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Contents: political eventsexploration, colonization commerce energy transportation technology religion education literature art theater, film marine resources agriculture population |
The Saxon army prepares to oust French and Swedish forces from German soil, but Saxon commander Hans von Arnim dies at Dresden April 28 at age 59.
England's Charles I appoints London-born Thomas Wentworth, 47, earl of Strafford, his chief adviser and makes him baron Raby, lord lieutenant of Ireland. Urging an invasion of Scotland to crush the Presbyterians and impose the English liturgy, Strafford obtains £180,000 from the Irish Parliament and prepares to lead Irish troops against the Scots (see 1641).
Scottish forces led by James Graham, 27, marquis of Montrose, cross the Tweed August 20 to begin the second Bishops' War. They defeat the English at Newburn August 28 and occupy Newcastle and Durham, but Scottish soldier Patrick Ruthven, 67, earl of Forth, has served with the Swedes in the Thirty Years' War and defends Edinburgh Castle. Montrose has made a secret agreement in August with the 41-year-old Archibald, 8th earl of Argyll, who will join the Covenenters in support of Presbyterianism but will be reconciled next year with Charles I. The Treaty of Ripon October 21 ends hostilities, with the English agreeing to pay the Scots £850 per day to maintain their army.
Charles I of England convenes what will be called the "Long Parliament" November 5; he sets free the members of Parliament whom he imprisoned earlier for refusing to loan him money, and he has the earl of Strafford impeached and thrown into the Tower of London (see 1641).
César, duc de Vendôme, flees to England after being accused of scheming to poison Cardinal Richelieu (see 1626). He will not return to France until 1643.
Catalonia obtains French support to begin a 19-year revolt against Spain in protest against Barcelona's taxes, quartering of troops, military recruitment, and general denial of Catalonian rights.
Portugal seizes the opportunity of the Catalonian revolt to regain her independence after 60 years of Spanish rule. The Portuguese elect João da Braganza (Bragança) king to begin the dynasty that will reign until 1910, but Spain will not recognize Portugal's independence until 1668.
The Ottoman sultan Murad IV dies in February at age 31 after a 17-year reign in which he has restored order with a bloody reign of terror and retaken Baghdad and Erivan from the Persians. He has had all his brothers murdered except for Ibrahim, 25, who has feigned insanity and will reign until 1648 as Ibrahim I, dominated by his mother, Kösem Sultana, and storyteller Sheker-Pare.
Dutch forces take Saba in the West Indies.
Nova Scotia colonizer (and poet) William Alexander, 1st earl of Stirling, viscount of Canada, viscount of Stirling, Lord Alexander of Tullibody dies at London February 12 at age 63 (approximate).
Gardiner's Island at the eastern end of Long Island Sound gets its name as English colonist Lion Gardiner, 41, buys Manchouake Island from the Shinnecock a year after being given the property in a land grant from Charles I. Seven miles from the nearest point of land, the island is seven miles long and up to three miles wide. A military engineer, Gardiner arrived at Boston in 1635, has befriended the natives, and will ingratiate himself with the most powerful of the Long Island chiefs, Wyandanch. He will acquire 78,000 acres, permitting him to travel on his own land from Montauk to Flushing, and the island will remain in the Gardiner family for over 3½ centuries.
Inflation in England reduces the value of money to one third its value in 1540, and food prices outpace wage increases.
Copenhagen opens a stock exchange.
France enjoys power and prosperity under Cardinal Richelieu, but the mass of Frenchmen live on the edge of starvation.
A Portuguese delegation sent to reopen trade with Japan is summarily executed, leaving Japan with no means of contact with the outside world except via some Dutch traders at Hirado and a few Chinese at Nagasaki (see 1639; 1641).
British coal mining gains impetus from the high cost of firewood, whose price has risen to nearly eight times 1540 levels while most other prices have merely tripled (see 1615; 1658).
The first English stagecoach lines begin as roads and coaching houses are built to accommodate coaches and travelers.
