1672 CE

Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms; this will be withdrawn the following year under pressure from the Parliament of England. King Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms. French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Rhea, a previously-unknown satellite of the planet Saturn. Rhea is the second-largest overall, and the third moon of Saturn to be discovered by Earth astronomers, Titan having been found by Christiaan Huygens on March 25, 1655 and Iapetus by Cassini on October 25, 1671.

In the 1670s, the 17th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • 27 March – The Barony of Holckenhavn is by Eiler Holck from the manors of Kogsbølle, Ellensborg and Nygård.Denmarksource
  • 6 April – The County of Frijsenborg is established by Mogens Friis from the manors of Frijsenborg, Jernit, Søbygård, Østergård, Favrskov, Lyngballe, Fuglsang, Frijsendal, Boller, Christiansminde, Thyrasminde and Møgelkær.Denmarksource
  • May 21 – The Earl of Essex is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (sworn 5 August).Irelandsource
  • 26 May – Jørgen Iversen Dyppel becomes the first governor of the renewed establishment of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies.Denmarksource
  • September 24 – elected representatives on corporations are to take an Oath of Supremacy to the Crown unless exempted.Irelandsource
  • October 18 – The Treaty of Buchach, between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, is signed.source
  • 28 November – after more than five years of administration of the Treasury by a five-member commission, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, one of the members, becomes the Lord High Treasurer of England.Englandsource
  • December 18 – Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp ends her regency of the Swedish Empire after more than 12 years, having exercised power in the name of her minor son, Charles XI, since the death of her husband Karl X Gustav in 1660. Hedwig Eleonora had served as the chair of the six-member Regency Council.source
  • Alliance between Sweden and France.Swedensource
  • The King is declared to legal majority, and the regency government is thereby dissolved.Swedensource

Conflict & Security

  • February 25 – Willem, Prince of Orange, the 21-year-old Stadtholder of Gelderland and Utrecht, is approved by the States General of the Dutch Republic to command the Dutch States Army for the impending war with England.source
  • 25 February – Willem, Prince of Orange, the 21-year-old Stadtholder of Gelderland and Utrecht and future King William III of England, is approved by the States General of the Dutch Republic to command the Dutch States Army for the impending war with England. On 4 July he is appointed Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland.Englandsource
  • March 17 – The Third Anglo-Dutch War begins as the Kingdom of England declares war on the Dutch Republic.source
  • 17 March – Third Anglo-Dutch War: England declares war on the Dutch Republic.Englandsource
  • April 8 – France declares war on the Dutch Republic, invading the country on April 29.source
  • 28 May (7 June New Style) – the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War is fought at the Battle of Solebay off Southwold; indecisive.Englandsource
  • June 1 – Münster and Cologne begin their invasion of the Dutch Republic; hence 1672 becomes known as het rampjaar ("the disaster year") in the Netherlands.source
  • June 7 – Third Anglo-Dutch War – Battle of Solebay: An indecisive sea battle results, between the Dutch Republic, and the joined forces of England and France.source
  • June 12 – Battle of Tolhuis: French forces under King Louis XIV cross the Rhine into the Netherlands; the city of Utrecht is occupied by the French Army.source
  • September 15 – In India, Admiral Mai Nayak Bhandari of the Maratha Empire captures the island of Khanderi.source
  • November 24 – Five-year-old Sikandar Adil Shah is enthroned as the last Sultan of Bijapur (located in southwestern India in what is now the Karnataka state) upon the death of his father, the Sultan Ali Adil Shah II. In 1686, the sultanate of Bijapur is conquered and annexed by the Mughal Empire.source
  • December 18 – An English invasion force captures the Caribbean island of Tobago from Dutch colonists and destroys the settlement.source
  • 18 December – an English invasion force captures the Caribbean island of Tobago from Dutch colonists and destroys the settlement.Englandsource
  • December 30 – Troops of the Dutch Republic, under the command of Carl von Rabenhaupt, are able to reclaim lost territory for the first time in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, liberating Coevorden, which had been forced to surrender to France on July 1. The moment, a boost for morale in what is remembered in Dutch history as the Rampjaar (the "Disaster Year"), is later memorialized in a painting by Pieter Wouwerman, The Storming of Coevorden.source
  • 1672 to 1678 – the Franco-Dutch WarFrancesource
  • Hervarar saga by Olof Verelius.Swedensource

Exploration & Expansion

  • The bankrupt Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is restructured into the new Royal African Company with a new, broader charter to trade into West Africa.Englandsource

