Explore 158 historical events from 1640–1649.
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. P…
English Civil War: Scottish Covenanter forces under the Earl of Leven launch the Siege of Hereford, a remaining…
The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldie…
Thirty Years' War: The Second Battle of Nördlingen sees French forces defeating those of the Holy Roman Empire.
Shi Kefa, courtesy names Xianzhi and Daolin, was a government official and calligrapher who lived in the late Ming dynasty. He was born in Xiangfu and claimed ancestry from Daxing …
Shi Kefa, Chinese general and calligrapher (born 1601)
Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares,, known as the Count-Duke of Olivares, was a Spanish royal favourite of Philip IV and minister. He was appo…
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish statesman (born 1587)
Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex was an English merchant and politician. He sat in the House of Commons between 1614 and 1622 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cran…
Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, English merchant and politician (born 1575)
Hugo Grotius, also known as Hugo de Groot or Huig de Groot, was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was bo…
Hugo Grotius, Dutch playwright, philosopher, and jurist (born 1583)
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. P…
English Civil War: The Parliamentarians destroyed the last Royalist field army at the Battle of Langport, ultimately…
Charles I was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649.
Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. P…
English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
Gabriël Grupello was a Flemish Baroque sculptor who produced religious and mythological sculptures, portraits and public sculptures. He worked in Flanders, France and Germany. He w…
Gabriël Grupello, Flemish Baroque sculptor (died 1730)
William Salmon was an English empiric doctor and a writer of medical texts. He advertised himself as a "Professor of Physick". Salmon held an equivocal place in the medical communi…
William Salmon, English medical writer (died 1713)
Henrietta of England was the youngest child of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. She was Duchess of Orléans through her marriage to Philippe I, Duke of Orléa…
Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of Scotland, England and Ireland (died 1670)
Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours was a French noblewoman and the mistress of Louis XIV from 1661 to 1667.
Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV (died 1710)
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber was a Czech-Austrian composer and violinist of the middle Baroque era. Biber worked in Graz and Kroměříž before he illegally left his employer, Princ…
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Bohemian-Austrian violinist and composer (died 1704)
The transition from Ming to Qing, also known as the Manchu conquest of China or Ming-Qing transition, was a decades-long period of conflict between the Qing dynasty, established by…
Transition from Ming to Qing: The Chongzhen Emperor, the last Emperor of Ming China, commits suicide during a peasant re
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the …
Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Sha
The Chongzhen Emperor, temple name Ming Sizong, personal name Zhu Youjian, courtesy name Deyue, was the 17th and last emperor of the Ming dynasty. He reigned from 1627 to 1644. "Ch…
Chongzhen Emperor of China (born 1611)
Brian Twyne was an English antiquary and an academic at the University of Oxford. After being educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and becoming a Fellow of the college in 16…
Brian Twyne, English academic, antiquarian and archivist (born 1581)
Pope Urban VIII, born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded t…
Pope Urban VIII (born 1568)
The Restoration War between Portugal and Spain began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union.…
Portuguese Restoration War: Portuguese and Spanish forces both claim victory in the Battle of Montijo
The Manchus are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchu…
Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Man
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. P…
English Civil War: Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby
The Qing dynasty, officially the Great Qing, also known as the Qing Empire or Qing China, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia which e…
The Qing dynasty's Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor take Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty
The transition from Ming to Qing, also known as the Manchu conquest of China or Ming-Qing transition, was a decades-long period of conflict between the Qing dynasty, established by…
Ming–Qing transition: The Ming dynasty of China fell when the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide during a peasant rebel