1600-1754: Chapter One: World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside North America

MAJOR POWERS AND LEADERS

MAJOR CONFLICTS

WORLD EVENTS OF 1600-1754

MAJOR POWERS AND LEADERS

China —Wan-li (1572-1620), T’ai-ch’ang (1620), T’ien-ch’i (1620-27), Ch’ung-chen (1627-44), Shun Chih (1644-61), K’ang-hsi (1661-1722), Yung Cheng (1723-35), Ch’ien Lung (1735-96).

England —Elizabeth I (1558-1603); James I (1603-25); Charles I (1625-49); The Commonwealth (1649-60), Lords Protector: Oliver Cromwell (1653-58), Richard Cromwell (1658-59); Charles II (1660-85); James II (1685-88); The Interregnum (1688); William III (1689-1702) and Mary II (1689-94); Anne (1702-14); George I (1714-27); George II (1727-60).

France —Henry IV (1580-1610), Louis XIII (1610-43), Louis XIV (1643-1715), Louis XV (1715-74).

Holland —Maurice (1584-1625); Frederick Henry (1625-47); William II (1647-50); States-General (1652-72); William III (1672-1702), who was also William III of England (1689-1702); States-General (1702-47); William IV (1748-51); William V (1751-95).

Holy Roman Empire —Rudolf II (1576-1612); Matthias (1612-19); Ferdinand II (1619-37); Ferdinand III (1637-57); Leopold I (1658-1705); Joseph I (1705-11); Charles VI (1711-40); two claimants: Maria Theresa (1740-45) and Charles VII (1742-45), Francis I (1745-65).

Japan —Tokugawa Ieyasu (1603-05), Tokugawa Hidetada (1605-23), Tokugawa Iemitsu (1623-51), Tokugawa Ietsuna (1651-80), Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1680-1709), Tokugawa Ineobu (1709-12), Tokugawa Ietsugu (1712), Yoshimune (1716-45), Tokugawa Ieshige (1745-60).

Ottoman Empire —Mohammed III (1595-1603), Ahmed I (1603-17), Mustafa I (1617-18, 1622-23), Osman II (1618-22), Murad IV (1623-40), Ibrahim I (1640-48), Mohammed IV (1648-87), Suleiman II (1687-91), Ahmed II (1691-95), Mustapha II (1695-1703), Ahmed III (1703-30), Mahmud II (1730-54).

Poland —Sigismund III (1587-1632), Wladyslaw (1632-48), John II Casimir (1648-68), Michael Wisniowiecki (1669-73), John III Sobieski (1674-96), Augustus II (1697-1704, 1709-33), Stanislas Leszczynski (1704-09), Augustus III (1734-63).

Portugal —Philip II (1598-1621), who was also Philip III of Spain (1598-1621); Philip III (1621-40), who was also Philip IV of Spain (1621-65); John IV (1640-56); Afonso VI (1656-67); Peter II (1667-1706); John V (1706-50); José (1750-77).

Prussia —Frederick I (1701-03), Frederick William I (1713-40), Frederick II (1740-86).

Russia —Boris Godunov (1598-1605), Theodore II (1605), Basil Shuisky (1606-10), Michael (1613-45), Alexis I (1645-76), Theodore III (1676-82), Ivan V (1682-89) and Peter I (1682-1725), Catherine I (1725-27), Peter II (1727-30), Anna (1730-40), Ivan VI (1740-41), Elizabeth (1741-62).

Spain —Philip III (1598-1621), who was also Philip II of Portugal (1598-1621); Philip IV (1621-65), who as also Philip III of Portugal (1621-40); Charles II (1665-1700); Philip V (1700-24, 1725-46); Louis I (1724-25); Ferdinand VI (1746-59).

Sweden —Sigismund (1592-1604), Charles IX (1604-11), Gustavus II Adolphus (1611-32), Christina (1632-54), Charles X Gustavus (1654-60), Charles XI (1660-97), Charles XII (1697-1718), Ulrica Eleanora (1718-20), Frederick (1720-51), Adolphus Frederick (1751-71).

MAJOR CONFLICTS

1618-1648 —Thirty Years’ War

1642-1646 —First English Civil War

1648 —Second English Civil War

1652-1654 —First Anglo-Dutch War

1664-1667 —Second Anglo-Dutch War

1667-1668 —War of Devolution

1676-1681 —First Russo-Turkish War

1688-1697 —War of the League of Augsburg

1695-1696 —Second Russo-Turkish War

1700-1721 —Great Northern War

1701-1713 —War of the Spanish Succession

1710-1711 —Third Russo-Turkish War

1733-1738 —War of the Polish Succession

1736-1739 —Fourth Russo-Turkish War

1740-1748 —War of the Austrian Succession

WORLD EVENTS OF 1600-1754

1600

• Merchants in London found the English East India Company to challenge the Dutch spice trade in the East Indies.
• Having been granted a monopoly on the North American fur trade, Frenchmen Pierre Chauvin; François Gravé, Sieur de Pontgravé; and Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, try unsuccessfully to establish a colony at Tadoussac on the lower Saint Lawrence River at the mouth of the Saguenay River.
• Cynthia’s Revels, a play by Ben Jonson, is performed in London.
• William Gilbert, an English physician and physicist, writes De Magnete, Magneticisique Corporibus, a pioneering treatise on electricity.
• The popular New World plant tobacco sells in London for a price equal to its weight in silver shillings.
• At about this time Dutch lens grinders begin making the refracting telescope and the compound microscope.
• 17 Feb. Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake in Rome for advocating the Copernican theory that the planets revolve around the sun and for suggesting that there may be other worlds with other absolute deities.

1601

• Twelfth Night, a play by William Shakespeare, is performed in London.
• The English Act for the Relief of the Poor makes local parishes responsible for levying local taxes to provide for the needy and establishes residence requirements to prevent poor people from flocking to wealthy parishes.
• English adventurer John Smith is captured by the Turks and sold into slavery.
• 25 Feb. Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, a onetime favorite of Elizabeth I, is executed for plotting against the queen.

1602

• An English East India Company fleet commanded by James Lancaster defeats a large Portuguese treasure galleon and loots its valuable cargo, trading some for pepper from Dutch merchants in Java.
• The Dutch East India Company doubles or nearly triples European pepper prices.

1603

• Elizabeth I of England dies. James VI of Scotland succeeds her as James I of England.
• Sir Walter Raleigh is imprisoned in the Tower of London for his alleged part in a plot to depose James I in favor of his cousin Arabella Stuart.
• England makes an alliance with France.
• John Smith escapes from slavery in the Near East and returns to England.
• John Mildenhall of the English East India Company reaches India and presents himself to the Great Mogul Akbar seeking trade privileges for England.
• James Lancaster’s English East India Company fleet returns to Great Britain with more than a million pounds of pepper.
• Johann Bayer compiles the first celestial atlas that uses Greek letters to indicate the brightest stars in the constellations.

1604

• Othello, a play by William Shakespeare, is performed in London.
• As part of a long-term attempt to regain control over the Netherlands, Spanish forces seize Ostend from the Dutch after a siege of three and one-half years.
• England signs a peace treaty with Spain.
• Samuel de Champlain establishes a French colony in Nova Scotia. It is abandoned in 1607.
• Jan. James I presides over the Hampton Court Conference between the Anglican bishops and the Puritans, who fail in their attempts to institute reforms in the Church of England. The king issues the Act of Uniformity requiring strict adherence to the tenets of the Anglican Church, banishes all Jesuits and Roman Catholic seminary priests from England, and appoints a commission headed by Lancelot Andrewes to make a new English translation of the Bible.
• Spring Part one of The Honest Whore, a play by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, is performed in London.

1605

• Jan. The Masque of Blackness, by Ben Jonson, is performed at Whitehall Palace in Westminster.
• 4 Nov. Guy Fawkes is arrested during preparations to blow up the houses of Parliament while James I is presiding over the opening of Parliament on 5 November. The plot was originated by Robert Catesby, John Wright, and Thomas Winter in 1604 and eventually included many other English Catholics who were unhappy about renewed enforcement of laws requiring them to attend Anglican church services and placing severe penalties on saying Mass or assisting at it.

1606

• Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare, is performed in London.
• James I of England grants the Virginia Charter, establishing the Plymouth Company and the London Company to found separate settlements in the New World.
• Feb.-Mar. Volpone, a play by Ben Jonson, is performed in London.

1607

• English peasants revolt against the enclosure of common grazing lands and other abuses by the landed gentry. The rebellion is suppressed by the forces of James I.
• Jesuits establish a settlement in Paraguay.
• Members of the Plymouth Company attempt to establish a settlement in Maine but abandon it after a harsh winter.
• 14 May Members of the London Company found Jamestown, Virginia.

1608

• The Hector becomes the first English East India Company ship to land in India.
• Frederick IV, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, organizes the Protestant Union.
• English separatists, who later become known as the Pilgrims, leave England for religious freedom in Holland.

1609

• Cymbeline, a play by William Shakespeare, is performed in London.
• The Twelve Years’ Truce ends fighting between the Spanish and Dutch, and Philip III of Spain recognizes the independence of the northern provinces of the Low Countries (Holland).
• Duke Maximilian of Bavaria organizes the Catholic League to oppose the Protestant Union.
• In his Astronomia nova Johannes Kepler explains his first two laws of planetary motion: that the planets move in elliptical paths around the sun and that the planets do not travel at uniform rates of speed.
• Galileo Galilei uses a telescope to view the Milky Way.
• Dutch merchants found a post in western Japan, ending the Portuguese monopoly on trade with that country.
• The city of Amsterdam founds a bank and issues coins made from South American silver. Its practice of weighing coins initiates the principle of public regulation of money, and the bank soon begins lending money at interest.

1610

• An Anatomy of the World, an elegy by English poet John Donne, is published in London.
• The Alchemist, a play by Ben Jonson, is performed in London.
• Galileo discovers the moons of Jupiter and publishes Siderius nuncius, arguing the validity of Copernicus’s theory that the planets orbit the sun.
• Marie de Médicis removes from office Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully, who has instituted reforms in taxation and improvements in agriculture and frontier defenses. Concino Concini, Marquis d’Ancre, increases his influence at court.
• 14 May Henry IV is assassinated in Paris. He is succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Louis XIII, whose mother, Marie de Médicis, becomes his regent.