Religion & Belief

  • January 13 – Pope Clement X issues regulations for the prerequisites of removing relics of Roman Catholic saints from sacred cemeteries, requiring advance approval from the Cardinal Vicar in Rome before the remains of the saint can be allowed for view. The Cardinal Vicar is directed to bar regular persons from viewing remains, and to limit inspection to high prelates and to princes.source
  • 2 February – The Barony of Brahetrolleborg is established by Birgitte Trolle from the manors of af Brahetrolleborg, Sølyst, Egneborg, Høbbet and Brændegård.Denmarksource
  • February 25 (6 March N.S.) – John O'Molony is consecrated as Roman Catholic Bishop of Killaloe in Paris.Irelandsource
  • March 15 – Charles II of England issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms; this will be withdrawn the following year under pressure from the Parliament of England.source
  • 15 March – King Charles II issues the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics in his realms.Englandsource
  • March 15 – King Charles II of England issues a Royal Declaration of Indulgence, suspending execution of Penal Laws against Roman Catholics in his realms; this is withdrawn the following year under pressure from the Parliament of England.Irelandsource
  • March 16 – At the Synod of Jerusalem, presided over by Dositheos II of Jerusalem, the 68 bishops and representatives from the whole of Eastern Orthodox Christendom close by approving the Orthodox dogma against the challenge of Protestantism, declaring against "the falsehoods of the adversaries which they have devised against the Eastern Church" and making a goal of "reformation of their innovations and for their return to the catholic and apostolic church in which their forefathers also were."source
  • September 16 – The Board of Trade is created in England by a merger of the Council of Trade and the Council of Foreign Plantations, both of which had been created by King Charles II in 1660, under the name The Board of Trade and Plantations. The Earl of Shaftesbury is appointed as the first Lord of Trade, administering the Board until its dissolution in 1676.source
  • 16 September – the Board of Trade is created by a merger of the Council of Trade and the Council of Foreign Plantations and the Earl of Shaftesbury is appointed as the first Lord of Trade.Englandsource
  • September 26 – General Raimondo Montecuccoli, commander of the army of the Holy Roman Empire, joins forces with the Brandenburg troops commanded by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg and the two groups assemble at Halberstadt, to attack the French and the bishops of Münster and Cologne.source
  • October 2 – Manuel de Cendoya, Spain's Governor of Florida, breaks ground for the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos, a masonry fortress designed to protect St. Augustine. Governor Cendoya follows on November 9 with the ceremonial laying for the first stone for the foundation.source
  • John Lynch's De praesulibus Hiberniae is written (first published in Dublin, 1944).Irelandsource
  • Sten Nilsson Bielke is appointed Lord High Treasurer of Sweden.Swedensource

Economy & Finance

  • January 2 – After the government of England is unable to pay the nation's debts, King Charles II decrees the Stop of the Exchequer, the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made." The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the Dutch Republic, but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.source
  • 2 January – cash payments by the Exchequer suspended for a year, due to fears of imminent bankruptcy.Englandsource
  • August – farthing and halfpenny coins, machine pressed at the Royal Mint, are introduced by royal decree, the first official issue of copper coinage. The reverse portrays Britannia, thought to have been modelled by Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond.Englandsource
  • November 28 – After more than five years of administration of the Treasury of England by a five-member commission, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, one of the commission members, becomes the Lord High Treasurer of England.source
  • Richard Hoare becomes a partner in the London goldsmith's business which, as private banking house C. Hoare & Co., will survive through to the 21st century.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 25 – The Theatre Royal, located at the time on Bridges Street in London, burns down. A replacement structure is built on Drury Lane in 1674.source
  • 25 January – the Theatre Royal in Bridges Street in London burns down, forcing the King's Company to relocate to the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre while the Theatre Royal is rebuilt in Drury Lane.Englandsource
  • High royal councillor Burchard Ahlefeldt received in 1672 letters patent as Danish Count Ahlefeldt.Denmarksource
  • Rebuilding begins of St Stephen Walbrook church in the City of London, designed by Christopher Wren.Englandsource
  • The Fulham Pottery is established in London by John Dwight, the earliest certainly known native stoneware manufacturer in England; it will survive until the second half of the 20th century.Englandsource
  • Rebuilding of Temple Bar, London, designed by Christopher Wren.Englandsource
  • Christiansholm Fortress was built.Norwaysource

Science & Discovery

  • January 11 – The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, national science academy for England, elects Isaac Newton to its membership, and then demonstrates Newton's reflecting telescope to King Charles II.source
  • 11 January – Isaac Newton is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and it then demonstrates his reflecting telescope to the King.Englandsource
  • 6 February – Isaac Newton sends for publication a paper regarding his experiments on the refraction of light through glass prisms and makes the first identification of the primary colours.Englandsource
  • February 16 (February 6, 1671 O.S.) – Isaac Newton sends a paper for publication regarding his experiments on the refraction of light through glass prisms and makes the first identification of the "primary colors" of visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum, reporting that "The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations."source
  • December 23 – French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovers Rhea, a previously-unknown satellite of the planet Saturn. Rhea is the second-largest overall, and the third moon of Saturn to be discovered by Earth astronomers, Titan having been found by Christiaan Huygens on March 25, 1655 and Iapetus by Cassini on October 25, 1671.source

