1634 CE

Belgian scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont is interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition and put under house arrest for his experiments into plant growth. Leonard Calvert arrives in Maryland, with Jesuit missionaries Andrew White, John Altham Gravenor, and Thomas Gervase, establishing St. Mary's as the fourth permanent settlement in British North America. In this year they also establish an institution of higher learning here, which later becomes Georgetown University, the United States's oldest university. The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, in what is the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec.

In the 1630s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 19 – Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine abdicates in favor of his brother Nicholas II, who is only able to hold the duchy for 75 days.source
  • January 19 – Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine abdicates in favour of his brother Nicholas Francis at Mirecourt; on February 1 he crosses the Rhine at Breisach and retires to Besançon.Francesource
  • April 1 – Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine, who assumed rule of the duchy on January 19 upon the abdication of his older brother Charles IV abdicates in favor of Charles.source
  • May 5 – King Charles I of England and Scotland first refers to the banner of the British Isles as the "Union Flag" in a proclamation that the flag shall not be used on any ships other than those "in our immediate Service and Pay, and none other." The term evolves into the description of the British flag as the "Union Jack".source
  • June 14 – The Treaty of Polyanovka is signed between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia, concluding the Smolensk War.source
  • July 4 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, in what is the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec.source
  • September 16–17 – Edict and declaration of the king at Monceaux ordering establishment of a sovereign council at Nancy (continues to 13 July 1637).Francesource
  • October 9 – Treaty between the king and the Swedish Empire over Alsace; French garrisons replace the Swedish here.Francesource
  • Cornelius Vermuyden begins the draining of The Fens to reclaim farmlandEnglandsource
  • François Leclerc du Tremblay (Père Joseph) becomes a member of the Conseil du Roi as Ministre d’État.Francesource
  • Robert Giffard de Moncel spearheads Perche migration to New France.Francesource

Conflict & Security

  • February 25 – Rebel Scots and Irish soldiers assassinate Bohemian military leader Albrecht von Wallenstein at Cheb.source
  • March 1 – The Russians vacate their camp, ending the Siege of Smolensk.source
  • March 2 – Battle of Wattwiller: Forces of the Swedish Empire are victorious over those of the Holy Roman Empire and Duchy of Lorraine on the plain of Cernay in Alsace.Francesource
  • March 6 – Henriette and Marguerite of Lorraine manage to flee Nancy for Franche-Comté.Francesource
  • April 14 – The Battle of Amritsar begins in India when Mughal Empire troops attempt to eliminate the Sikh religious leader, Guru Hargobind, by attacking Amritsar. The Sikh defenders hand the Mughal invaders an unprecedented defeat.source
  • May 2 – With Albrecht Wallenstein having been eliminated, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II personally takes command of the Imperial Army.source
  • July 26 – Siege of La Mothe-en-Bassigny in Lorraine by Armand Nompar de Caumont ends after 141 days when it capitulates to him.Francesource
  • July 29 – Curaçao is captured by the Dutch.source
  • September 6 – The Battle of Nördlingen ends after two days with a decisive victory for the Imperial Army and Habsburg Spain over the Army of Sweden and Protestant German troops.source
  • September 11 – After the Battle of Nördlingen, Richelieu advises the king to continue to support the anti-Habsburg cause.Francesource
  • Doubling of the taille (land tax) to finance the Thirty Years' War.Francesource
  • Swedish victory at the Battle of Liegnitz.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 14 – France's Compagnie normande obtains a one-year monopoly on trade with the African kingdoms in Guinea.source
  • March – Leonard Calvert leads the first group of settlers to the new English colony of Maryland in North AmericaEnglandsource
  • July 4 – The trading post of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec).Francesource
  • August (prob.) – Jean Nicolet becomes the first European to set foot in what becomes the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He is in search of a water-route to the Pacific, when he lands at Green Bay of Lake Michigan.source
  • August (prob.) – Jean Nicolet becomes the first European to set foot in Wisconsin. He is in search of a water-route to the Pacific, when he lands at Green Bay (Lake Michigan).Francesource
  • 20 October – King Charles I issues writs to raise ship money from coastal ports to finance the Royal NavyEnglandsource
  • The English establish a settlement at Cochin (modern-day Kochi) on the Malabar Coast.source
  • Trading post of La Baye is founded in New France.Francesource