1611

• Lancelot Andrewes and fellow translators complete the King James, or Authorized, version of the Bible.
• After the failure of an uprising against England, Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, flees to Rome, and the Plantation of Ulster in Northern Ireland is forfeited to the Crown.
• The University of Rome is founded.
• The University of Santo Tomas is founded at Manila in the Philippines.
• 9 Feb. James I of England dissolves Parliament.
• 15 May The Winter’s Tale, a play by William Shakespeare, is performed in London.
• 30 Oct. Charles IX of Sweden dies. His sixteen-year-old son, who begins a twentyone-year reign as Gustavus II Adolphus, signs a charter giving the council and estates a voice in legislation and veto power in matters of war and peace.
• 1 Nov. The Tempest, a play by Shakespeare, is performed in London.

1612

• The Second Anniuersarie, by English poet John Donne, is published in London.
• An enlarged edition of Essays, by English philosopher Francis Bacon, is published in London (first edition, 1597).
• After two English East India Company ships defeat four Portuguese galleons off the coast of India, Emperor Jahangir is impressed with their military skills and grants the British trading rights at Surat.
• The British establish a colony at Bermuda.

1613

• The English East India Company establishes its first trading post in India.
• The Dutch establish a fur-trading post at the southern tip of Manhattan Island.
• 22 July Michael Romanov becomes Russian emperor, establishing the Romanov dynasty.

1614

• The Duchess of Malfi, a play by John Webster, is published in London.
• Louis XIII is declared of age, but his mother continues to exert strong influence on the government of France.
• Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, is elected to the Estates-General of France and engineers its dissolution. It does not meet again until 1789.
• Sweden takes Novgorod from the Russians.
• Scotsman John Napier introduces the system of arithmetical calculation that is the basis for the slide rule.
• Designed by the late Andrea Palladio, the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is completed in Venice after fifty-five years of construction.
• 5 Apr. James I calls Parliament into session. After it argues with him over his finances, the king dissolves Parliament on 7 June. It becomes known as the “Addled Parliament” because it has passed no enactments.

1615

• In the East Indies, Dutch forces take the Moluccas from the Portuguese, and a British fleet defeats a Portuguese armada off the coast of Bombay.
• Chocolate paste is imported from the Spanish colonies in the New World to Spain, Italy, and Flanders, introducing the practice of drinking chocolate.

1616

• The Vatican orders Galileo to stop defending the “heretical” notion that the planets orbit the sun.
• The English East India Company begins trade with Persia.
• James I of England begins selling peerages to replenish the royal treasury.
• Nov.-Dec. The Devil Is an Ass, a play by Ben Jonson, is performed in London.

1617

• Released from the Tower of London in 1616, Sir Walter Raleigh sails for the Orinoco in South America in an unsuccessful attempt to find a gold mine. Though he has agreed not to disturb Spanish settlements there, one of his men leads an expedition that attacks a Spanish town.
• Prime Minister Concino Concini of France, a favorite of Marie de Médicis, is arrested and assassinated.

1618

• 23 May Angry over the closing of one of their churches and the destruction of another and upset because seven of the ten governors appointed to administer Bohemia are Catholic, the Protestant Count Matthias von Thurn leads a rebellion. Two of the governors are thrown from a window in the Palace of Prague into a ditch below, escaping with their lives. This “Defenestration of Prague” precipitates the Thirty Years’ War. Fought mainly on German soil, it begins as a dispute between the German Protestant states and the Catholic forces of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, parts of northern Italy, present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), but virtually all the states of Europe become involved in this long war of shifting alliances.
• 29 Oct. As reparation to Spain for the attack in the Orinoco, Raleigh is executed in London.

1619

• 20 Mar. Holy Roman Emperor Matthias dies and is succeeded by Ferdinand II, who has been deposed as king of Bohemia, where the Protestant Frederick V is now king.

1620

• In Novum Organum Sir Francis Bacon proposes inductive logic as a means of interpreting nature rather than the deductive method put forth by Aristotle. In his insistence that observation and experience are the sole source of knowledge, Bacon inaugurates the modern scientific method.
• 8 Nov. The forces of Frederick V are defeated at the Battle of the White Mountain. He flees to Holland. The leading rebels are executed, and Protestantism is wiped out in Bohemia. After the battle the Protestant Union is dissolved, and the seat of the war is moved to the Palatinate states of Germany.
• 11 Nov. The Mayflower arrives off the coast of Cape Cod, bearing the first group of Pilgrims. Discovering that Cape Cod is outside the jurisdiction of the London Company, which has granted them their charter, they decide to establish a settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1621

• The Anatomy of Melancholy, by English clergyman Robert Burton, is published in Oxford.
• The States-General of the Netherlands charters the Dutch West India Company.
• Pembroke College is founded at Oxford.
• 30 Jan. In need of funds to support British military efforts in the Thirty Years’ War, James I of England calls the third Parliament of his reign, which impeaches Sir Francis Bacon, who has been lord chancellor since 1618, on charges of taking bribes. Bacon is found guilty, fined, and banned from holding future offices, but he is pardoned by James I, who also remits Bacon’s fine.
• 31 Mar. Philip III of Spain dies and is succeeded by fifteen-year-old Philip IV, who allows his prime minister, Gaspar de Guzman, Duque de Olivares, to conduct affairs of state. Olivares resumes the war with Holland that ended with the Twelve Years’ Truce of 1609.
• 18 Dec. After James I rebukes the House of Commons for meddling in foreign affairs by protesting the proposed marriage of the Prince of Wales to a Spanish princess, Parliament issues the Great Protestation, declaring “That the liberties, franchises, privileges, and jurisdictions of parliament are the ancient and undoubted birthright and inheritance of the subjects of England, and that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the king, state, and defense of the realm... Are proper subjects and the matter of council in debate in parliament.”

1622

• Designed by architect Inigo Jones, the banqueting hall at Whitehall in London is completed.
• 8 Feb. James I tears the Great Protestation from the journal of the House of Commons and dissolves Parliament.

1623

• The first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays (the First Folio) is published in London.
• After the failure of negotiations to arrange the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Maria, sister of Philip IV of Spain, Charles and Charles Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, return to England in anger.
• The Dutch drive colonists of the English East India Company from the Spice Islands.
• The Dutch grant a formal charter to New Netherland, and some thirty families establish a permanent settlement on Manhattan Island.
• Aug. The Bellman of Paris, a play by Thomas Dekker and John Day, is performed in London.

1624

• Designed by Jacques Lemercier, the earliest section of the Louvre in Paris is completed as a palace for Louis XIII. The Palais de Luxembourg in Paris, designed by Salomon de Brosse, is completed as a residence for his mother, Marie de Médicis.
• A cardinal since 1622, Richelieu becomes the chief minister of Louis XIII and continues to dominate French government until his death in 1642.
• France and England agree to the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France.
• England goes to war against Spain.

1625

• French settlers colonize the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.
• The British found the first colony on Barbados.
• 5 Mar. James I of England dies and is succeeded by Charles I.
• 1 May Charles I marries Henrietta Maria of France by proxy and receives her at Canterbury on 13 June.
• 18 June Charles I calls the first Parliament of his reign.
• 12 Aug. After Parliament limits appropriations for the war with Spain, in part because of anger over sending English troops to help Louis XIII put down a rebellion of Huguenots (Protestants) in France, Charles I dissolves Parliament.
• 8 Sept. The English and Dutch sign the Treaty of Southampton, forming an alliance against Spain.

1626

• 6 Feb. Charles I calls a second Parliament, which impeaches Buckingham for the embarrassing failure of his expedition against Cádiz in Spain in 1625.
• 15 June Charles I dissolves Parliament to prevent the trial of his favorite Buckingham.

1627

• Cardinal Richelieu of France founds a company to colonize New France.
• Inigo Jones completes Queen’s Chapel in St. James’s Palace at Westminster.
• Louis XIII commissions Jacques Lemercier to design a château at Versailles.
• The French Huguenots rise again, and Richelieu personally supervises the Siege of La Rochelle, the Protestants’ center of power.

1628

• English physician William Harvey publishes a treatise establishing that the heart is a muscle whose regular contractions cause the circulation of blood.
• 17 Mar. Charles I calls his third Parliament, which passes the Petition of Rights, prohibiting all forms of taxation without the consent of Parliament, the billeting of soldiers in private homes, the declaration of martial law in peacetime, and the imprisonment of an individual without a specific charge. The king agrees to the petition on 7 June.
• 23 Aug. After leading one unsuccessful mission to help the Huguenots at La Rochelle, Buckingham is assassinated on the eve of embarking on another expedition.
• 28 Oct. Despite the aid of three English fleets, La Rochelle falls, resulting in the complete subjugation of the French Huguenots.

1629

• The Massachusetts Bay Company is chartered in England.
• The Dutch West India Company grants Kiliaen van Rensselaer lands near Albany, New York.
• Pope Urban VIII appoints Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini to complete Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
• 10 Mar. Charles I dissolves Parliament after members of the House of Commons oppose the king’s continued levying of taxes without the consent of Parliament. Charles rules without Parliament until 1640.

1630

• Faced with the growing influence of Bishop William Laud, a favorite of Charles I and an absolutist in his advocacy of enforcing strict adherence to the Anglican Church, Puritans begin settling in New England in what becomes known as the “Great Migration.”
• Having heard of atrocities committed by Gen. Albrecht von Wallenstein and his Catholic troops, Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire consents to a decree dismissing Wallenstein and much of his army.
• Apr. England and France make peace.
• July Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden sends troops to aid German Protestants in Pomerania.
• Nov. England makes peace with Spain.

