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1640s

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Events

1640

January–March

April–June

  • April 13 – The Short Parliament assembles, as King Charles I of England attempts to fund the second of the Bishops' Wars.
  • May 5 – The Short Parliament is dissolved.
  • May 22 – The Catalan Revolt (Guerra dels Segadors) breaks out in Catalonia.
  • June 7 – Catalan rebels assassinate Dalmau de Queralt, Count of Santa Coloma, beginning the three-day Corpus de Sang riots.
  • June 13 – The eruption of the Mount Komagatake volcano takes place in Japan. Although the eruption causes few direct injuries, the heavy ashfall poisons local crops and causes the Kan'ei Great Famine that causes more than 50,000 deaths from starvation.

July–September

  • July 9 – John Punch, a servant of Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn, is sentenced to a life of servitude after attempting to escape, making him the "first official slave in the English colonies"
  • July 15 – The first university of Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku, is inaugurated in Turku.
  • August 9 – Forty-one Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded.
  • August 20 – Second Bishops' War: A Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland in England.
  • August 28 – Second Bishops' War – Battle of Newburn: The Scottish Covenanter army led by Alexander Leslie defeats the English army near Newburn in England.
  • September 7 – Portuguese missionary Sebastien Manrique reaches Dhaka and stays for 27 days, leaving on October 4.
  • September 20 – The Siege of Turin ends in Italy after almost four months with a victory by French and Piedmontese after having started on May 22, and the city is recaptured from Spain.

October–December

  • October 26 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between the Scottish Covenanters and Charles I of England.
  • November 3 – The English Long Parliament is summoned; it will not be dissolved for 20 years.
  • December 1

Date unknown

1641

January–March

  • January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker in the Philippines has a major eruption.
  • January 14 – The Battle of Malacca concludes with the Dutch East India Company ending Portuguese control of Malacca.
  • January 18 – The Junta de Braços (council of Estates) of the Principality of Catalonia, led by Pau Claris, accepts the proposal to establish the Catalan Republic under French protection.
  • February 16 – King Charles I of England gives his assent to the Triennial Act, reluctantly committing himself to parliamentary sessions of at least fifty days, every three years.
  • March 7 – King Charles I of England decrees that all Roman Catholic priests must leave England by April 7 or face being arrested and treated as traitors.
  • March 22 – The trial for high treason begins for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, director of England's Council of the North.
  • March 27
    • The Battle of Pressnitz begins between the Holy Roman Empire and Sweden.
    • The Siege of São Filipe begins in the Azores as the Portuguese Navy fights to drive the Spanish out. After almost 11 months, the Portuguese prevail on March 4, 1642.

April–June

  • April 7 – The deadline for Catholic priests to leave England expires. Among those who refuse to leave, Ambrose Barlow and William Ward become martyrs. Barlow surrenders on Easter Sunday, April 25, and is hanged on September 10; he will be canonized as a saint in 1970. Ward is caught on July 15 and executed on July 26.
  • April 15 – Aegidius Ursinus de Vivere is appointed by Pope Urban VIII to be the Roman Catholic Church's Patriarch of Jerusalem.
  • April 21 – England's House of Commons votes 204 to 59 in favor of the conviction for treason and the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and the House of Lords acquiesces. King Charles refuses to give the necessary royal assent.
  • April 25 – The Battle of Songjin begins in the modern-day North Korean city of Kimch'aek, at the time part of the Chinese Empire controlled by the Ming dynasty. The Ming, led by General Wu Sangui, defeat the Qing rebels.
  • April 30 – In Morocco, rebel leader and secessionist Sidi al-Ayachi is assassinated.
  • May 3 – The Protestation of 1641 is passed by England's Parliament, requiring all officeholders to swear an oath of allegiance to King Charles I and to the Church of England.
  • May 7 – England's House of Lords votes, 51 to 9, in favor of the execution of the Earl of Strafford for treason. In fear for his own safety, King Charles I signs Strafford's death warrant on May 10.
  • May 11 – The Long Parliament in England passes the "Act against Dissolving Parliament without its own Consent".
  • May 12 – Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, former director of England's Council of the North, is publicly beheaded in London in front of a crowd of thousands of people.
  • May 24 – Providence Island in the Caribbean, settled by English Puritans and a haven for English pirates off the coast of modern-day Colombia, is captured in a joint operation of the Spanish Navy in an attack led by Don Francisco Díaz Pimienta, and the Portuguese Navy led by the Count of Castel-Melhor Sousa. The expedition takes 770 prisoners, 380 slaves and a fortune in plundered gold and silver.
  • June 1 – In Paris, representatives of Portugal and France sign a treaty of alliance.
  • June 2 – Bavarian and Spanish troops capture the town of Bad Kreuznach during the Thirty Years' War, 17 months after it had been taken in a French and Saxon attack.
  • June 12
    • In India, in the modern-day Rajasthan state, the Mughal Grand Vizier Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan is killed in a battle in Bundi against the armies of Nurpur, commanded by the Raja Jagat Singh. The elaborate Tomb of Asif Khan is constructed at Lahore (modern Pakistan) on orders of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir.
    • The Treaty of The Hague is signed between representatives of the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Portugal as a 10-year truce and alliance.
  • June 29 – The Battle of Wolfenbüttel takes place between a combined Swedish and French force against the Holy Roman Empire, with the Swedish-French Army driving back an Imperial assault.

