text:
1647

January–March

 * January 2 – Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong by a Qing archer, after having been betrayed by one of his officers, Liu Jinzhong.
 * January 7 – The Westminster Assembly begins debating the biblical proof texts, to support the new Confession of Faith.
 * January 16 – Citizens of Dublin declare their support for Rinuccini, and refuse to support the army of the Marquis of Ormond.
 * January 17 – Posten Norge is founded as Postvesenet.
 * January 20 – A small Qing force led by Li Chengdong captures Guangzhou and kills the Zhu Yuyue, the Shaowu Emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty in China.
 * February 5 – The Yongli era is proclaimed as Zhu Youlang is declared the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming.
 * February 24 – Thomas Bushell surrenders the Bristol Channel island of Lundy, the last remaining Royalist territory of England, to the Parliamentarians.
 * March 14 – Thirty Years' War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
 * March – Following the Treaty of Ulm that removed Bavaria from the Thirty Years War, the Bavarian troops' commander, Holy Roman Imperial General Johann von Werth, defies Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and von Werth attempts to move the Bavarian troops out of Bavaria and into Austria to come under Imperial jurisdiction. The troops refuse, and von Werth flees to Austria.

April–June

 * April 3 – In England, a letter from the Agitators of the New Model Army, protesting delay of pay, is read in the House of Commons.
 * May 13 – The 1647 Santiago earthquake rattles Chile.
 * May 24 – The Marquis of Argyll and David Leslie join forces to defeat Alasdair MacColla, at Rhunahoarine Point in Kintyre. MacColla flees to Ireland; his followers are massacred.
 * June 6 – Michael Jones, named Governor of Dublin by England's Parliamentarians, lands with 2,000 troops and begins the expulsion of Catholics and the arrest of Protestant royalists.
 * June 8 – The Puritan rulers of England's Long Parliament pass the "Ordinance for abolishing all Holidays, and appointing other Days for Sports and Recreations for Scholars, Apprentices, and Servants, in their Room", confirming abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, though making the second Tuesday in each month a secular holiday. The Act declares "Forasmuch as the Feasts of the Nativity of Christ, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and other Festivals, commonly called Holidays, have heretofore been superstitiously used and observed; be it ordained, That the said Feasts and Festivals be no loner observed within England and Wales."
 * June 10 – The Battle of Puerto de Cavite begins in the Spanish Philippines when an armada of 12 large warships from the Dutch Republic sails into Manila Bay, with cannon fire hitting many of the roofs of the city. The Spanish defending fleet drives off the Dutch after a two day battle.
 * June 16 – Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans, is crowned as the King of Hungary and Croatia at Pressburg, now the Slovakian capital of Bratislava
 * June 19 – The Duke of Ormond, the royalist governor of Dublin, concludes a treaty with the English Commonwealth's Earl of Anglesey, handing over control of Dublin to the Commonwealth in return for the English promise to protect the interests of royalists, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who had not joined in the Irish Rebellion.
 * June 25 – The "Remonstrance of The Army" is presented to the English parliament by former Royal Army supporters of King Charles I, pledging their loyalty to the new English Commonwealth.

July–September

 * July 7 – Masaniello launches rebellion in Naples against Spanish rule.
 * July 27 – A mob invades both Houses of the English Parliament at Westminster, and forces the Speakers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords to flee, along with other MPs and Peers.
 * August 5 – The New Model Army marches into London, "fulfilling the worst nightmares of Presbyterian MPs," and restores the members of Parliament who were deposed on July 27.
 * August 8 – Battle of Dungan's Hill: Irish forces are defeated by English Parliamentary forces.
 * August 17 – Peter Stuyvesant is appointed Director of New Netherlands, the Dutch colony in what is later the U.S. state of New York, by the Dutch West India Company to replace Willem Kieft, who departs New Amsterdam on the ship Princess Amelia.
 * August 22 – Battle of Triebl: Imperial forces defeat the Swedes in a surprise attack in Bohemia.
 * September 27 – The Dutch merchant ship Princess Amelia runs aground off of the coast of Mumbles Point, Wales and sinks, killing 86 of the 107 people aboard, including former New Netherlands Governor Willem Kieft.

October–December

 * October 28 – The Putney Debates, a series of discussions between officers of the New Model Army following Parliament's military defeat of the absolutist monarchy of King Charles, begin at the St. Mary's Church, Putney about what form of government would replace the monarchy in the new republican Commonwealth of England.
 * November 13 – Battle of Knocknanuss: An Irish confederate force is destroyed by the army of Parliament; Alasdair MacColla is killed.
 * November 15 – Henry of Guise lands in Naples, to become the leader of the Neapolitan Republic.
 * December 28 – King Charles of England promises a church reform. This agreement leads to the Second English Civil War.

Date unknown

 * Aberystwyth Castle in Wales, a former Royalist stronghold, is razed to the ground after "a battery of cannon erected on the top of Pendinas hill by Cromwell" and the Parliamentarian troops.
 * The word Geysir is first used in Iceland, by Bishop Sveinson.
 * Dutch artist Salomon van Ruysdael completes the oil painting, The Crossing at Nijmegen.

January–March

 * January 2 – Nathaniel Bacon, Virginia colonist, rebel (d. 1676)
 * January 6
 * Christian William I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (1666–1720) (d. 1721)
 * William Wall, English theologian (d. 1728)
 * January 7 – Wilhelm Ludwig, Duke of Württemberg (d. 1677)
 * February 11 – Elisabeth Charlotte of Anhalt-Harzgerode, by marriage Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön-Norburg (d. 1723)
 * February 17
 * William Hay, Scottish clergyman and prelate (d. 1707)
 * Philipp Reinhard Vitriarius, German lawyer (d. 1720)
 * February 18 – Denis-Nicolas Le Nourry, French Benedictine scholar (d. 1724)
 * March 1 – John de Brito, Portuguese Jesuit missionary and martyr (d. 1693)
 * March 12 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French soldier and general (d. 1727)
 * March 17 – Johann Wolfgang Jäger, German theologian (d. 1720)
 * March 19 – Anna Elisabeth of Anhalt-Bernburg, duchess consort of Württemberg-Bernstadt (d. 1680)
 * March 20 – Jean de Hautefeuille, French cleric, scientist (d. 1724)

April–June

 * April 1 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court (d. 1680)
 * April 2 – Maria Sibylla Merian, German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator (d. 1717)
 * April 3 – Sir Thomas Littleton, 3rd Baronet, English statesman (d. 1709)
 * April 16 – Matthijs Naiveu, Dutch painter (d. 1726)
 * April 18 – Elias Brenner, Finnish artist (d. 1717)
 * April 26 – William Ashhurst, Lord Mayor of London (1693–1694) (d. 1720)
 * May 20 – Basilius Petritz, German composer and Kreuzkirche (d. 1715)
 * June 3 – Johanna Walpurgis of Leiningen-Westerburg, German noblewoman, by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels (d. 1687)
 * June 17 – James Kendall, English soldier, politician (d. 1708)
 * June 19 – Miles Gale, English antiquarian (d. 1721)
 * June 20 – John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
 * June 22 – Ivan Ratkaj, Croatian Jesuit missionary and explorer (d. 1683)

July–September

 * July 2 – Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English privy councillor (d. 1730)
 * July 8 – Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond, member of the Court of the Restoration, famous for refusing to become a mistress of Charles II of England (d. 1702)
 * July 22 – Margaret Mary Alacoque, French Catholic nun, mystic and saint (d. 1690)
 * July 23 – Luise Marie of the Palatinate, German princess (d. 1679)
 * July 29 – Carl Piper, Swedish politician (d. 1716)
 * August 4 – Giovanni II Cornaro, Venetian nobleman and statesman (d. 1722)
 * August 12
 * Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer (d. 1719)
 * Eberhard Werner Happel, German author (d. 1690)
 * August 22 – Denis Papin, French inventor (d. 1713)
 * August 28 – Erik Carlsson Sjöblad, Swedish governor, admiral, and baron (d. 1725)
 * August 31 – Mary Scott, 3rd Countess of Buccleuch, young Scottish peeress (d. 1661)
 * September 1 – Princess Anna Sophie of Denmark, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark (d. 1717)
 * September 4 – Gerhard Noodt, Dutch jurist (d. 1725)
 * September 23
 * Joseph Dudley, colonial Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1720)
 * Frederick VII, Margrave of Baden-Durlach from 1677 until his death (d. 1709)

October–December

 * October 3 – Johannes Voet, Dutch legal scholar (d. 1713)
 * November 11
 * Johann Wilhelm Baier, German theologian (d. 1695)
 * Johannes Voorhout, Dutch painter (d. 1723)
 * November 18 – Pierre Bayle, French philosopher (d. 1706)
 * November 20 – Huchtenburg, Dutch painter (d. 1733)
 * November 26 – Marie Hedwig of Hesse-Darmstadt, Duchess consort of Saxe-Meiningen (1671–1680) (d. 1680)
 * November 27 – Badr-un-Nissa, daughter of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and Nawab Bai (d. 1670)
 * November 28 – Constantin Marselis, Danish baron (d. 1699)
 * December 4 – Daniel Eberlin, German composer (d. 1715)
 * December 7
 * Giovanni Ceva, Italian mathematician (d. 1734)
 * Francesco del Giudice, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1725)
 * December 11
 * Jacob Johan Hastfer, Swedish officer, governor of Livonia (d. 1695)
 * David van der Plas, Dutch painter (d. 1704)
 * December 22 – Nicholas Noyes, Massachusetts colonial minister, during the time of the Salem witch trials (d. 1717)
 * December 30 – Jean Martianay, French Benedictine scholar (d. 1717)

