1646 in England
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Events from the year 1646 in the Kingdom of England.
Incumbents
Monarch - Charles I
Events
- 9 January - Battle of Bovey Heath: Parliament secures a significant victory over the Royalists in Devon.
- 12 January - Royalists abandon the siege of Plymouth.
- 16 February - The Battle of Torrington at Great Torrington in Devon, the last major battle of the First English Civil War, gives a decisive Parliamentary victory over the Royalists.
- March - Matthew Hopkins begins witch-hunting in the eastern counties.
- 2 March - The Prince of Wales escapes from Cornwall into exile.
- 13 March - Parliament captures Cornwall after Royalists surrender at Truro.[1]
- 21 March - Last Royalist army in the field surrenders at Stow-on-the-Wold, although individual fortresses still hold out.[1]
- 13 April - Exeter surrenders to Parliamentary forces.[1]
- 19 April - Barnstaple surrenders to Parliamentary forces.
- 27 April - King Charles I flees from Oxford in disguise.
- 5 May - King Charles I surrenders his forces to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire.[2]
- 20 June: Third Siege of Oxford concludes with signing of the surrender of the Royalist garrison at Oxford to General Thomas Fairfax's Parliamentary New Model Army; on 24 June the main force marches out, ending the First English Civil War.[2][3]
- 7 July - Levellers William Walwyn and Richard Overton publish Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens calling for the abolition of the monarchy.[2]
- 22 July - The Siege of Worcester ends with the city's capture by the Parliamentary forces led by Thomas Rainsborough.[4]
- 27 July - Wallingford Castle surrenders to Sir Thomas Fairfax after a 65-day siege.
- 30 July - In Newcastle upon Tyne Parliamentary commissioners and Scottish Covenanters demand that the King gives up control of the army and place restrictions on Catholics.[2]
- 17 August - The garrison at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall, the last mainland English Royalist stronghold, surrenders after a 155-day siege.
- 19 August - Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester, surrenders Raglan Castle in Wales to General Fairfax after a 2-month siege.
- October - Anglican episcopacy formally abolished.[1]
- 23 December - The Covenanters hand over the King to the Parliamentarians.[2]
- 25 December - Scuffles in Bury St Edmunds over the celebration of Christmas.[5]
Publications
- Thomas Browne's work Pseudodoxia Epidemica,[2] which introduces the word 'electricity' to the language.[6]
- James Shirley's Poems including the masque The Triumph of Beauty.[2]
- John Suckling's play The Goblins.
- The Westminster Confession of Faith.
Births
- 19 August - John Flamsteed, astronomer (died 1719)
- 9 November - John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, politician (died 1701)
- 27 November - Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle, politician (died 1692)
Deaths
- 24 March - Sir Thomas Aston, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament (born 1600)
- 20 July - William Twisse, church leader (born 1578)
- 1 September - Francis Windebank, statesman (born 1582)
- 14 September - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (born 1591)
- 4 October - Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, statesman (born 1586)
- 28 October (bur.) - William Dobson, portrait painter (born 1611)
References
- ^ a b c d Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 181–182. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 261. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ "Civil War: Surrender of Oxford". Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme. Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board. 2013. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
- ^ "1646, British Civil Wars". Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
- ^ Durston, Chris (December 1985). "Lords of misrule: The Puritan war on Christmas 1642-60". History Today. 35 (12): 7–14. Retrieved 2011-12-23.
- ^ Chalmers, Gordon (1937). "The Lodestone and the Understanding of Matter in Seventeenth Century England". Philosophy of Science. 4 (1): 75–95. doi:10.1086/286445.