Galileo Galilei designs the world's first pendulum clock (see science, 1583). His son Vincenzo will try to make a practical clock from his father's plan but will fail (see Huygens, 1656).
Amsterdam rationalist Uriel Acosta makes a public recantation after years of ostracism for allegedly having dissuaded Christians from converting to Judaism (see 1624). He writes in Latin a brief autobiography that will be published in 1687 under the title Exemplar Humanae Vitae (Example of Human Life), shoots himself, and dies at Amsterdam in April at age 54 (approximate). His book advocates a faith based on natural law and reason, portraying religion as disruptive of natural law and a seedbed of hatred and superstition.
England's Puritan movement spreads to her lower classes.
England's Long Parliament releases dissenter John Lilburne from prison in November on a motion from Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, 41, a country gentleman from East Anglia who has had a religious epiphany that fills him with self-righteousness (see 1638; politics, 1645; Cromwell, 1644).
English-born Puritan leader Thomas Dunster, 30, arrives at the Massachusetts Bay colony in early August and is appointed August 27 as first president of Harvard College, which has as yet no money, no buildings, no faculty, and no students (see 1638). Dunster raises money, builds a president's house for himself, reorganizes the seminary along the lines of an English college, and by 1650 will have established the 4-year program that will become standard for U.S. colleges (see 1642).
Nonfiction: The Royal Politician (Idea de un principe politico cristiano) by Spanish diplomat Diego de Saavedra Farjardo, 56, whose meditation on the subject of principle versus opportunism refutes Machiavellian notions and urges a return to traditional virtues as the remedy for national decadence; "The Discovery of a World in the Moone or a discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet" by Oxford-educated clergyman-scientist John Wilkins, 26; Augustinus by the late Cornelius Jansen is published by his friends (see religion, 1642).
Scholar Robert Burton dies in Leicestershire January 25 at age 62.
Saxon lyrical poet Paul Fleming dies at Hamburg April 2 at age 30, having been the first German to use the sonnet form effectively. His hymns (e.g. "In All My Deeds" ["In allen meinen Taten"] will survive in German hymnals for centuries to come.
Painting: Lady with a Fan and Self-Portrait by Diego Velázquez; The Peasant Supper by French painter Louis Le Nain, 52; The Penitent Magdalen by French painter Georges de La Tour, 47, who specializes in candlelit scenes; The Inspiration of the Poet by Nicolas Poussin; The Holy Family and Self-Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn; Portrait of Abraham de Potter (an Amsterdam silk merchant) by Dutch painter Carel Fabritius (Carel Pietersz.), 18, who works under Rembrandt van Rijn; The Barrel Organ Player by Dutch painter Adriaen van Ostade, 29; Children with a Cat and a Slow-Worm by Judith Leyster; Three Graces and Self-Portrait with Helena and Peter Paul (his infant son) by Peter Paul Rubens, who dies after a severe attack of gout at Antwerp May 30 at age 62.
Theater: The Two Households of Verona by Francisco de Rojas Zorilla 2/4 at Madrid's Coliseo de Buen Retiro; Horatio (Horace) by Pierre Corneille 3/9 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris; Keep Your Eyes Open (A bire el ojo) by Rojas Zorilla 8/3 at Toledo; Cinna, or The Clemency of Augustus (Cinna, ou Le clémence d'auguste) by Corneille in December at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris.
Playwright Philip Massinger dies at Southwark, London, in March at age 56.
The Massachusetts Bay colony sends 300,000 codfish to market and some colonists begin to grow rich in the cod fishery (see 1700).
Oudin's Dictionary introduces the word haricot for the fagioli beans brought to France by Catherine de' Medici in 1533. Oudin defines the bean as a variety of legume and uses a word derived from héricoq, used at least since the 14th century and probably derived from a Germanic word, harigoté or aligoté, meaning a stew or ragout of meat and vegetables, usually turnips.
The British West Indies have a population of 20,000, most of it employed in growing sugar cane.
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