istoryworld
Events relating to europe
Charles II is defeated by Cromwell at Worcester and escapes in disguise to France
Nikon becomes patriarch of all Russia and introduces reforms which cause the Old Believers to form a breakaway sect
Scotland and England are merged under English parliamentary rule, in a forced union which lasts eight years
Jan van Riebeeck establishes a Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope
A clash at sea between English and Dutch fleets begins the first of three Anglo-Dutch wars
The first coffee house opens In London and Londoners soon find such places useful to meet in and do business
Turenne defeats Condé in a battle in the Paris suburbs, hastening the decline of the Fronde
Cromwell uses troops to turn the members out of the House of Commons and locks the door behind them
The 14-year-old Louis XIV dances in a court ballet as Apollo, wearing a glorious sun costume, and finds that he likes the role
Cromwell is appointed Lord Protector of the Commonwealth for life, under legislation entitled the Instrument of Government
Jan Vermeer marries and begins a quiet career as a painter and art dealer in his home town of Delft
The English admiral Robert Blake introduces a system of signalling at sea by means of flags
John Bunyan joins a Nonconformist church in Bedford and becomes one of their preachers
Devoted fisherman Izaak Walton publishes the classic work on the subject, The Compleat Angler
Queen Christina, a secret convert to Catholicism, abdicates in Sweden and travels to Rome
The painter Pieter de Hooch is a friendly guide through the welcoming spaces of the seventeenth-century Dutch courtyard and home
Diego Velazquez paints his only surviving female nude, The Toilet of Venus (known as the Rokeby Venus)
George Fox begins preaching in England, in a movement which develops into the Society of Friends - or Quakers
The British, settling in Jamaica, soon turn the island into the major slave market of the West Indies
Christiaan Huygens, using a home-made telescope, describes accurately the rings of Saturn and discovers the planet's largest moon, Titan
Jews return to England after Cromwell repeals the law of 1290 forbidding their residence in the country
After a six-month siege, the Dutch capture Colombo from the Portuguese in Sri Lanka
Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens constructs the first pendulum clock, on Christmas Day in the Hague
Velazquez, in Las Meninas, paints himself painting the king and queen of Spain
The Dutch in South Africa purchase slaves to do domestic and agricultural work