Date unknown

 * Henry Aldrich, English theologian and philosopher (d. 1710)
 * Constantine Phaulkon, Greek adventurer (d. 1688)
 * Elisabeth Hevelius, Polish astronomer (d. 1693)

Deaths

 * January 2 – Zhang Xianzhong, Chinese rebel (b. 1606)
 * January 6 – Francisco Ximénez de Urrea, Spanish historian (b. 1589)
 * January 14 – François L’Anglois, French artist (b. 1589)
 * January 29 – Francis Meres, English writer (b. 1565)
 * February 6 – Juan Alfonso Enríquez de Cabrera, Viceroy of Sicily and Viceroy of Naples (b. 1599)
 * February 17 – Johann Heermann, German poet, hymn-writer (b. 1585)
 * March 2 – Johanna Elisabeth of Nassau-Hadamar, by marriage Princess of Anhalt-Harzgerode (b. 1619)
 * March 14 – Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (b. 1584)
 * March 29 – Charles Butler, English beekeeper and philologist (b. 1560)
 * April 20 – Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1593)
 * May 21 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and historian (b. 1581)
 * June 2 – Christian, Prince-Elect of Denmark (b. 1603)
 * June 9 – Leonard Calvert, Colonial governor of Maryland (b. 1606)
 * June 12 – Thomas Farnaby, English grammarian (b. c. 1575)
 * July 1 – Francis Walsingham, English Jesuit (b. 1577)
 * July 7 – Thomas Hooker, Connecticut colonist (b. 1586)
 * July 12 – Francesco Maria Farnese, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1619)
 * July 16 – Masaniello, Italian rebel (b. 1622)
 * August 24 – Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
 * August 27 – Pietro Novelli, Italian painter (b. 1603)
 * September 9 – Sir Edward Osborne, 1st Baronet, English politician (b. 1596)
 * September 18 – Pietro Carrera, Italian chess player (b. 1573)
 * October 8 – Christian Sørensen Longomontanus, Danish astronomer (b. 1562)
 * October 9 – Anselm Casimir Wambold von Umstadt, Archbishop of Mainz (b. 1582)
 * October 15 – Bartholda van Swieten, Dutch diplomat (b. 1566)
 * October 25 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian mathematician and physicist (b. 1608)
 * November 5 – Vincentio Reinieri, Italian mathematician and astronomer (b. 1606)
 * November 25 – George Albert I, Count of Erbach-Schönberg (b. 1597)
 * November 30
 * Bonaventura Cavalieri, Italian mathematician (b. 1598)
 * Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian painter (b. 1582)
 * December 1 – Joseph Gaultier de la Vallette, French astronomer (b. 1564)

title: 1647


text:
1653

January–March

 * January 3 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
 * 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.
 * February 2 – New Amsterdam (now New York City) received municipal rights by a charter from New Netherland Governor Peter Stuyvesant.
 * February 3 – Cardinal Mazarin returns to Paris from exile.
 * February 10 – Swiss peasant war of 1653: Peasants from the Entlebuch valley in Switzerland assemble at Heiligkreuz to organize a plan to suspend all tax payments to the authorities in the canton of Lucerne, after having been snubbed at a magisterial meeting in Lucerne. More communities in the canton join in an alliance concluded at Wolhusen on February 26.
 * February – The Morning Star Rebellion (Morgonstjärneupproret) of peasants breaks out in Sweden's province of Närke, against Queen Christina. It is brutally suppressed by April, and its leader, the self-proclaimed King Olof Mårtensson (who uses a morning star as his scepter) is executed on a breaking wheel on April 6.
 * March 14 – A Dutch fleet defeats the English in the Battle of Leghorn in the Mediterranean but the Dutch commander, Johan van Galen, later dies of his wounds.

April–June

 * April 20 – Oliver Cromwell expels the Rump Parliament in England.
 * April 28 – The Great Fire of Marlborough destroys 224 houses and much of the textile businesses in the Wiltshire town which, "at that date was one of considerable importance, and had merchants of affluence and repute."
 * May 31 – Ferdinand IV, already the King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, is elected King of the Romans by his fellow German monarchs, making him eligible to succeed his father Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. Ferdinand IV will not live to become Holy Roman Emperor, instead dying from smallpox 14 months after his designation.
 * June 13 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The English navy defeats the Dutch fleet in the Battle of the Gabbard after a two-day fight.
 * June 20 – The Swiss peasant war of 1653 ends after Swiss Army troops under the command of Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer suppress the last rebels in Switzerland's Entlebuch Valley.

July–September

 * July 4 – Barebone's Parliament, named for a prominent Puritan member, Praise-God Barebone, opens its session in London with elected representatives to pass laws for the Commonwealth of England.
 * July 8 – John Thurloe becomes Cromwell's head of intelligence.
 * August 5 – Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg reaffirms the nobility's freedom from taxation, and its unlimited control over the peasants, in return for a grant to him of 530,000 silver Joachimsthalers to be paid in installments over six years.
 * August 8 – The petite post, a system of postage using prepaid labels and post boxes, is inaugurated in Paris by Jean-Jacques Renouard de Villayer for the mailing of letters within the city, an event noted by Madeleine de Scudéry in her manuscript Chroniques du samedi.
 * August 10 – The Battle of Scheveningen, the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, ends after three days of fighting off the island of Texel, as the English Navy gains a tactical victory over the Dutch fleet.
 * September 13 – A violent storm off the west coast of Scotland sinks the English Navy warship Swan, and the commandeered merchantmen Speedwell and Martha and Margaret, all of which have been anchored off of Mull. Most of the crews had gone ashore, but 23 of the men on the ship Speedwell are killed.
 * 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.

October–December

 * October 11 (October 1 O.S.) – The Zemsky Sobor, the Russian Empire's national assembly, opens its session to declare a war against the Kingdom of Poland.
 * October 20 – The Battle of Bordeaux is fought between French and Spanish warships in the Gironde estuary of France as part of the Franco-Spanish War. The Spanish fleet of 30 warships, under the command of Álvaro de Bazán y Manrique de Lara, Marquis of Santa Cruz, overwhelms the French fleet of César, Duke of Vendôme and captures ten galleys and brigantines, as well as burning four other warships and 15 barges.
 * October 25 – Erdeni Bumba, the wife and chief consort of China's Shunzhi Emperor, is demoted from being the empress to being a concubine.
 * October 29 – Pierre-Esprit Radisson, a French Canadian teenager who had been captured by a Mohawk raiding party two years earlier and then tortured, escapes captivity in what is now the U.S. state of New York.
 * November 8 – The Battle of Arronches takes place near the town of Arronches on the Portuguese side of the border between Portugal and Spain, with the Portuguese Army outflanking and defeating a larger Spanish force.
 * 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.
 * November 30 – Jacques Dyel du Parquet completes his installment payments, totaling 41,500 French livres, to become the exclusive owner of the Caribbean islands of Martinique, Grenada, Saint Lucia and the Grenadines.
 * November – John Casor, a servant of African descent in Northampton County of the colony of Virginia, leaves Anthony Johnson's farm, after claiming his contract of indenture had expired, and goes to work for a new employer, Robert Parker. Johnson sues Parker, claiming that Casor is a slave for life, rather than an indentured servant, and the court issues a landmark ruling on March 8, 1655, establishing African-Americans as property.
 * December 7 – The Moti Masjid, an Islamic mosque made completely of white marble and within the walls of the Agra Fort in what is now the city of Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is dedicated by the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan, on 16 Muharram 1064.
 * December 12 – The dissolution of Barebone's Parliament is voted by its members after having passed laws for the Commonwealth of England.
 * December 16 – The Instrument of Government in England becomes Britain's first written constitution, under which Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, being advised by a remodelled English Council of State. This is the start of The First Protectorate, bringing an end to the first period of republican government in the country, the Commonwealth of England.

Date unknown

 * Marcello Malpighi, an Italian pioneer of microscopical anatomy becomes a doctor of medicine.
 * Stephen Bachiler, a clergyman and early advocate for the separation of church and state returns to England after having spent more than 20 years overseas in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
 * The gardens surrounding the Taj Mahal mausoleum are completed at Agra.

