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The British Isles 1640 - 1649 © History Bookshop                British Isles                 British Isles                 British Isles                 British Isles                   < back
July: The Earl of
Essex
is deprived of his titles as a result of his actions as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Aug 5: Lord Gowrie and his brother seize King James VI but he is later rescued.
Dec 31: East India Company is founded.
William Shakespeare
As You Like it
Jan: The Earl of
Essex
leads a revolt against Elizabeth I
Feb 19: The Earl of Essex is executed.
Sept: Spanish troops land in Ireland to support a rebellion led by the Earl of Tyrone, but are beseiged in Kinsale by Essex's successor, Mountjoy.
William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night
Jan 2: Spanish troops in Kinsale surrender to Lord Mountjoy.
William Shakespeare
Hamlet

Chastleton House, Oxon - Begun 1602
March 24: Death of Elizabeth I. James VI
of Scotland accedes to the English throne as James I.
July 17: Sir Walter Raleigh is arrested on
charges of treason.
Nov 12: Raleigh is found guilty and is imprisoned in the Tower
William Shakespeare
Othello
Jan: James I calls a conference at Hampton Court for debate between Puritans and moderate bishops. A new translation of the Bible is prepared, later known as the 'authorised version'.
William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure
Christopher Marlowe
History of Dr Faustus
Nov 4: Guy Fawkes
is arrested in a cellar
under the House of Lords having placed
barrels of gunpowder
there ready for
detonation during the opening of Parliament
next day.
John Dowland
Lachrymae
William Shakespeare
Macbeth
Jan 21: By order of King James VI & I a new national flag combines the cross of St. George and the saltire of St. Andrew.
William Shakespeare
King Lear
Thomas Dekker:
The Whore of Babylon
May: Rioters in the English Midlands protest at the enclosure of common land.
Jul 4: The English Parliament fails to agree to the Kings proposal for a Union between Scotland and England and is prorogued.
Ben Jonson: Volpone
John Donne: Divine Poems
April 18: Rebellion breaks out in Ulster. Derry is captured.
July 18: Irish rebels are massacred on Tory Island.
May The collapse of the rebellion leads to the plantation of Ulster by Protestants.
William Shakespeare
Pericles
Ben Jonson: The Case is Alter'd
William Shakespeare
Troilus and Cressida
The first edition of The Sonnets is published.
June 4: Arabella Stuart incurs the wrath of the King by marrying William Seymour, Earl of Hertford who is also a claimant to the throne, and is imprisoned.
Ben Jonson:
The Alchemist.
William Shakespeare
Cymbeline.
June 3: Arabella Stuart escapes from the Tower of London but is recaptured.
The Authorised Version of the Holy Bible is first Published.
William Shakespeare
The Tempest,
The Winter's Tale.
May 24: The Secretary of State, The Earl of Salisbury dies. James appoints his favourite, Viscount Rochester to the post.
Nov 5: The King's eldest son, Henry Prince of Wales, dies.
John Webster:
The White Devil
John Dowland
A Pilgrim's Solace
Feb 14: King James's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederick, the Elector Palatine.
June 29: The Globe Theatre is destroyed by fire when a stage cannon discharge ignites the thatch.
Apr 5: James' second parliament meets but refuses cooperate until the king settles parliamentary grievances. The king is obdurate and the 'Addled Parliament' is dissolved having passed no legislation.
John Webster:
The Duchess of Malfi.

Ben Jonson:
Bartholomew's Fair
Sept 27 Arabella Stuart starves herself to death whilst incarcerated in the Tower. March 20: Walter Raleigh is released after 13 years in the Tower to search for gold in Guiana, on the proviso that he does not attack Spanish interests.
James I sells peerages in an effort to raise money without recourse to parliament.
Apr 23: Shakespeare dies at Stratford.
Jan: James I makes his favourite George Villiers Earl of Buckingham.
John Rolfe, the Virginian colonist, presents his native American wife, Pocahontas, at court.
Sir Walter Raleigh sails from Plymouth - he reaches the mouth of the River Orinoco on Dec 31
Jan 8: Francis Bacon is appointed Lord Chancellor.
Jul: The Earl of Suffolk is dismissed as Lord Treasurer on charges of embezzlement.
