1640 in England
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| See also: | Other events of 1640 | ||||
Incumbents
[edit]Events
[edit]- 5 January – Parliament fixes a quorum of 40 for its proceedings to be transacted.[1]
- 12 January – Thomas Wentworth becomes Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and Earl of Strafford.[2]
- 17 January – John Finch becomes Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.[2]
- 13 April – King Charles I summons the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the Second Bishops' War against the Scottish Covenanters.[2]
- 17 April – John Pym makes a speech attacking the King in Parliament.[2]
- 4 May – Oliver St John calls on Parliament to outlaw ship money.[2]
- 5 May – the King dismisses the Short Parliament and prepares to attack Scotland.[2]
- 6 May – the Earl of Warwick, Lord Brooke, Lord Saye, John Pym, John Hampden, and Sir Walter Earle arrested.[2]
- 11–12 May – attack on Lambeth Palace by a London mob; Archbishop Laud has fled.[3] A young drummer, Benstead, is convicted of treason for encouraging the crowd, hanged, drawn and quartered, and has his head set above London Bridge;[4] and a glover, John Archer, supposed by the authorities to be a leader, becomes the last person in England to be tortured on the rack (in the Tower of London), but does not reveal any other names.[5]
- 20 August – a Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland.[2]
- 28 August – Battle of Newburn: the Covenanter army defeats the English army.[2]
- 26 October – Treaty of Ripon signed between the King and the Covenanters.[2]
- 3 November – the Long Parliament is summoned;[2] it will not be dissolved for 20 years.
- 25 November – the Earl of Strafford imprisoned in the Tower of London.[2]
- 11 December – a crowd of 1,500 Londoners presents the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for the abolition of episcopacy in the Church of England.
- 18 December – Archbishop Laud impeached for treason.[2]
- undated – Habeas Corpus Act ("An Act for the Regulating the Privie Councell and for taking away the Court commonly called the Star Chamber") passed, abolishing the Star Chamber.[6]
Births
[edit]- 11 January – Sir Robert Burdett, 3rd Baronet, politician (died 1716)
- 25 January – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, soldier and statesman (died 1707)
- 6 February – William Campion, politician (died 1702)
- 13 February – Richard Edgcumbe, politician (died 1688)
- 29 February – Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist preacher (died 1704)
- 30 March – John Trenchard, statesman (died 1695)
- 19 June – Thomas Widdrington, politician (died 1660)
- 29 June – Elizabeth Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield (died 1665)[7]
- 12 October – Sir Roger Twisden, 2nd Baronet (died 1703)
- 18 October – William Stanley, Member of Parliament (died 1670)
- 23 October – Elisabeth Pepys, née de St Michel, wife of Samuel (died 1669)
- 28 October – Streynsham Master, colonial administrator (died 1724)
- 5 November – John Verney, 1st Viscount Fermanagh, politician and merchant (died 1717)
- 17 November – Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, née Villiers, a mistress of King Charles II (died 1709)
- 7 December (bapt.) – Fabian Stedman, pioneer of change ringing (died 1713)
- 13 December – Robert Plot, naturalist (died 1696)
- 14 December – Aphra Behn, née Amis, Johnson or Cooper?, author (died 1689)
Deaths
[edit]- 14 January – Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer and judge (born 1578)
- 25 January – Robert Burton, scholar (born 1577)
- 17 March – Philip Massinger, dramatist (born 1583)
- 22 March – Thomas Carew, poet (born 1595)
- 28 April (bur.) – William Alabaster, poet and dramatist (born 1567)
- 3 June – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, politician (born 1584)
- 20 October – John Ball, Puritan clergyman (born 1585)
- 13 November – Laurence Chaderton, academic and churchman (born 1536)
- 8 December – Princess Anne, daughter of King Charles I (born 1637)
References
[edit]- ↑ Moran, Thomas Francis (1903). The Theory and Practice of the English Government. London: Longmans, Green. pp. 264–265.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60". Archived from the original on 2012-04-19. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
- ↑ Gardiner, S. R. (1965) [1884]. History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War. Vol. IX: 1603-1642 (repr. ed.). New York: AMS. OCLC 314362217.
- ↑ Walter, John (2024). "'This Infamous, Scandalous, Headless Insurrection': The Attack on William Laud and Lambeth Palace, May 1640, Revisited". The English Historical Review. Oxford University Press: 1–29. doi:10.1093/ehr/ceae156.
- ↑ Crowther, David (2023). "372 Go On Vigorously". The History of England. Retrieved 2026-07-26.
- ↑ "Charles I, 1640: An Act for [the Regulating the Privie Councell and for taking away the Court commonly called the Star Chamber]". British History Online. Retrieved 2011-01-27.
- ↑ MacLeod, Catharine (2001). Painted Ladies: women at the court of Charles II. London: National Portrait Gallery. ISBN 9781855143210.