Births

 * January 6 – Christian, Duke of Saxe-Eisenberg (d. 1707)
 * January 10 – Caspar Herman Hausmann, Danish-Norwegian general (d. 1718)
 * January 11 – Anthony Günther, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, German prince (d. 1714)
 * January 11 – Paolo Alessandro Maffei, Italian antiquarian, humanist (d. 1716)
 * January 14 – Robert Price (judge), British judge and politician (d. 1733)
 * January 16 – Johann Conrad Brunner, Swiss anatomist (d. 1727)
 * January 24 – Dom Jacques Alexandre, French Benedictine (d. 1734)
 * January 31 – William Tempest (politician), English Member of Parliament (d. 1700)
 * January 31 – Anna Catherine of Nassau-Ottweiler, Wild and Rhinegravine of Salm-Dhaun by marriage (d. 1731)
 * February 12 – Giovanni Francesco Grossi, Italian opera singer (d. 1697)
 * February 17 – Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer (d. 1713)
 * February 22 – Martín de Ursúa, Spanish conquistador (d. 1715)
 * February 22 – Elisabeth Johanna of Veldenz, Wild and Rhinegravine of Salm-Kyrburg (d. 1718)
 * February 22 – Vidal Marín del Campo, Spanish Grand Inquisitor (d. 1709)
 * March 1 – Jean-Baptiste-Henri de Valincour, French classical scholar (d. 1730)
 * March 1 – Pacificus of San Severino, Italian saint (d. 1721)
 * March 8 – Goodwin Wharton, British politician (d. 1704)
 * March 10 – John Kettlewell, English clergyman (d. 1695)
 * March 10 – John Benbow, English Royal Navy Admiral (d. 1702)
 * March 21 – John Hampden (1653–1696), English politician (d. 1696)
 * March 24 – Joseph Sauveur, French mathematician (d. 1716)
 * April 2 – Prince George of Denmark, consort of Anne, Queen of Great Britain (d. 1708)
 * April 2 – Egidio Quinto, Serbian Catholic bishop (d. 1722)
 * April 6 – Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (d. 1728)
 * April 19 – William Sewel, Dutch historian (d. 1720)
 * April 25 – Benedetto Pamphili, Italian cardinal, patron of the arts, composer and librettist (d. 1730)
 * April 25 – Sir John Bowyer, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1691)
 * May 3 – Archibald Douglas, 1st Earl of Forfar, Scottish peer (d. 1712)
 * May 8 – Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (d. 1734)
 * May 21 – Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
 * May 21 – Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard, English politician and peer (d. 1723)
 * May 22 – Peter Gott, English politician (d. 1712)
 * May 30 – Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1676)
 * June 1 – Georg Muffat, German composer and organist (d. 1704)
 * June 11 – Gaspar de la Cerda, 8th Count of Galve (d. 1697)
 * June 12 – Maria Amalia of Courland, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1711)
 * June 16 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)
 * June 20 – Richard Maitland, 4th Earl of Lauderdale, Scottish politician (d. 1695)
 * June 26 – Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV of France (d. 1743)
 * June 28 – Muhammad Azam Shah, Mughal emperor (d. 1707)
 * July 4 – Sir Walter Clarges, 1st Baronet, English politician (d. 1706)
 * July 5 – Thomas Pitt, British Governor of Madras (d. 1726)
 * July 11 – Sarah Good, accused Massachusetts witch (d. 1692)
 * August 9 – John Oldham, English poet (d. 1683)
 * August 10 – Louis-Guillaume Pécour, French dancer and choreographer (d. 1729)
 * August 14 – Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (d. 1688)
 * August 15 – Johann Friedrich Gleditsch, German book publisher (d. 1716)
 * August 18 – Julius Siegmund, Duke of Württemberg-Juliusburg (d. 1684)
 * August 28 – Jesper Swedberg, Swedish hymnwriter (d. 1735)
 * September 1 – Johann Pachelbel, German organist and composer (d. 1706)
 * September 3 – Roger North, English lawyer and biographer (d. 1734)
 * September 4 – Henry Wise (gardener), English gardener (d. 1738)
 * September 8 – Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1731)
 * September 8 – Fuquan (prince), Chinese Qing Dynasty prince (d. 1703)
 * September 17 – Sir Henry Monson, 3rd Baronet, English politician (d. 1718)
 * October 1 – Sir George Speke, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1683)
 * October 8 – Michel Baron, French actor (d. 1729)
 * October 10 – Anton Günther II, Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen-Arnstadt (d. 1716)
 * October 18 – Abraham van Riebeeck, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1713)
 * November 11 – Carlo Ruzzini, Doge of Venice (d. 1735)
 * November 14 – Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Catholic bishop of Quebec (d. 1727)
 * November 19 – Christian II, Duke of Saxe-Merseburg (d. 1694)
 * November 26 – Empress Xiaochengren, Chinese Qing Dynasty empress (d. 1674)
 * November 29 – Thomas Cromwell, 3rd Earl of Ardglass, English nobleman (d. 1682)
 * December 3 – Giovanni Battista Tolomei, Italian Jesuit priest, theologian and cardinal (d. 1726)
 * December 26 – Johann Conrad Peyer, Swiss anatomist (d. 1712)
 * December 28 – Mary Howard, of the Holy Cross, English nun of the Poor Clares (d. 1735)
 * date unknown
 * Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Japanese playwright (d. 1725)
 * Rahman Baba, Afghan Pashto Sufi poet (d. 1711)
 * Johann Pachelbel, German composer (d. 1706)

Deaths

 * January 14 – George Rudolf of Liegnitz, Polish noble (b. 1595)
 * January 21 – John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol, English diplomat (b. 1580)
 * February 13 – Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, German poet (b. 1584)
 * February 16 – Johannes Schultz, German composer (b. 1582)
 * February 20 – Luigi Rossi, Italian composer (b. 1597)
 * February 21 – Adriaan Pauw, Grand Pensionary of Holland (b. 1585)
 * February 27 – Diego López Pacheco, 7th Duke of Escalona, Spanish noble (b. 1599)
 * March 6 – Juan de Dicastillo, Spanish theologian (b. 1584)
 * March 23 – Johan van Galen, Dutch naval officer (b. 1604)
 * May 13 – Teodósio, Prince of Brazil, Portuguese prince (b. 1634)
 * May 26 – Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)
 * March 10 – Count John Louis of Nassau-Hadamar (b. 1590)
 * March 25 – Nicholas Martyn, English politician (b. 1593)
 * March 30 – Mikołaj Łęczycki, Polish Jesuit (b. 1574)
 * April 20 – Celestyn Myślenta, Polish theologian (b. 1588)
 * April 26 – Matthias Faber, German Jesuit priest and writer (b. 1586)
 * May 11 – Petronio Veroni, Roman Catholic prelate, Bishop of Boiano (1652–1653) (b. 1600)
 * May 19 – Elizabeth Lucretia, Duchess of Cieszyn, Duchess suo jure of Cieszyn (b. 1599)
 * June 5 – Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1579)
 * June 26 – Juliana Morell, Spanish-French scholar (b. 1594)
 * July 10 – Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)
 * July 31 – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
 * August 10 – Maarten Tromp, Dutch admiral (b. 1598)
 * August 22 – Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Plötzkau, German prince (b. 1575)
 * September 3 – Claudius Salmasius, French classical scholar (b. 1588)
 * September 14 – Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg, Duke of Jülich and Berg (b. 1578)
 * September 26 – Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de Châteauneuf, French diplomat and government official (b. 1580)
 * October 3 – Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, Dutch scholar (b. 1612)
 * October 7 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic prelate and cardinal (b. 1581)
 * October 22 – Thomas de Critz, British artist (b. 1607)
 * October 25 – Gustav, Count of Vasaborg, illegitimate son of King Gustavus Adolphus and his mistress Margareta Slots (b. 1616)
 * November 17 – Joana, Princess of Beira, Portuguese infanta (princess) (b. 1635)
 * December 7 – Ludwig Crocius, German Calvinist minister (b. 1586)
 * December 21 – Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, Duchess consort of Pomerania (b. 1580)
 * December 28 – Giovanni Battista Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo (b. 1592)
 * date unknown
 * Lucrezia Marinella, Italian poet and author (b. 1571)
 * Jusepa Vaca, Spanish stage actress (b. 1589)
 * Constantia Zierenberg, German-Polish singer (b. 1605)
 * George Skutt, English merchant and politician

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1653


text:
Æsir

Æsir (Old Norse; singular: áss) or ēse (Old English; singular: ōs) are gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and mythology, the precise meaning of the term "Æsir" is debated, as it can refer to both the gods in general or specifically to one of the main families of gods, in contrast to the Vanir, with whom they waged war, ultimately leading to a joining of the families. The term can further be used to describe local gods that were believed to live in specific features in the landscape such as fells. In the Old English Wið færstice, the Ēse are referred to, along with elves, as harmful beings that could cause a stabbing pain, although exactly how they were conceived of by the author of the text is unclear.

Words for Æsir feature in many Germanic names, such as Oswald and Ásmundr, and in some place names in Norway and Sweden. They further likely give their name to the A-rune, attested in Elder Futhark, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc and Younger Futhark.

Etymology

The modern English term "Æsir" is derived from the plural Old Norse term æsir, the singular of which is áss. In Old English, the term used is the cognate ōs ( ēse) In continental West Germanic languages, the word is only attested in personal and place names such as Ansila, Ansgeir and Anshram. The cognate term Ansis was recorded as a Latinised form of an original Gothic word by Jordanes, in the 6th century CE work Getica, as a name for euhemerised semi-divine early Gothic rulers. In continental West Germanic languages, the word is only attested in personal and place names such as Ansila, Ansgeir and Anshram. The Old High German is reconstructed as *ans, plural *ensî.

The corresponding feminine form in Old Norse is ásynja (:ásynjur), formed by the addition of the -ynja suffix, denoting a female form. A cognate word for "female áss" is not attested outside Old Norse, and a corresponding West Germanic word would have been separately derived with the feminine suffixes -inī or -injō.

The Proto-Germanic form is typically reconstructed as ansuz. This form of the word is attested in Proto-Germanic during the Roman Imperial Age as a component of the name of the goddess Vih-ansa (potentially translating to "Battle-goddess") and probably also in an inscription from around 200 CE on a buckle from Vimose that reads a(n)sau wīja ("I dedicate this to the Æsir"). The word *ansuz is in turn is typically derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems-u-, making the terms closely related to ásura, ahura ("god" or "lord") and ("to give birth" or "to beget"). An alternative is that the terms for "Æsir" are related to ans- ("beam" or "post"), the ancestor of áss ("the main beam of a house"). In this case, the name would likely have originated due to the equation of gods and carved posts in Germanic religion.

Snorri Sturluson and Saxo Grammaticus proposed that the term "Æsir" instead derives from "Ásiamenn ("Asians"), and the idea that the gods originated in Asia, later migrating into Northern Europe. This is however not supported by modern scholars and attributed to medieval scholarship on the matter and an attempt to connect the Scandinavian peoples with Classical antiquity and Christianity rather than a reflection of actual Germanic mythology.