1631

• Richelieu subsidizes Gustavus and Bernhard, Duke of Saxony, bringing France into the Thirty Years’ War.
• 22 Feb. Chloridia, a play by Ben Jonson, is performed in London.
• 20 May Forces under Johann Tserclaes, Graf von Tilly, commander-in-chief of Catholic League armies, sack and burn Magdeburg, massacring the citizens.
• 17 Sept. An army of Swedish troops led by Gustavus II Adolphus and the troops of John George, Elector of Saxony, defeat Tilly’s forces at the Battle of Breitenfeld (or Leipzig).

1632

• Charles I of England grants Maryland to Lord Baltimore.
• Galileo repeats his support for Copernicus’s theory that the planets orbit the sun.
• 30 Apr. Tilly dies after receiving a mortal wound in the defeat of his forces by Gustavus’s troops at the confluence of the Lenz and Danube Rivers.
• 16 Nov. The Swedes defeat Catholic forces at Lutzen, but Gustavus is killed in battle. He is succeeded by his six-year-old daughter, Christina. Until she ascends the throne on her eighteenth birthday, in December 1644, Sweden is governed by a chancellorship.

1633

• Poems by J. D., by the late English poet John Donne, is published in London.
• William Laud becomes archbishop of Canterbury.
• 12 Apr. The Catholic Church in Rome tries Galileo for heresy because he has refused to retract his support for the Copernican view of the universe. Threatened with torture on the rack, he recants and is confined to his villa outside Florence for the remaining nine years of his life.

1634

• Love’s Mistress, a play by Thomas Heywood, is performed in London.
• Tulip mania in Holland reaches a high point, as speculators pay enormously inflated prices for single bulbs.
• 18 Feb. Recalled to duty in 1632, Gen. Albrecht von Wallenstein is formally deposed amid accusations that he intended to seize the crown of Bohemia or even the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for himself.
• 25 Feb. Wallenstein is assassinated by an Irish officer.

1635

• The Academie Française is founded to establish French grammar and usage rules and cleanse the language of “impurities.”
• 30 May The Treaty of Prague ends hostilities between John George of Saxony and Emperor Ferdinand II. The Thirty Years’ War becomes largely a battle between French and Swedish troops and the forces of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.

1637

• Comus, a masque by English poet John Milton, is published in London.
• Hundreds of Dutch tulip speculators are ruined as the bottom falls out of the tulip market.
• In La géometrie René Descartes applies algebra to geometry, creating analytic geometry and establishing the basis for modern mathematics.
• 15 Feb. Ferdinand II dies and is succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his twenty-eight-year-old son, Ferdinand III.
• 23 June Riots erupt in Edinburgh after Charles I orders the Anglican liturgy read in Scottish churches—the decree is part of Archbishop Laud’s campaign to root out Calvinism in England and Presbyterianism in Scotland.

1638

• 28 Feb. Scots Presbyterians sign the Solemn League and Covenant in defense of their religion.
• Nov. The Scottish “Covenanters” hold a general assembly in Glasgow, abolishing the episcopacy of the Anglican Church and adopting the liturgy and canons of the Scottish Kirk (Church).

1639

• The First Bishops’ War begins as Scots seize Edinburgh Castle and raise an army.
• 18 June The Scots meet the forces of Charles I near Berwick. Negotiations result in peace without bloodshed after Charles promises that differences can be resolved by a new general assembly and a new Scottish parliament after the armies have disbanded.

1640

• Love’s Masterpiece, a play by Thomas Heywood, is performed in London.
• Supported by the French, who recognize its independence, Catalonia begins a revolt against Spain that continues until 1659.
• Portugal declares its independence from Spain, which the Spanish do not recognize until 1668.
• 13 Apr. In financial distress and still in trouble with the Scots, Charles I calls his fourth Parliament.
• 5 May Because it refuses to grant any money until he solves Scottish grievances, Charles dissolves Parliament, which thus becomes known as the “Short Parliament.” In response to the king’s actions rioters attack Archbishop Laud’s palace.
• 28 Aug. A Scottish army defeats the troops of Charles I in a skirmish at Newburn on the Tyne as the Second Bishops’ War erupts over the unresolved dispute between the Presbyterians and the Anglican Church.
• 26 Oct. In the Treaty of Ripon, which ends the Second Bishops’ War, Charles I agrees to pay the Scottish army £850 a day until all disputes are resolved.
• 3 Nov. In need of money to pay the Scots, Charles I is forced to call his fifth Parliament, which becomes known as the “Long Parliament.”
• 11 Nov. Because Charles I cannot dissolve it until it gives him the money he needs, Parliament takes advantage of its unusual hold over the king and impeaches the king’s chief adviser, Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford, who had urged invasion of Scotland in the Second Bishops’ War. He is sent to the Tower of London on 25 November.
• 18 Dec. Parliament impeaches Archbishop William Laud for treason, blaming him for causing the difficulties that resulted in the Bishops’ Wars. He is committed to the Tower of London in March 1641, but his trial does not occur until 1644.
• Dutch forces take Malacca, beginning their domination of the East Indies.

1641

• Mar. Strafford goes on trial for treason. He is found guilty and executed on 12 May.
• May Parliament passes the Triennial Act, requiring that Parliament meet every three years even if not called by the Crown. This act was followed by a bill preventing Parliament from being dissolved without its own consent.
• The moderate Puritans in Parliament split from the more-radical Presbyterians when they propose the Root and Branch Bill, which calls for doing away with the office of bishop.
• July Parliament abolishes the constitutionally established courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, which Laud has used in his efforts to destroy Calvinism and Presbyterianism in England. This radical move has been interpreted as a sign that Parliament intends to bring about a revolution.
• Aug. England and Scotland sign a treaty, and both armies are paid with the revenues from a special poll tax voted by Parliament.
• Oct. Charles I is implicated in a plot by James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, to seize Presbyterian leader Archibald Campbell, second Duke of Argyll. As a result Charles is forced to give virtually all control over Scotland to Argyll and the Presbyterians.
• 21 Oct. Irish Catholics rise up against their mostly English landlords and slaughter thirty thousand Protestants in Ulster.
• 1 Dec. Parliament gives Charles I the Grand Remonstrance, listing all their grievances against him since the beginning of his reign. They order it printed on 14 December.

1642

• French settlers found Montreal.
• Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania and New Zealand.
• 3 Jan. Charles I orders the impeachment of Edward Montagu, Lord Kimbolton, and three members of Parliament on allegations of treason during the recent troubles in Scotland. The House of Commons refuses to order their arrest, and when the king sends troops to seize them, they go into hiding. After Charles leaves London on 10 January, the five members of the Commons return in triumph to Parliament.
• Mar. From York, Charles I sends word to the House of Commons that he will not sign bills excluding bishops from the House of Lords. Thirty-two members of the Lords and sixty-five members of Commons join the king in York. Because he has the Great Seal, Parliament in London begins passing ordinances without the seal or the king’s signature.
• 2 June Parliament makes a final attempt to resolve its differences with the king, sending him the Nineteen Propositions, which include the requests that he sign a bill giving control of the militia to Parliament and that Parliament be allowed to reform church liturgy and government as it chooses. The king rejects the propositions.
• July Parliament appoints a committee of public safety and puts Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex, at the head of a parliamentarian army.
• 22 Aug. Charles I raises his royal standard at Nottingham, signaling the beginning of the military phase of the English Civil War, pitting parliamentarians and Puritans (Roundheads) against royalists (Cavaliers).
• 12 Nov. Essex turns back royalist troops at Brentford, ending their march on London. After Oliver Cromwell distinguishes himself in this battle, the associate counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Hertford, and Huntington put him in charge of their combined force, which becomes the best in the war and earns the nickname “the Ironsides.”
• 4 Dec. Cardinal Richelieu of France dies.

1643

• Italian mathematician Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer.
• May Louis XIII of France dies and is succeeded by his five-year-old son, Louis XIV. The government is dominated by Cardinal Jules Mazarin.
• 19 May The French defeat the Spanish at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the end of Spanish military supremacy.
• 1 July The Westminster Assembly convenes to discuss religious differences. It meets until 1649.
• 25 Sept. The Solemn League and Covenant is signed by 25 members of the House of Lords and 288 members of the Commons, agreeing to make the religions of England, Ireland, and Scotland as similar as possible and to reform them “according to... The examples of the best reformed churches.” As a result the Scots Presbyterians agree to help the parliamentarians in the war effort. At the same time Charles alienates many of his English allies by enlisting the aid of the Irish Catholics, with whom he has just reached a peace agreement.

1644

• Areopagitica, an essay in favor of freedom of the press by English poet John Milton, is published in London.
• The last Ming emperor of China dies and is succeeded by the first Manchu emperor of the Ch’ing dynasty, which rules China until 1912.
• Charles I convenes a rival parliament at Oxford.
• 12 Mar. Archbishop Laud goes on trial for treason. He is found guilty and beheaded on 10 January 1645.
• 2 July. Oliver Cromwell defeats royalist forces at Marston Moor, a decisive battle that gives the north to Parliament.
• Aug. Montrose slips into Scotland from abroad and raises an army of Highlanders to support the royalist cause.

1645

• Jan.-Feb. A truce in the English Civil War ends after Charles I once again rejects Parliament’s proposals.
• 14 June The defeat of royalist troops at the Battle of Naseby spells the ruin of Charles’s cause.
• 12 July Czar Michael Romanov of Russia dies and is succeeded by his son Alexis I.
• 13 Sept. After several victories Montrose’s Highland army is decisively beaten at Philiphaugh.

1646

• 26 Mar. Royalists are defeated at Stowe-on-the-Wold, the final battle of the English Civil War.
• 5 May Charles I surrenders himself to the Scots.
• July Parliament submits the Newcastle Proposals to Charles I, demanding that it control the militia for twenty years and that the king take the Covenant and support the Presbyterian establishment. Foreseeing a split between the radical Presbyterians in Parliament and the more moderate Independents in the army, Charles rejects the proposals.

1647

• 30 Jan. The Scots surrender Charles I to Parliament as the rift widens between it and the army, which refuses an order to disband.
• 11 Nov. After several months of disputes between Parliament and the army, Charles I flees to the Isle of Wight, where the governor of Carisbrooke Castle takes him into custody.
• 24 Dec. Parliament sends Charles I the Four Bills, including one allowing it to determine the time of its own adjournment.
• 26 Dec. Charles I signs a secret agreement with the Scots, who disapprove of the increasing religious toleration in England and agree to restore him to the throne by military action.
• 28 Dec. Charles I rejects the Four Bills.