Health & Medicine

  • September 10 – William III of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, dismisses nine of the regenten who lead cities in the Netherlands, after being granted authority by the States-General.source

Crime & Justice

  • 13 September – John Bunyan released after a 12-year imprisonment for preaching without a licence.Englandsource
  • The office of Lord President of Munster is suppressed.Irelandsource

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 12 – Action of 12 March 1672, a 2-day naval engagement between an English coastal patrol and a Dutch Smyrna convoy off the south coast of England. The English fleet suffers severe damage while most of the Dutch convoy escapes, although one of the Dutch commanders (De Haaze) is killed and one warship taken as a prize (Klein Hollandia) sinks; the latter will be rediscovered in 2019.source
  • 12 March – Action of 12 March 1672: A 2-day naval engagement between an English coastal patrol and a Dutch convoy off Beachy Head. The English fleet suffers severe damage while most of the Dutch convoy escapes, although one of the Dutch commanders (De Haaze) is killed and one warship taken as a prize (Klein Hollandia) sinks; the latter will be rediscovered in 2019.Englandsource

Culture & Society

  • May 2 – John Maitland becomes Duke of Lauderdale and Earl of March.source
  • July 4 – William III of Orange is appointed Stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland.source
  • 30 December – first commercial public concert series in Europe begins; organised by John Banister at Whitefriars, near Fleet Street in London.Englandsource
  • December – John Dryden's play Marriage à la Mode first performed in London by the King's Company.Englandsource
  • Foundation of the Chorina Comedy, the first theater in Russia.source
  • Sir William Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland is written (first published in Dublin, 1691); also, engraving of the maps for his Hiberniae Delineatio (published 1685) is completed.Irelandsource

Births

  • January 4 – Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (died 1742)source
  • January 18 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (died 1731)source
  • February 13 – Étienne François Geoffroy, French chemist (died 1731)source
  • February 26 – Antoine Augustine Calmet, French theologian (died 1757)source
  • March 12 — Yunzhi, Prince Zhi (1672 – 1735), also known as Yunzhi, formally known as Prince Zhi of the Second Rank between 1698 and 1708, a Manchu prince of the Qing dynastyChinasource
  • May 1 – Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (died 1719)source
  • June 9 – Emperor Peter the Great of Russia (died 1725)source
  • 10 June – Christen Worm, theologian (died 1737)Denmarksource
  • June 11 – Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (died 1749)source
  • July 13 – Nicolás Salzillo, Spanish artist (died 1727)source
  • August 2 – Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Swiss scholar (died 1733)source
  • September 8 – Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (died 1703)source
  • October 11 – Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (died 1742)source
  • October 21 – Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Italian historian, scholar (died 1750)source
  • October 27 – Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna, Swedish writer (died 1737)source
  • 27 October - Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna, writer (died 1737)Swedensource
  • Ann Baynard, English natural philosopher (died 1697)source
  • Sara Hammond, landowner and businesswoman (died 1716).Norwaysource

Deaths

  • January – Denis Gaultier, French lutenist and composer (born 1603)source
  • March – Archibald Armstrong, court jester to James VI and I and Charles I of Englandsource
  • April 2 – Diego Luis de San Vitores, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Guam (born 1627)source
  • April 2 – Pedro Calungsod, Filipino saint (born 1654)source
  • April 30 – Marie of the Incarnation, French foundress of the Ursuline Monastery in Quebec (born 1599)source
  • 18 May – Erik Bredal, bishop (born 1608).Norwaysource
  • May 28 – Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich (born 1625)source
  • July 3 – Francis Willughby, English biologist (born 1635)source
  • July 21 – Captain John Underhill, English settler and soldier (born 1597)source
  • August 20 – Johan de Witt, Dutch politician (born 1625)source
  • August 20 – Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland and his brother Cornelis de Witt are killed by an Orangist mob in The Hague.source
  • August 20 – Johan de Witt, politician (born 1625)Netherlandssource
  • September 16 – Anne Bradstreet, American colonial writer (born c. 1612)source
  • November 19 – John Wilkins, English Bishop of Chester (born 1614)source
  • December 6 – King John II Casimir of Poland (born 1609)source
  • December 7 – Richard Bellingham, Massachusetts colonial magistrate (born 1592)source
  • Lu Shiyi, (born 1611) Confucian scholarChinasource
  • Märet Jonsdotter, alleged witch (born 1644)Swedensource