1656
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England and Spain go to war (see Jamaica, 1655). The English capture some Spanish treasure ships off Cádiz September 9 (see 1657).
Oliver Cromwell's Third Parliament convenes September 17. England has had no Parliament since January of last year, and Cromwell's son-in-law Charles Fleetwood has helped him govern the realm, resisting efforts to make Cromwell king.
Russian forces seize the Swedish fortresses of Dinaburg and Kokengausen on the Zapadnaya Dvina, renaming the latter fortress Czarevich-Dmitriev; hostilities will continue until 1660 (see 1661). The Swedish army of Karl X Gustav defeats the Poles in the 3-day Battle of Warsaw July 29 to 31 in the First Northern War, whereupon Russia, Denmark, and the Holy Roman Empire declare war on Sweden, whose ally Brandenburg deserts her. The Transylvanian prince György Rákóczi II has joined Karl Gustav in hopes of deposing Poland's Jan II Casimir and being elected Polish king; his defiance of the Ottoman Turks who hold sovereignty over Transylvania results in an order to some other Ottoman vassals, the Crimean Tatars, to drive Rákóczi's forces out of Poland (see 1657). Poland recognizes the sovereignty of the Elector of Brandenburg over East Prussia.
Portugal's João IV dies at Lisbon November 6 at age 53 after a reign of nearly 16 years. Having regained the nation's independence after 60 years of Spanish rule, he is succeeded by his 13-year-old son, who has been paralyzed since age 3 but will reign until 1667 as Afonso VI, the second Braganza (Bragança) king (his mother will serve as regent until 1662).
Dutch forces take the Sinhalese port of Colombo from the Portuguese.
New Providence in the Bahamas is settled by a group of Bermudans unrelated to the group that came with William Sayle in 1648 (see 1663).
Massachusetts colonist Miles Standish dies at Duxbury October 3 at age 72.
Dutch East India Company shares plummet on the Amsterdam Exchange and many investors are ruined. Among them is painter Rembrandt van Rijn, now 50, who is declared bankrupt and whose possessions are put up for sale.
The Dutch in Ceylon make cinnamon a state monopoly but will not have complete control of the island's cinnamon until 1658. When prices fall too low, the Dutch will burn great quantities of the bark, and they will destroy groves of clove and nutmeg trees in the Moluccas, creating artificial scarcities that will force prices up, enriching the Dutch East India Company.
Christiaan Huygens revolutionizes clockmaking with an instrument regulated by a pendulum (see Galileo, 1640). Now 27, he has adopted an idea proposed to him by the late Marin Mersenne, applying a concept that occurred to the late Galileo Galilei in 1583 while watching a lamp swinging from a long chain in Pisa Cathedral (see Clement, 1670).
Dutch mathematician Johan van Waveren Hudde, 28, anticipates the power-series for ln (1 + x) and next year will do pioneering work on the use of space coordinates. Hudde promotes Cartesian geometry and philosophy in Holland; his discoveries (they will be called Hudde's rules) will presage the use of algorithms to solve problems of calculus (see Newton, 1666).
Olof Rudbeck returns to Uppsala after studying at Leyden, is appointed professor of anatomy, and builds an anatomical theater where he performs dissections on human bodies, scorning criticism of the practice that is new to Uppsala (see 1653).
English physician Thomas Wharton, 42, describes the anatomy of glands. He has discovered the duct (Wharton's duct) from the submaxillary gland to the mouth.
The Hôpital Général opens at Paris. It is a combination hospital, poorhouse, and factory.
The Amsterdam synagogue excommunicates rabbinical student Baruch de Spinoza, 24, in July for views the elders consider heretical. Spinoza turns to grinding lenses in order to support himself (see 1670).
Bishop James Ussher dies at Reigate, Surrey, March 21 at age 75; Bishop Joseph Hall at Higham, Norfolk September 8 at age 82.
Nonfiction: The Common-wealth of Oceana by English political theorist James Harrington, 45, whose romance is intended as a reply to Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan of 1651. Restating Aristotle's theory of constitutional stability and revolution, Harrington says a government is certain to reflect a social system in which the bulk of the land is owned by the gentry rather than by the king and the Church as in ages past. He favors dividing the country into landholdings of a specified maximum value, having a legislature that holds a referendum on each proposed law, and a complex rotation scheme for public officials: "The law is but words and paper without the hands and swords of men," writes Harrington, but he will be credited with saying that the ideal form of government is "an empire of laws and not of men." Agents of the lord protector Oliver Cromwell seize copies of Harrington's book from the printer (it requires intervention by Cromwell's daughter Elizabeth [Mrs. John Claypoole] to have them released).
Poetry: The Miscellanies by Abraham Cowley, who has returned to England and is studying medicine at Oxford.
Painting: The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas) by Diego Velázquez, who depicts the family of Spain's Felipe IV; The Procuress (The Matchmaker) by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, 23. Gerrit van Honthorst dies at Utrecht April 27 at age 65; Jan van Goyen at The Hague April 27 at age 60.
London stage manager William Davenant opens a theater of sorts May 21 at Rutland House in Charterhouse Yard, having obtained permission with help from influential friends to stage what he calls "operas" to get around the Puritan Parliament's ban on theatrical performances. His opening piece is a dialogue that defends the drama in abstract terms.
The Corsa al Palio held at the Italian city of Siena begins an annual July-August horse race event that will pit competitors from each of the city's contrades against each other.
London has 1,156 taverns (pubs) that serve as gathering places for the city's men.
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