Derived terms
Áss is further found in Old Norse compound nouns such as Asbrú ("Æsir's bridge"), Ásgarð ("home" or "enclosure of the Æsir"), ásmegin ("strength of the Æsir") and the names for Thor Asa-Þórr ("Æsir-Thor") and Asabragr ("Æsir-lord"). The only modern word that is derived from terms for æsir, other than learned borrowings from medieval languages is åska, meaning "thunderstorm", which is derived from earlier åsekja ("the driving of the áss"), which would derive from the reconstructed Old East Norse:*ās-ækia. This is likely in reference to the belief in thunderstorms originating from Thor's riding across the skies.

Terms for Æsir form parts of Germanic names in multiple Germanic languages. Examples of this include Ósbeorn, Óslác, Ósweald (Modern English: Oswald) and their corresponding Old Norse equivalents, Ásbjörn, Áslákr and Ásvaldr. Other examples include Óswine and Ásmundr. Some Proto-Norse personal names feature *ansuz such as Ansugastiz, Ansugīslaz and *Ansulaibaz.

Distinctions between "áss", "goð" and "vanr"
It has been proposed that in Old Norse poetry, the term "áss" was typically chosen over "goð" for metrical reasons, fitting better with the required alliteration or rhyme, rather than so as to create a semantic distinction between the two terms. Following from this, it has been argued that the term "æsir" acts as a synonym to "goð" and is inclusive of Njörðr and his descendants, typically referred to as the Vanir. Examples of this are seen in the þulur, where Njöðr and Freyr are listed in the ása heiti ("Poetic equivalents for áss") and Freyja in that for the ásunjur.

The main tales that present the Æsir and Vanir as distinct family groups are those concerning the Æsir-Vanir war, which are contained within Völuspá, Ynglinga saga and Skáldskaparmál. This conflict between the gods occurred long in the past and in Ynglinga saga ends with the exchange of Hœnir and Mímir from the Æsir with as hostages Njörðr, Freyr and Kvasir from the Vanir. Skáldskaparmal alternatively says that at the end of the war, the two groups mixed their spit in a vat and created Kvasir from it. The inclusion of gods typically referred to as Vanir as Æsir is that the Vanir may have been seen as fully integrated into the Æsir after the resolution of this war between the two groups.

Proposed origins of a distinction with Vanir
Despite the inclusion to some extent of the Vanir within the wider group of Æsir, some scholars have argued that some differences between the two groups remain, such as the Vanir appearing to have mainly been connected with cultivation and fertility and the Æsir with power and war. Conversely, it has been argued that this division of domains is not reflected in the sources, with the Vanir being instead more associated with kingship and the Æsir with creation.

One idea is that the Vanir (and the fertility cult associated with them) may be more archaic than that of the more warlike Æsir, such that the mythical war may mirror a half-remembered religious conflict. This argument was first suggested by Wilhelm Mannhardt in 1877 (as described in Dumézil, xxiii and Munch, 288). On a similar note, Marija Gimbutas argues that the Æsir and the Vanir represent the displacement of an indigenous group by a tribe of warlike Indo-European invaders as part of her Kurgan hypothesis. Another historical theory is that the inter-pantheon interaction may be an apotheosisation of the conflict between the Roman Kingdom and the Sabines. Given the difference between their roles and emphases, some scholars have speculated that the interactions between the Æsir and the Vanir reflect the types of interaction that were occurring between social classes (or clans) within Norse society at the time.

Finally, the noted comparative religion scholar Mircea Eliade speculated that this conflict is actually a later version of an Indo-European myth concerning the conflict between and eventual integration of a pantheon of sky/warrior/ruler gods and a pantheon of earth/economics/fertility gods, with no strict historical antecedents.

Specific beings referred to as Æsir
Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda contains two lists of Æsir, one in Gylfaginning and one in the þulur. Though these sources largely agree, they are not identical. Gylfaginning lists the male Æsir as Odin, Thor, Njörðr, Freyr, Týr, Heimdallr, Bragi, Víðarr, Váli, Ullr, Forseti and Loki and the ásynjur as Frigg, Sága, Eir, Gefjon, Fulla, Freyja, Sjöfn, Lofn, Vár, Vör, Syn, Hlín, Snotra, Gná, Sól, Bil The þulur add to this the ásynjur Skaði, Sigyn, Hnoss, Gerðr, Jörð, Iðunn, Ilmr, Njörun, Nanna, Rindr, Þrúðr, Rán. Some scholars have noted, however, that the Prose Edda does not reflect a worldview held by all heathen Nordic, or more widely Germanic, people throughout time and space. Terry Gunnell further challenges the idea that all North-Germanic people conceived of the gods as Snorri portrays them - living as a pantheon of Æsir and Vanir in Ásgarð together and all being ruled by Óðinn who is the ancestor of many of them. He proposes that this view of Óðinn as the leader of a distinct family of gods, the Æsir, would likely not have been held by the majority of heathens, instead resulting from the material that Snorri presents coming from the elite warrior class, with whom Óðinn was closely associated.

Beyond this, a runic inscription on the 9th century CE Engstad whalebone pin has been interpreted as referencing an garðáss ("yard-áss" or "áss of the settled space"). In this context, it has been proposed that the term would refer to a local god or being of that specific farmstead rather than of the whole world more generally. Similarly, the Old Norse term landáss ("land-áss") is used in a poem attributed to Egill Skallagrímsson to refer to one of a list of gods which he wishes to turn against King Eiríkr. This god is often interpreted as being Thor, though it is also possible that it refers to a local land spirit, possibly the landálfr ("land-elf") referred to in the next stanza of the poem. Æsir closely associated with specific fells or hills are also found in the Old Norse record such as Svínfellsáss ("the áss of Svínfell"), referred in an insult in Njáls saga, and Barðr Snæfellsáss ("áss of Snæfell"), a man who got his name, according to his eponymous saga, because he of the worship he received by those living around Snæfell and the help he in turn gave them when they were in need.

In the context of ritual speech, an unnamed áss is the almáttki áss ("almighty áss") mentioned along with Frey and Njörð in a formula said by individuals swearing an oath on a ring. This has been variously identified by scholars as Thor, Ullr and Odin, although the possibility remains that it is a result of Christian work that was written as a foreshadowing of the establishment of Christianity, as an example of the "noble pagan" motif.

The term áss is further used in translations of works into Old Norse such as in Díalógar Gregors þáfa, in which the phrase sólar áss ("áss of the sun") is used to refer to Apollo, in the phrase sævar goð ("god of the sea") and in drauma goð ("god of dreams"). Morkinskinna further describes copper images of æsir, Völsungs and Gjúkings at the hippodrome in Constantinople. This has been interpreted as translating Greek gods and heroes into a Germanic context, however, other proposals include that this should be seen as stemming from a euhemeristic angle, with the Æsir being descended from Trojans, as they are depicted by Snorri in the Prose Edda and Ynglinga Saga.

Relation with jötnar
It has been proposed that most narratives in Old Nordic mythology portray existence as broadly divided into "this world", inhabited by the Æsir and men, and "the otherworld" inhabited by beings such as jötnar. These narratives often centre on the journey of an áss to the otherworld, either to obtain something important from there, or to resolve an issue that has arisen in Ásgarð through social exchange with the otherworld. The jötnar also are presented as a constant threat to the Æsir, leading them into confrontation with Thor who stops the jötnar overrunning Ásgarð and Miðgarð.

Despite this general juxtaposition between the Æsir and the jötnar, they were not conceived of as necessarily "biologically" distinct from one another, with many of the Æsir being descended from jötnar such as Odin, Thor and Loki. Many Æsir also marry and have children with gýgjar (jötunn women) such as Odin, who marries Jörð and fathers Thor with her, and Freyr who weds Gerð, founding the Yngling family. In cases when weddings take place, the gýgjar appear to be fully integrated into the Æsir.

Furthermore, the Æsir are depicted as having strong positive relations with some jötnar such as Ægir, who hosts them for a feast where they all drink together in the poem Lokasenna. Other jötnar are seen by the Æsir as sources of knowledge, such as Vafþrúðnir, with whom Odin has a wisdom contest in Vafþrúðnismál, and Hyndla to whom Freyja travels in the poem Hyndluljóð to find out the lineage of Ottar.

Wið færstice
The Wið færstice text from the late 10th or early 11th century Lācnunga is an Old English remedy against harm caused by several beings including ēse and ælfe (often translated as "elves").

The collocation of ēse and elves Wið færstice is paralleled in Old Norse writings as the alliterative phrase "æsir and álfar". It is not clear whether this formula dates back to the ancestral community speaking the ancestor of Old Norse and Old English and thus had always existed in both languages, or was the result of a later loaning due to the close cultural contact.

It has been proposed that just like in early Old Norse-speaking communities, those speaking Old English early on would also have placed ēse and ælfe in contrast with monstrous beings such as eotenas and wyrmas, although it is unclear exactly how the beings were conceived of in English-speaking communities by the time that Wið færstice was written.

The A-rune (ᚫ, ᚩ or ᚬ)
The Proto-Germanic name of the A rune, written in Elder Futhark as and Anglo-Saxon Futhorc as, is typically reconstructed as *ansuz, an áss (or heathen god). This identification is principally based on the Icelandic rune poem which reads as records the name of the Younger Futhark form of the rune,, as Ós, referring to Odin:

Some scholars have translated the name of the rune in the Old English rune poem as ōs ("god"), with the word commonly accepted as being a cognate of áss, however others interpret it as meaning "mouth" that would have come to Old English from Proto-Germanic or result from influence from either óss ("river mouth") or ("mouth"). The Old Swedish and Old Norwegian rune poems both refer to the name as meaning "river mouth" rather than "god".

Modern worship
Ásatrú, meaning "faith in the Æsir", is a new religious movement also known as Heathenry that aims to reconstruct and practise a modern form of Germanic paganism. As of 2007, Ásatrú is a religion officially recognized by the governments of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. In the United Kingdom, the organisation Asatru UK is registered as a community interest company for religious activities.

