1650 CE

Confederate Ireland's besieged capital Kilkenny is surrendered to Cromwell. Charles II repudiates his alliance with Irish Catholics in favour of one with Scottish Covenanters in the Treaty of Breda. Most English Royalists in Ireland surrender to the Parliamentarians after this point. William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange at the moment of his birth, succeeding his father, who had died a few days earlier. He does not become stadtholder, so the United Provinces becomes a true republic.

In the 1650s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 10 – João Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Portuguese Count of Castelo Melhor, becomes the new Governor of Brazil.source
  • 1 May – claimant King Charles II of England signs the Treaty of Breda with the Scottish Covenanters.Englandsource
  • 1 May – Charles II repudiates his alliance with Irish Catholics in favour of one with Scottish Covenanters in the Treaty of Breda. Most English Royalists in Ireland surrender to the Parliamentarians after this point.Irelandsource
  • 26 May – Cromwell leaves Ireland from Youghal and passes his command to Henry Ireton.Irelandsource
  • September 19 – Treaty of Hartford: the English Commonwealth's Connecticut Colony and the Dutch Republic's colony of New Netherland establish their frontiers in North America.source
  • 19 September – Treaty of Hartford: the English Connecticut Colony and the Dutch Republic's colony of New Netherland establish their frontiers in North America.Englandsource
  • October 17 – The Western Remonstrance is signed by members of the Parliament of Scotland who condemn the recognition of Charles II being crowned King of Scotland, and pledging allegiance to England's General Oliver Cromwell.source
  • October 30 – The Commonwealth of England government passes a law prohibiting trade between English merchants and English colonies that had sided with Charles II over Oliver Cromwell. Specifically labeled as rebel colonies for purposes of the ban are the North American colonies of Virginia and the Somers Isles (alias Bermuda), as well as the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Antigua.source
  • 17 December – Treaty of navigation and commerce concludedBelgiumsource
  • The town of Sharon, Massachusetts is founded.source
  • Jews are allowed to return to France.source
  • Jews are allowed to return to France and England.Francesource

Conflict & Security

  • January 18 – Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the Chief Minister of France and head of its government since 1642, learns of a plot against him and has the Prince de Condé, the Prince de Conti and the Duc de Longueville arrested, prompting a rebellion by parliament against the Crown.source
  • January 28 – The Sultan bin Saif of Oman expels the Portuguese colonial government from Muscat, forcing the surrender of the port of Muttrah and of Fort Capitan, and captures two warships, ending 35 years of Portuguese occupation.source
  • February 13 – Oliver Cromwell's troops sweep through Ireland and bombard the Kiltinan Castle in County Tipperary.source
  • March 10 – The Commonwealth of England's navy Robert Blake blockades a surviving English Royalist fleet commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the Tagus estuary at Lisbon. Rupert breaks out on October 12.source
  • 27 March – Confederate Ireland's besieged capital Kilkenny is surrendered to Cromwell.Irelandsource
  • March 28 – The Siege of Kilkenny in Ireland by Oliver Cromwell ends in after six days as royalist Sir Walter Butler turns over control of the city to the Commonwealth of England forces.source
  • April 27 – The Battle of Carbisdale begins when a Royalist army invades mainland Scotland from the Orkney Islands. The Royalists are defeated by a Covenanter army.source
  • 27 April – Cromwellian conquest of Ireland: Oliver Cromwell joins the siege of Clonmel in person.Irelandsource
  • 10 May – Battle of Macroom: Irish force defeated by English Parliamentarians.Irelandsource
  • May 17 – A quarter of the New Model Army at the Siege of Clonmel in Ireland is trapped and killed.source
  • 26 May – Oliver Cromwell leaves Ireland (following the Siege of Clonmel), occasioning Andrew Marvell's An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland.Englandsource
  • 28 May – City of Antwerp imposes speed limits on wagons travelling within the cityBelgiumsource
  • July 22 – Having completed his invasion of Ireland, England's General Oliver Cromwell begins the war against the Kingdom of Scotland, crossing from Northumberland at Berwick-upon-Tweed into Berwickshire, and leads troops toward Edinburgh.source
  • July 29 – William II, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of Holland, attempts to conquer the rest of the Netherlands and attempts a coup d'état against the Dutch Republic.source
  • August 13 – Colonel George Monck forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.source
  • 13 August – Colonel George Monck forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, forerunner of the Coldstream Guards.Englandsource
  • September 3 – Third English Civil War: Battle of Dunbar (1650) – Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeat a Scottish army, commanded by David Leslie.source
  • 3 September – Oliver Cromwell is victorious over the Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar, opening the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652).Englandsource
  • 24 November – City of Antwerp prohibits the shooting of firearms within the city after the ringing of the bell for the closing of the city gates.Belgiumsource
  • December 25 – Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Gresham's School, England, is hanged as a Royalist rebel.source
  • Estimation – Istanbul becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Beijing.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • September 29 – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters, a form of employment exchange, in Threadneedle Street, London.source
  • 29 September – Henry Robinson opens his Office of Addresses and Encounters, a form of employment exchange, in Threadneedle Street, London.Englandsource
  • Cornelius Vermuyden completes excavation of the New Bedford River as part of the drainage of The Fens.Englandsource

