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The 1650s

1,000 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.

1650 CE109 entries

  • 27 March – Confederate Ireland's besieged capital Kilkenny is surrendered to Cromwell.
  • 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.
  • 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.

1651 CE105 entries

  • January 1 – Charles II is crowned King of Scots at Scone (his first crowning).
  • July 20 – At the Battle of Inverkeithing in Scotland, the English Parliamentarian New Model Army, under Major-General John Lambert, defeats a Scottish Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell.
  • 20 July – English Civil War: at the Battle of Inverkeithing in Scotland, the English Parliament's New Model Army defeats a Scottish army loyal to Charles II.

1652 CE85 entries

  • July 2 – The Battle of the Faubourg St Antoine is fought east of Paris between French Parliamentarians (led by Louis, Grand Condé) against the army of King Louis XIV, commanded by the Viscount of Turenne, with neither side prevailing.
  • September 11 – The Guo Huaiyi Rebellion, a peasant revolt on the island of Taiwan against colonial rule in Dutch Formosa, is suppressed after four days.
  • 8 October – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock fought in the North Sea about 30 km from the mouth of the river Thames; the Dutch are forced to withdraw.

1653 CE113 entries

  • January – The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern.
  • September 29 – In India, the third and final attempt by the Mughal Empire, to recapture the city of Kandahar from the Safavid Empire, ends in failure after almost six months despite the presence of 70,000 Mughal soldiers under the command of Prince Dara Shukoh.
  • November 16 – The Krishnanattam, a series of eight dance dramas written by Mana Veda, Zamorin of Calicut in India to tell the epic of the Hindu god Krishna, is completed.

1654 CE92 entries

  • 5 April – signing of the Treaty of Westminster ends the First Anglo-Dutch War, and the Dutch agree to observe the Navigation Acts.
  • 1 October – Formal diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom begins: The United Kingdom opens an embassy in Copenhagen. Denmark has an embassy in London.
  • December 11 – Sir William Petty wins the contract from the Commonwealth of England to make a survey of Ireland.

1655 CE87 entries

  • March 25 – Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
  • May 10–27 – Anglo-Spanish War: Invasion of Jamaica – Forces of the English Protectorate led by William Penn and Robert Venables capture the island of Jamaica from Spain.
  • December 27 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.

1656 CE109 entries

  • April 1 – John II Casimir Vasa, King of Poland, crowns the Black Madonna of Częstochowa as Queen and Protector of Poland in the cathedral of Lwów, after the miraculous saving of the Jasna Góra Monastery during the Deluge, an event which changed the course of the Second Northern War. The King swears a vow, the Lwów Oath, pledging to protect Poland's people from being conquered again.
  • April 1 – Lwów Oath: John II Casimir Vasa, King of Poland, grands the title of the "Queen and Protector of Poland", to the painting Black Madonna of Częstochowa in the cathedral of Lwów after the saving of the Jasna Góra Monastery during the Deluge, an event which changed the course of the Second Northern War.
  • August 27 – The Treaty of Butre is signed in West Africa by representatives of the Dutch West India Company and of the Ahanta Kingdom and allows the Netherlands to have a protectorate over the Dutch Gold Coast. The area is now part of the Republic of Ghana.

1657 CE91 entries

  • 20 April – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Admiral Robert Blake destroys a Spanish treasure fleet under heavy fire at Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
  • 17 August – Admiral Blake dies of old wounds at sea off Plymouth. His body is given a lying in state in the Queen's House, Greenwich and a full state funeral in Cromwell's presence, and he becomes one of the first commoners to be honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey (although reinterred after the Restoration).
  • November 10 – Christina, former Queen regnant of Sweden, has Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi killed in her presence, at the Palace of Fontainebleau.

1658 CE98 entries

  • March 8 (February 26 OS) – The peace between Sweden and Denmark-Norway is concluded in Roskilde by the Treaty of Roskilde, under which Denmark is forced to cede significant territory. This leads to Sweden reaching its territorial height during its time as a great power.
  • April – first stage coach services advertised: 4-day trips from London to Exeter, York and Chester.
  • July – Šarhūda's Manchu fleet annihilates Onufriy Stepanov's Russian flotilla, on the Amur River.

1659 CE111 entries

  • June 29 – In the Battle of Konotop, fought near the Ukrainian city of Konotop during the Russo-Polish War, Polish Cossack hetman Ivan Vyhovsky and his allies defeat the armies of the Tsardom of Russia, led by Aleksey Trubetskoy.
  • August 7 – As Booth's Uprising spreads to Liverpool, Thomas Myddelton, Randolph Egerton and fellow royalists take control of the town of Wrexham in Wales and proclaim Charles II to be King.
  • 7 August – as Booth's Uprising spreads to Liverpool, Thomas Myddelton, Randolph Egerton and fellow royalists take control of the town of Wrexham in Wales and proclaim Charles II to be King.