Most adherents do not emphasise worship of the Æsir in particular and may also refer to their practice as "forn sed/sidr/siður" meaning old customs. The Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið describes Ásatrú as "Nordic pantheism" involving "belief in the Icelandic/Nordic folklore" including all the "spirits and entities" besides "gods and other beings" this entails.

Place-names
Place-names containing the word áss or cognate terms have been proposed for the following:

Sweden:
 * Aspberg
 * Åslunda

Norway
 * Ásaráll

No such locations have yet been found in England that are widely accepted by scholars.

title: Æsir


text:
Talk:Hedwig of Silesia

Untitled
Uhhh - I removed a statement both incoherent and strange. Somehow referring to the Russians and the Golden Horde in a subordinate clause in an entry on Hedwig of Andechs seems unencyclopedic. MichaelTinkler
 * rerouted the Khans, which then turned back, but on the way subjugated Russia for two hundred years.

Patron of the expelled Silesians ?
Can somebody give reference for that ? Is she the patron of Poles declared subhumans end expelled by Germany to be exterminated as a nation, or to Germans who fled or were moved by the Allies to Germany post-war ? Or both of them(that would be strange). Is there any reference confirming this ? --Molobo (talk) 00:15, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
 * She is Schutzheilige or Landespatronin of Schlesien and of the Schlesier, no matter where they live currently, like in Andechs, Bavaria, were relics of her are kept. There is already a Further reading book stating that in its title, stop demanding references for the seven century old obvious. You are proving once again that Poles have no clue about the countries they, by the grace of St. alin, occupy since 1945. -- Matthead discuß!    O       13:35, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
 * In other words, you have no reference for that, only WP:OR of yours? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 05:52, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you, PP, for proving my point once again: No clue. You were missing that I already twice had given sources  about the blatant obvious fact that the Schlesier which have been expelled about 60 years ago by communist, nationalist and Catholic Poles still consider her as patron saint, just like in the 700 years at home in Silesia. An awful lot of ignorance is required to regard a 700 year old tradition as "original research". -- Matthead  DisOuß   07:37, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Try to familiarize yourself with the concept of inline citations. Once again, I ask you: which of your refs states clearly that this person is a saint of Silesian expellees? Please provide relevant quotation here.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 09:10, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * PP, be warned. You ongoing edit and move warring is unacceptable. -- Matthead DisOuß   12:17, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

I know that Hedwig is the patron saint of Silesians (evidenced for example by St. Hedwig's Cathedral, Berlin's oldest Catholic Church, built for the Catholic Silesians who moved to Berlin after parts of Silesia had been annexed or conquered by Prussia, being named for her). I find it easy to believe that Silesian expellees have not stopped treating her as their patron just because they no longer live in Silesia. In fact, I find it so obvious that I don't quite see why it needs to be explicitly stated. It is certainly pointless to start a cn war over it. Kusma (talk) 11:23, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * That she is a patron of Silesians is not disputable. That emmigrants (or refugees) built churches dedicated to Saints from regions they came from is common (just look around US). But to stress the 'expelles' part is simply WP:UNDUE; not to mention incorrect - is she not a patron of the Silesians who emmigrated, or those who still live in Silesia (part of which is in modern Germany, too)?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 19:16, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * That she is patron of Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and Germans that make out the population of Silesia and had in the past is of course correct. I don't think that Catholic Church or any other had degreed that only German expelles are Silesians while Polish population expelled as subhumans by German state in 1939-1945 from Silesia (circa 80.000 IIRC) in it quest to exterminate whole nations is not.  The information that Germans who were transfered  after the lost war transfered consider her a patron is already contained in the text, however I don't think Poles declared subhumans and ethnicly cleansed by Germany in 1939-1945 don't hold special services to her as far as I know, so the general text about Silesians seems OR. --Molobo (talk) 18:01, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

St. Hedwig was highly admired by the German Silesians because they considered her to be one of the earliest and biggest patrons of the Ostsiedlung (the same is true for some early Piast dukes btw.). Because of this she became something like a tragic symbol after the expulsion. Karasek (talk) 19:56, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Is she less revered by non-German Silesians? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 06:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I have no idea. Hedwig was of course always admired for her kindness, her faith, her humility and so on. That's what made her a saint and special to all Silesians (Germans, Poles and Czechs). But to German Silesians she was significant as a patron of the Ostsiedlung too, something which was less important to Czechs and Poles. So, to German Silesians she was both a saint and a symbol for their own history. Karasek (talk) 09:07, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Name

 * "Hedwig of Andechs" - 44 raw results . But excluding LLC Wikipedia mirrors and Mobilereference (see here) Wikipedia reprints, the actual number is 13 (+1 German language source)
 * "Saint Hedwig of Silesia" - 34 raw results, but 1 is from Mobilereference and 6 others are either duplicates or in foreign languge. So 27.
 * Jadwiga of Silesia - 30 raw results and all of them legitimate. So 30.
 * Hedwig of Silesia - 189 raw hits . Now there is some repetition and some foreign language sources included in those hits but a spot check indicates that they are not nearly numerous enough to make 189 into "less than 30".

Hence the name of the article should be either "Jadwiga of Silesia" or "Hedwig of Silesia". The second name does appear to be more common.Volunteer Marek (talk) 05:26, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Hedwig of Silesia


text:
1656

January–March

 * January 5 – The First War of Villmergen, a civil war in the Confederation of Switzerland pitting its Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons against each other, breaks out but is resolved by March 7. The Lutheran cantons of the larger cities of Zurich, Bern and Schaffhausen battle against seven Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri, Zug, Baden Unterwalden (now Obwalden and Nidwalden) and St. Gallen.
 * January 17 – The Treaty of Königsberg is signed, establishing an alliance between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
 * January 24 – The first Jewish doctor in the Thirteen Colonies of America, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.
 * January 20 – Reinforced by soldiers dispatched by the Viceroy of Peru, Spanish Chilean troops defeat the indigenous Mapuche warriors in a battle at San Fabián de Conuco in what is now central Chile, turning the tide in the Spanish colonists favor in the Mapuche uprising after more than a year.
 * February 18 (February 8 O.S.) – Swedish Empire troops led by King Carl X Gustav defeat troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth commanded by General Stefan Czarniecki in the first major engagement of the Swedish Deluge, meeting in the Battle of Golab.
 * February 23 – London's Lord Mayor Christopher Packe suggests to Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector and chief executive of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, that the monarchy should be restored with Cromwell as its King. Cromwell declines to become King Oliver, but his right to name his successor becomes effective on May 25, 1657 with the commencement of the Humble Petition and Advice.
 * February 26 – A rebellion of Turkish soldiers, leading to the "Çınar incident", takes place after a palace guard for Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV turns away a representative group who had come for payment for their services during the war in Crete. The rebellion ends with the mass killing 30 men identified by the rebels as being responsible for the non-payment.
 * March 3 – Fyodor Baykov, the Russian Empire's first envoy to China, is admitted to the Forbidden City within Beijing, after being sent by Tsar Alexis to negotiate a trade agreement with the Emperor Shunzi.
 * March 4 – The "Çınar incident", named for the Turkish word for the sycamore tree takes place after Ottoman Sultan Mehmet IV declines the request of soldiers to have 30 named government officials put to death. When Mehmet agrees only to dismiss the people from office, the rebels seek out the men on the list and publicly hang most of them from the cinar trees.
 * March 5 – Zurnazen Mustafa Pasha is appointed as the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire after persuading Mehmet IV to rescind the February 28 selection of Gazi Hüseyin Pasha. Zurnazen Mustafa's rule lasts only four hours and he is sent into exile the same day.
 * March 7 – The First War of Villmergen in the Confederation of Switzerland ends with a peace agreement, mediated by France and the Duchy of Savoy, between the Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons
 * March 15 – Almost a month after their defeat by Sweden at the battle of Golab, Polish and Lithuanian troops commanded by Stefan Czarniecki defeat King Karl X Gustav's Swedish Army at the Battle of Jaroslaw.
 * March 23 – Roman Catholic Pope Alexander VII issues a decree ending the Chinese Rites controversy between Jesuit missionaries (who tolerate the rites as compatible with Catholicism) and Dominican and Franciscan missionaries (who consider the Chinese rituals incompatible). The Pope rules that practices ""favorable to Chinese customs", including Confucianism and ancestor worship, can be accepted as compatible with Catholic rites.

April–June

 * 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 2 – The Treaty of Brussels is signed, creating an alliance between Philip IV of Spain and the exiled Royalists of the British Isles, led by Charles II.
 * April 28 – The Dutch East India Company ship Vergulde Draeck, with 193 crew aboard and a valuable cargo is wrecked off Ledge Point, Western Australia, with the loss of 118 members. Another 75 make it to shore, with limited provisions.  The ship had been bound from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta in Indonesia).
 * May 7 – Nine days after the wreck of the Vergulde Draeck, a steersman and six crew members are dispatched to Batavia to get help.  The other 68 survivors remain at Ledge Point and await rescue but are not seen again.
 * May 12 – The Dutch capture the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, marking the start of Netherlands colonial rule of Dutch Ceylon.
 * May 17 – In elections by the nobility of Venice for the Leader of the Venetian Republic, Francesco Cornaro defeats Bertuccio Valier. Cornaro dies less than three weeks later, on June 5.
 * June 15 – Bertuccio Valier is elected as the new Doge of the Venetian Republic in Venice.
 * June 16 – After a 41-day voyage, the seven-member team dispatched from the Vergulde Draeck reaches Batavia and alerts Dutch East India Company officials that the ship was wrecked on April 28. Two rescue ships, the Goede Hoop and the Witte Valck are sent to rescue the men marooned in Western Australia.  By the time the Goede Hoop arrives, the crew find no sign of the wreckage of the Vergulde Draeck.
 * June 21 – Poland's capital, Warsaw, is recaptured by Poland's John II Casimir Vasa 11 months after the capital had fallen on July 25, 1655 to Sweden.
 * June 27 – The Navy of the Ottoman Empire suffers a major defeat after two days of fighting against the navies of the Republic of Venice and of Malta in the Battle of the Dardanelles, one of the Turkish straits that connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Out of 98 Ottoman Turkish ships under the command of Kenan Pasha, 82 are either captured or destroyed.  Venice loses only three of its ships, but its commander, Admiral Lorenzo Marcello, is killed by a direct cannon hit to his flagship.
 * June 29 – The Treaty of Marienburg is signed by representatives of Sweden and of Brandenburg and Prussia to create a military alliance during the Second Northern War. King Karl X Gustav signs for Sweden and the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm signs for Brandenburg and Prussia.