Religion & Belief

  • January 12 – After suspecting that he will be dismissed, Albrecht von Wallenstein, supreme commander of the Holy Roman Empire's Army, demands that his colonels sign a declaration of personal loyalty.source
  • January 24 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a classified order dismissing Albrecht von Wallenstein, the supreme commander of the Imperial Army.source
  • February 18 – Emperor Ferdinand II's dismissal of Commander Wallenstein for high treason, and the order for his capture, dead or alive, is made public.source
  • March 26 – Giorgio Bolognetti is appointed Apostolic Nuncio to France.Francesource
  • 23 May – Gaspard Nemius appointed bishop of Antwerp.Belgiumsource
  • October 8 – Gaston, Duke of Orléans, leaves Brussels and returns to Paris. On October 21 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, he swears before the king "to love the cardinal as much as he had hated him".Francesource
  • November 17 – Cardinal Mazarin, named apostolic nuncio extraordinary on August 19, arrives in Paris to negotiate restitution of the estates of the Duke of Lorraine and to reconcile France and the Habsburgs, taking up his duties on November 26.Francesource
  • December 8 – Francesco Niccolini obtains an audience with Pope Urban VIII and pleads him to reconsider the Church's punishment of astronomer Galileo Galilei. The Pope replies that although he esteems Galileo highly, nothing will change.source
  • December 16 – Gregorio Panzani, an emissary of Pope Urban VIII, is welcomed in England by King Charles I, marking the first time since England's break with the Roman Catholic Church that a monarch has received an agent of the Vatican.source
  • Suspecting that Patriarch Afonso Mendes played a part in the Portuguese assault on Mombasa, Emperor Fasilides expels him and several Jesuit missionaries from Ethiopia.source
  • Jørgen Ringnis completes an elaborately carved new pulpit for Stubbekøbing Church.Denmarksource
  • Temple du Marais completed in Paris.Francesource
  • The Parliament of Ireland accepts the Thirty-Nine Articles under pressure from King Charles and Archbishop Laud.Irelandsource

Science & Discovery

  • Thomas Johnson begins publishing Mercurius Botanicus, including a list of indigenous British plants.Englandsource
  • John Ford's history play Perkin Warbeck published.Englandsource
  • Instrument of Government (1634)Swedensource

Health & Medicine

  • April 1 – Nicholas Francis of Lorraine and his wife flee to Franche-Comté; of their family only Nicole, Duchess of Lorraine, who is ill, remains in Nancy. She is transferred to Paris where she arrives on May 7. Richelieu charges the count of Brassac to administer Lorraine.Francesource
  • April 16 – Sumptuary laws proscribe embroidery of gold or silver.Francesource
  • October 13 – Foundation of the hospice des Incurables, the future Laennec hospital of Paris.Francesource

Crime & Justice

  • 8 February - The Fogd (bailiff) is transferred to the direct service of the king, and not under the jurisdiction of the local Lensmann (fief-holder).Norwaysource
  • February 18 – Nicholas Francis of Lorraine marries his cousin Claude Françoise at Lunéville against the advice of the king of France; on returning to Nancy, the ducal family is arrested by French troops and held in custody.Francesource
  • March 4 – Belgian scientist Jan Baptist van Helmont is interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition and put under house arrest for his experiments into plant growth.source
  • 15 April – Duke of Aarschot arrested in Madrid.Belgiumsource
  • 29 April – Marquis of Aytona decrees amnesty for 1632 conspirators.Belgiumsource
  • 7 May – William Prynne is sentenced by the Star Chamber to a £5,000 fine, life imprisonment, pillorying and the loss of part of his ears when his Histriomastix is viewed as an attack on King Charles I and Queen Henrietta MariaEnglandsource
  • August 18 – In France, Urbain Grandier, accused of wizardry, is burned alive in Loudun.source
  • September 5 – The Parlement of Paris declares the second marriage of Gaston, Duke of Orléans, with Marguerite of Lorraine, to be invalid; it condemns Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine for felony and kidnapping of Gaston and reunites the Duchy of Bar with the kingdom.Francesource
  • November 11 – The Irish House of Commons passes an Act for the Punishment of the Vice of Buggery.source
  • 11 November – the Irish House of Commons passes an Act for the Punishment of the Vice of Buggery.Irelandsource
  • Landowner Sir Vincent Gookin publishes and circulates in Munster (under the form of a letter addressed to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth) a bitter attack on everyone in Ireland and is forced to return in haste to England to escape prosecution.Irelandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • September 12 – A gunpowder factory explodes in Valletta, Malta, killing 22 people and damaging several buildings.source

Climate & Environment

  • October 11 – The Burchardi flood (also known as the second Grote Mandrenke) strikes the North Sea coast of Germany and Denmark, causing at least 8,000 deaths and perhaps as many as 12,000.source

