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The 1630s

1,001 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 17th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1630 CE96 entries

  • June 4 – Scottish-born Presbyterian (and former physician) Alexander Leighton is brought before Archbishop William Laud's Star Chamber court in London for publishing the seditious pamphlet An Appeale to the Parliament, or, Sions Plea Against the Prelacy, an attack on Anglican bishops (printed in the Netherlands, 1628). He is sentenced to be pilloried and whipped, have his ears cropped, one side of his nose slit, and his face branded with "SS" (for "sower of sedition"), to be imprisoned, and be degraded from holy orders.
  • July 6 – Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War begins when King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, leading an army of 13,000 on the Protestant side, makes landfall at Peenemünde, Pomerania.
  • July 6 – Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War begins when King Gustav Adolf of Sweden, leading an army of 13,000 on the protestant side, makes landfall at Peenemünde, Pomerania.

1631 CE113 entries

  • August 29 – (1 Safar 1041 A.H.) Abd Allah ibn Hasan, Emir of Mecca, abdicates in favor of two successors, his son Muhammad ibn Abd Allah and his great-nephew Zayd ibn Muhsin.
  • September 17 – Thirty Years' War – Battle of Breitenfeld: Tilly's Holy Roman Imperial army is decisively defeated by Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden, shattering the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire, and marking the first significant victory for the Protestants in the war.
  • September 17 – Thirty Years' War: In the Battle of Breitenfeld, Tilly's imperial army is defeated by Gustavus II Adolphus, shattering the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire and marking the first significant victory for the Protestants in the war.

1632 CE101 entries

  • 29 March – The Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, returning Quebec to French control after the English had seized it in 1629.
  • June 25 – Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia in succession to his father Susenyos, declares the state religion of the country again to be Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and confiscates the lands of the Jesuit missionaries, relegating them to Fremona.
  • November 16 (November 6 Old Style) – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Lützen in Saxony – Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus leads an assault on Wallenstein's army, but is killed early in the battle, despite which the Swedish commanders manage to rally the army and eventually defeat Wallenstein, who withdraws from Saxony. Following the death of Gustavus Adolphus, he is succeeded as ruler of Sweden by his six-year-old daughter Christina, while five regents (headed by Axel Oxenstierna) govern the country. On November 17, Gottfried zu Pappenheim, Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire, dies from wounds sustained in the battle.

1633 CE103 entries

  • June 18 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, according to Anglican rite in his first visit to Scotland since early childhood, although he has been Scottish monarch since 1625.
  • July 7 – the Dutch East India Company fleet, led by Hans Putmans, attacks its ally Zheng Zhilong's base by surprise, near Xiamen.
  • October 22 – Battle of Liaoluo Bay: A large Ming dynasty fleet under Zheng Zhilong defeats a Dutch East India Company fleet at the island of Quemoy.

1634 CE111 entries

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • July 4 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France, in what is the modern-day Canadian province of Quebec.

1635 CE93 entries

  • April 13 – Druze warlord Fakhr-al-Din II is executed in Constantinople.
  • July 31 – The Royal Mail service is made available to the public by Charles I of England.
  • October 9 – Rhode Island founder Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident, after speaking out against punishments for religious offenses, and giving away Native American land.

1636 CE87 entries

  • August 12 – following a public disputation in Belfast, Henry Leslie, Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor, sentences Edward Brice, Henry Calvert, James Hamilton, John Ridge and one other non-subscribing Presbyterian minister to silence.
  • August 25 (August 15 Old Style) – The covenant of the Town of Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony is first signed.
  • December 23 (December 13 Old Style) – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

1637 CE97 entries

  • May 25 – letters patent authorise 'Laudian statutes' for Trinity College Dublin.
  • June 27 – The first English venture to China is attempted by Captain John Weddell, who sails into port in Macau and Canton during the late Ming dynasty with six ships. The voyages are for trade, which is dominated here by the Portuguese (at this time combined with the power of Spain). He brings 38,421 pairs of eyeglasses, perhaps the first recorded European-made eyeglasses to enter China.
  • July 23 – Introduction of a new Scottish Prayer Book is met with widespread demonstrations, notably that of Jenny Geddes at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, who is said to have thrown a stool at the Dean's head.

1638 CE93 entries

  • March 22 – Anne Hutchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy and goes to Rhode Island.
  • April 3 – Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.
  • September – John Spofford arrives in Boston Harbor, on the ship John of London, and is one of the first people to establish Rowely, Essex County, Massachusetts.

1639 CE107 entries

  • 26 January – King Charles I raises (with difficulty) an army and begins to march north to fight the Scottish Covenanters in the First Bishops' War, opening the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
  • April – Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, apostolic nuncio to Paris and adviser to Cardinal Richelieu, is naturalized French by letters patent; in December, he leaves the service of Rome to enter that of King Louis XIII of France.
  • October 18 – Appearance of maize ("Spanish millet") in the market at Toulouse. It is available between 1644 and 1655.