Directory

1639 CE

In the Battle of Chemnitz, Swedish forces under Johan Banér inflict a crushing defeat on the army of the Holy Roman Empire, prolonging the Thirty Years' War and allowing the Swedes to occupy Pirna and advance into Bohemia. Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, apostolic nuncio to Paris and adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, is naturalized French by letters patent; in December, he leaves the service of Rome to enter that of King Louis XIII of France. The alliance of cantons in Switzerland known as the Three Leagues or Raetia agrees with Spain to bring Italy's Valtellina area back into the alliance, on the condition that the Catholic faith of the natives be respected.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • June 18 – The Treaty of Berwick is signed between Charles I and the Scots.source
  • September 3 – The alliance of cantons in Switzerland known as the Three Leagues or Raetia agrees with Spain to bring Italy's Valtellina area back into the alliance, on the condition that the Catholic faith of the natives be respected.source
  • Sakoku, the isolationist foreign policy of Japan, comes fully into effect.source
  • The Treaty of Zuhab is signed between the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and Safavid Persia, delineating the modern Turkey-Iran and Iraq-Iran border lines.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 18 – In the course of the Eighty Years' War, a sea battle is fought in the English Channel off of the coast of Dunkirk between the navies of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, with 12 warships, and Spain, with 12 galleons and eight other ships. The Spanish are forced to flee after three of their ships are lost and 1,600 Spaniards killed or injured, while the Dutch sustain 1,700 casualties without the loss of a ship.source
  • April 14 – In the Battle of Chemnitz, Swedish forces under Johan Banér inflict a crushing defeat on the army of the Holy Roman Empire, prolonging the Thirty Years' War and allowing the Swedes to occupy Pirna and advance into Bohemia.source
  • April – Following the Battle of Chemnitz Swedish forces under command of Johan Banér invades Bohemia with great successsource
  • May 2 – After a 40-day siege, the Dutch East India Company Army captures the Trincomalee Fort on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the Portuguese Empire.source
  • June 18 – On the same day, the first battle of the Bishops' Wars is fought by Earl Marischal and the Marquess of Montrose when they lead a Covenanter army of 9,000 men past Muchalls Castle over the Causey Mounth to fight at the Bridge of Dee in Scotland.source
  • July 16 – A revolt in France begins in Normandy with the assassination of tax collector Charles Le Poupinel while he is working in the town of Avranches. The rebellion is brutally crushed on November 30.source
  • September 18 – Dutch Navy Admiral Maarten Tromp introduces the line of battle tactic in a battle in the English Channel against a much larger force of Spanish Navy ships, driving off 67 ships with his fleet of 29.source
  • October 31 – Naval Battle of the Downs: A Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.source
  • November 30 – In Normandy, the revolt of the va-nu-pieds is crushed by the troops of French Army Colonel Jean de Gassion under orders of Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, with 300 of the rebels killed.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • Russian Cossacks advance over the Urals to the Pacific, to Okhotsk.source
  • Japanese wives and children of Dutch and British people from Hirado are sent to Batavia (Asian headquarters of the VOC, renamed Jakarta by the Japanese around three centuries later) on Dutch ships.source
  • Dejima, an island trading post off Nagasaki, becomes the only official port of trade allowed for Europeans, with the multi-national United East Indies Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) as the only European party officially allowed. Trading parties from China, India and other places are still officially allowed, though the VOC will become the usual broker for them.source

Religion & Belief

  • April 22 – Pope Urban VIII issues a papal bull prohibiting slavery in the New World colonies of Spain and Portugal, encompassing most of Latin America.source
  • May 28 – King Charles I of England arrives with his army at Berwick-upon-Tweed as the first of the Bishops' Wars breaks out between the English Army and the Scottish Covenanters.source
  • July 1 – Parthenius I becomes the new leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church as he is selected as Patriarch of Constantinople, succeeding Cyril II.source
  • French nobleman Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière obtains the seigneurial title to the island of Montreal in New France (modern-day Quebec) in the name of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal to establish a Roman Catholic mission to evangelize indigenous peoples.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 3 – The early settlement of Taunton, Massachusetts, is incorporated as a town.source
  • April – Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, apostolic nuncio to Paris and adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, is naturalized French by letters patent; in December, he leaves the service of Rome to enter that of King Louis XIII of France.source
  • The Casiquiare canal, a river forming a natural channel between the Amazon River and Orinoco River basins, is first encountered by Europeans, an expedition led by Pedro Teixeira and Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña.source

Science & Discovery

  • December 4 – English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first successful prediction and observation of a transit of Venus.source

Culture & Society

  • March 13 – Harvard University is named for clergyman John Harvard.source
  • August 22 – The British East India Company buys a strip of land from King Peda Venkata Raya of the Vijayanagara Empire for the construction of Fort St. George, the first settlement of British India, so founding modern-day Chennai, capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (celebrated as Madras Day).source
  • c. January – The first printing press in British North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye.source

Births

  • January 3 – Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse, French Huguenot noblewoman, grandmother of George II of Great Britain, great-grandmother of Frederick the Great (d. 1722)source
  • January 19 – Noël Alexandre, French theologian and ecclesiastical historian (d. 1724)source
  • March 7 – Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, English nobleman (d. 1672)source
  • March 20 – Ivan Mazepa, Hetman of Ukraine (d. 1709)source
  • April 3 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer (k. 1682)source
  • May 8 – Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Italian artist working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods (d. 1709)source
  • June 21 – Increase Mather, American minister (d. 1723)source
  • July 8 – John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery, English politician and Irish nobleman (d. 1713)source
  • July 15 – Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, Irish soldier (d. 1686)source
  • August 28 – Marie Mancini, Italian courtier, third of the five Mancini sisters (d. 1715)source
  • September 8 – William Trumbull, English diplomat and politician (d. 1716)source
  • September 29 – William Russell, Lord Russell, English politician (d. 1683)source
  • October 14 – Simon van der Stel, last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony (d. 1712)source
  • December 18 – Gottfried Kirch, German astronomer, first 'Astronomer Royal' in Berlin (d. 1710)source

Deaths

  • January 23 – Francisco Maldonado da Silva, Peruvian Jewish poet (b. 1592)source
  • January – Shackerley Marmion, English dramatist (b. 1603)source
  • February 5 – Augusta of Denmark, Duchess Consort of Holstein-Gottorp (b. 1580)source
  • April 1 – Johann Philipp, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, German Duke (b. 1597)source
  • April 6 – John Matthew Rispoli, major Maltese philosopher of great erudition (b. 1582)source
  • August 4 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist (b. c. 1571)source
  • August 6 – Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger, Danish architect (b. 1587)source
  • August 21 – Henry Wenceslaus, Duke of Oels-Bernstadt, Duke of Bernstadt (1617–1639) (b. 1592)source
  • October 8 – Frances Howard, Duchess of Richmond, British duchess (b. 1578)source
  • November 3 – Martin de Porres, Peruvian monk, Roman Catholic saint (b. 1579)source
  • November 4 – Thomas Finch, 2nd Earl of Winchilsea, Member of Parliament (b. 1578)source
  • November 7 – Thomas Arundell, 1st Baron Arundell of Wardour, English politician (b. c. 1560)source
  • November 26 – John Spottiswoode, Scottish archbishop and historian (b. 1565)source
  • December 25 – John Christian of Brieg, Duke of Brzeg (b. 1591)source