Spanish War (1585) – Battle of Sesimbra Bay off of the coast of Portugal: Five galleons of the English Royal Navy defeat a larger force of Spanish Navy ships.
June 5 – James Lancaster's East India Company fleet arrives at Achin (modern-day Aceh), Sumatra to deal with the local ruler.
“1602” enters the record as year. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what year can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“1602” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, year provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6727. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1602, 1923, 1601 and 1585.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1602”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1602 primary sources, 1602 archive and year research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1602”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1602” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.