July–September

  • July 5 – In England, the Long Parliament abolishes the Court of Star Chamber.
  • July 12 – Portugal and the Dutch Republic sign a Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance at The Hague. The treaty is not respected by both parties, and as a consequence has no effect in the Portuguese colonies (Brazil and Angola) that are under Dutch rule.
  • August 10 – Charles I of England signs the Treaty of London ending the Bishops' Wars between England and Scotland.
  • September 14 – The Treaty of Péronne is signed between Honoré II, Prince of Monaco and France's King Louis XIII, guaranteeing the Grimaldi family the right to rule Monaco in return for the principality becoming a French protectorate.
  • September 18
  • September 23 – The English ship Merchant Royal sinks off Cornwall along with its cargo of 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of gold and 18 of its 58 crew. More than 380 years later, treasure seekers will still not have located the wreckage.

October–December

  • October 2 – Scottish politician John Campbell takes office as Lord Chancellor of Scotland and is given the title of the Earl of Loudoun by Charles I in his capacity as King of Scotland.
  • October 23 – Irish Rebellion of 1641 breaks out: Irish Catholic gentry, chiefly in Ulster, revolt against the English administration and Scottish settlers in Ireland.
  • October 24 – The Irish rebel Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard issues the Proclamation of Dungannon.
  • November 4 – Battle of Cape St Vincent: A Dutch fleet, with Michiel de Ruyter as third in command, beats back a Spanish-Dunkirker fleet off the coast of Portugal.
  • November 22 – By a vote of 159 to 148, the Long Parliament of England passes the Grand Remonstrance, with 204 specific objections to King Charles I's absolutist tendencies, and calling for the King to expel all Anglican bishops from the House of Lords.
  • December 1 – The English Parliament presents the Grand Remonstrance to King Charles, who makes no response to it until Parliament has the document published and released to the general public.
  • December 7 – The bill for the Militia Ordinance is introduced by Arthur Haselrig, an anti-monarchist member of the House of Commons, proposing for the first time to allow Parliament to appoint its own military commanders without royal approval. King Charles, concerned that the legislation would allow parliament to create its own army, orders Haselrig arrested for treason. Parliament passes the Militia Ordinance on March 15.
  • December 16 – Pope Urban VIII announces the creation of 12 new cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church.
  • December 23 – King Charles replies to the Grand Remonstrance and refuses the demand for the removal of bishops from the House of Lords. Rioting breaks out in Westminster after the King's refusal is announced, and the 12 Anglican bishops stop attending meetings of the Lords.
  • December 27 – According to a journalist who witnesses the events, John Rushworth, the term "roundhead" is first used to describe supporters of the English Parliament who have challenged the authority of the monarchy. Rushworth writes later that during a riot on the 27th, one of the rioters, David Hide, draws his sword and, describing the short haircuts of the anti-monarchists, says that he would "cut the throat of those round-headed dogs that bawled against bishops."
  • December 30 – At the request of King Charles, John Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of York joins with 11 other bishops in disputing the legality of any legislation passed by the House of Lords during the time that the bishops were excluded. The House of Commons passes a resolution to have the 12 bishops arrested. King Charles, in turn, issues an order on January 3 to have five members of the House of Commons arrested for treason.

Date unknown

1642

January–March

  • January 4 – First English Civil War: Accompanied by soldiers, England's King Charles I arrives at a session of the Long Parliament and attempts to arrest his chief opponents, the five leading members of parliament—John Hampden, Arthur Haselrig, Denzil Holles, John Pym and William Strode—but they escape and are protected by the Lord Mayor of London.
  • February 5 – The Bishops Exclusion Act is passed in England to prevent any member of the clergy from holding political office.
  • February 15 – Endymion Porter is voted to be a "dangerous counsellor" by the English parliament.
  • February 17 – The Treaty of Axim is signed between the Dutch West India Company and the chiefs of the Nzema people in what is now the African nation of Ghana.
  • February 18 – A group of Protestant English settlers in Ireland surrender to Irish authorities at Castlebar in County Mayo in hopes of having their lives spared, and are killed one week later on orders of Edmond Bourke.
  • February 20 – The Treaty of The Hague, between the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Portugal, is ratified by the Republic's States-General.
  • February 22 – The Italian opera Il palazzo incantato (The Enchanted Palace), by Luigi Rossi with libretto by Giulion Rospigliosi, is given its first performance.
  • March 1 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in the British colonies of North America.
  • March 19 – The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship, close the town gates, and declare support for Confederate Ireland.