1648

• 15 Jan. Parliament renounces allegiance to the king, setting in motion the Second English Civil War, pitting England against Scotland, Roundheads against royalists, and Independents against Presbyterians.
• 17-20 Aug. Cromwell’s forces defeat the Scottish army at Preston, the final battle of the Second English Civil War.
• 24 Oct. The Treaties of Westphalia end the Thirty Years’ War and recognize the independence of the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces. The treaty does not apply to the war between France and Spain, which continues for eleven more years.
• 6-7 Dec. Ninety-six Presbyterians are excluded by force from Parliament, creating a sixty-member body known as the “Rump Parliament.”
• 13 Dec. The Rump Parliament votes to bring Charles I to trial.

1649

• 20-27 Jan. Charles I is tried for treason and sentenced to death by a court appointed by the House of Commons. He is beheaded on 30 January. The monarchy and House of Lords are abolished. England is governed by Parliament and a council of state, but power rests mainly with the army.
• 5 Feb. Scots in Edinburgh proclaim Charles II, son of Charles I, king.
• Sept. Cromwell suppresses royalist forces in Scotland.

1650

• 27 Apr. Montrose, who has returned to Scotland to lead a royalist army, is defeated at Corbiesdale. He is captured and executed at Edinburgh on 21 May.
• 24 June Landing in Scotland, Charles II takes the Covenant and is again proclaimed king.
• 3 Sept. The Scots are utterly defeated by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester. Charles II escapes to France.

1651

• Leviathan, by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, is published in London.
• 9 Oct. Parliament passes the first of several Navigation Acts. The first, aimed at Dutch shippers, prohibits importing goods to England except in British ships or in vessels from the countries where the goods have been made.

1652

• 8 July The First Anglo-Dutch War breaks out over the Navigation Act of 1651. The conflict continues until 1654.

1653

• The Compleat Angler, a book on fishing by English clergyman Izaak Walton, is published in London.
• Cardinal Mazarin of France crushes a three-year rebellion of nobles opposed to the king.
• 20 Apr. Cromwell dismisses the Rump Parliament and abolishes the council of state.
• 4 July Cromwell establishes a new council of state and a 140-member appointed Parliament, which becomes known as the “Barebones’ Parliament.”
• 16 Dec. After his supporters in Parliament surrender their powers to him, Cromwell sets up the Protectorate, with himself as lord protector, and a 460-member Parliament that will meet every three years and cannot be dissolved for five months after it is summoned.

1654

• Christina of Sweden abdicates her throne and is succeeded by her cousin Charles X Gustavus.
• Russia and Poland begin a thirteen-year war over the Ukraine.
• 5 Apr. Under the Treaty of Westminster, which ends the First Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch and English establish a defensive league.
• 12 Sept. After a quarrel with Parliament, Cromwell orders the exclusion of some members.

1655

• 22 Jan. Cromwell dissolves Parliament after it votes to make the office of lord protector elective rather than hereditary.
• May Catholic priests are ordered to leave England, and Anglican clergymen are prohibited from preaching or teaching.

1656

• Charles X Gustavus of Sweden invades Poland.
• May England seizes Jamaica in the West Indies, provoking a war with Spain.
• 17 Sept. Cromwell calls his third Parliament, which lasts until 4 February 1658. During its tenure it establishes a second house, deprives the lord protector of the power to exclude members, and establishes toleration for all Christians except Anglicans and Catholics.

1657

• The first London chocolate shop opens in Bishopsgate Street.
• Charles X Gustavus of Sweden is driven out of Poland and then goes to war with Denmark, trying to expand his territories on the southern coast of the Baltic. The Dutch intervene to protect their fishing rights. The war continues until 1660.
• The Dutch begin a four-year war with the Portuguese over their conflicting interests in Brazil.
• 2 Apr. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III dies and is succeeded by his sixteen-year-old son, Leopold I.

1658

• Charles X Gustavus of Sweden twice invades Denmark but fails to capture Copenhagen.
• 4 June England and France defeat Spain at the Battle of the Dunes; the English take Dunkirk.
• 3 Sept. Oliver Cromwell dies and is succeeded as lord protector by his son Richard.

1659

• 22 Apr. Richard Cromwell dissolves Parliament, which has been meeting since 27 January, after a dispute over the army.
• 7 May The Rump Parliament comes together and convinces Cromwell to resign.
• Oct. The army expels the Rump Parliament but, after public outcry, restores it on 26 December.
• 7 Nov. The Treaty of the Pyrenees gives Flanders, Luxembourg, and other Spanish possessions in the Low Countries to France; gives Dunkirk to England; and arranges the marriage of Louis XIV of France to Maria Teresa, eldest daughter of Philip IV of Spain.

1660

• Parliament passes a second Navigation Act, listing articles that the colonies can ship only to England. The list includes tobacco, sugar, wool, indigo, and apples. (Molasses and rice are added later.) Tobacco prices in Virginia drop sharply.
• The Lords of Trade are given authority to oversee the American colonies under the authority of the King’s Privy Council.
• 3 Feb. Gen. George Monk leads an army from Scotland to London and reestablishes the Long Parliament, which is finally dissolved on 16 March.
• 12 Feb. Charles X Gustavus of Sweden dies and is succeeded by his four-year-old son, Charles XI. The Treaty of Copenhagen ends the war between Sweden and Denmark.
• 14 Apr. Charles II issues the Declaration of Breda, promising amnesty to his opponents and freedom of conscience to all.
• 3 May The Treaty of Oliva ends the war between Sweden and Poland.
• 8 May A Convention Parliament, chosen in April without restriction, proclaims Charles II king. He restores the Anglican bishops to their sees and to the House of Lords, grants amnesty to all but the judges who condemned Charles I, and declares in force all the acts of the Long Parliament to which he assented.
• 29 Dec. The Convention Parliament is dissolved.

1661

• Cardinal Mazarin of France dies.
• The royalist Scottish Parliament abolishes the Covenant.
• 8 May Charles II calls his first Parliament, which becomes known as the “Cavalier Parliament,” in part because it repeals the Puritans’ bans on theater, gaming, and dancing.
• 20 Nov. Parliament passes the Corporation Act, which includes a provision requiring all magistrates to be Anglicans. This act is the first of four repressive measures that become known as the Clarendon Code.

1662

• The Royal Society for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge is founded in London.
• England sells Dunkirk to France.
• Holland and France form an alliance against attack by England.
• 20 May Charles II marries Catherine Braganza, daughter of John IV of Portugal.
• 24 Aug. The second act of the Clarendon Code, the Act of Uniformity, requires all clergymen, college fellows, and teachers to accept everything in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. Those who refuse become known as Nonconformists.

1663

• Part one of Hudibras, a long satiric poem by Englishman Samuel Butler, is published in London. Part two is published in 1664, and part three appears in 1678.
• The Black Death (bubonic plague) kills some ten thousand people in Amsterdam.
• The Rival Ladies, a play by English poet John Dryden, is published in London.

1664

• May The third act of the Clarendon Code, the Conventicle Act, forbids Nonconformist meetings of more than five people, except in private homes.
• 27 Aug. The English take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. Charles II grants New Netherland to his brother, James, Duke of York, who in turn gives part of it to John Berkeley, first Baron Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret.

1665

• Apr. The Black Death strikes London, killing at least 68,596 people as some two-thirds of the 460,000 inhabitants flee to the countryside.
• 3 June In the Second Anglo-Dutch War the English fleet defeats the Dutch off Lowestoft.
• 17 Sept. Philip IV of Spain dies and is succeeded by his four-year-old son, Charles II.
• Oct. The Five Mile Act, the fourth act in the Clarendon Code, requires Nonconformists to swear nonresistance toward the established church and state and forbids those who refuse to sign to be within five miles of any incorporated town.

1666

• Sir Isaac Newton invents calculus and establishes the laws of gravity.
• Louis XIV founds the French Academy of Science in Paris.
• France enters the Second Anglo-Dutch War on the side of Holland.
• 2 Sept. The Great Fire of London destroys four-fifths of the city within the walls and sixty-three acres outside them. The Gothic Cathedral of Saint Paul’s, eighty-six other churches, the Guildhall, the Custom House, the Royal Exchange, and many other buildings, including more than thirteen thousand houses, are destroyed. In part because many of the old buildings that harbored rats have been burned, deaths from the plague are reduced to two thousand.
• 28 Nov. Scottish Covenanters revolting against the restrictions of the Clarendon Code are crushed in the Battle of Portland Hills.

1667

• Paradise Lost, an epic poem by English poet John Milton, is published in London.
• Though there are no formal political parties in the English Parliament, it is beginning to split into court and country factions that later evolve into the Tories (court) and Whigs (country).
• Louis XIV of France claims the Spanish possessions in the Belgian provinces on the grounds that on the death of his father-in-law, Philip IV of Spain, these lands passed by right to Louis’s wife. France invades the Spanish Netherlands, taking Flanders and Hainault.
• 20 Jan. The Treaty of Andrussovo ends the thirteen-year war between Russia and Poland, which cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and the eastern Ukraine to Russia.
• 21 July The Treaties of Breda end the Second Anglo-Dutch War. England gets Antigua, Montserrat, and St. Kitts from France and is allowed to keep New Netherland. France gets Acadia (Nova Scotia), and Holland gets Surinam in South America.

1668

• 23 Jan. England, Holland, and Spain form a Triple Alliance as a check on Louis XIV of France
• 2 May The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the war between France and Spain. France gets twelve fortified towns on the border of the Spanish Netherlands.

1670

• Without the knowledge of Parliament Charles II signs the Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV. In secret provisions he and James, Duke of York, agree to become Catholics and to support France against Spain and Holland. James openly declares his Catholicism immediately.

1671

• Paradise Regain’d, an epic poem by English poet John Milton, is published in London.
• Parliament passes the Test Act, requiring all officeholders to take oaths of allegiance and supremacy and to take the sacrament in the Church of England.

