Directory

1659 CE

Prince Dara Shikoh, who had been the heir apparent to the throne of the Mughal Empire in India until the overthrow of his father, Shah Jahan, makes a stand near Ajmer to fight the armies sent by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, but loses and is forced to flee. In the Battle of Konotop, fought near the Ukrainian city of Konotop during the Russo-Polish War, Polish Cossack hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and his allies defeat the armies of the Tsardom of Russia, led by Aleksey Trubetskoy. As Booth's Uprising spreads to Liverpool, Thomas Myddelton, Randolph Egerton and fellow royalists take control of the town of Wrexham in Wales and proclaim Charles II to be King.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 27 – The third and final session of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland is opened by Lord Protector Richard Cromwell, with Chaloner Chute as the Speaker of the House of Commons, with 567 members. "Cromwell's Other House", which replaces the House of Lords during the last years of the Protectorate, opens on the same day, with Richard Cromwell as its speaker.source
  • May 21 – The Kingdom of France, the Commonwealth of England and the Dutch Republic sign the Concert of The Hague, agreeing a common stance on the Second Northern War.source
  • August 27 – Portuguese Jesuits led by António Vieira sign the Treaty of the Mapuá with various indigenous peoples on the Marajó Archipelago at the mouth of the Amazon River.source
  • October 12 – The English Rump Parliament dismisses John Lambert, and other generals.source
  • October 13 – General-major John Lambert drives out the English Rump-government.source
  • November 7 – The Treaty of the Pyrenees is signed by representatives of Kings Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain. Spain agrees to French acquisition of the counties of Roussillon and Upper Cerdanya (Principality of Catalonia) and most of Artois, formally ending the 24-year-long Franco-Spanish War.source
  • December 16 – General George Monck demands free parliamentary elections in Scotland and resolves to overthrow the military government that has ruled the British Isles since 1648.source
  • December 26 – The Long Parliament reforms occur in Westminster.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 14 – In the Battle of the Lines of Elvas, fought near the small city of Elvas in Portugal during the Portuguese Restoration War, the Spanish Army under the command of Luis Méndez de Haro suffers heavy casualties, with over 11,000 of its nearly 16,000 soldiers killed, wounded or taken prisoner; the smaller Portuguese force of 10,500 troops, commanded by André de Albuquerque Ribafria (who is killed in the battle) suffers less than 900 casualties.source
  • February 11 – The Assault on Copenhagen by Swedish forces is beaten back, with heavy losses.source
  • March 11 – Prince Dara Shikoh, who had been the heir apparent to the throne of the Mughal Empire in India until the overthrow of his father, Shah Jahan, makes a stand near Ajmer to fight the armies sent by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, but loses and is forced to flee.source
  • April 22 – Under pressure from the English Army in London, which has assembled troops outside of Westminster, Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, dissolves the Third Protectorate Parliament, the last for the Commonwealth.source
  • May 6 – English Army General Hezekiah Haynes, joined by officers Charles Fleetwood, John Lambert, James Berry, Robert Lilburne, Thomas Kelsey, William Goffe and William Packer, presents the manifesto A Declaration of the Officers of the Army, advocating that Lord Protector Cromwell step down after restoring the "Rump Parliament" to administer England. Cromwell restores the parliament rule the next day and decides to step down.source
  • June 29 – In the Battle of Konotop, fought near the Ukrainian city of Konotop during the Russo-Polish War, Polish Cossack hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and his allies defeat the armies of the Tsardom of Russia, led by Aleksey Trubetskoy.source
  • August 3 – Booth's Uprising, led by George Booth, begins in the city of Chester as 3,000 royalists attempt a revolt against the military government of England. English Army troops begin marching on August 5 to suppress the rebellion.source
  • August 7 – As Booth's Uprising spreads to Liverpool, Thomas Myddelton, Randolph Egerton and fellow royalists take control of the town of Wrexham in Wales and proclaim Charles II to be King.source
  • August 15 – Two English warships block the entrance to the River Dee to prevent supplies from reaching Booth's rebels in Chester, while Major General John Lambert of the English Army advances into Cheshire at Nantwich.source
  • August 19 – At the Battle of Winnington Bridge, the Protectorate Army of 5,000 troops, dispatched by Parliament and under the command of Major General Lambert, routs the 4,000 anti-government rebels commanded by George Booth of England and Edward Broughton of Wales. Lambert and his forces, exhausted from their rapid march and the battle, elect not to pursue the fleeing rebels and less than 30 rebels are killed.source
  • August 30 – Poland's army of over 12,000 troops under the command of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Krzysztof Grodzicki, takes back the city of Grudziądz, which has been under Sweden's control since the end of 1655, after a siege of seven days. Much of the town is left in ruins after a fire and bombardment from Polish cannons.source
  • September 20 – War between Dutch settlers and the native Lenape Indians, of the Esopus tribe, in modern-day Ulster County, New York, in the U.S., as a group of Dutch settlers from the village of Wiltwijck, New Netherland fires their guns at a group of Esopus men who have been sitting around a campfire. For the next ten months, the Esopus warriors, commanded by Chief Papequanaehen, fight a war with the Dutch that is finally settled with a peace treaty on July 15, 1660.source
  • September 22 – The Ottoman-ruled island of Kizilhisar (called Castelrosso by Italy and in modern times the island of Kastellorizo in Greece) is captured from the Ottoman Empire by the navy of the Republic of Venice after nearly 150 years of Ottoman rule that had started in 1512.source
  • November 25 – Dutch forces under Michiel de Ruyter free the Danish city of Nyborg from Swedish conquest that had taken place earlier in the year.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • February 2 – Jan van Riebeeck produces the first South African wine, at the Cape of Good Hope.source
  • First British colonists arrive on Saint Helena.source
  • Spanish Infanta Maria Theresa brings cocoa to Paris.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 16 – The first known cheque (400 pounds) is written.source
  • Parisian police raid a monastery, sending monks to prison for eating meat and drinking wine during Lent.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 28 – The Danish Africa Company (Dansk afrikanske kompagni) is chartered to Hendrik Carloff for the purpose of capturing Africa slaves from the area around Denmark's colony on the Danish Gold Coast for use in the West Indies.source