April–June

  • April – Hannibal Sehested is appointed Governor-General of Norway.
  • April 8 – George Spencer is executed by the New Haven Colony, for alleged bestiality.
  • May 1 – Honours granted by Charles I, from this date onward, are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.
  • May 17 – Ville-Marie (later Montreal) is founded as a permanent settlement.
  • May 18 – In Ireland, the five week Siege of Limerick, under control by English Protestants, is started by the Irish Confederation.
  • June 1 – The "Nineteen Propositions" are sent by the English House of Lords and House of Commons to King Charles I, asking the King to consent to parliamentary approval for the members of his privy council, his chief officers, and new seats created for the House of Lords, as well as regulating the education and choice of marital partners of the King's children, and barring Roman Catholics from the Lords.
  • June 10 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Archbishop of Mexico, fires the Viceroy of New Spain, Diego López Pacheco, allegedly on orders of King Philip IV, and takes office as the new Viceroy. Palafox is only in office for five months before being recalled to Spain.
  • June 16 – The Battle of Glenmaquin takes place in Ireland's County Donegal, with English Royalists defeating the Irish Confederation's soldiers.
  • June 18 – Troops led by Garret Barry of the Irish Confederation, are successful in the Siege of Limerick after five weeks.
  • June 29 – The three-day Battle of Barcelona begins at sea as a French Navy fleet of 75 ships, commanded by Admiral Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé clashes off the coast of Spain with a Spanish fleet of 52 ships.

July–September

  • July 2 – Hundreds of sailors are killed when the French warship Galion de Guise and the Spanish galley Magdalena become entangled during the Battle of Barcelona. A French fireship attempts to burn the Magdalena and accidentally sets fire to the Galion de Guise, killing 500 of the 540 crew.
  • July 3 – The French Navy wins the Battle of Barcelona.
  • July 4 – The Committee of Safety is created by the English Parliament as a challenge to the authority of King Charles I. Five members of the House of Lords (Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, and the William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele and ten members of the House of Commons Nathaniel Fiennes, John Glynn, John Hampden, Denzil Holles, Henry Marten, John Merrick, William Pierrepoint, John Pym, Philip Stapleton, and William Waller are appointed to the Committee.
  • July 10 – First English Civil War: Charles I besieges Hull, in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal. The siege lasts until July 27, with Charles's Royalist Army failing to take the city from the Parliamentarians commanded by Governor John Hotham and General John Meldrum.
  • July 12 – The English Parliament votes to raise its own Army, under the command of the Earl of Essex.
  • August 3 – A Dutch Navy fleet of 14 warships, led by Hendric Harouse, begins a campaign to drive Spaniards from the island of Formosa (now Taiwan) off of the coast of mainland China. After disembarking at Tamsui, the Dutch begin a siege of Fort Domingo, which falls on Saint Bartolomeo Day (August 24).
  • August 4 – Lord Forbes relieves Forthill, and besieges Galway.
  • August 22 – King Charles I raises the royal battle standard over Nottingham Castle, so declaring war on his own Parliament.
  • September 2 – Parliament orders the theatres of London closed, effectively ending the era of English Renaissance theatre.
  • September 6 – England's Long Parliament suppresses all stage plays in theatres.
  • September 7 – Lord Forbes raises his unsuccessful siege of Galway.
  • September 8 – Thomas Granger is executed by hanging at Plymouth, Massachusetts, for confessing to numerous acts of bestiality.

October–December

  • October 8 – 1642 Yellow River flood: Some 300,000 people die in the intentional breaking of the dams and dykes of the Yellow River, done either by the Ming dynasty defenders of Kaifeng to break the siege by the large Manchu dynasty rebel force of Li Zicheng.
  • October 23 – First English Civil War – Battle of Edgehill: Royalists and Parliamentarians battle to a draw.
  • November 13 – First English Civil War – Battle of Turnham Green: The Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army, and fail to take London.
  • November 15 – Sir Edward Ford, High Sheriff of Sussex, captures Chichester from the Parliamentarians without resistance. The Parliamentarians send Sir William Waller to recapture Chichester.
  • November 24 – Abel Tasman and his crew become the first Europeans to discover "Van Diemen's Land", now the Australian island and state of Tasmania, and the island is claimed for the Netherlands on December 3 at what is now Prince of Wales Bay.
  • November 27 – Hong Taiji (known in the West as Abatai) begins a 60-day march of Manchu warriors, southwardly from the Great Wall through Ming Chinese provinces of Zhili and Shandong, before returning northward on January 27. Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, and the Shunzhi Emperor becomes the first Qing Emperor to rule over China proper.
  • December 13 – Abel Tasman and his crew become the first recorded Europeans to sight New Zealand, arriving at its South Island. In a battle between the Europeans and the Island's Maori inhabitants, four crew members are killed.
  • December 21 – After routing Edward Ford's royalist troops at the Battle of Muster Green, William Waller follows Ford's retreating force to Chichester as the Parliamentarians besiege the city, which falls on December 29 after eight days. The inhabitants of Chichester agree to pay the Parliamentarians an additional month's pay to prevent the town from being plundered.