Culture & Society

  • 22 January – William Davenant's comedy The Wits first performed by the King's Men at the Blackfriars TheatreEnglandsource
  • February 24 – By this date, the Paulaner Brewery is established in Munich, by Minim friars.source
  • March 25 – Leonard Calvert arrives in Maryland, with Jesuit missionaries Andrew White, John Altham Gravenor, and Thomas Gervase, establishing St. Mary's as the fourth permanent settlement in British North America. In this year they also establish an institution of higher learning here, which later becomes Georgetown University, the United States's oldest university.source
  • April – The first performance of the Oberammergau Passion Play is held in Bavaria.source
  • 5 May – A royal proclamation confines flying of the Union Flag (the first recorded reference to it by this name) to the king's ships; English merchant vessels are to fly the flag of England.Englandsource
  • 5 July – Estates General, in session since 7 September 1632, disbanded by order of Philip IV of Spain.Belgiumsource
  • 5 October – The grand wedding of Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark and Magdalene Sibylle of Saxony is celebrated in Copenhagen.Denmarksource
  • 4 November – Joyous Entry into Brussels of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria as new governor general.Belgiumsource
  • Moses Amyraut's Traité de la predestination is published.source
  • First Théâtre du Marais opens in Paris.Francesource
  • Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (literally "Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland", more usually translated "History of Ireland") is completed by Geoffrey Keating in Early Modern Irish. This history of Ireland from ancient times is circulated in manuscript as the English rulers of the country suppress the printing of Irish history.Irelandsource
  • Termini Juridici, the first Norwegian dictionary by Chancellor Jens Bjelke, is first published.Norwaysource

Births

  • 16 January – Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, hymn and poem writer (died 1716).Norwaysource
  • March 4 – Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Polish philosopher (died 1689)source
  • March 11 – Nicholas Gassaway, Colonel, Maryland Provincial Forces (died 1691)source
  • March 25 – George Bull, English theologian and Bishop of St David's (died 1710)source
  • May 4 – Lady Katherine Ferrers, English aristocrat and heiress (died 1660)source
  • 4 May – Lady Katherine Ferrers, aristocrat and heiress (died 1660)Englandsource
  • May 8 – Alexander Stuart, 5th Earl of Moray, Scottish nobleman (died 1701)source
  • 9 May – Lievin Cruyl, priest-architect (died before 1720)Belgiumsource
  • June 1 – Roeloff Swartwout, American city founder in New York (died 1715)source
  • June 20 – Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (died 1675)source
  • July 8 – Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory (died 1680)source
  • August 24 – Mary Eastey, American witch (died 1692)source
  • September 4 – Robert South, English churchman known for his combative preaching (died 1716)source
  • September 6 – Thomas Tryon, British hat maker (died 1703)source
  • October 18 – Luca Giordano, Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching (died 1705)source
  • December 15 – Thomas Kingo, Danish bishop (died 1703)source
  • 15 December – Thomas Kingo, bishop, poet and hymn-writer (died 1703).Denmarksource
  • December 24 – Mariana of Austria (died 1696)source

Deaths

  • January 17 – Albert Szenczi Molnár, Hungarian translator (born 1574)source
  • February 25 – Albrecht von Wallenstein, Bohemian general (assassinated) (born 1583)source
  • March 23 – Elizabeth Finch, 1st Countess of Winchilsea, English countess (born 1556)source
  • 26 March – Jens Hermansson Juel, Danish nobleman who served as Governor-general of Norway (born 1580).Denmarksource
  • 26 March – Jens Hermansson Juel, nobleman, Governor-general of Norway (born 1580).Norwaysource
  • April 2 – Maria Celeste, Italian nun, daughter of Galileo Galilei (born 1600)source
  • May 12 – George Chapman, English author (born c.1559)source
  • May 15 (bur.) – Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (born 1585)source
  • June 25 – John Marston, English dramatist (born 1576)source
  • August 18 – Urbain Grandier, French priest (born 1590)source
  • September 3 – Edward Coke, English colonial entrepreneur and jurist (born 1552)source
  • 3 September – Edward Coke, colonial entrepreneur and jurist (born 1552)Englandsource
  • October 19 – Agnes of Jesus, French Catholic nun (born 1602)source
  • 23 November – Wenceslas Cobergher (born 1560), architect and economistBelgiumsource
  • December 7 - Đào Duy Từ, Vietnamese scholar, poet, military adviser, and mandarin under Nguyễn lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyênsource
  • December 11 – Fadrique de Toledo, 1st Marquis of Villanueva de Valdueza, Spanish noble and admiral (born 1580)source
  • December 25 – Lettice Knollys, English noblewoman (born 1543)source
  • December 25 – Count Walter Butler, Irish immigrant living in Germany (born 1600s)source