Directory

1649 CE

An over 1,000 strong war party of Haudenosaunee Iroquois invade and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people. Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh completes Book VIII of Leabhar na nGenealach, in Galway, within days of an outbreak of the plague. Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin, unopposed and with thousands of English troops, to begin the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 4 – In England, the Rump Parliament passes an ordinance to set up a High Court of Justice, to try Charles I for high treason.source
  • January 29 – Serfdom in Russia begins legally as the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Соборное уложение, "Code of Law") is signed by members of the Zemsky Sobor, the parliament of the estates of the realm in the Tsardom of Russia. Slaves and free peasants are consolidated by law into the new hereditary class of "serfs", and the Russian nobility are given the exclusive privilege of owning the serfs.source
  • January 30 – The deposed King Charles I is beheaded outside the Banquet Hall in the Palace of Whitehall, London. The Commonwealth of England, with a republican form of government, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England and members of the Long Parliament serve as government. Charles, Prince of Wales declares himself as King of England, Scotland and Ireland pending restoration of the monarchy.source
  • February 5 – In Edinburgh, the Scottish Parliament declares Prince Charles, son of the recently executed King Charles I, as King Charles II of Scotland. Prince Charles, at the time, is at sea in charge of royalist forces fighting to drive Oliver Cromwell from the British Isles. Scotland is the first of the three Kingdoms to recognize his claim to the throne.source
  • February 7 – The English Parliament rejects a proposal to continue the English monarchy after Oliver Cromwell makes clear that he does not wish to be crowned as King of England.source
  • March 4 – The first ever set of rules and regulations for England's Parliamentary Navy, Robert Blake's The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, is adopted by the House of Commons, and Blake is promoted to the position of General at Sea of the English fleet.source
  • March 17 – The English Parliament, having voted February 7 against a proposal to continue the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell, passes the "Act Abolishing the Kingship" with the goal of creating a republic under a Lord Protector selected by an elected Parliament.source
  • March 19 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, which it describes in the act as "useless and dangerous to the people of England".source
  • April 21 – The Maryland Toleration Act is passed in the American colony, allowing all freedom of worship.source
  • May 19 – "An act declaring England to be a Commonwealth" is passed by the Rump Parliament.source
  • July 5 – After news reaches the Western Hemisphere that King Charles I has been deposed and executed, the English colonial government of the Somers Isles, now called Bermuda, proclaims its recognition of Charles II as the rightful ruler of the islands.source
  • August 17 – The Treaty of Zboriv is signed by representatives of King John II Casimir of Poland and the representatives of the Cossacks and Crimean Khanate to partially settle the Khmelnytsky Uprising.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 17 – The Second Ormonde Peace concludes an alliance between the Irish Royalists and the Irish Confederates during the War of the Three Kingdoms. Later in the year the alliance is decisively defeated during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.source
  • February 22 – The Mughal–Safavid War begins when Shah Abbas II of the Safavid Empire in Persia captures the Afghan city of Kandahar from the Mughal Empire of India after a six-week siege. The Mughals, led by Shah Jahan, fail to recapture Kandahar after three sieges in four years.source
  • March 11 – The rebel Frondeurs and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.source
  • March 16 – An over 1,000 strong war party of Haudenosaunee Iroquois invade and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people.source
  • May 1 – The Wendat people Indian tribe complete the burning of 15 of their own villages, to prevent their stores from being taken by the Haudenasaunee Iroquois. Almost all the remaining people (approximately 10,000) become refugees, on a path that eventually brings them to Wendake.source
  • May 17 – The Banbury mutiny in England ends – leaders of the Leveller mutineers in the New Model Army are hanged.source
  • May 22–October – Robert Blake blockades Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Ireland.source
  • June 1 – Alexis, Tsar of the Russian Empire orders all English merchants to leave Moscow.source
  • June 1 – The Sumuroy Revolt begins in Northern Samar as Agustin Sumuroy, a Waray, and some of his followers rebel against the polo y servicio (forced labor system).source
  • August 15 – Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin, unopposed and with thousands of English troops, to begin the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.source
  • September 3 – Oliver Cromwell leads England's New Model Army to start the Siege of Drogheda in Ireland, and breaks through on September 11, executing the last of the original 2,550 Irish Catholic defenders and their leader, the English Royalist Sir Arthur Aston.source
  • September 30 – The last of Sweden's troops vacate Prague.source
  • October 11 – The Sack of Wexford in Ireland ends after having started on October 2, with Cromwell's New Model Army breaking through, killing more than 1,500 Irish Catholic defenders and civilians, while losing only 20 of the English soldiers. The capture of Wexford ends the remaining chance that Charles II, heir to the English throne, can land troops in Ireland, and Charles and the royalist fleet flee to Portugal.source
  • November 24 – The first phase of the Siege of Waterford begins as Cromwell's New Model Army attempts to take on the strategically-located Irish city's defenders with his own exhausted army. Cromwell is forced to call off the siege after eight days and his army retreats to its winter quarters at Dungarvan on December 2.source
  • December 6 – The Scottish defenders of Ireland are defeated by Cromwell's forces in the Battle of Lisnagarvey in County Antrim, with 1,500 Scots killed or captured, and New Model Army battalion of Colonel Robert Venables suffering minimal losses. The battle ends the Scottish presence in Ireland and settlers are expelled from the island in the days that follow.source
  • December 30 – Chinese General Geng Zhongming, having reported to the Qing dynasty commanders to face charges of harboring runaway slaves during his fight against the Southern Ming dynasty troops, commits suicide while waiting for a verdict in his court-martial. (1943). His son, Geng Jimao, continues to fight against the Southern Ming.source
  • Qing armies reconquer Jiangxi province during the Manchu conquest of China.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 17 – French colonists from Martinique, led by former Martinique Governor Jacques Dyel du Parquet, land at St. Georges Harbour on the island of Grenada for the founding of Fort Annunciation. The fort is soon abandoned and the colonists cross the harbour for the founding of Fort Royal which eventually becomes the city of St. George's, Grenadasource
  • August 26 – After his "True Levellers", commonly called "The Diggers", abandon their last major colony at St. George's Hill at Weybridge in England, their leader, Gerrard Winstanley, publishes the pamphlet "A Watch-Word to The City of London, and the Armie", recounting the experience.source
  • The town of Kristinestad, named after Queen Christina of Sweden, is founded in Ostrobothnia by Count Per Brahe the Younger.source