1672

• Sir Isaac Newton publishes his “New Theory about Light and Colors,” demonstrating that white light can be broken down into a spectrum of colors.
• England and France go to war against Holland. Sweden enters the war on the side of England and France. Spain enters on the side of Holland.

1673

• Marriage a-La-Mode, a play by English poet John Dryden, is published in London.
• The Dutch retake New York and Delaware from England.
• 21 Nov. James, Duke of York, takes as his second wife, the Catholic Maria d’Este of Modena.

1674

• 9 Feb. The Treaty of Westminster ends the war between England and Holland. The Dutch return New York and Delaware to England.

1675

• Dutch scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek discovers microorganisms.

1676

• 8 Feb. Czar Alexis of Russia dies and is succeeded by his son Fedor III.
• 21 June Architect Sir Christopher Wren lays the cornerstone on the new Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, one of many churches he designs to replace those destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

1677

• 4 Nov. Mary (daughter of the duke of York by his first wife, Anne Hyde) marries the Dutch prince William of Orange.

1678

• 10 Aug. A series of treaties signed between this date and 26 September 1679 ends the war between Holland and France and their allies. All its territory is returned to Holland on the condition that it remain neutral.
• Sept. Titus Oakes alleges a “popish plot” in which Catholics have planned to massacre Protestants, burn London, and kill Charles II. As a result several Catholics are executed, including the confessor of Maria, Duchess of York, and Parliament passes an act excluding Catholics from both its houses.

1679

• 24 Jan. The Cavalier Parliament is dissolved.
• 6 Mar. Charles II calls his third Parliament, which unsuccessfully attempts to exclude the Catholic duke of York from the line of succession the the throne. After much controversy with the king, this Parliament is dissolved on 27 May 1680.
• 1 June The Covenanters of Scotland rise up again and are put down at the Battle of Bothwell Brigg on 22 June.

1680

• 21 Oct Charles II calls his fourth Parliament. The bill to exclude the duke of York passes in the Commons but fails in the House of Lords. This Parliament is dissolved on 18 January 1681.

1681

• Absalom and Achitophel, an allegorical poem on the exclusion crisis written by English poet John Dryden, is published in London.
• 21 Mar. Charles II calls his fifth Parliament but dissolves it on 28 March, after the exclusion bill is introduced again.

1682

• Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claims the Mississippi River valley for France.
• 27 Apr. Czar Fedor III of Russia dies and is succeeded by his nine-year-old brother Peter, but after a palace revolt Fedor’s fifteen-year-old physically and mentally defective brother, Ivan, becomes an associate ruler, beginning a seven-year reign in which his sister Sophia is his regent and holds all real power.

1683

• France invades the Spanish Netherlands. Carlos II of Spain forms the League of the Hague with Emperor Leopold of the Holy Roman Empire, joining a Dutch-Swedish alliance against Louis XIV.
• June Two separate conspiracies to kill Charles II are uncovered in London.

1684

• The English East India Company builds a trading station in Canton, China.
• French architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart completes the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
• France takes Lorraine. Louis XIV signs a twenty-year truce at Regensburg, which gives France Strasbourg and Lorraine.

1685

• Elector Charles of the Palatine dies with no male heir. His lands are claimed by Louis XIV, whose brother is married to the elector’s sister.
• 6 Feb. Charles II dies and is succeeded by the duke of York as James II. He alienates both Tories and Whigs by his attempts to secure freedom of worship for his fellow Catholics.
• 19 May The Parliament of James II convenes. It is dissolved on 2 July 1687.
• 6 July Another Scottish uprising ends with their defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor.
• 18 Oct. France revokes the Edict of Nantes (1598), which gave French Huguenots (Protestants) equal political rights with French Catholics. Forbidden to practice their religion and required to educate their children in the Catholic faith, many Huguenots immigrate to Holland, England, Brandenburg, British North America, and South Africa.

1686

• France annexes Madagascar.
• 9 July The Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Sweden, Bavaria, Saxony, and the Palatine form the League of Augsburg in opposition to France.

1687

• Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (Principles of Natural Philosophy) is published.
• The University of Bologna is founded.
• Apr. James II issues his first Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, granting freedom of worship to all denominations in England and Scotland.

1688

• Apr. The archbishop of Canterbury and six other bishops are sent to the Tower of London for asking the king to excuse them from the requirement that his Declaration of Liberty of Conscience be read in all churches. They are tried on 29-30 June for seditious libel and acquitted.
• 30 June After the birth of a son and heir to James II on 10 June, seven eminent Englishmen invite William of Orange, James’s son-in-law, to save England from Catholicism. Hoping for English help for Holland against France, William accepts their offer in late September.
• Oct. France invades the Palatine, beginning the War of the League of Augsburg. In North America it becomes known as King William’s War.
• 5 Nov. William of Orange lands in England, setting in motion the so-called Glorious Revolution.
• 11 Dec. James II flees London, is captured and brought back, but on 22 December he escapes to France, where Louis XIV sets the exiled Stuarts at the Court of St. Germaine.
• 12 Dec. Amid rioting in London, the peers set up the Interregnum, or provisional government.
• 19 Dec. William of Orange enters London.

1689

• Regent and Czarina Sophia is deposed, and her brother Peter becomes sole ruler of Russia. He becomes known as Peter the Great.
• 22 Jan. On the advice of the peers a Convention Parliament is called. It is dissolved on 27 January 1690, after transforming itself into a regular Parliament on 22 February 1689.
• 28 Jan. Parliament declares that James II is no longer king and offers the throne to William of Orange. He refuses the crown but then agrees to rule jointly with his wife, Mary, daughter of James II.
• 13 Feb. William III and Mary II are proclaimed the rulers of England, with chief responsibility for administering the government going to William.
• Parliament issues the Declaration of Rights, asserting its powers to govern, along with free elections, freedom of debate, the right to trial by jury, and other rights of British subjects.
• 22 Feb. Parliament and the clergy take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy to the new monarchs. Six bishops and some four hundred clergymen, who become known as Nonjurors, refuse and establish a separate and private Church of England, which continues to exist until the nineteenth century.
• 14 Mar. James II lands in Ireland and besieges Protestant Londonderry on 20 April. The siege is lifted by British troops on 30 July.
• 7 May Scots Highlanders rise up in support of James II, but after victory at the Battle of Killiecankie on 17 July, the rebels gradually lose force.
• 12 May England and Holland enter the War of the League of Augsburg against France. The primary focus of the war shifts to the Netherlands.
• 16 Dec. The English Bill of Rights, a parliamentary enactment of the Declaration of Rights, is passed.

1690

• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, by English philosopher John Locke, is published in London.
• 20 Mar. William III’s second Parliament convenes. It is dissolved on 3 May 1695.
• 30 June The French defeat the English fleet in the Battle of Beachy Head.
• 1 July William III defeats James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland, and James flees to France.
• 12 July The English defeat Irish and French forces at the Battle of Aughrim in Ireland.
• 3 Oct. An English victory over Irish and French troops at Limerick results in the Pacification of Limerick, ending James II’s military attempt to regain the English throne.

1692

• 19 May The English achieve a naval victory over the French at Cap de la Hogue, but William III’s land campaigns on the Continent are unsuccessful.

1694

• 27 July The Bank of England is chartered after its founders lend to government £1.2 million to help cover its soaring war debts.
• 22 Dec. The Triennial Bill, requiring Parliament to meet every three years, becomes law.
• 28 Dec. Mary II of England dies.

1695

• 22 Nov. William III’s third Parliament, the First Triennial Parliament, convenes. It is dissolved on 5 July 1698.

1696

• Parliament passes the Trials for Treason Act, requiring two witnesses to prove the commission of treason.
• A plot to kill William III is uncovered.
• The Board of Trade replaces the Lords of Trade as overseers of the colonies.
• 10 Apr. Parliament passes a Navigation Act prohibiting the American colonies from exporting goods directly to Scotland or Ireland.

1697

• Peter I (Peter the Great) of Russia visits Holland, France, and England incognito to learn about Western civilization. He returns home determined to modernize Russia.
• The Board of Trade establishes Vice-Admiralty Courts whose jurisdiction covers colonial maritime cases. These courts have no juries.
• 5 Apr. Charles XI of Sweden dies and is succeeded by his fourteen-year-old son, Charles XII.
• 20 Sept. The Treaty of Ryswick among France, England, Spain, and Holland ends the War of the League of Augsburg and acknowledges William III as king of England and Anne of Denmark, the second daughter of James II, as his successor. Louis XIV of France agrees not to help James II and his son, James Edward, who are in exile in France. Spain cedes the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (Haiti) to France.
• 30 Oct. In a separate treaty with the Holy Roman Empire, France is allowed to keep Alsace and Strasbourg, but it gives up Lorraine.
• 2 Dec. Saint Paul’s Cathedral is completed in London.

1698

• The first modern stock exchange is formed in London.
• Parliament opens the slave trade to British merchants, allowing their ships to carry sugar and molasses from the West Indies to New England rum distilleries, rum from New England to African slave traders, and slaves from Africa to the West Indies.
• In London a fire destroys all of Whitehall Palace except for the Banqueting Hall built by Inigo Jones in 1622.
• 6 Dec. The fourth Parliament of William III convenes, passing further anti-Catholic measures. It is dissolved on 11 April 1700.

1699

• Parliament passes the Woolen Act, forbidding the American colonies from exporting wool, wool yarn, and wool cloth.

1700

• The Great Northern War, a state of general warfare that lasts twenty-one years, erupts as Russia, Poland, and Denmark oppose Swedish attempts to maintain and extend its supremacy in the Baltic region.
• 1 Nov. The last Hapsburg monarch of Spain, Charles II dies, having just named Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV of France, as his heir, Philip V.