Oct 29: Sir Walter Raleigh is executed on treason charges after Spanish complaints of attacks on their possessions.
William Harvey puts forward his theory in regard to the circulation of blood.
James reluctantly agrees to come to the aid of his son-in-law Frederick V, if the Palatinate is invaded.
Beaumont & Fletcher:
A King and No King
Apr 27: In a secret treaty it is agreed that the Prince of Wales will marry the Spanish Infanta Maria if anti catholic laws are repealed.
Sept 16: The 'Pilgrim Fathers' sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower.
Jan 30: Parliament meets and revives the medieval law of impeachment, not used for 170 years. Lord Chancellor Bacon is impeached on corruption charges and is dismissed from office and fined.
A Commons petition calling for the defence of Protestantism is rebuffed.
Jan 7: The MP John Pym is put under house arrest for criticising the King's policies.
Feb 8: The King dissolves Parliament after tearing out the page of the Commons journal containing the Great Protestation.
Inigo Jones:
The Banqueting House, Whitehall
Apr 31: The Prince of Wales and Buckingham secretly leave for Spain in the hope of concluding marriage terms between Charles and the Infanta but leave in August without any agreement.
Dec 14: James renouces the treaty of 1620 regarding the marriage of the Prince of Wales.
Feb 24: James I's fourth Parliament passes legislation making monopolies illegal.
March 10: War is declared on Spain. The Commons vote funds
A treaty is concluded with France for the marriage of Princess Henrietta Maria to Prince Charles
March 27: James VI and I dies and is succeeded by his son Charles I.
June 13: Charles marries Henrietta Maria of France.
June 18: Charles' First Parliament meets and refuses to vote him the tonnage and poundage duties for life, as in previous reigns. The King levies the taxes anyway.
Jan: To raise money, Charles I decrees all men with income over £40 per year should become knights.
Feb 6: 2nd Parliament refuses to grant funds until grievances are met.
Feb 23: Parliament Impeaches the Duke of Buckingham.
June 15: Charles dissolves Parliament.
June 2: The Duke of Buckingham commands a fleet which sails for La Rochelle to support the Huguenots.
Oct: Buckingham, having failed to relieve La Rochelle returns to Britain.
Mar 17: Charles I's third Parliament votes money for another expedition to La Rochelle. Oliver Cromwell enters Parliament.
June 7: The Petition of Right declares forced loans and imprisonment without trial to be illegal.
Aug 23: The Duke of Buckingham is assassinated.
Mar 2: The Speaker of the Commons is held in his place while resolutions attacking non-parliamentary taxes and Laudian religious innovations are passed. Charles I dissolves Parliament which does not meet again until 1640.
Mar 5: Sir John Eliot and other MP's are imprisoned.
Jan 26: Sir John Eliot, on trial for his part in the Parliamentary attack on the King's right to levy taxes, denies the right of the court to try an MP, but is sent to the Tower. Thomas Heywood The Fair Maid of the West Apr: Charles I issues a charter to the colony of Maryland. Its first governor is Lord Baltimore, a catholic.
Nov 27: Sir John Eliot dies in the Tower.
Anthony van Dyck moves to London to become court painter to Charles I.
Jun 18: Charles I is crowned in Edinburgh as King of Scotland.
Jul 3: Thomas, Lord Wentworth is appointed Deputy of Ireland.
Aug 6: William Laud becomes Archbishop of Canterbury. He introduces rituals and other practices which lead the Puritans to suspect an eventual move towards Rome.
May 7: The Puritan propagandist William Prynne is convicted in the Star Chamber of libelling the Queen. His ears are amputated.
Oct 20: 'Ship money' is levied on coastal ports ostensibly to fund protection of merchant shipping.
Cornelius Vermuyden begins reclaiming the fens.
Archbishop Laud is appointed as First Lord of the Treasury.
Aug 4: Ship money is extended to inland towns.
Peter Paul Rubens paints the Apotheosis of James I for the Banqueting Hall ceiling, Whitehall Palace
Oct 9: A third ship money demand is refused by John Hampden, MP for Wendover in the last parliament, and by Lord Saye & Sele. June 30: In a second trial William Prynne is sentenced to further mutilations.