Date unknown

  • The village of Bro (Broo), Sweden is granted city rights for the second time, and takes the name Kristinehamn (literally "Christina's port") after the then Swedish monarch, Queen Christina.
  • Rembrandt finishes his painting, The Night Watch.
  • Isaac Aboab da Fonseca is appointed rabbi in Pernambuco, Brazil, thus becoming the first rabbi of the Americas.

1643

January–March

April–June

  • April 1 – Åmål, Sweden, is granted its city charter.
  • April 28 – Francisco de Lucena, former Portuguese Secretary of State, is beheaded after being convicted of treason.
  • May 14 – Louis XIV succeeds his father Louis XIII as King of France at age 4. His rule will last until his death at age 77 in 1715, a total of 72 years, which will be the longest reign of any European monarch in recorded history.
  • May 19
  • May 20 – Dutch expedition to Valdivia: The Dutch fleet (led by Hendrik Brouwer) is spotted off Carelmapu in Chile, soon afterwards landing nearby and plundering the fort and village.
  • June 30 – First English Civil War: Battle of Adwalton Moor – Royalists gain control of Yorkshire.

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

  • Baden-Baden is pillaged by the French.
  • An Calbhach mac Aedh Ó Conchobhair Donn, The Ó Conchubhair Donn, Chief of the Name of the Clan Ó Conchubhair, is popularly inaugurated as the last King of Connacht in Ireland.
  • Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer.
  • Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, places the first Mount Royal Cross atop Mount Royal above Montreal.
  • Jean Bolland publishes the first two volumes of the Acta Sanctorum (in Antwerp). This is the beginning of the Bollandists' work.
  • Miyamoto Musashi begins to dictate The Book of Five Rings (Go Rin No Sho) to his student; he will complete it in 1654, just before his death.
  • Roger Williams, co-founder of Rhode Island, publishes A Key into the Language of America.

1644

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Date unknown

  • A Spanish officer is murdered in St. Dominic's Church, Macau during mass by colonists loyal to Portugal during the Portuguese Restoration War.
  • Sigismund's Column is erected in Warsaw to commemorate King Sigismund III Vasa, who moved the capital of Poland from Kraków to Warsaw in 1596.
  • Philosopher René Descartes publishes Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy) in Amsterdam.
  • The opera Ormindo is first performed in Venice (music by Francesco Cavalli, and libretto by Giovanni Faustini).
  • The West India Company displays greater interest in profit than in colonization.

1645

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

  • October 8–14 – English Civil War: The Third siege of Basing House by Oliver Cromwell results in its destruction.
  • October 8 – Jeanne Mance founds the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, the first hospital in North America.
  • October 11 – English Civil War: Re-fortification of Bourne Castle in Lincolnshire against a threatened Royalist attack begins.
  • November 20 – The Colegio de Santo Tomas is elevated by Pope Innocent X into the University of Santo Tomas, in his brief In Supreminenti. It has the oldest extant University Charter in the Philippines, as well as the whole of Asia.
  • December 18 – English Civil War: The Royalist stronghold of Hereford is seized in a swift attack by Parliamentary forces under John Birch.

Date unknown

  • Bamana forces from Ségou invade the Mali heartland, destroying the Mali Empire after its 400 years as a unified state.
  • The Stolberg-Wernigerode branch of the family of the counts of Stolberg and Wernigerode is founded in Germany.
  • The Solar cycle enters the 70-year Maunder Minimum, during which sunspots will be rare.
  • Wallpaper begins to replace tapestries, as a wall decoration.
  • The Roxbury Latin School is founded.