1701

• The Anglican Church creates a missionary arm, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.), sending ministers to the English colonies.
• The War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War in North America) breaks out, as other Hapsburg rulers claim precedence and territory. Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, a German Hapsburg, moves to take over Spain’s possessions in the Low Countries and Italy.
• 7 Sept. Great Britain and Holland, fearing that France will ally itself with Spain, join in a Grand Alliance with Leopold I and Eugene, Prince of Savoy. Eugene invades Italy.
• 16 Sept. James II dies in exile in France, where Louis XIV proclaims James’s son James Edward king of England and Ireland. He becomes known as the Old Pretender.

1702

• 8 Mar. William III of England dies. He is succeeded by his sister-in-law Anne, second daughter of James II and wife of Prince George of Denmark.
• 14 May The Grand Alliance declares war on France.
• 14 Dec. After Gen. John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough’s major victories in the Spanish Netherlands, Queen Anne makes him duke of Marlborough.

1703

• The Grand Alliance proclaims Archduke Charles of Austria king of Spain. He invades Catalonia and establishes himself as Charles III.

1704

• The Southern Department replaces the Board of Trade as the body that appoints governors to British Crown colonies.
• 4 Aug. The English take Gibraltar from Spain.
• 13 Aug. Marlborough achieves a major victory over troops of the French and their Bavarian and Prussian allies at the Battle of Blenheim.

1705

• Queen Anne commissions architect John Vanbrugh to build Blenhiem Palace in Oxfordshire for the duke of Marlborough.
• 5 May Leopold I dies and is succeeded as Holy Roman emperor by his twenty-six-year-old son, Josef I.

1706

• 23 May Marlborough’s triumph at the Battle of Ramilles is followed by the surrender of Antwerp, Ghent, Ostend, and other major cities in the Spanish Netherlands.
• June With the help of Portuguese forces Leszczynska takes Madrid but holds it only briefly.

1707

• 1 May Great Britain is established through the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. The Scottish parliament is abolished, with Scotland sending sixteen elected peers and forty-five members of commons to Parliament in England. The Union Jack, combining the English cross of Saint George and the Scottish cross of Saint Andrew, becomes the new national flag.

1708

• Mar. James Edward (the Old Pretender) lands in Scotland but soon returns to France after the French fleet sent to support him is beaten by the British.
• 11 July The victory of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy at Ooudenarde results in unsuccessful peace negotiations. The War of the Spanish Succession continues.

1709

• 9 Apr. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele begin publishing their magazine The Tatler in London. It continues until 2 January 1711.

1710

• A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, by Irish philosopher George Berkeley, is published in Dublin.

1711

• Parliament passes the Landed Property Qualification Act, an attempt by Tory landowners to keep merchants, financiers, and industrialists out of the House of Commons. It also passes the Occasional Conformity Bill, aimed at dissenters who regularly attend Nonconformist religious services but qualify to hold office because they have once taken communion in an Anglican Church.
• Parliament charters the South Sea Company for investment in overseas enterprises and allows it to take over part of the national debt, issuing £1 worth of stock for every £1 of debt it assumes.
• 1 Mar. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele begin publishing their magazine The Spectator in London, continuing until 6 December 1712.
• 17 Apr. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I dies and is succeeded by his brother Charles VI, claimant to the Spanish throne as Charles III.

1713

• Joseph Addison’s tragedy Cato is published in London.
• 11 Apr. The Treaty of Utrecht recognizes Philip V as king of Spain. Great Britain gets Newfoundland, Acadia (Nova Scotia), and the Hudson Bay territory from France and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain. The Spanish Netherlands are turned over to the Republic of Holland with the agreement that they will be given to Austria in a separate treaty. Savoy gets Sicily. Charles VI and the Holy Roman Empire continue the war.

1714

• German physicist Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit introduces the Fahrenheit mercury thermometer.
• The Treaty of Rastatt and Baden gives the Spanish Netherlands to Austria, ending the War of the Spanish Succession, but the Holy Roman Empire refuses to recognize Philip V and his heirs as the rulers of Spain.
• Anne of England dies. She is succeeded by a great-grandson of James I, Prince George Louis of Hanover, who becomes George I of England. His sympathy to the Whigs results in a shift in power from the Tories to the Whigs.
• 18 June Joseph Addison revives The Spectator in London, publishing it until 20 December 1714.

1715

• Gil Blas, a picaresque novel by Alain René Lesage, is published in Paris.
• Jacobites, supporters of James Edward, pretender to the British throne, riot in London.
• Sept. A Jacobite uprising begins in Scotland.
• 1 Sept. Louis XIV of France dies and is succeeded by his five-year-old grandson, Louis XV. Philippe, Due d’Orléans, serves as regent.
• Dec. Calling himself James III, James Edward arrives in Scotland from France.

1716

• Feb. The Jacobite uprising in Scotland is suppressed, and James Edward returns to France.

1717

• Spain seizes Sardinia.
• 4 Jan. Britain, Holland, and France form a Triple Alliance, forcing James Edward, who has been intriguing with Charles XII and the prime minister of Spain, to leave France.

1718

• Jan. Parliament repeals the Occasional Conformity Act.
• July Spain takes Sicily.
• 2 Aug. The Holy Roman Empire joins the Triple Alliance, making it the Quadruple Alliance.
• 11 Dec. Charles XII of Sweden is killed during a military expedition in Norway. He is succeeded by his sister, Ulrika Eleanora, who attempts to end the Great Northern War.

1719

• Robinson Crusoe, the first novel by Englishman Daniel Defoe, is published in London.
• Spain launches an abortive mission to Scotland in support of the pretender.
• 20 Nov. The Treaty of Stockholm ends hostilities between England and Sweden.

1720

• Ulrika Eleanora of Sweden abdicates in favor of her husband, Frederick I. The Treaties of Stockholm, signed in 1720 and 1721, end the Great Northern War, restoring the status quo, as before the war, among Sweden, Saxony, and Poland. Denmark restores all its conquests.
• Jan. The “South Sea Bubble” bursts in London as the collapse of the South Sea Company causes a financial panic.
• 17 Feb. In the Treaty of the Hague Philip V gives up his claims in Italy, and Emperor Charles VI renounces his claims on the Spanish throne. Austria gets Sicily, and Savoy gets Sardinia.
• June Spain makes peace with Great Britain and joins in an alliance with Britain and France.

1721

• Moll Flanders, a novel by Daniel Defoe, is published in London.
• Lettres persanes (Persian Letters), a satire of life in Paris by French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, is published in Paris.
• Chancellor of the Exchequer John Aislabie is sent to the Tower of London on charges of fraud connected to the collapse of the South Sea Company.
• Apr. Sir Robert Walpole, who has profited in South Sea Company speculation, becomes prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer, encouraging trade by reducing import and export duties and avoiding further panic by amalgamating stock in the South Sea Company with the stock of the Bank of England. He also slackens enforcement of the Navigation Acts.
• 30 Aug. In the Treaty of Nystadt Sweden cedes Livonia, Estonia, Ingermanland, and several islands to Russia, which restores Finland to Sweden. As a result of this treaty Russia emerges as an important European power, and Sweden loses its dominance in the Baltic region.

1722

• Peter the Great takes the Bosporus and the Dardanelles from Constantinople, giving Russia an outlet to the Mediterranean.

1723

• Great Britain and Prussia sign the Treaty of Charlottenburg, agreeing that George I’s grandson will marry a Prussian princess and Prince Frederick of Prussia will marry the daughter of the Prince of Wales.
• Great Britain exiles Bishop Francis Atterbury for his involvement in a Jacobite plot.

1725

• Louis XV of France marries Marie Leszczynska, daughter of Stanislas Leszczynski, who was deposed from the throne of Poland in 1709.
• Peter the Great establishes the Russian Academy of Sciences.
• 28 Jan. Peter the Great of Russia dies and is succeeded by his consort, Catherine I.
• 3 Sept. Britain, France, and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hanover.

1727

• Spain lays siege to Gibraltar, beginning a war with England. France enters on the side of Britain.
• 16 May Catherine I of Russia dies and is succeeded by her twelve-year-old son, Peter II.
• 10 June George I of Great Britain dies and is succeeded by his forty-four-year-old son, George II. Prime Minister Walpole remains in office.

1728

• The Christian Poet, a collection of verse by Joseph Addison, is published in London.

1729

• 9 Nov. The Treaty of Seville ends the war between Spain and the allied nations of Great Britain and France.

1730

• 30 Jan. Peter II of Russia dies. On 8 March his cousin Anna Ivanovna and her supporters overthrow the supreme privy council, making her czarina.

1731

• English mathematician John Hadley invents a reflecting quadrant, which allows mariners to determine longitude at night.
• 16 Mar. England and the Holy Roman Empire sign the Treaty of Vienna, in which Emperor Charles VI agrees to dissolve the Ostend East India Company set up by the Empire to rival the Dutch and English East India Companies.

1732

• English agriculturalist Jethro Tull publishes New Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, which calls for using a plow to keep lands fertile.

1733

• Englishman John Kay patents the flying shuttle, the first of several inventions that transform the textile industry and usher in the Industrial Revolution.
• 1 Feb. Augustus II of Poland dies. Austria and Russia want the throne to go to Augustus’s only legitimate son, Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony. Louis XV of France, however, wants to reinstate his father-in-law, Stanislas Leszczynski, thus beginning the War of the Polish Succession, involving Russia and the Holy Roman Empire against France, Spain, and Sardinia.

1734

• In his Lettres philosophiques Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) praises the Quakers and English government, philosophy, science, and literature. Sensing the implied criticism of authoritarianism in France, the French government orders the burning of the book.

1735

• A Defence of Free-Thinking in Mathematics, by Irish philosopher George Berkeley, is published in Dublin.
• Hostilities end in the War of the Polish Succession, but no treaty is signed until 1738.
• Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus publishes his system for classifying plants.

1736

• British inventor John Harrison introduces the ship’s chronometer, an improved means of determining longitude.

1738

• 18 Nov. The Treaty of Vienna formally ends the War of the Polish Succession. Stanislas Leszczynski renounces the Polish throne in return for the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, which will go to France on his death. Austria cedes Naples, Sicily, and Elba to Spain.

1739

• Oct. After learning that a Spanish captain cut off one of British seaman Robert Jenkins’s ears in Havana in 1731, Parliament decides to make an issue of Spain’s alleged mistreatment of British manners and orders British naval squadrons to intercept Spanish galleons, beginning the War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain, which continues until 1748.

