“The star threatens evil things;
Only trust! God will make it right.”
1607
The Comet this year was seen all over Europe. The best observations of it were made by Kepler and Longomontanus (Langberger). It was seen at its brightest in England.
Shortly after its appearance over England, there came freshets and floods which completely submerged the richest counties of England. In Somersetshire and Gloucestershire the water rose above the tops of the houses. This was followed by a visitation of the plague.
In Ireland the Comet was taken as an omen of the fate of Londonderry, where the Irish rebels, suddenly seizing the city, massacred Sir George Powlett and all his English garrison.
In Germany the Comet was taken as a token of the war then brewing between the Emperor and the German Protestant Princes—the so-called Protestant League—which ushered in the dreadful Thirty Years’ War in Germany.
Off Gibraltar, a Dutch fleet completely destroyed a fleet of Spanish war galleons, thereby crippling Spanish sea power for a generation to come.
Meanwhile, in America, the early settlers in Virginia, led by John Smith, found themselves beset by the redskins, who were incited to war by the appearance of the Comet. They called it “Red Knife in the Sky.” During the war, John Smith was taken prisoner, and escaped with his life only through the intercession of Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhattan.
1531