Jul 23: The first use of the Laudian prayebook provokes a riot in St. Giles Catherdral Edinburgh.
Nov: In 'Hampden's Case', the legality of ship money is upheld by the votes of 7 judges to 5.
Mar: The National Covenant in support of Presbyterianism is circulated throughout Scotland.
Sep 9: Charles withdraws the Laudian liturgy but (Nov) the Gen. Assembly of the Church of Scotland abolishes episcopacy.
Anthony van Dyck Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
Feb 27: Charles I declares that the Scots are seeking to overthrow royal power. The First Bishops War results - one or two skirmishes between the English and Scots army led by Alexander Leslie.
Jun 18: Charles agrees to a Scottish Parliament but then (Oct) dissolves it.
Jan 12: Thomas Wentworth is created Earl of Strafford.
Apr 13: The Short Parliament convenes, refuses to grant taxes and is dissolved May 5
Aug 20: The Scots invade England starting the Second Bishops War and entering Newcastle.
Nov 3: First meeting of the Long Parliament
Jan 30: Parliament impeaches Strafford.
May 12: Abandoned by the king, Strafford is beheaded.
Jul 5: Parliament abolishes the Court of the Star Chamber.
Oct: Irish catholics rise in rebellion - Ulster protestants are massacred.
Nov: The Grand Remonstrance carried
Jan 4: Charles enters Parliament aiming to arrest 5 leading members but they escape to the City of London.
Aug 22: Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham.
Sep 23: First skirmish of the Civil War at Powick Bridge.
Oct 23: Inconclusive battle at Edgehill.
Mar: Unsuccessful Peace negotiations take place at Oxford.
Jun 18: Royalist victory at Chalgrove Field - John Hampden is killed.
Jul 13: Royalist victory at Roundway Down, Witshire.
Sep 20: A victory for Parliament at the first battle of Newbury.
Dec 8: John Pym dies
Jan 24: A Scots army enters England.
Jun 29: The Battle of Cropredy Bridge is a defeat for Waller's Parliamentary army.
Jul 2: The Royalist army in the north is crushed by Fairfax and Cromwell at Marston Moor.
Oct 27: The second battle of Newbury is indecisive.
Jan 10: Archbishop Laud is beheaded.
Jan 13: Sir Thomas Fairfax is appointed Commander in Chief by Parliament.
Apr 3: The New Model Army is established.
Jun 10:The New Model Army led by Fairfax defeat the Royalists at Naseby ending hope of a military victory for the king.
May 5: King Charles surrenders to the Scots at Newark.
June 25: Oxford, the Royalist 'capital' surrenders.
Jul 30: Parliamenary Commissioners present Charles with propositions demanding that he abolish Episcopacy and surrender control of the armed forces etc.
Jan 30: The Scots sell the king to Parliament for £400,000 and pay off their army.
May 18: Commons vote to disband most of the army.
Jun 4: Cornet Joyce seizes the king on behalf of the army.
Jun 14: The army present their grievances and Aug 7 march on London.
Feb 11: A Parliamentary Declaration lists the king's misdeeds.
May 1: A Scots army invades England beginning a Second Civil War.
Aug 17 - 20: An English army led by Oliver Cromwell defeats the Scots at Preston.
Dec 6: Colonel Pride purges the Commons of Presbyterians.
Jan 30: Charles I is beheaded after a short trial.
Mar: House of Lords and monarchy abolished
in England
May 15: The army quell a Leveller mutiny at Burford, Oxon.
Aug 13: Cromwell sails for Ireland to subdue rebellion.
Sep & Oct: Drogheda and Wexford sacked.
 
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July 2: Prince Maurice of Nassau defeats Spanish and Italian forces at the battle of Nieuport. The False Dmitri appears in Poland claiming to be a son of Tsar Ivan IV
Caravaggio: The Supper at Emmaus
Mar 20: The United East India Co. is founded in the Netherlands. Sept: Henri IV allows the return of the Jesuits to France. Jan 21: In Russia, the army of the False Dmitri is defeated by Tsar Boris Godunov.
Mar 20: Charles IX becomes King of Sweden.
June 20: False Dmitri enters Moscow and is crowned next day.
Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote (part 1)
May 17: False Dmitri is murdered. A boyar, Basil Shuisky proclaims himself Tsar as Basil VI. Claudio Monteverdi
Orfeo

May 12: In Germany, a Protestant Union is formed by Frederick IV, Elector Palatine.
El Greco: View of Toledo
July 10: Catholic League of German Princes is formed.
Peter Paul Rubens
The Artist and his wife, Isabella Brant.
May 14: Henri IV of France is assassinated. Marie de Medici becomes regent ruling on behalf of her son Louis XIII. April 4 Christian IV of Denmark declares war on Sweden.
Dec: Gustavus II (Adolphus) is elected King of Sweden on the death of Charles IX.
Jan 20: Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies and is succeeded by his brother Matthias.
July 22: In Russia, The Romanov dynasty is founded with the crowning of Mikhail Romanov in the Kremlin. Feb: In France the Prince de Condé rebels, demanding that the Estates-General be summoned.
El Greco dies in Toledo.
In France, The Estates-General is dismissed. (It is not reconvened until 1789) This incites the Prince de Condé to rebel again with Huguenot support. May 3: The Treaty of Loudun ends the 2nd Civil War in France and grants an amnesty for Condé. However, the Queen Mother has him arrested Sept 3rd. Apr 24: Marie de Medici's favourite, Concino Concini is assassinated with the colusion of Louis XIII. Richelieu joins Marie at Blois. May 23: The Defenestration of Prague ignites the Thirty Years War. Bohemian rebels overthrow the pro catholic Regents. March 20: Holy Roman Emperor Matthias dies. Ferdinand of Bohemia succeeds him
Diego Velasquez The Water Carrier of Seville
Nov 8: The Elector Palatine's army is defeated by Catholic League forces under Count von Tilly at the Battle of the White Mountain near Prague. March 31: Philip III of Spain dies and is succeeded by his son Philip IV who is 15.
Hendrick Terbrugghen The Calling of St. Matthew.
April: At the Battle of Wiesloch, Count Mansfeld's Protestant forces defeat a Catholic army under Count von Tilly. Papal troops take control of the Valtelline which is vital for communications between Hapsburg possessions in Italy and the Netherlands. Aug 13: Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu as First Minister of France.
Frans Hals: The Laughing Cavalier
June: After a siege of nearly a year the Dutch town of Breda falls to Spanish forces.
Heinrich Schütz: Cantiones Sacrae
Apr 25: Wallenstein, commanding the Imperial Army, defeats Mansfeld at Dessau.
Aug 27:Tilly defeats Christian IV at Lutter.
Apr: Cardinal Richelieu negotiates an alliance with Spain.
Aug: Richelieu orders that La Rochelle be beseiged.
May: Wallenstein begins the siege of Stralsund.
Aug 23: The siege of Stralsund is lifted
Oct 28: La Rochelle capitulates.
June 28: The Huguenot revolt is ended by the Peace of Alais which gives them some religious rights.
Aug 13: Ferdinand II dismisses Wallenstein.
July 6: Gustavus Adolphus lands his army in Pomerania and marches into Germany.
Appalling slaughter ensues in the Thirty Years War. Tilly razes Magdeburg to the ground. Gustavus is victorious at Breitenfeld. Apr 14: Gustavus defeats the imperial army at Lech - Tilly is mortally wounded.
Nov: Gustavus is killed at Lützen where Wallenstein is defeated
Oct 11: Wallenstein defeats the Swedes at Steinau in Silesia.
Nov 14: The Swedish army captures Regensburg.
Jan 24: Wallenstein is relieved of his command by Emperor Ferdinand II.
Sept 5: The Swedes are heavily defeated at Nördlingen.
May 30: The Peace of Prague is concluded between the Empire and Saxony. France and Sweden continue their struggle against the Hapsburgs Peter Paul Rubens:
Autumn Landscape with Het Steen.
Jacob van Campen: Mauritshuis, The Hague
Feb 15: Ferdinand III is elected Holy Roman Emperor, succeeding his father.
Nicolas Poussin:
Rape of the Sabine Women.
Sept 16: The future Louis XIV is born.
May: A Combined French and Swedish army takes Freiburg defeating the Bavarians at Wittenweiher.