Science & Discovery

  • July – Christiaan Huygens's important work on astronomy, Systema Saturnium, is published.source
  • Thomas Hobbes publishes De Homine.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 31 – Giovanna De Grandis is arrested in Rome and charged with trafficking the lethal Aqua Tofana poison. On February 2, she implicates the mastermind of the poisoners, Gironima Spana, starting the case of the Spana Prosecution that eventually leads to the arrest and trial of 40 people.source
  • June 10 – Dara Shikoh, at one time the heir apparent for the Mughal Empire, is betrayed by an Afghan chieftain, Junaid Khan Barozai, who had initially given him refuge from pursuit from the new emperor, Aurangzeb. Turned over to Aurangzeb's men, Dara Shikoh is killed on August 30.source
  • July 5 – Five women are executed by hanging at Rome after being convicted of murder in the Spana Prosecution by distributing the powerful Aqua Tofana poison, sold primarily to women wishing to get rid of their husbands. Put to death on the same day are Gironima Spana, Giovanna De Grandis, Maria Spinola, Graziosa Farina and Laura Crispoldi, in the public square at the Campo de' Fiori.source

Culture & Society

  • January 24 – Pierre Corneille's Oedipe premieres in Paris.source
  • March 1 – In exile in the Netherlands while plotting the restoration of the monarchy to England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles, son of the late King Charles I appoints seven royalists (including six from the "Sealed Knot" group) to a "Great Trust and Commission" to make plans for a post-restoration government. The Great Trust is led by Charles's trusted advisor, Edward Hyde.source
  • July 16 – Princess Henriette Catherine of Nassau marries John George II, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, in Groningen.source
  • September 30 – Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherland forbids tennis playing during religious services, marking the first mention of tennis in what will become the United States.source
  • Diego Velázquez's portrait of Infanta Maria Theresa is first exhibited.source
  • Peter Swink, the first known non-white settler to own land in Massachusetts, and first known African to live in Springfield, Massachusetts, arrives. He holds a seat in the town meetings.source

Births

  • January 4 – James Pierpont, Connecticut Congregationalist minister, a founder of Yale University (d. 1714)source
  • January 18 – Damaris Cudworth Masham, English philosopher (d. 1708)source
  • April 29 – Date Tsunamura, Japanese daimyō at the center of the Date Sōdō (d. 1719)source
  • June 3 – David Gregory, Scottish mathematician and astronomer (d. 1708)source
  • July 18 – Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (d. 1743)source
  • August 1 – Sebastiano Ricci, Italian painter (d. 1734)source
  • August 20 – Henry Every, English pirate (d. after 1696)source
  • September 5 – Michel Sarrazin, Canadian scientist (d. 1734)source
  • September 12 – Ferdinand Willem, Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt, Dutch general and noble (d. 1701)source
  • September 13 – Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn, Scottish and Irish peer (k. in action 1691)source
  • October 22 – Georg Ernst Stahl, German chemist (d. 1734)source
  • November 3 – Hui-bin Jang, Korean royal consort (d. 1701)source
  • November 10 – Albert Borgard, Danish artillery and engineer officer (d. 1751)source
  • December 12 – Francesco Galli Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (d. 1739)source

Deaths

  • January 15 – Juliana of Hesse-Darmstadt, Countess of East Frisia (b. 1606)source
  • February 15 – John Arrowsmith, English theologian and academic (b. 1602)source
  • February 27 – Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard College (b. 1609)source
  • June 23 – Hyojong of Joseon, 17th king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea (1649-1659) (b. 1619)source
  • July 5 – Gironima Spana, Italian poisoner and central figure of the Spana Prosecution (executed) (b. 1615)source
  • July 31 – Dodda Kempadevaraja (Devaraja Wodeyar I) becomes the new maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore (part of modern-day India's Karnataka state) upon the death of his cousin, Kanthirava Narasaraja I. He is crowned on August 19.source
  • August 30 – Dara Shikoh, Indian prince (b. 1615)source
  • September 8 – Frederick V, Margrave of Baden-Durlach (1622–1659) (b. 1594)source
  • October 1 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish politician, clergyman (b. 1600)source
  • October 8 – Jean de Quen, French Jesuit missionary and historian (b. c. 1603)source
  • October 31 – John Bradshaw, English judge (b. 1602)source
  • November 6 – Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière, French nobleman, founder of Montreal and an order of nursing Sisters (b. 1597)source
  • November 10 – Afzal Khan, Indian commander of the Bijapur Adilshahi forcessource
  • December 31 – Alain de Solminihac, French bishop and beatified person (b. 1593)source