Religion & Belief

  • September 2 – The Italian city of Castro is completely destroyed by the forces of Pope Innocent X, ending the Wars of Castro.source

Economy & Finance

  • July 27 – The Commonwealth of England Parliament passes the "Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England" to create the "Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America" for Christian missionary ministries to Native American tribes. The New England Company will continue to operate more than three and a half centuries later.source

Health & Medicine

  • August 8 – Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh completes Book VIII of Leabhar na nGenealach, in Galway, within days of an outbreak of the plague.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 20 – Charles I of England goes on trial, for treason and other "high crimes".source
  • January 27 – King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland is found guilty of high treason in a public session.source
  • Dutch artist Frans Hals paints a portrait of René Descartes.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • December 20 – The Puritan law enforcers of the Commonwealth of England raid the Red Bull Theatre in London for violations of the laws against performance of plays and arrest the actors, as well as confiscating their property.source

Births

  • January 18 – William Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1679–1691) (d. 1691)source
  • January 30 – Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Earl of Dysart, British politician and nobleman (d. 1727)source
  • February 25 – Johann Philipp Krieger, German Baroque composer (d. 1725)source
  • March 12 – Govert Bidloo, Dutch physician, anatomist, poet and playwright (d. 1713)source
  • April 5 – Elihu Yale, American benefactor of Yale University (d. 1721)source
  • April 8 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Earl of Berkeley, English diplomat (d. 1710)source
  • April 9 – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1685)source
  • May 2 – Joseph Ball, American settler, public servant, and maternal grandfather of George Washington (d. 1711)source
  • July 20 – William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (d. 1709)source
  • August 7 – Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria, Roman Catholic bishop (d. 1664)source
  • September 5 – Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, French-born mistress of Charles II of England (d. 1734)source
  • September 10 – Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen since 1675 (d. 1706)source
  • November 2 – Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, German duke (d. 1697)source
  • November 4 – Samuel Carpenter, Deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania (d. 1714)source

Deaths

  • March 9 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish statesman (b. 1606)source
  • March 9 – Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, English soldier (executed) (b. 1590)source
  • March 16 – Jean de Brébeuf, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1593)source
  • March 22 – Agostinho Barbosa, Portuguese bishop in Italy and writer on canon law (b. 1589)source
  • April 22 – Marcos de Torres y Rueda, interim viceroy of New Spain (b. 1591)source
  • April 24 – Gaston Jean Baptiste de Renty, French aristocrat and philanthropist (b. 1611)source
  • June 30 – Simon Vouet, French painter (b. 1590)source
  • July 11 – Susanna Hall, oldest child of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway (b. 1582)source
  • July 31 – Ukrainian Cossack troops under the command of Mykhailo Krychevsky and Stepan Pobodailo are overwhelmed in the Battle of Loyew (in what is now Belarus) by a smaller force of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldiers led by Lithuania's Janusz Radziwiłł, with the Cossacks losing more than 3,000 fighters. Krychevsky is mortally wounded and dies on August 3.source
  • August 21 – Richard Crashaw, English poet (b. c. 1613)source
  • August 27 – Catherine of Brandenburg, Princess of Transylvania (1629–1630) (b. 1604)source
  • September 6 – Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick, English explorer and geographer (b. 1574)source
  • November 6 – Owen Roe O'Neill (b. c. 1585)source
  • December 4 – William Drummond of Hawthornden, Scottish poet (b. 1585)source