Apr 14: A Swedish army defeats an Imperial army at Chemnitz and then besieges Prague.
Peter Paul Rubens: Judgement of Paris
Dec 1: Portugal proclaims independence and elects Joćo da Braganza as king.
Louis Le Nain: Peasant Family.
May 2: William, son of the Prince of Orange, marries Mary, the daughter of Charles I of England. Dec 4: Cardinal Mazarin becomes Chief Minister on the death of Cardinal Richelieu.
Rembrandt: The Night Watch
May 14: Louis XIII dies. His son succeeds as Louis XIV. The Queen Mother confirms Mazarin as First Minister Military successes under the Duc d'Enghien in the Thirty Years War lead to a French occupation of the Rhineland. The Turks finally capture Candia in Crete from the Venetians after a 57 day siege.
Georges de la Tour: Joseph the Carpenter
Apr The Swedes capture Prague.
Jul 30: Swedish and French forces invade Bavaria.
Mar 14: The French and the Swedes force Maximilian of Bavaria to sign the Truce of Ulm.
Oct: Maximilian breaks the Truce.
Oct 24: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War
Claude Lorraine: Seaport with Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba.
Dec: Riots in Paris herald the outbreak of the second Fronde.  
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In Japan, Shogun Ieyasu moves the capital to Edo after his victory at Sekigahara   War breaks out between Persia and Turkey. Sultan Mohammed III of Turkey, dies; his son succeeds him as
Ahmed I.
Samuel de Champlain explores the Atlantic coast from the St. Lawrence to Cape Cod Oct 17: The Great Indian Moghul Emperor Akbar dies. His son Jahangir succeeds him Men from the Dutch ship Duyjken make the first landing by Europeans in Australia. May 14: Jamestown, Virginia is founded with Capt. John Smith as leader. 110 new colonists arrive in Jamestown but find only 40 survivors from the founding group A Dutch trading post is established in Japan breaking the Portuguese monopoly. An expedition led by Henry Hudson explores the bay named after him. The first English settlement in India is established near Madras. The Indian emperor, Jahangir grants trading rights to the English East India Company. The Dutch found a fur trading post on Manhatten Island. Dutch merchants found Fort Nassau (later Albany) on the Hudson River. June 4: In Japan, Osaka is taken by shogun Ieyasu after a long siege. A Manchu army invades China.
In Japan, shogun Ieyasu dies
William Baffin names Baffin Bay during his voyage to find a North-West Passage Sultan Mustafa I is declared unfit to rule. Georgia and Azerbaijan are ceded to Persia. July 30: The first Virginian assembly meets in Jamestown.
First slaves landed
Nov 11: The Pilgrim Fathers sight Cape Cod
Dec 21: They land in Massachusetts
  May 20: Ottoman Janissaries murder Sultan Osman II and restore the Mustafa I Abbas I of Persia conquers Baghdad and Mosul at the expense of the Ottoman Turks. A small party of men from the Dutch ship Nieuw Nederlaland land on Manhattan Island April 22: Fort Amsterdam is founded on the southern point of Manhatten Island   The Mughal emperer Jahangir dies and is succeeded by his son Shah Jahan. Sept 23: John Endecott leading a party of English colonists found Salem, Massachusetts Jan 19: Shah Abbas of Persia dies and is succeeded by his grandson Safi I Boston is founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.   English colonies are founded on Antigua and Montserrat.     Jun: Roger Williams founds Rhode Island colony, on the basis of religious freedom. English merchants found their first enclave in China - at Canton Baghdad is wrested from Persian control by the Turks under Murad IV. Japanese ports are closed to all foreigners with few exceptions. The East India Co. establishes Fort St George - later Madras. Jan: The Dutch wrest control of Malacca, in the East Indies from the Portuguese Dec 4: Abel Tasman discovers Van Dieman's Land and New Zealand. The New England Confederation is formed, the first union of N. American colonies. In China The Ming dynasty gives way to a new ruling dynasty known as Ch'ing. Portuguese settlers in Brazil rebel against the Dutch.   In North America, Peter Stuyvesant becomes the governor of New Netherlands Aug 8: Janissaries depose Sultan Ibrahim and instal his young son as Mehmet IV Ulan Bator, the future capital of Mongolia is founded.  
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