July–September

 * July 18 – In an attempt to find survivors of the Vergulde Draeck, a search party is sent ashore by the rescue ship Goede Hoop; eleven men from two search parties while in the forests around the wreckage site. No trace of the Vergulde Draeck will be found for more than three centuries, until its wreckage is discovered by skin divers on April 13, 1963.
 * July 27 – A Writ of Excommunication is issued against Baruch Spinoza.
 * July 30 – After a battle of three days, Swedish and Brandenburger troops led by King Charles X Gustav of Sweden, defeat the forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, near Warsaw and recapture the recently liberated capital.
 * August 8 – In the Ayutthaya Kingdom, comprising most of the territory now occupied by Thailand, King Prasat Thong dies after a reign of more than 25 years. His eldest son, Prince Chao Fa Chai, is crowned as King Sanpet VI but Prasat's brother plots the new king's overthrow.
 * August 9 – King Sanpet's uncle, Prince Si Suthammaracha, stages a coup d'etat and becomes the new King of Ayutthaya, now Thailand. Suthammaracha appoints another nephew, Prince Narai, as his chief minister and former King Sanpet is executed two days later on August 11. Suthammaracha's reign lasts less than three months.
 * August 14 – In one of the first battles of the Russo-Swedish War, Russian troops capture the Swedish-controlled city of Kokenhusen in Swedish Livonia (Latvia). Tsar Alexis, ruler of the Russian Empire and the leader of the Russian troops in battle, renames Kokenhausen "Tsarevich-Dmitriev" in honor of his late first-born son. Russia holds the city for more than 30 years before it is ceded back to Sweden. Kokenhusen is now the Latvian town of Koknese.
 * 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.
 * September 15 – Köprülü Mehmed Pasha becomes Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

October–December

 * October 26 – King Si Suthammaracha of Ayutthaya (now Thailand) is overthrown in a coup d'etat by his nephew and former ally, Prince Narai, 11 weeks after having staged a coup to seize the throne. Narai is crowned as King Ramathibodi III.
 * November 3 – The Truce of Vilna is signed between Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In addition to agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in their ongoing war, Tsar Alexis of Russia agrees to help defend the commonwealth against Sweden's invasion in return for Tsar Alexis being named heir to the thrones of Poland and Lithuania by King John II Casimir Vasa.
 * November 4 – Ali Adil Shah II becomes the new Sultan of Bijapur (located in what is now India's Karnataka state) upon the death of his father, Mohammed Adil Shah.
 * November 6 – At the age of 13, Prince Afonso, Duke of Braganza becomes the new King of Portugal upon the death of his father, King João IV. Because of his age and a mental disability King Afonso VI's authority is exercised instead by his mother, Queen Luisa, as Regent.
 * November 20 – The Treaty of Labiau is signed, between Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.
 * December 1 – A treaty of alliance is signed between the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
 * December 6 – The Treaty of Radnot is signed between Sweden, the Electorate of Brandenburg, Transylvania (now Romania), and two rebels groups within Poland on how to divide the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the event of a victory in the Second Northern War.
 * December 16 – English Quaker James Nayler is convicted of blasphemy but spared the death penalty.
 * December 17 – King Frederick III of Denmark and Norway decrees that loan repayments and payments of interest to lenders will be made on two specific days, May 29 and June 11, each one nicknamed the Fandens fødselsdag or "Devil's Birthday",
 * December 25 – The pendulum clock is invented by Christiaan Huygens, so accurate that it only loses 10 seconds per day. Huygens will mention the date in a letter to Ismail Boulliau a year later.

Undated

 * The Stockholm Banco, the first bank to issue banknotes, is founded in Stockholm, Sweden.
 * The only English fifty shilling coin is minted.
 * Konoike Zen'amon (son of Konoike Shinroku) founds a baking and money-changing business in Osaka, Japan.
 * Adams' Grammar School at Newport, Shropshire, England is founded by William Adams.
 * Physician Samuel Stockhausen of the metal mining town of Goslar, Lower Saxony publishes his Libellus de lithargyrii fumo noxio morbifico, ejusque metallico frequentiori morbo vulgò dicto die Hütten Katze oder Hütten Rauch ("Treatise on the Noxious Fumes of Litharge, Diseases caused by them and Miners' Asthma"), a pioneering study of occupational disease.

Births

 * January 1 – William Fleetwood, Anglican bishop (d. 1723)
 * January 2 – Paolo Panelli, Italian painter (d. 1759)
 * January 14 – Duchess Johanna Magdalena of Saxe-Altenburg (d. 1686)
 * January 15 – John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham, English politician (d. 1710)
 * January 29 – Samuel Andrew, American Congregational clergyman and educator (d. 1738)
 * February 2 – Charles Churchill, English Army general and politician (d. 1714)
 * February 9 – Rose Venerini, Italian saint, educational pioneer (d. 1728)
 * February 10 – Ferdinand de Marsin, Marshal of France (d. 1706)
 * February 16 – Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, English politician (d. 1694)
 * March 1 – Maria Angela Caterina d'Este, Italian princess (d. 1722)
 * March 2 – Jan Frans van Douven, Dutch painter (d. 1727)
 * March 11 – Duchess Marie Elisabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1715)
 * March 13 – Hachisuka Tsunamichi, Japanese daimyō, ruler of the Tokushima Domain (d. 1678)
 * March 26 – Nicolaas Hartsoeker, Dutch mathematician and physicist (d. 1725)
 * March 30 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
 * March 31
 * Giovanni Batista Bussi, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1726)
 * Juan Andrés de Ustariz, Royal Governor of Cuba (d. 1718)
 * April 17 – William Molyneux, Irish politician, philosopher and writer (d. 1698)
 * April 9 – Francesco Trevisani, Italian painter (d. 1746)
 * April 10 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, lord-founder of Rimouski in eastern Quebec, Canada (d. 1718)
 * April 12 – Benoît de Maillet, French diplomat and natural historian (d. 1738)
 * April 23 – Anton Egon, Prince of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, Governor of the Electorate of Saxony (d. 1716)
 * May 2 – Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Baronet, Anglo-Irish politician and judge (d. 1724)
 * May 4 – John Louis I, Prince of Anhalt-Dornburg (d. 1704)
 * May 8 – Sir John Mainwaring, 2nd Baronet, English member of Parliament (d. 1702)
 * May 23 – Rebecca Rawson, Massachusetts heroine of the 1849 book Leaves from Margaret Smith's Journal (d. 1692)
 * May 28 – Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1721)
 * May 31 – Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (d. 1728)
 * June 5 – Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French botanist (d. 1708)
 * June 17 – Paul Thymich, German poet (d. 1694)
 * July 1 – Polykarp Leyser III, German Lutheran theologian (d. 1725)
 * July 4 – John Leake, English Royal Navy admiral (d. 1720)
 * July 5 – John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, Scottish politician (d. 1708)
 * July 7 – Guru Har Krishan, 8th Guru of Sikhism (d. 1664)
 * July 15
 * Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, Italian sculptor (d. 1740)
 * Gerard Langbaine, English dramatic biographer and critic (d. 1692)
 * July 16 – George Ashby, English member of Parliament (d. 1728)
 * July 18 – Joachim Bouvet, French Jesuit active in China (d. 1730)
 * July 20 – Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Austrian architect (d. 1723)
 * August 6 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
 * August 12 – Claude de Visdelou, French missionary (d. 1737)
 * August 16 – Christian Knaut, German physician (d. 1716)
 * August 18 – Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (d. 1743)
 * September 6 – Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal and statesman (d. 1723)
 * September 7 – Robert Molesworth, 1st Viscount Molesworth, Irish politician (d. 1725)
 * September 9
 * Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, German organist and composer (d. 1746)
 * Thomas Hewet, English landowner and architect (d. 1726)
 * September 11 – Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Swedish queen consort (d. 1693)
 * September 14 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian (d. 1740)
 * September 26 – William des Bouverie, English aristocrat and merchant (d. 1717)
 * October 2 – Hendrik Carré, Dutch painter (d. 1721)
 * October 20 – Nicolas de Largillière, French painter (d. 1746)
 * November 3 – Georg Reutter, German composer and organist (d. 1738)
 * November 8 – Edmond Halley, English scientist (d. 1742)
 * November 18 – Jacques de Tourreil, French lawyer (d. 1714)
 * November 20 – Duchess Eleonore Charlotte of Württemberg-Montbéliard (d. 1743)
 * November 23 – Jacob de Heusch, Dutch painter (d. 1701)
 * December 2 – Joshua Oldfield, English Presbyterian minister (d. 1729)
 * December 11 – Johann Michael Rottmayr, Austrian painter (d. 1730)
 * date unknown
 * Patrick Abercromby, Scottish physician and antiquarian (d. c. 1716)
 * Maria Oriana Galli-Bibiena, Italian painter (d. 1749)
 * Kateri Tekakwitha, Native American beatified in the Roman Catholic Church (d. 1680)