Religion & Belief

  • 20 April – Governor General Leopold William lays the foundation stone of the new pilgrimage church in Jezus-EikBelgiumsource
  • 23 June – Charles arrives in Scotland (at Garmouth) where he signs the Covenant.Englandsource
  • 16 July – New regulations issued for the book trade in the city of BrusselsBelgiumsource
  • 30 October – the Religious Society of Friends acquires the nickname "Quakers" when the judge at George Fox's blasphemy trial says that they "tremble at the word of the Lord".Englandsource
  • Cloister of St. Bernard's Abbey, Hemiksem, completedBelgiumsource
  • Jean-Baptiste della Faille appointed president of the Council of FlandersBelgiumsource
  • Hans Nielsen Bang completes a pulpit for Skeby Church.Denmarksource
  • Jørgen Ringnis completes an altarpiece for Torkilstrup Church.Denmarksource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • English highwayman and Captain James Hind campaigns for the Royalist cause (according to his own account).source
  • Entrance gate to Savoy College, LeuvenBelgiumsource
  • Work begins on Church of Our Lady, Jezus-Eik, to designs attributed to Jacob FranquartBelgiumsource
  • Fredericia is incorporated as a market town.Denmarksource
  • Aasgaardstrand is given town status as a ladested under the nearby town of Tønsberg.Norwaysource

Science & Discovery

  • July 13 – Italian priest and astronomer Gerolamo Sersale of Naples takes advantage of a full moon and draws an extremely detailed lunar map, which is then engraved and reproduced for other astronomers.source
  • Three-wheeled wheelchairs are invented in Nuremberg by watchmaker Stephan Farffler.source
  • Jacob Jordaens, Allegorical Portrait of a Family (c. 1650)Belgiumsource
  • Swedish copper mining breaks a record with 3,000 tonnes.Swedensource

Health & Medicine

  • February 26 – Jacob van Kittensteyn succeeds Joan Maetsuycker as the Dutch Governor of Zeylan (now the nation of Sri Lanka).source
  • 13 April – Regulations of the College of Medicine (established 1649) approved by the city of BrusselsBelgiumsource
  • Ethiopia deports Portuguese diplomats and missionaries.source

Crime & Justice

  • 10 May – Commonwealth (Adultery) Act (1650) imposes the death penalty for incest, and for adultery, that is defined as sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man other than her husband. Both partners would be liable for death sentence in such a case, although the courts are reluctant to impose the ultimate penalty. If a man (married or unmarried) has sex with an unmarried woman (including a widow), that would be fornication, punishable only by three months for first offenders, applicable to both partners. In the history of adultery in English law, this represents the only time since the twelfth century when adultery has been outlawed in secular statute law.Englandsource
  • 25 June – Two Englishmen arrested as thieves escape from Het Steen in AntwerpBelgiumsource
  • 14 July – Decree against counterfeit coin imported into the Spanish Netherlands from the territory of LiègeBelgiumsource
  • December 14 – Anne Greene is hanged at Oxford Castle in England for infanticide, having concealed an illegitimate stillbirth. The following day she revives in the dissection room and, being pardoned, lives until 1659.source
  • 14 December – domestic servant Anne Greene is hanged at Oxford Castle for infanticide, having concealed an illegitimate stillbirth. The following day she revives in the dissection room and, being pardoned, lives until 1665.Englandsource
  • Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn in England.source
  • Puritans chop down the original Glastonbury Thorn.Englandsource

