1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650
Contents: political eventsphilanthropy literature art agriculture |
England's 4-year Civil War ends as Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads triumph March 26 at Stowe-on-the-Wold. Charles surrenders himself to the Scots May 5, but in July he rejects Parliament's Newcastle proposals that he take the Covenant and support the Protestant establishment and that he let Parliament control the militia for 20 years. A breach between Presbyterians in Parliament and Independents in the army is clearly imminent, and Charles hopes to take advantage of differences between his opponents. Parliament banishes Prince Rupert from England in July (see 1647).
French forces take Dunkirk with help from Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp.
James Graham, marquis of Montrose, fails to rally the Highland clans for further hostilities against the Covenanters, sails September 3 for Norway, and makes his way thence to Paris (see 1645; 1650).
Former parliamentary army commander Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, dies at London September 14 at age 55.
Count Torstensson resigns his command on account of illness and is succeeded by Karl Gustav Wrangel, 33, count of Salmis and Sölvesborg, who joins forces with Königsmark in Westphalia, links up with Turenne at Giessen, and helps lead a Franco-Swedish army into Bavaria, where Raimondo Montecuccoli leads a retreat of Hapsburg forces with such skill that he is promoted to general (see 1647).
Henri II de Bourbon, 3rd prince de Condé, dies at Paris December 26 at age 58 after a stormy political and military career as first prince of the blood. His son Louis, duc d'Enghien, becomes 4th prince de Condé and will be known hereafter as the Great Condé.
Polish military and political leader Stanislaw Koniecpolski dies at Brody March 12 at age 54 (approximate) as he prepares to lead an expedition against the Ottoman Turks. He has amassed a fortune in landed wealth (more than 100,000 people live on his estates in western Ukraine), founded the market town of Brody, and established workshops there to produce Persian-style carpets.
Chinese Qing forces led by the Manchu prince Dorgon clear Ming rebels out of Sichuan (Szechwan) and Fujian (Fukien) provinces, pushing them back in the southwestern provinces (see 1645; 1648).
Floods and famine devastate the Papal States at year's end; Pope Innocent X provides relief for the needy.
Nonfiction: Pseudoxia Epidemica, or Enquires into Very many received Tenets, and commonly presumed truths (Browne's Vulgar Errors) by Sir Thomas Browne gives careful scrutiny to a number of superstitions and popular delusions; Milk for Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the Spirituall Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England but may be of like Use for any Children by John Cotton.
Poetry: Steps to the Temple: Sacred Poems, with other Delights of the Muses by Richard Crashaw, now about 33, who has gone to France during the English Civil War lest he come under attack from intolerant Puritans. Crashaw has been converted to Roman Catholicism and expresses religious ecstasy in his verses; Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished by Welsh poet Henry Vaughan, 24, who includes his satire "The Vanity of Human Wishes."
Painting: Count Peneranda by Geraert Terborch, who attends the peace conference at Münster and paints portraits of the delegates.
England has no hayfields. Grass seed has not been introduced to permit efficient raising of hay for the maintenance of livestock other than sheep.
1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 1648 1649 1650