1740

• 31 May Frederick William I dies, having made Prussia a formidable military power. He is succeeded by his twenty-eight-year-old son, Frederick II (Frederick the Great), who occupies part of Silesia, claiming it belongs to Prussia, thus bringing about a drawn conflict with Austria. The First Silesian War lasts until 1742.
• 17 Oct. Czarina Anna Ivanovna of Russia dies and is succeeded by her infant nephew Ivan VI.
• 20 Oct. Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI dies, having named his daughter Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, as his successor. Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria; Augustus III of Saxony; and Philip V of Spain each claim the throne and challenge Maria Theresa’s right to it, starting the War of the Austrian Succession, which continues until 1748.

1741

• May France, Bavaria, and Spain conclude a secret alliance against Austria, which is supported by Great Britain. Saxony and Prussia later join the alliance against Austria.

1742

• Joseph Andrews, a novel by Englishman Henry Fielding, is published in London.
• June-July In the Treaties of Breslau and Berlin, Prussia agrees to withdraw from the alliance against Maria Theresa in return for a large portion of Silesia. Austria proceeds to drive the allies out of Bohemia.

1743

• Austria drives the allies out of Bavaria.
• The Whigs retain control of Parliament after the fall of Walpole’s government in February 1742. Whig Henry Pelham becomes prime minister, but his party is breaking up into rival factions.
• 27 June An army of British, Hanoverian, and Hessian troops led by George II of England defeats the French at the Battle of Dettingen. After this success Holland joins Britain in support of Maria Theresa, who makes an alliance with Saxony.
• 7 Aug. In the Treaty of Abo, ending a war between Sweden and Russia that began in 1741, Sweden cedes part of Finland to Russia.

1744

• Anxious about the increasing power of Austria, Frederick the Great of Prussia concludes another alliance with France and starts the Second Silesian War, marching through Saxony, invading Bohemia, and reaching Prague before Maria Theresa’s forces drive him back to Saxony. The war ends in 1745.
• King George’s War breaks out in North America as an offshoot of the War of the Austrian Succession.
• The anthem “God Save the King” is published in London.

1745

• Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek invents the Leyden Jar, which artificially generates an electric current.
• Charles Albert of Bavaria withdraws his claim to be Holy Roman Emperor and promises to support Maria Theresa’s husband, Francis Stephen, who becomes Emperor Francis I.
• 11 May The French begin their conquest of the Austrian Netherlands.
• 25 July Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie,” or the Young Pretender) lands in the Hebrides to lead Scottish Highlanders in a Jacobite rebellion, proclaiming his father James Edward (the Old Pretender) James VIII of Scotland and James III of England.
• Sept. The Jacobites enter Edinburgh on the eleventh and win the Battle of Prestonpans on the twenty-first.
• 4 Dec. The Jacobites reach Derby in England.

1746

• The French complete their conquest of the Austrian Netherlands.
• 16 Apr. The defeat of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden Moor ends efforts to restore the Stuarts to the British throne.
• 29 June “Bonnie Prince Charlie” escapes to the Isle of Skye disguised as a woman and remains hidden there until he is able to get away to France in September. As a result of this uprising Scotsmen are forbidden by law to wear any tartan. The ban is not lifted until 1782.
• 9 July Philip V of Spain dies and is succeeded by his thirty-three-year-old son, Ferdinand VI.

1747

• After severe defeats by the French in European land battles, the British achieve major naval victories against them in the Caribbean.

1748

• De l’Esprit des lois (The Spirit of Laws), Montesquieu’s essay about the relationship between human and natural law, is published in Paris.
• The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession, affirming the election of Francis I as Holy Roman Emperor and the succession of George II and his descendants (the House of Hanover) in Great Britain and their German states and giving Silesia to Frederick the Great. France gets Louisburg in Nova Scotia from Great Britain but returns the Austrian Netherlands to Austria. Prussia emerges as a world power. Great Britain comes away a defeated nation, except in North America.

1749

• Tom Jones, a novel by Englishman Henry Fielding, is published in London.

1750

• In his Discours sur les sciences et les arts (Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts) French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau charges that so-called progress in the arts and sciences have corrupted humankind.
• Parliament passes the Iron Act, prohibiting the North American colonies from making iron products. Colonists are permitted to smelt iron ore into bar iron and pig iron and ship it to England, exchanging it for manufactured items. The Iron Act is generally ignored in America.
• The Westminster Bridge is completed in London. It is the first new bridge across the Thames since the London Bridge opened in the tenth century.
• French writer Denis Diderot publishes the first volume of his Encyclopedia. The final, twenty-eighth, volume appears in 1771.
• Frederick I of Sweden dies and is succeeded by Adophus Frederick of Oldenberg-Holstein-Gottorp, brother-in-law of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

1752

• Great Britain and her colonies adopt the modern, or Gregorian, calendar that has been in use on the Continent for some time. Because the difference between this calendar and the old, Julian calendar has grown to eleven days, 2-14 September are omitted from the 1752 British calendar.

1753

• The library and collections of the late Sir Hans Sloane form the basis for the foundation of the British Museum.

1754

• In his Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes (Discourse on the Origin and Bases of Inequality among Men) Rousseau celebrates the “natural man” and calls private property and politics causes of inequality and oppression.
• Mar. Prime Minister Henry Pelham dies. He is succeeded by his brother Thomas Pelham-Holles, first Duke of Newcastle.

ANGLO-DUTCH NAVAL WARS

ANGLO-DUTCH NAVAL WARS. England and the Dutch Republic fought a series of three wars (in 1652–1654; 1665–1667; 1672–1674) that took place predominantly in the North Sea and the English Channel and its approaches. A fourth conflict (1780–1784) was part of the War of American Independence (1775–1783).

The first three Anglo-Dutch wars involved economic rivalry between two similar states. Because of that theme, their main location, and their close occurrence in time they have been lumped together, but overemphasis on these factors obscures their different causes and contexts. These three wars are unusual in that neither opponent was able to launch a major amphibious or land campaign to complement the naval actions at sea. In naval history the wars mark the beginning of the "Age of Sail," which lasted through 1815 and during which the large oceangoing sailing warship was the predominant vessel as well as the most potent symbol of national power. At the same time the wars mark the early stage in the 150-year period that began the gradual professionalization of the naval officers corps, the creation of the battle fleet and the specialization of warship design for this purpose, the usage of formal line-of-battle tactics, and the growth of bureaucratic control over state navies.

THE FIRST WAR (1652–1654)

By the mid-seventeenth century the Dutch Republic was at its zenith as the predominant maritime economic and naval power in Europe. The English had lost much trade to Dutch competition. The Dutch Republic was in its first "stadtholderless period." At the same time England was in the "commonwealth period." The long-term causes of the First Anglo-Dutch War are the subject of scholarly debate over the relative importance of maritime trade, factional internal politics relating to the character of the opposing governments, and the ideological differences of the two governments in religion and politics.

The immediate events leading up to the war began when Oliver St. John (1598?–1673) and Walter Strickland (d. 1676) arrived at The Hague in March 1651 to demand that the Dutch Republic enter into an alliance and union with England. In October 1651 Parliament passed the Navigation Act to stop Dutch competition in southern European and colonial trade. Despite ongoing negotiations, war preparations began, and incidents occurred, first off Start Point on 22 May 1652 and then when Maarten Tromp (1598–1653) fought the English fleet under Robert Blake (1599–1657) off Dover on 29 May 1652. The Dutch and English both entered the war in June without any clear strategic concept, overestimating their own abilities and underestimating the enemy.

In the major actions Blake attacked Dutch shipping in July, and Sir George Ayscue (d. 1671) fought Michiel de Ruyter (1607–1676) in the English Channel in August. At the Kentish Knock on 8 October, Blake heavily damaged the Dutch under Admiral Witte de With (1600–1658), but on 10 December, Tromp won a major strategic victory over Blake off Dungeness, forcing the English to retreat from the Channel and defend their southern coast. In February 1653 Tromp took a convoy into the Bay of Biscay. On Tromp's return passage, Blake intercepted him in a running battle, 28 February to 2 March. Blake's victory in the Channel fight inflicted heavy damage on the Dutch, forcing them to seek shelter at Calais and leaving England in control of the Channel. Following this battle the English issued tactical instructions that became the initial basis for eighteenth-century tactics. On 12 June 1653 George Monck (1608–1670) defeated Tromp at the Gabbard shoal, the most decisive battle of the war. Monck then blockaded the Dutch coast and immobilized Dutch trade. Challenging the blockade, Tromp was killed off The Texel on 10 August.

Peace negotiations began in March 1653 and were concluded in the Treaty of Westminster a year later. The first war secured Commonwealth England, forced the Dutch to replace some twelve hundred vessels lost in the war, and indirectly caused the end of the Dutch West India Company's Brazil venture.

THE SECOND WAR (1665–1667)

Tensions resurfaced a decade later, following the restoration of the monarchy in England. James, duke of York (later James II; ruled 1685–1688), and other like-minded courtiers and merchants believed that resumption of war would increase English trade and help unite the country. In 1664 Sir Robert Holmes (1622–1692) captured a number of Dutch ships and all but one of the Dutch forts in West Africa, but de Ruyter quickly recovered them. Meanwhile Colonel Richard Nicolls (1624–1672) captured New Amsterdam in August 1664 and renamed it New York, and Sir Thomas Allin (1612–1685) attacked the Dutch Smyrna convoy in December 1664.

War was finally declared in February 1665. The Dutch capture of the English Hamburg convoy in March was offset by the English victory at Lowestoft on 13 June, which the English failed to follow up. As part of an attempt to get Danish and Swedish support, Edward Montagu (1625–1672), earl of Sandwich, made an unsuccessful attack on a Dutch merchant fleet at Bergen, Norway.