1646

January–March

  • January 5 – The English House of Commons approves a bill to provide for Ireland to be governed by a single Englishman.
  • January 9 – Battle of Bovey Heath in Devonshire: Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army surprises and routs the Royalist camp of Lord Wentworth.
  • January 19 – Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet, a Royalist fighting for Prince Charles against Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, is imprisoned for insubordination after proposing to make Cornwall self-governing in order to win Cornish support for the Royalists. After being incarcerated at the tidal island of St Michael's Mount off of the coast of Cornwall, he is allowed to escape in March to avoid capture by Cromwell's troops.
  • January 20 – Francesco Molin is elected as the 99th Doge of Venice after 23 ballots, and governs the Venetian Republic for nine years until his death in 1655.
  • January 21 – Philip Sidney, 3rd Earl of Leicester is approved by England's House of Commons as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
  • February 16 – First English Civil War – Battle of Torrington: A decisive Parliamentary victory is gained over the Royalists.
  • February 28 – Roger Scott is tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.
  • March 2 – The future Charles II of England escapes from Cornwall into exile across the English Channel.
  • March 6 – Joseph Jenkes obtains the first colonial machine patent, in Massachusetts.
  • March 15 – Start of the Battles of La Naval de Manila, a series of five naval battles fought between the Dutch Republic and Spain in the waters of the Philippines.

April–June

  • April 24 – The Union of Uzhorod brings the Ruthenian Greek Orthodox Church into the fold of the Catholic Church while allowing it to retain its Eastern and Rusyn character.
  • April 27 – King Charles I of England flees from Oxford (where he has been overwintering) in disguise and begins his journey to the Scottish army camp near Newark.
  • May 5 – King Charles I of England surrenders his forces to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
  • May 6 – American colonial poet Anne Bradstreet becomes a founding mother of Andover Parish (modern-day North Andover), Massachusetts.
  • May 30 – Eighty Years' War: Habsburg Spain and the Dutch Republic sign a temporary cease-fire.
  • June 20 – Third Siege of Oxford concludes with signing of the surrender of the Royalist garrison at Oxford to General Thomas Fairfax's Parliamentary New Model Army; on the 24th of June the main force marches out, ending the First English Civil War.

July–September

  • July 7 – The populist political movement called the Levellers appears in England with the publication of the Levellers manifesto, A Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens by Richard Overton and William Walwyn.
  • July 12 – Lightning strikes the gunpowder tower of the castle of Bredevoort in the Netherlands, causing an explosion that destroys parts of the castle and the town, killing Lord Haersolte of Bredevoort and his family, as well as others. Only one son, Anthonie, who is not home that day, survives.
  • July 30 – Commissioners of the Parliament of England and Scottish Covenanters meeting in Newcastle upon Tyne set out the Heads of Proposals ("Newcastle Propositions") demanding that King Charles I gives up control of the army and place restrictions on Catholics, as the basis for a constitutional settlement.
  • August 19
    • The Westminster Assembly of Divines, meeting in London, approves a resolution to begin the drawing up of the Westminster Confession of Faith, declaring that "These heads of Faith, Repentance, and Good Works shall be referred to the three Committees in their order to prepare something upon them for the Confession of Faith."; the draft is printed and sent to the Parliament of England in December.
    • First English Civil War: Raglan Castle in Wales surrenders to General Fairfax after a 2-month siege; it is later destroyed.
  • September 16 – The new Orange College of Breda opens at Breda in the Dutch Republic.

October–December

  • October 10 – France takes Dunkirk from the Spanish Netherlands for the first time.
  • October 28 – The first Protestant church assembly for Native Americans (specifically, the Waban people) is held in Massachusetts.
  • October 9 – The Anglican episcopacy is formally abolished by an act of England's Parliament.
  • November 4 – Massachusetts Bay Colony enacts the death penalty as punishment for denying Biblical inspiration.
  • November 16 – Following up on the abolition of the episcopacy, Parliament passes an act to sell the bishops' lands across the Commonwealth.
  • December 7 – Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau marries Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, on her 19th birthday at The Hague.
  • December 23 – The Covenanters hand over King Charles I of England to the Parliamentarians.

1647

January–March

  • January 2 – Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong by a Qing archer, after having been betrayed by one of his officers, Liu Jinzhong.
  • January 7 – The Westminster Assembly begins debating the biblical proof texts, to support the new Confession of Faith.
  • January 16 – Citizens of Dublin declare their support for Rinuccini, and refuse to support the army of the Marquis of Ormond.
  • January 17 – Posten Norge is founded as Postvesenet.
  • January 20 – A small Qing force led by Li Chengdong captures Guangzhou and kills the Zhu Yuyue, the Shaowu Emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty in China.
  • February 5 – The Yongli era is proclaimed as Zhu Youlang is declared the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming.
  • February 24 – Thomas Bushell surrenders the Bristol Channel island of Lundy, the last remaining Royalist territory of England, to the Parliamentarians.
  • March 14 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
  • March – Following the Treaty of Ulm that removed Bavaria from the Thirty Years War, the Bavarian troops' commander, Holy Roman Imperial General Johann von Werth, defies Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and von Werth attempts to move the Bavarian troops out of Bavaria and into Austria to come under Imperial jurisdiction. The troops refuse, and von Werth flees to Austria.