Climate & Environment

  • 5 January – Governor General Leopold William issues decree for the conservation of Nieppe ForestBelgiumsource
  • September 27 – The Kolumbo volcano on Santorini experiences a massive eruption (VEI 6).source

Culture & Society

  • February 1 – The French verse play Andromède, commissioned by Cardinal Mazarin, written by Pierre Corneille and with elaborate sets designed by Giacomo Torelli, premieres before the royal family at the Théâtre Royal de Bourbon.source
  • June 9 – The Harvard Corporation, the more powerful of the two administrative boards of Harvard, is established (the first legal corporation in the Americas).source
  • June 23 – Claimant King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland arrives in Scotland (at Garmouth), the only one of the three kingdoms that has accepted him as ruler.source
  • July 1 – Einkommende Zeitungen, the first daily printed newspaper, begins publication in Leipzig (ceases 1918).source
  • October 20 – Christina, Queen of Sweden, who has been the legal ruler of Sweden for almost 18 years, has an elaborate coronation ceremony at the castle of Jacobsdal near Stockholm. The coronation had originally been planned for her 18th birthday in 1644 but was delayed by a war with Denmark-Norway.source
  • The first modern Palio di Siena horserace is held in Italy.source
  • William How publishes his flora Phytologia Britannica.Englandsource
  • Andrew Marvell writes An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland.Irelandsource

Births

  • January 1 – George Rooke, Royal Navy admiral (died 1709)source
  • January 10 – Countess Sophie Amalie of Nassau-Siegen, Duchess consort of Courland (1682–1688) (died 1688)source
  • February 2 – Nell Gwyn, English actress and royal mistress (died 1687)source
  • April 27 – Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Consort of Denmark (1670–1699) (died 1714)source
  • May 26 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general (died 1722)source
  • June – Princess Wilhelmine Ernestine of Denmark (died 1706 in Germany)Denmarksource
  • August 16 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Franciscan friar, Italian cartographer, encyclopedist (died 1718)source
  • September 20 – Adrian Beverland, Dutch philosopher and jurist who settled in England (died 1716)source
  • September 23 – Jeremy Collier, English theatre critic, non-juror bishop and theologian (died 1726)source
  • October 20 – Robert Shirley, 1st Earl Ferrers, English peer and courtier (died 1717)source
  • October 21 – Jean Bart, French admiral (died 1702)source
  • 21 October – Jean Bart, privateer (died 1702)Belgiumsource
  • October 24 – Steven Blankaart, Dutch entomologist (died 1704)source
  • November 4 – King William III of England, Scotland, and Ireland (died 1702)source
  • December 6 – Johann Friedrich Mayer (theologian), German Lutheran theologian (died 1712)source
  • December 10 – Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon (died 1701)source
  • Ernest, Count of Stolberg-IlsenburgGermanysource
  • Christian Frederik Powisch, government official (died 1711).Norwaysource

Deaths

  • January 7 – Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, dies after a reign of more than 63 years. The area is now part of the northeastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt.source
  • January 23 – Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke (born 1584)source
  • January 25 – As part of the purges following the Great Potosí Mint Fraud of 1649 Francisco Gómez de la Rocha, a rich former corregidor of Potosí, is executed.source
  • February 11 – René Descartes, French philosopher (born 1596)source
  • March 25 – John Williams, Welsh clergyman and political advisor to King James I (born 1582)source
  • April 21 – Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, Japanese samurai (born 1607)source
  • May 21 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (born 1612)source
  • 12 June (burial) – Antoon Sallaert (born 1594), artistBelgiumsource
  • June 18 – Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (born 1573 or 1575)source
  • 7 July – Falk Lykke, nobleman (born 1583)Denmarksource
  • August – John Parkinson, English herbalist and botanist (born 1567)source
  • September 8 – Elizabeth Stuart, second daughter of King Charles I of England (born 1635)source
  • October 29 – David Calderwood, Scottish historian (born 1575)source
  • November 4 – William III of Orange becomes Prince of the House of Orange at the moment of his birth, succeeding his father, who had died a few days earlier. He does not become stadtholder, so the United Provinces becomes a true republic.source
  • November 6 – William II, Prince of Orange (born 1626)source
  • 25 December – Thomas Cooper, former Usher of Gresham's School and Royalist, hangedEnglandsource
  • December 31 – Dorgon, Manchu prince (born 1612)source
  • Sophie Elisabeth of BrandenburgGermanysource