Deaths

 * January 3 – Mathieu Molé, French statesman (b. 1584)
 * January 18 – Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, German noble (b. 1577)
 * January 22 – Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (b. 1596)
 * February 13 – Ferdinando Hastings, 6th Earl of Huntingdon, English politician (b. 1609)
 * February 25 – Henriette Catherine de Joyeuse, Duke of Joyeuse (b. 1585)
 * February 27 – Meleki Hatun, influential Ottoman lady-in-waiting (killed by rebels)
 * March 21 – James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland (b. 1581)
 * March 19 – Georg Calixtus, German Lutheran theologian who looked to reconcile all Christendom (b. 1586)
 * April 7 – Krzysztof Arciszewski, Polish-Lithuanian noble (b. 1592)
 * April 10 – Gerard Pietersz Hulft, Dutch general (b. 1621)
 * April 24 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist (b. 1561)
 * April 27
 * Jan van Goyen, Dutch painter (b. 1596)
 * Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch painter (b. 1592)
 * May 1 – Carlo Contarini, Doge of Venice (b. 1580)
 * May 17 – Dirck Hals, Dutch painter (b. 1591)
 * May 19 – George Louis, Prince of Nassau-Dillenburg, German noble (b. 1618)
 * June 5 – Francesco Cornaro, Doge of Venice (b. 1585)
 * June 9 – Thomas Tomkins, Welsh-born composer (b. 1572)
 * June 12 – Charles Worsley, English soldier and politician (b. 1622)
 * June 21 – Maximilian van der Sandt, Dutch theologian (b. 1578)
 * July 2 – François-Marie, comte de Broglie, Italian-born French commander (b. 1611)
 * July 12 – Giovanni Giacomo Barbelli, Italian painter (b. 1604)
 * August 8 – Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas, Portuguese soldier, poet and writer (b. 1596)
 * August 11 – Ottavio Piccolomini, Austrian-Italian field marshal (b. 1599)
 * August 17 – Marie Anne d'Orléans, French princess (b. 1652)
 * August 24 – Aegidius Gelenius, German heraldist (b. 1595)
 * September 8 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (b. 1574)
 * September 22 – Christian II, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg since 1630 (b. 1599)
 * October – Stephen Bachiler, English clergyman (b. c. 1561)
 * October 3 – Myles Standish, Mayflower colonist (b. c. 1584)
 * October 8 – John George I, Elector of Saxony (b. 1585)
 * October 12
 * Juan Alonso y Ocón, Spanish Catholic prelate, Archbishop of La Plata o Charcas (b. 1597)
 * Juan Tellez-Girón y Enriquez de Ribera, 4th Duke of Osuna (b. 1597)
 * October 30 – Ferruccio Baffa Trasci, Italian bishop (b. 1590)
 * November 6
 * King John IV of Portugal (b. 1604)
 * Jean-Baptiste Morin, French mathematician (b. 1583)
 * November 12
 * Albrycht Stanisław Radziwiłł, Polish nobleman (b. 1595)
 * Hendrick van Anthonissen, Dutch painter (b. 1605)
 * December 2 – Alessandro dal Borro, Austrian field marshal (b. 1600)
 * December 20 – David Beck, Dutch portrait painter (b. 1621)
 * December 21 – Thomas Trevor, English politician and judge (b. 1586)
 * December 27 – Andrew White, Apostle of Maryland (b. 1579)
 * December 28 – Laurent de La Hyre, French Baroque painter (b. 1606)
 * Date unknown – Andrea Calcese, Italian Baroque era comic actor (plague) (b. 1595)

title: 1656


text:
1658

January–March

 * January 13 – Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in the Tower of London.
 * January 30 – The "March Across the Belts" (Tåget över Bält), Sweden's use of winter weather to send troops across the waters of the Danish straits at a time when winter has turned them to ice, begins. Within 17 days, Sweden's King Karl X Gustav leads troops across the ice belts to capture six of Denmark's islands as Swedish territory.
 * February 5 – Prince Muhi al-Din Muhammad, one of the sons of India's Mughal, Emperor Shah Jahan, proclaims himself Emperor after Jahan names Muhi's older brother, Dara Shikoh, as regent, and departs from Aurangabad with troops.
 * February 6 – Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt in Denmark, over frozen sea.
 * 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–June

 * April 15 – In India, the Battle of Dharmat is fought in the modern-day state of Madhya Pradesh between rival claimants to the throne of the Mughal Empire. Prince Muhi al-Din Muhammad, the son of the Emperor Shah Jahan, leads 30,000 men in a triumph over 22,000 troops led by Jaswant Singh of Marwar and Ratan Singh Rathore. Despite heavy losses, with more than 11,000 casualties, Prince Muhi, who has adopted the name Aurangzeb, continues toward Samugarh and Agra and captures the throne at the end of July.
 * April 16 – In Skåneland, a region recently ceded by Denmark to the Swedish Empire, representatives of the nobility of the provinces of Blekinge, Halland and Scania gather at the Scanian city of Malmö to swear their allegiance to King Charles X Gustav of Sweden.
 * May 1 – Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus are published by Thomas Browne in England.
 * May 29 – Aurangzeb wins the Battle of Samugarh as Indian Mughal regent Dara Shikoh makes a last effort to defend the Mughal capital Agra.
 * June 3 – Pope Alexander VII appoints François de Laval vicar apostolic of New France.
 * June 14 – Anglo-Spanish War (1654–60) and Franco-Spanish War (1635–59): In the Battle of the Dunes, a Spanish force attempting to lift a siege of Dunkirk is defeated by the French and English. England is then given Dunkirk, for its assistance in the victory.
 * June 25–27 – In the Battle of Rio Nuevo, part of the Anglo-Spanish War, a Spanish invasion force fails to recapture Jamaica from the English.

July–September

 * July 2 – The Siege of Toruń begins in Poland as troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and of Austria seek to recapture the city of Toruń from a garrison of the Swedish Army. Within six months, the Swedish occupiers surrender.
 * July 18 – Prince Leopold of the House of Habsburg, son of the late Ferdinand III, is elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor.
 * July 31 – After Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire.
 * July – Šarhūda's Manchu fleet annihilates Onufriy Stepanov's Russian flotilla, on the Amur River.
 * August 1 – The coronation of Leopold I takes place in Frankfurt.
 * August 5 – Just six months after winning territory from Denmark-Norway in war and subsequent treaty, Sweden's King Charles X Gustav declares a second war against Denmark. By August 11, the King's troops have surrounded Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, while the Swedish Navy blocks the harbor to prevent the city from being resupplied, and begins bombardment.
 * August 14 – The League of the Rhine (Rheinische Allianz) is formed by 50 German princes whose cities are on the Rhine river.
 * September 3 – Oliver Cromwell dies and his son Richard assumes his father's position as Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
 * September 17 – Portuguese Restoration War: In the Battle of Vilanova, a Spanish army, having crossed the Minho, defeats the Portuguese.

October–December

 * October 7 – The Netherlands enters the Dano-Swedish War to come to the rescue of Denmark, sending a 45-ship fleet from Vlie.
 * October 29 – The 45-ship fleet of the Netherlands arrives at Denmark and begins its counterattack on Sweden's army and navy with three squadrons.
 * November 6 – The Mexican Inquisition carries out the execution, by public burning, of 14 men convicted of homosexuality, while another 109 arrested are either released or given less harsh sentences.
 * November 8 (October 29 old style) – The Battle of the Sound takes place between the navies of the Dutch Republic (with 41 warships) and of Sweden (with 45) at the Øresund, a strait between Denmark and Sweden's newly-acquired territory, the former Danish island of Scania. The Dutch Republic is successful at breaking the Swedish Navy's blockade of Copenhagen, and Sweden is forced to retreat, bringing an end to the attempted conquest of Denmark.
 * November 23 – The elaborate funeral of Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell (who had died on September 3 and was buried at Westminster Abbey two weeks later) is carried out in London. A little more than two years later (in January 1661), his body will be disinterred and his head severed and placed on a spike.
 * December 11 – Abaza Hasan Pasha, an Ottoman provincial governor who is attempting to depose the Grand Vizier, wins a battle at the Turkish city of Ilgin, defeating loyalist forces led by Murtaza Pasha. The victory is the last for the rebels. Two months later (February 16, 1659) Abaza Hasan is assassinated after being invited to peace negotiations by the loyalists.
 * December 20 – Representatives of the Russian Empire and the Swedish Empire sign the Treaty of Valiesar at the Valiesar Estate near Narva, part of modern-day Estonia. In return for ceasing hostilities between the two empires in the Second Northern War, Russia is allowed to keep captured territories in Livonia (part of modern-day Latvia) for a term of three years.
 * December 25 – Polish and Danish forces defeat a Swedish Army in the Battle of Kolding in Denmark.
 * December 30 – The Siege of Toruń ends almost six months after it started, with Poland recapturing the city from Sweden.

Date unknown

 * Portuguese traders are expelled from Ceylon by Dutch invaders.
 * The Dutch in the Cape Colony start to import slaves from India and South-East Asia (later from Madagascar).