April–June

  • April 3 – In England, a letter from the Agitators of the New Model Army, protesting delay of pay, is read in the House of Commons.
  • May 13 – The 1647 Santiago earthquake rattles Chile.
  • May 24 – The Marquis of Argyll and David Leslie join forces to defeat Alasdair MacColla, at Rhunahoarine Point in Kintyre. MacColla flees to Ireland; his followers are massacred.
  • June 6 – Michael Jones, named Governor of Dublin by England's Parliamentarians, lands with 2,000 troops and begins the expulsion of Catholics and the arrest of Protestant royalists.
  • June 8 – The Puritan rulers of England's Long Parliament pass the "Ordinance for abolishing all Holidays, and appointing other Days for Sports and Recreations for Scholars, Apprentices, and Servants, in their Room", confirming abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, though making the second Tuesday in each month a secular holiday. The Act declares "Forasmuch as the Feasts of the Nativity of Christ, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and other Festivals, commonly called Holidays, have heretofore been superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, That the said Feasts and Festivals be no loner observed within England and Wales."
  • June 10 – The Battle of Puerto de Cavite begins in the Spanish Philippines when an armada of 12 large warships from the Dutch Republic sails into Manila Bay, with cannon fire hitting many of the roofs of the city. The Spanish defending fleet drives off the Dutch after a two day battle.
  • June 16 – Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans, is crowned as the King of Hungary and Croatia at Pressburg, now the Slovakian capital of Bratislava
  • June 19 – The Duke of Ormond, the royalist governor of Dublin, concludes a treaty with the English Commonwealth's Earl of Anglesey, handing over control of Dublin to the Commonwealth in return for the English promise to protect the interests of royalists, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who had not joined in the Irish Rebellion.
  • June 25 – The "Remonstrance of The Army" is presented to the English parliament by former Royal Army supporters of King Charles I, pledging their loyalty to the new English Commonwealth.

July–September

  • July 7 – Masaniello launches rebellion in Naples against Spanish rule.
  • July 27 – A mob invades both Houses of the English Parliament at Westminster, and forces the Speakers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords to flee, along with other MPs and Peers.
  • August 5 – The New Model Army marches into London, "fulfilling the worst nightmares of Presbyterian MPs," and restores the members of Parliament who were deposed on July 27.
  • August 8 – Battle of Dungan's Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.
  • August 17 – Peter Stuyvesant is appointed Director of New Netherlands, the Dutch colony in what is later the U.S. state of New York, by the Dutch West India Company to replace Willem Kieft, who departs New Amsterdam on the ship Princess Amelia.
  • August 22 – Battle of Triebl: Imperial forces defeat the Swedes in a surprise attack in Bohemia.
  • September 27 – The Dutch merchant ship Princess Amelia runs aground off of the coast of Mumbles Point, Wales and sinks, killing 86 of the 107 people aboard, including former New Netherlands Governor Willem Kieft.

October–December

  • October 28 – The Putney Debates, a series of discussions between officers of the New Model Army following Parliament's military defeat of the absolutist monarchy of King Charles, begin at the St. Mary's Church, Putney about what form of government would replace the monarchy in the new republican Commonwealth of England.
  • November 13 – Battle of Knocknanuss: An Irish confederate force is destroyed by the army of Parliament; Alasdair MacColla is killed.
  • November 15 – Henry of Guise lands in Naples, to become the leader of the Neapolitan Republic.
  • December 28 – King Charles of England promises a church reform. This agreement leads to the Second English Civil War.

Date unknown

  • Aberystwyth Castle in Wales, a former Royalist stronghold, is razed to the ground after "a battery of cannon erected on the top of Pendinas hill by Cromwell" and the Parliamentarian troops.
  • The word Geysir is first used in Iceland, by Bishop Sveinson.
  • Dutch artist Salomon van Ruysdael completes the oil painting, The Crossing at Nijmegen.

1648

January–March

  • January 15
    • Manchu invaders of China's Fujian province capture Spanish Dominican priest Francisco Fernández de Capillas, torture him and then behead him. Capillas will be canonized more than 350 years later in 2000 in the Roman Catholic Church as one of the Martyr Saints of China.
    • Alexis, Tsar of Russia, marries Maria Miloslavskaya, who later gives birth to two future tsars (Feodor III and Ivan V) as well as Princess Sophia Alekseyevna, the regent for Peter I.
  • January 17 – By a vote of 141 to 91, England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I, and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
  • January 20 – France's Royal Council votes to create the Académie royale after accepting the proposal of Martin de Charmois.
  • January 26 – The Khmelnytsky Uprising in Ukraine, at the time part of the Republic of Both Nations (Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), begins as Bohdan Khmelnytsky becomes Hetman of the Cossacks.
  • January 30 – The Dutch and the Spanish sign the Peace of Münster, ending the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish Empire recognizes the Dutch Republic of United Netherlands as a sovereign state (governed by the House of Orange-Nassau and the States General), which was previously a province of the Spanish Empire. The treaty is ratified by the Netherlands on May 15.
  • February 11 – England's parliament passes stricter laws against performance of stage plays, providing for demolition of seats in theatres, imprisonment for actors and fines for spectators. The vote comes six days after the King's Men Players are arrested at the Cockpit Theatre during an illegal performance of Rollo Duke of Normandy.
  • February 28 – King Christian IV of Denmark and Norway dies after a reign of almost 60 years without having named a successor. The Rigsraadet (Royal Council) and the Estates of the Realm will debate the matter for more than four months before deciding on July 6 to select Christian's oldest surviving son to become King Frederick III.
  • March 31 – A major earthquake strikes Van in Ottoman Armenia.