In January 1666, after French diplomacy failed to halt the war, Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715) reluctantly declared war against England under the Franco-Dutch Alliance of 1662, but he awaited the outcome of further naval engagements before committing the French fleet to action. This Four Days' Fight with de Ruyter against Monck (now duke of Albemarle) and Prince Rupert (1619–1682) occurred on 11 through 14 June and was the bloodiest English defeat during the four wars. Five weeks later the English won a victory on Saint James's Day, 3 August, by using line-ahead tactics. A Dutch merchant fleet was destroyed at Terschelling in "Holmes's Bonfire." The Dutch successfully blockaded southeast England, and de Ruyter raided the Medway River on 22 June 1667, capturing the flagship Royal Charles and burning others. In the West Indies the English captured several colonies.

In July 1667 the Peace Treaty of Breda gave the advantage to the Dutch. While New York remained English, the Dutch obtained and recovered possessions in West Africa, the West Indies, and the East Indies.

THE THIRD WAR (1672–1674)

Trade was the pretext for a new war that masked a secret agreement between Charles II (ruled 1660–1685) and Louis XIV in the 1670 Treaty of Dover to overwhelm the Dutch Republic. Holmes again led an attack before war was declared, this time on the Dutch Smyrna convoy in the Channel on 23 March 1672. On 27 March, Charles II declared war. In the Dutch Republic the de Witt brothers, Johan (1625–1672) and Cornelis (1623–1672) were losing their effectiveness and were murdered as William III (stadtholder 1672–1702; king of England 1689–1702) reactivated the stadtholdership.

The first phase of the sea war involved bringing the French and English fleets to operate together. Attempting to strike a blow before they could organize, de Ruyter attacked the allied fleet under the duke of York and Jean d'Estrées (1624–1707) in Sole Bay (Southwold Bay) on 7 June 1672. Sandwich died in the action, and only light winds prevented a sweeping Dutch victory. The Dutch withdrew, leaving the allies in control of the North Sea as naval guns and men were needed ashore to defend against the French invasion.

The allies planned a coherent naval strategy for 1673. However, as the English approached de Ruyter in his anchorage at the Schooneveld, de Ruyter attacked them on 7 June and again on 14 June, preventing them from carrying out the blockade and amphibious landing they envisaged. After the allies withdrew, the Dutch attempted to blockade them in the Thames, and Charles II would not authorize further attacks on the Dutch coast. In July a small Dutch squadron under Cornelis Evertsen the youngest (1642–1706) retook New York. Another Dutch victory between Kijkduin and Texel on 21 August proved decisive not by tactics but by the resulting English public opinion criticizing the French performance.

This criticism helped undermine the king's pro-French alliance, and Parliament refused to support operations. In October, Louis XIV declared war on Spain, threatening to draw England into a wider war. On 19 February 1674 Charles II concluded a separate peace with the Dutch and withdrew from the war. New York reverted to England, but in most other areas Dutch demands were met.

THE FOURTH WAR (1780–1784)

The Dutch Republic initially attempted to remain neutral in the War of American Independence, but merchants and politicians saw advantages in siding with France as British power grew in the Far East and the West Indies. Soon the Dutch showed complicity with the Americans. Just as the republic joined the League of Armed Neutrality in 1780, Britain declared war, confident it could take Dutch overseas territory to offset other losses. Sir George Rodney (1718–1792) captured Saint Eustatius on 3 February 1781. The only fleet engagement, fought off Dogger Bank between convoy escort squadrons under Sir Hyde Parker (1714–1782) and Johan Zoutman (1724–1793) on 3 August 1781, was a tactical draw but a strategic success for Britain. The Dutch were included in the January 1783 cease-fire with the French, Spanish, and Americans, but the war did not formally end until Britain and the Dutch Republic signed the separate Treaty of Paris in May 1784.

See also American Independence, War of (1775–1783) ; Dutch Colonies: The Americas ; Dutch Colonies: The East Indies ; Dutch Republic ; Dutch War (1672–1678) ; Louis XIV (France) ; William and Mary ; Witt, Johan and Cornelis de.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Allin, Thomas. The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin, 1660–1678. Edited by R. C. Anderson. London, 1939.

Anderson, R. C., ed. Journals and Narratives of the Third Dutch War. London, 1946.

Blake, Robert. The Letters of Robert Blake. Edited by J. R. Powell. London, 1937.

Bruijn, J. R., ed. De Oorlogvoering ter Zee in 1673 in Journalen en Andre Stukken. Groningen, 1966.

Colendrander, H. T., ed. Bescheiden uit Vreemde Archieven omtrent de Groote Nederlandsche Zeeoorlogen, 1652–1676. The Hague, 1919.

Corbett, Julian S., ed. Fighting Instructions, 1530–1816. London, 1905.

Gardiner, Samuel Rawson, and Christopher Thomas Atkinson, eds. Letters and Papers Relating to the First Dutch War, 1652–54. London, 1899–1930.

Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. Edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews. London and Berkeley, 1970–1983.

——. Samuel Pepys's Naval Minutes. Edited by J. R. Tanner. London, 1926.

Rupert, Prince. The Rupert and Monck Letter Book 1666. Edited by J. R. Powell and E. K. Timings. London, 1969.

Sandwich, Edward Montagu, Earl of. The Journal of Edward Montagu, first Earl of Sandwich, Admiral and General at Sea, 1659–1665. Edited by R. C. Anderson. London, 1929.

Weber, R. E. J. De seinboken voor Nederlandse oorlogsvloten en konvooien tot 1690. Amsterdam, 1982.

Secondary Sources

Baumber, Michael. General-at-Sea: Robert Blake and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution in Naval Warfare. London, 1989.

Capp, Bernard. Cromwell's Navy: The Fleet and the English Revolution, 1648–1660. Oxford, 1989.

Carter, Alice Clare. Neutrality or Commitment: The Evolution of Dutch Foreign Policy 1667–1795. London, 1975.

Davies, J. D. "A Permanent National Maritime Fighting Force, 1642–1689." In The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy, edited by J. R. Hill, pp. 56–79. Oxford, 1995.

Foreest, H. A. van, and R. E. J. Weber. De Vierdaagse Zeeslag 11–14 Juni 1666. Amsterdam, 1984.

Fox, Frank L. A Distant Storm: The Four Days' Battle of 1666. Rotherfield, U.K., 1996.

Harding, Richard. Seapower and Naval Warfare, 1650–1830. London, 1999.

Israel, Jonathan. The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford, 1995.

Jones, J. R. The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century. London, 1996.

Junge, Hans-Christoph. Flottenpolitik und Revolution: Die Entstehung der englischen Seemacht während der Herrschaft Cromwells. Stuttgart, Germany, 1980.

Kitson, Frank. Prince Rupert: Admiral and General-at-Sea. London, 1998.

Ollard, Richard. Man of War: Sir Robert Holmes and the Restoration Navy. London, 1969.

Powell, J. R. Robert Blake: General-at-Sea. London, 1972.

Prud'homme van Reine, Ronald. Rechterhand van Nederland: Biografie van Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter. Amsterdam, 1996.

——. Schittering en schandaal: Biografie van Maerten en Cornelis Tromp. Amsterdam, 2001.

Rogers, P. G. The Dutch in the Medway. London and New York, 1970.

Rowen, Herbert H. John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, 1625–1672. Princeton, 1978.

Shomette, Donald G., and Robert D. Haslach. Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672–1674. Columbia, S.C., 1988.

Tunstall, Brian. Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650–1815. Edited by Nicholas Tracy. London and Annapolis, 1990.

Wilson, Charles. Profit and Power: A Study of England and the Dutch Wars. London, 1957; reprint The Hague, 1978.

John B. Hattendorf

Anglo-Dutch wars. Three wars, 1652–4, 1665–7, 1672–4, provide a unique element of continuity between the Commonwealth and the restored monarchy. All were intended to redress the commercial imbalance between England and the Dutch Republic. In the first war security was also an objective. The Dutch rejected a union which the Commonwealth demanded (1651), and sent a fleet into English waters to prevent Dutch ships being searched. An accidental clash precipitated war, but the Rump soon identified commercial supremacy as its objective. The lighter-armed Dutch navy suffered heavy defeats, one in 1652, three in 1653, and their trade was paralysed. After Cromwell dissolved the Rump in April 1653 the majority in Barebone's Parliament wished to continue to total victory, but when his followers voted to dissolve Parliament Cromwell conceded lenient terms (April 1654). He did this because, by a separate agreement, the leading province of Holland excluded the house of Orange from all offices. As William II (d. 1650) had been the chief European champion of the exiled Stuarts and the Dutch were the only state with a navy that could cover an invasion (as 1688 was to show) this made the Commonwealth secure against external enemies.

James, duke of York (later James II), brought about the second war, assuming that victory was assured and that increased wealth could strengthen the crown. He defeated a rebuilt and stronger Dutch fleet off Lowestoft (June 1665) but failed to exploit the success. Each side won an expensive victory in 1666 but this campaign exhausted English finances. No fleet could be sent out in 1667. Shore defences failed to prevent the Dutch destroying English ships in the river Medway. The third war aimed to annihilate the Dutch Republic. The French overran its eastern provinces, but the English fleet could only fight drawn battles, one in 1672, three in 1673. An army was unable to land on the Dutch coast. This war, launched by the pro-catholic cabal, with France as an ally, became unpopular. Opposition, stimulated by William of Orange's propaganda, made Parliament refuse further money, forcing Charles to make peace.

J. R. Jones

Dartmouth, George Legge, 1st Baron (1648–91). Legge fought in the second Anglo-Dutch War, held naval commands in the third Anglo-Dutch War, and had also started to accumulate military and high civil posts, due to his intimate relationship with the duke of York. Created Lord Dartmouth in 1682, he evacuated Tangier in 1683–4. Facing the threat of a Dutch invasion in 1688, James II made this ultimate loyalist commander-in-chief of the navy. Adverse winds made it impossible for him to prevent invasion, and his fleet was rife with disaffection. Dartmouth was appalled by James's determination to send the heir to the throne to France. After James's flight, Dartmouth recognized William of Orange de facto. James deserted him, not he James. Committed to the Tower on suspicion of treason in 1691, he died there unexpectedly. No man was less likely to facilitate a French invasion.

Bruce Philip Lenman