January 29 – Serfdom in Russia begins legally as the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Соборное уложение, "Code of Law") is signed by members of the Zemsky Sobor, the parliament of the estates of the realm in the Tsardom of Russia. Slaves and free peasants are consolidated by law into the new hereditary class of "serfs", and the Russian nobility are given the exclusive privilege of owning the serfs.
February 5 – In Edinburgh, the Scottish Parliament declares Prince Charles, son of the recently executed King Charles I, as King Charles II of Scotland. Prince Charles, at the time, is at sea in charge of royalist forces fighting to drive Oliver Cromwell from the British Isles. Scotland is the first of the three Kingdoms to recognize his claim to the throne.[1]
February 7 – The English Parliament rejects a proposal to continue the English monarchy after Oliver Cromwell makes clear that he does not wish to be crowned as King of England. [2]
March 4 – The first ever set of rules and regulations for England's Parliamentary Navy, Robert Blake's The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, is adopted by the House of Commons,[3] and Blake is promoted to the position of General at Sea of the English fleet.[4]
March 16 – An over 1,000 strong war party of Haudenosaunee Iroquois invade and burn the Huron mission villages of St. Ignace and St. Louis in present-day Simcoe County, Ontario, killing about 300 people.
The English Parliament, having voted February 7 against a proposal to continue the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell, passes the "Act Abolishing the Kingship" with the goal of creating a republic under a Lord Protector selected by an elected Parliament. [2]
French colonists from Martinique, led by former Martinique Governor Jacques Dyel du Parquet, land at St. Georges Harbour on the island of Grenada for the founding of Fort Annunciation. The fort is soon abandoned and the colonists cross the harbour for the founding of Fort Royal which eventually becomes the city of St. George's, Grenada[7]
The Sumuroy Revolt begins in Northern Samar as Agustin Sumuroy, a Waray, and some of his followers rebel against the polo y servicio (forced labor system).
July 5 – After news reaches the Western Hemisphere that King Charles I has been deposed and executed, the English colonial government of the Somers Isles, now called Bermuda, proclaims its recognition of Charles II as the rightful ruler of the islands. [9]
July 27 – The Commonwealth of England Parliament passes the "Act for the promoting and propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England" to create the "Company for Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent in America" for Christian missionary ministries to Native American tribes. The New England Company will continue to operate more than three and a half centuries later. [10]
July 31 – Ukrainian Cossack troops under the command of Mykhailo Krychevsky and Stepan Pobodailo are overwhelmed in the Battle of Loyew (in what is now Belarus) by a smaller force of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldiers led by Lithuania's Janusz Radziwiłł, with the Cossacks losing more than 3,000 fighters. Krychevsky is mortally wounded and dies on August 3.
August 26 – After his "True Levellers", commonly called "The Diggers", abandon their last major colony at St. George's Hill at Weybridge in England, their leader, Gerrard Winstanley, publishes the pamphlet "A Watch-Word to The City of London, and the Armie", recounting the experience. [11]
October 11 – The Sack of Wexford in Ireland ends after having started on October 2, with Cromwell's New Model Army breaking through, killing more than 1,500 Irish Catholic defenders and civilians, while losing only 20 of the English soldiers. The capture of Wexford ends the remaining chance that Charles II, heir to the English throne, can land troops in Ireland, and Charles and the royalist fleet flee to Portugal.
November 24 – The first phase of the Siege of Waterford begins as Cromwell's New Model Army attempts to take on the strategically-located Irish city's defenders with his own exhausted army. Cromwell is forced to call off the siege after eight days and his army retreats to its winter quarters at Dungarvan on December 2.
December 6 – The Scottish defenders of Ireland are defeated by Cromwell's forces in the Battle of Lisnagarvey in County Antrim, with 1,500 Scots killed or captured, and New Model Army battalion of Colonel Robert Venables suffering minimal losses. The battle ends the Scottish presence in Ireland and settlers are expelled from the island in the days that follow.
December 20 – The Puritan law enforcers of the Commonwealth of England raid the Red Bull Theatre in London for violations of the laws against performance of plays and arrest the actors, as well as confiscating their property.
December 30 – Chinese General Geng Zhongming, having reported to the Qing dynasty commanders to face charges of harboring runaway slaves during his fight against the Southern Ming dynasty troops, commits suicide while waiting for a verdict in his court-martial. (1943). [12] His son, Geng Jimao, continues to fight against the Southern Ming.
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^ abBlair Worden, The Rump Parliament 1648-1653 (Cambridge University Press, 1974). pp. 171–172
^"House of Commons Journal Volume 6: 5 March 1649". Journal of the House of Commons: volume 6: 1648–1651. Institute of Historical Research. 1802.
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^Major-General Sir John Henry Lefroy, Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685 (Bermuda Historical Society, 1877, reprinted by University of Toronto Press, 1981)
^Winstanley 'The Law of Freedom' and Other Writings, ed. by Christopher Hill (Cambridge University Press, 2006) p. 72
^"Kêng Chung-ming", by George A. Kennedy, in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, ed. by Arthur W. Hummel Sr. (United States Government Printing Office, 1943) p. 417
^The Finnish article says that the town had existed as Koppöstad since the 13th century and that it was renamed by Governor-General Brahe on March 1, 1651
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