April–June

  • April 19 – First Battle of Guararapes: The Portuguese army defeats the Dutch army, in the north of Brazil.
  • May 12 – Construction of the Kaunghmudaw Pagoda is completed in the Kingdom of Burma on the 6th waning of Kason, 1010, near the end of the reign of King Thalun. Hmannan Yazawin
  • May 15 – The Peace of Münster is ratified by both the United Netherlands and the Spanish Empire.
  • May 16 – England's Commonwealth Army massacres 70 Cornish royalists at Penzance, leading to a rebellion against England's Parliamentarians.
  • May 20 – Wladyslaw IV Vasa, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, dies after a reign of 15 years. The throne remains vacant for six months until Wladyslaw's younger half-brother, John II Casimir Vasa, is elected by Poland's Parliament.
  • June 1 – The Roundheads defeat the Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War.
  • June 20 – Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnyov departs from Srednekolymsk to begin the first recorded voyage through the Bering Strait, between Asia and North America, and arrives in September.

July–September

October–December

  • October 24 – Signing of the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück concludes the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years' War. Rulers of the Imperial States can personally convert to Protestant, Catholic or Calvinist. Ecclesiastical property is restored to the status of 1624, with the minorities of each of the three recognized faiths granted toleration of worship, and there is general recognition of exclusive sovereignty, including that of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland. France and Sweden gain territory, and the latter is granted an indemnity. However, France remains at war with Spain until 1659.
  • October 31 – A treaty is signed between the Arabs and the Portuguese. The terms include a provision that the Portuguese should build fortresses at Kuriyat, Dibba Al-Hisn (Sharjah) and Muttrah (Oman).
  • November 11 – France and the Netherlands agree to divide the Caribbean island of Saint Martin between them.
  • December 11 – "Pride's Purge" in England: Elements of the New Model Army, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell invade London and expel a majority of the Long Parliament, resulting in the creation of the Rump Parliament.

Date unknown

1649

January–March

  • January 4 – In England, the Rump Parliament passes an ordinance to set up a High Court of Justice, to try Charles I for high treason.
  • January 17 – The Second Ormonde Peace concludes an alliance between the Irish Royalists and the Irish Confederates during the War of the Three Kingdoms. Later in the year the alliance is decisively defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
  • January 20 – Charles I of England goes on trial, for treason and other "high crimes".
  • January 27 – King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is found guilty of high treason in a public session.
  • January 29 – Serfdom in Russia begins legally as the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Соборное уложение, "Code of Law") is signed by members of the Zemsky Sobor, the parliament of the estates of the realm in the Tsardom of Russia. Slaves and free peasants are consolidated by law into the new hereditary class of "serfs", and the Russian nobility are given the exclusive privilege of owning the serfs.
  • January 30 – The deposed King Charles I is beheaded outside the Banquet Hall in the Palace of Whitehall, London. The Commonwealth of England, with a republican form of government, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England and members of the Long Parliament serve as government. Charles, Prince of Wales declares himself as King of England, Scotland and Ireland pending restoration of the monarchy.
  • February 5 – In Edinburgh, the Scottish Parliament declares Prince Charles, son of the recently executed King Charles I, as King Charles II of Scotland. Prince Charles, at the time, is at sea in charge of royalist forces fighting to drive Oliver Cromwell from the British Isles. Scotland is the first of the three Kingdoms to recognize his claim to the throne.
  • February 7 – The English Parliament rejects a proposal to continue the English monarchy after Oliver Cromwell makes clear that he does not wish to be crowned as King of England.
  • February 22 – The Mughal–Safavid War begins when Shah Abbas II of the Safavid Empire in Persia captures the Afghan city of Kandahar from the Mughal Empire of India after a six-week siege. The Mughals, led by Shah Jahan, fail to recapture Kandahar after three sieges in four years.
  • March 4 – The first ever set of rules and regulations for England's Parliamentary Navy, Robert Blake's The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, is adopted by the House of Commons, and Blake is promoted to the position of General at Sea of the English fleet.
  • March 11 – The rebel Frondeurs and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
  • March 15 – The city of Lappeenranta (Swedish: Villmanstrand) is founded by Queen Christina of Sweden.
  • March 16 – An over 1,000 strong war party of Haudenosaunee Iroquois invade and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people.
  • March 17
    • The English Parliament, having voted February 7 against a proposal to continue the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell, passes the "Act Abolishing the Kingship" with the goal of creating a republic under a Lord Protector selected by an elected Parliament.
    • French colonists from Martinique, led by former Martinique Governor Jacques Dyel du Parquet, land at St. Georges Harbour on the island of Grenada for the founding of Fort Annunciation. The fort is soon abandoned and the colonists cross the harbour for the founding of Fort Royal which eventually becomes the city of St. George's, Grenada
  • March 19 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, which it describes in the act as "useless and dangerous to the people of England".

