Directory

1653 CE

The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern. The Krishnanattam, a series of eight dance dramas written by Mana Veda, Zamorin of Calicut in India to tell the epic of the Hindu god Krishna, is completed. Jacques Dyel du Parquet completes his installment payments, totaling 41,500 French livres, to become the exclusive owner of the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Grenada, Saint Lucia and the Grenadines.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 2 – New Amsterdam (now New York City) received municipal rights by a charter from New Netherland Governor Peter Stuyvesant.source
  • February 3 – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.source
  • April 20 – Oliver Cromwell expels the Rump Parliament in England.source
  • July 4 – Barebone's Parliament, named for a prominent Puritan member, Praise-God Barebone, opens its session in London with elected representatives to pass laws for the Commonwealth of England.source
  • August 5 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg reaffirms the nobility's freedom from taxation, and its unlimited control over the peasants, in return for a grant to him of 530,000 silver Joachimsthalers to be paid in installments over six years.source
  • August 8 – The petite post, a system of postage using prepaid labels and post boxes, is inaugurated in Paris by Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer for the mailing of letters within the city, an event noted by Madeleine de Scudéry in her manuscript Chroniques du samedi.source
  • November 30 – Jacques Dyel du Parquet completes his installment payments, totaling 41,500 French livres, to become the exclusive owner of the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Grenada, Saint Lucia and the Grenadines.source
  • November – John Casor, a servant of African descent in Northampton County of the colony of Virginia, leaves Anthony Johnson's farm, after claiming his contract of indenture had expired, and goes to work for a new employer, Robert Parker. Johnson sues Parker, claiming that Casor is a slave for life, rather than an indentured servant, and the court issues a landmark ruling on March 8, 1655, establishing African-Americans as property.source
  • December 12 – The dissolution of Barebone's Parliament is voted by its members after having passed laws for the Commonwealth of England.source
  • Stephen Bachiler, a clergyman and early advocate for the separation of church and state returns to England after having spent more than 20 years overseas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 10 – Swiss peasant war of 1653: Peasants from the Entlebuch valley in Switzerland assemble at Heiligkreuz to organize a plan to suspend all tax payments to the authorities in the canton of Lucerne, after having been snubbed at a magisterial meeting in Lucerne. More communities in the canton join in an alliance concluded at Wolhusen on February 26.source
  • February – The Morning Star Rebellion (Morgonstjärneupproret) of peasants breaks out in Sweden's province of Närke, against Queen Christina. It is brutally suppressed by April, and its leader, the self-proclaimed King Olof Mårtensson (who uses a morning star as his scepter) is executed on a breaking wheel on April 6.source
  • June 13 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The English navy defeats the Dutch fleet in the Battle of the Gabbard after a two-day fight.source
  • June 20 – The Swiss peasant war of 1653 ends after Swiss Army troops under the command of Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer suppress the last rebels in Switzerland's Entlebuch Valley.source
  • August 10 – The Battle of Scheveningen, the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, ends after three days of fighting off the island of Texel, as the English Navy gains a tactical victory over the Dutch fleet.source
  • September 29 – In India, the third and final attempt by the Mughal Empire, to recapture the city of Kandahar from the Safavid Empire, ends in failure after almost six months despite the presence of 70,000 Mughal soldiers under the command of Prince Dara Shukoh.source
  • October 11 (October 1 O.S.) – The Zemsky Sobor, the Russian Empire's national assembly, opens its session to declare a war against the Kingdom of Poland.source
  • October 20 – The Battle of Bordeaux is fought between French and Spanish warships in the Gironde estuary of France as part of the Franco-Spanish War. The Spanish fleet of 30 warships, under the command of Álvaro de Bazán y Manrique de Lara, Marquis of Santa Cruz, overwhelms the French fleet of César, Duke of Vendôme and captures ten galleys and brigantines, as well as burning four other warships and 15 barges.source
  • October 29 – Pierre-Esprit Radisson, a French Canadian teenager who had been captured by a Mohawk raiding party two years earlier and then tortured, escapes captivity in what is now the U.S. state of New York.source
  • November 8 – The Battle of Arronches takes place near the town of Arronches on the Portuguese side of the border between Portugal and Spain, with the Portuguese Army outflanking and defeating a larger Spanish force.source

Religion & Belief

  • January 3 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.source
  • December 7 – The Moti Masjid, an Islamic mosque made completely of white marble and within the walls of the Agra Fort in what is now the city of Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is dedicated by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, on 16 Muharram 1064.source
  • December 16 – The Instrument of Government in England becomes Britain's first written constitution, under which Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, being advised by a remodelled English Council of State. This is the start of The First Protectorate, bringing an end to the first period of republican government in the country, the Commonwealth of England.source

Economy & Finance

  • January – The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • July 8 – John Thurloe becomes Cromwell's head of intelligence.source

Health & Medicine

  • May 31 – Ferdinand IV, already the King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, is elected King of the Romans by his fellow German monarchs, making him eligible to succeed his father Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand IV will not live to become Holy Roman Emperor, instead dying from smallpox 14 months after his designation.source
  • Marcello Malpighi, an Italian pioneer of microscopical anatomy becomes a doctor of medicine.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 28 – The Great Fire of Marlborough destroys 224 houses and much of the textile businesses in the Wiltshire town which, "at that date was one of considerable importance, and had merchants of affluence and repute."source
  • September 13 – A violent storm off the west coast of Scotland sinks the English Navy warship Swan, and the commandeered merchantmen Speedwell and Martha and Margaret, all of which have been anchored off of Mull. Most of the crews had gone ashore, but 23 of the men on the ship Speedwell are killed.source

Culture & Society

  • October 25 – Erdeni Bumba, the wife and chief consort of China's Shunzhi Emperor, is demoted from being the empress to being a concubine.source
  • November 16 – The Krishnanattam, a series of eight dance dramas written by Mana Veda, Zamorin of Calicut in India to tell the epic of the Hindu god Krishna, is completed.source
  • The gardens surrounding the Taj Mahal mausoleum are completed at Agra.source

Births

  • February 17 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)source
  • March 10 – John Benbow, English Royal Navy Admiral (d. 1702)source
  • April 2 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1708)source
  • April 6 – Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1728)source
  • April 25 – Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist (d. 1730)source
  • May 21 – Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard, English politician and peer (d. 1723)source
  • June 16 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)source
  • July 4 – Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1706)source
  • July 5 – Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras (d. 1726)source
  • August 14 – Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (d. 1688)source
  • September 1 – Johann Pachelbel, German organist and composer (d. 1706)source
  • September 8 – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1731)source
  • November 14 – Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Catholic bishop of Quebec (d. 1727)source
  • November 26 – Empress Xiaochengren, Chinese Qing Dynasty empress (d. 1674)source

Deaths

  • January 21 – John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, English diplomat (b. 1580)source
  • February 27 – Diego López Pacheco, 7th Duke of Escalona, Spanish noble (b. 1599)source
  • March 14 – A Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Battle of Leghorn in the Mediterranean but the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.source
  • May 19 – Elizabeth Lucretia, Duchess of Cieszyn, Duchess suo jure of Cieszyn (b. 1599)source
  • May 26 – Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)source
  • June 5 – Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1579)source
  • July 10 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)source
  • July 31 – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)source
  • September 3 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (b. 1588)source
  • September 14 – Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, Duke of Jülich and Berg (b. 1578)source
  • October 3 – Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (b. 1612)source
  • October 7 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic prelate and cardinal (b. 1581)source
  • December 21 – Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, Duchess consort of Pomerania (b. 1580)source
  • December 28 – Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo (b. 1592)source