April–June

  • April 21 – The Maryland Toleration Act is passed in the American colony, allowing all freedom of worship.
  • May 1 – The Wyandot people Indian tribe complete the burning of 15 of their own villages, to prevent their stores from being taken by the Haudenasaunee Iroquois. Almost all the remaining people (approximately 10,000) become refugees, on a path that eventually brings them to Wendake.
  • May 17 – The Banbury mutiny in England ends – leaders of the Leveller mutineers in the New Model Army are hanged.
  • May 19 – "An act declaring England to be a Commonwealth" is passed by the Rump Parliament.
  • May 22–October – Robert Blake blockades Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Ireland.
  • June 1

July–September

  • July 5 – After news reaches the Western Hemisphere that King Charles I has been deposed and executed, the English colonial government of the Somers Isles, now called Bermuda, proclaims its recognition of Charles II as the rightful ruler of the islands.
  • July 27 – The Commonwealth of England Parliament passes the "Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England" to create the "Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America" for Christian missionary ministries to Native American tribes. The New England Company will continue to operate more than three and a half centuries later.
  • July 31 – Ukrainian Cossack troops under the command of Mykhailo Krychevsky and Stepan Pobodailo are overwhelmed in the Battle of Loyew (in what is now Belarus) by a smaller force of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldiers led by Lithuania's Janusz Radziwiłł, with the Cossacks losing more than 3,000 fighters. Krychevsky is mortally wounded and dies on August 3.
  • August 8 – Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh completes Book VIII of Leabhar na nGenealach, in Galway, within days of an outbreak of the plague.
  • August 17 – The Treaty of Zboriv is signed by representatives of King John II Casimir of Poland and the representatives of the Cossacks and Crimean Tartars to partially settle the Khmelnytsky Uprising.
  • August 15 – Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin, unopposed and with thousands of English troops, to begin the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
  • August 26 – After his "True Levellers", commonly called "The Diggers", abandon their last major colony at St. George's Hill at Weybridge in England, their leader, Gerrard Winstanley, publishes the pamphlet "A Watch-Word to The City of London, and the Armie", recounting the experience.
  • September 2 – The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.
  • September 3 – Oliver Cromwell leads England's New Model Army to start the Siege of Drogheda in Ireland, and breaks through on September 11, executing the last of the original 2,550 Irish Catholic defenders and their leader, the English Royalist Sir Arthur Aston.
  • September 30 – The last of Sweden's troops vacate Prague.

October–December

  • October 11 – The Sack of Wexford in Ireland ends after having started on October 2, with Cromwell's New Model Army breaking through, killing more than 1,500 Irish Catholic defenders and civilians, while losing only 20 of the English soldiers. The capture of Wexford ends the remaining chance that Charles II, heir to the English throne, can land troops in Ireland, and Charles and the royalist fleet flee to Portugal.
  • November 24 – The first phase of the Siege of Waterford begins as Cromwell's New Model Army attempts to take on the strategically-located Irish city's defenders with his own exhausted army. Cromwell is forced to call off the siege after eight days and his army retreats to its winter quarters at Dungarvan on December 2.
  • December 6 – The Scottish defenders of Ireland are defeated by Cromwell's forces in the Battle of Lisnagarvey in County Antrim, with 1,500 Scots killed or captured, and New Model Army battalion of Colonel Robert Venables suffering minimal losses. The battle ends the Scottish presence in Ireland and settlers are expelled from the island in the days that follow.
  • December 20 – The Puritan law enforcers of the Commonwealth of England raid the Red Bull Theatre in London for violations of the laws against performance of plays and arrest the actors, as well as confiscating their property.
  • December 30 – Chinese General Geng Zhongming, having reported to the Qing dynasty commanders to face charges of harboring runaway slaves during his fight against the Southern Ming dynasty troops, commits suicide while waiting for a verdict in his court-martial. (1943). His son, Geng Jimao, continues to fight against the Southern Ming.

Undated

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