Births

 * January 9 – Nicolas Coustou, French artist (d. 1733)
 * January 17 – Samson Wertheimer, European rabbi (d. 1724)
 * January 17 – Francis Seymour, 5th Duke of Somerset (d. 1678)
 * February 18 – Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)
 * March 5 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, French explorer (d. 1730)
 * March 8 – Thomas Trevor, 1st Baron Trevor, British Baron (d. 1730)
 * March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Santerre, French painter (d. 1717)
 * March 30 – Muro Kyūsō, Japanese Neo-Confucian scholar (d. 1734)
 * April 11 – James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, Scottish peer (d. 1712)
 * April 19 – Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, German noble (d. 1716)
 * April 22 – Giuseppe Torelli, Italian violist, violinist, pedagogue and composer (d. 1709)
 * May 30 – Sir Henry Furnese, 1st Baronet, English merchant and politician (d. 1712)
 * June 10 – John March, Massachusetts businessman, colonel (d. 1712)
 * June 11 – Victor Honoré Janssens, Flemish painter (d. 1736)
 * June 22 – Louis VII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (d. 1678)
 * July 10 – Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, Italian soldier and naturalist (d. 1730)
 * July 14 – Camillo Rusconi, Italian artist (d. 1728)
 * July 17 – Diogo de Mendonça Corte-Real, Portuguese politician (d. 1736)
 * July 21 – Alexis Littré, French physician and anatomist (d. 1726)
 * July 25 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)
 * July 28 – Roelof Diodati, Dutch Governor of Mauritius (d. 1723)
 * August 1 – Pierre Joseph Garidel, French botanist (d. 1737)
 * August 5 – Claude Audran III, French painter (d. 1734)
 * August 10 – Susanne Maria von Sandrart, German engraver (d. 1716)
 * August 11 – Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet, English baronet and Member of Parliament (d. 1730)
 * August 16 – Jan Frans van Son, Flemish Baroque painter (d. 1704)
 * August 16 – Ralph Thoresby, British historian (d. 1725)
 * August 18 – Jan František Beckovský, Czech historian (d. 1722)
 * August 22 – John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (d. 1729)
 * August 28 – Honoré Tournély, French theologian (d. 1729)
 * September 1 – Jacques Bernard, French theologian and publicist (d. 1718)
 * September 16 – John Dennis, English dramatist and critic (d. 1734)
 * September 24 – Sir Robert Anstruther, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician (d. 1737)
 * September 30 – Elisabeth Eleonore of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess consort of Saxe-Meiningen (d. 1729)
 * October 2 – Nicholas Roosevelt (1658–1742), Dutch-American politician (d. 1742)
 * October 5 – Mary of Modena, queen of James II of England (d. 1718)
 * October 11 – Christian Heinrich Postel, German jurist (d. 1705)
 * October 18 – Alexander of Courland, German prince (d. 1686)
 * October 19 – Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1704)
 * October 21 – Henri de Boulainvilliers, French nobleman (d. 1722)
 * October 24 – Marko Gerbec, Carniolan physician, scientist (d. 1718)
 * November 2 – Baptist Noel (MP), English politician (d. 1690)
 * November 4 – Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, Georgian prince, writer, monk and author (d. 1725)
 * November 21 – Johann Gottfried Roesner, Prussian burgomaster (d. 1724)
 * November 27 – Tsarevna Catherine Alekseyevna of Russia, daughter of Tsar Alexis of Russia (d. 1718)
 * November 27 – Hercule-Louis Turinetti, marquis of Prié (d. 1726)
 * December 2 – Sir Thomas Roberts, 4th Baronet, English politician (d. 1706)
 * December 10 – Lancelot Blackburne, Archbishop of York (d. 1743)
 * date unknown – Elizabeth Barry, English actress (d. 1713)

Deaths

 * January 1 – Caspar Sibelius, Dutch Protestant minister (b. 1590)
 * January 2 – Sir William Armine, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1622)
 * January 7 – Theophilus Eaton, English-born Connecticut colonist (b. 1590)
 * January 13 – Edward Sexby, English Puritan soldier (b. 1616)
 * February 19 – Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester (b. 1612)
 * March 25 – Herman IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg (b. 1607)
 * February 27 – Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1592–1628 and again 1631–1658) (b. 1588)
 * March 29 – Bertuccio Valiero, Doge of Venice (b. 1596)
 * April 7 – Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Spanish mystic (b. 1595)
 * April 19
 * Kirsten Munk, second wife of Christian IV of Denmark (b. 1598)
 * Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, English colonial administrator and admiral (b. 1587)
 * April 24 – Francesco Maria Richini, Italian architect (b. 1584)
 * April 29 – John Cleveland, English poet (b. 1613)
 * May 20 – Bartholomew Holzhauser, German priest, visionary and writer of prophecies (b. 1613)
 * June 18 – Louis Cappel, French Protestant churchman and scholar (b. 1585)
 * June 8 – Sir Henry Slingsby, 1st Baronet, English baronet (b. 1602)
 * June 27 – Ercole Gennari, Italian drawer and painter (b. 1597)
 * July 22 – Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg (b. 1581)
 * August 5 – Gundakar, Prince of Liechtenstein, court official in Vienna (b. 1580)
 * August 6 – Elizabeth Claypole, daughter of Oliver Cromwell (b. 1629)
 * August 19 – Christine of Hesse-Kassel, Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach and Saxe-Coburg (b. 1578)
 * September 3 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (b. 1599)
 * September 17 – Kaspar von Barth, German philologist and writer (b. 1587)
 * September 22 – Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, German poet (b. 1607)
 * October 14 – Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena, Italian noble (b. 1610)
 * October 23 – Thomas Pride, Parliamentarian general in the English Civil War
 * November 4 – Antoine Le Maistre, French Jansenist (b. 1608)
 * November 6 – Pierre du Ryer, French dramatist (b. 1606)
 * November 7 – Maeda Toshitsune, Japanese warlord (b. 1594)
 * November 8 – Witte de With, Dutch naval officer (b. 1599)
 * November 26 – Duke Francis Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg (b. 1604)
 * November 29 – Margrave Charles Magnus of Baden-Durlach (b. 1621)
 * December 6 – Baltasar Gracián y Morales, Spanish writer (b. 1601)
 * December 15 – Carlo Emanuele Madruzzo, Italian prince-bishop (b. 1599)
 * December 20 – Jean Jannon, French typefounder (b. 1580)
 * Date unknown: Osoet Pegua, Thai businesswoman (b. 1615)

title: 1658


text:
The Myth of Sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus (Le mythe de Sisyphe) is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus. Influenced by philosophers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd. The absurd lies in the juxtaposition between the fundamental human need to attribute meaning to life and the "unreasonable silence" of the universe in response. Camus claims that the realization of the absurd does not justify suicide, and instead requires "revolt". He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. In the final chapter, Camus compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again just as it nears the top. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

The work can be seen in relation to other absurdist works by Camus: the novel The Stranger (1942), the plays The Misunderstanding (1942) and Caligula (1944), and especially the essay The Rebel (1951).

History
Camus began the work in 1940, during the Fall of France, when millions of refugees fled from advancing German armies. While the essay rarely refers to this event, Robert Zaretsky argues that the event prompted his ideas of the absurd. He claims that both a banal event and something as intense as a German invasion will prompt someone to ask "why?" The essay was published in French in 1942.

The English translation by Justin O'Brien was first published in 1955. Included in the translated version is a preface written by Camus while in Paris in 1955. Here Camus states that "even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate".

Summary
The essay is dedicated to Pascal Pia and is organized in four chapters and one appendix.

Chapter 1: An Absurd Reasoning
Camus undertakes the task of answering what he considers to be the only question of philosophy that matters: Does the realization of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide?

He begins by describing the following absurd condition: we build our life on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy; people live their lives as if they were not aware of the certainty of death. Once stripped of its common romanticism, the world is a foreign, strange and inhuman place; true knowledge is impossible and rationality and science cannot explain the world: their stories ultimately end in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors. This is the absurd condition and "from the moment absurdity is recognized, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all." It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when the "appetite for the absolute and for unity" meets "the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle."

He then characterizes several philosophies that describe and attempt to deal with this feeling of the absurd, by Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Lev Shestov, Søren Kierkegaard, and Edmund Husserl. All of these, he claims, commit "philosophical suicide" by reaching conclusions that contradict the original absurd position, either by abandoning reason and turning to God, as in the case of Kierkegaard and Shestov, or by elevating reason and ultimately arriving at ubiquitous Platonic forms and an abstract god, as in the case of Husserl.

For Camus, who sets out to take the absurd seriously and follow it to its final conclusions, these "leaps" cannot convince. Taking the absurd seriously means acknowledging the contradiction between the desire of human reason and the unreasonable world. Suicide, then, also must be rejected: without man, the absurd cannot exist. The contradiction must be lived; reason and its limits must be acknowledged, without false hope. However, the absurd can never be permanently accepted: it requires constant confrontation, constant revolt.

While the question of human freedom in the metaphysical sense loses interest to the absurd man, he gains freedom in a very concrete sense: no longer bound by hope for a better future or eternity, without a need to pursue life's purpose or to create meaning, "he enjoys a freedom with regard to common rules".

To embrace the absurd implies embracing all that the unreasonable world has to offer. Without meaning in life, there is no scale of values. "What counts is not the best living but the most living."

Thus, Camus arrives at three consequences from fully acknowledging the absurd: revolt, freedom, and passion.

Chapter 2: The Absurd Man
How should the absurd man live? Clearly, no ethical rules apply, as they are all based on higher powers or on justification. "...integrity has no need of rules... 'Everything is permitted,'... is not an outburst of relief or of joy, but rather a bitter acknowledgement of a fact."

Camus then goes on to present examples of the absurd life. He begins with Don Juan, the serial seducer who lives the passionate life to the fullest. "There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short-lived and exceptional."

The next example is the actor, who depicts ephemeral lives for ephemeral fame. "He demonstrates to what degree appearing creates being. In those three hours, he travels the whole course of the dead-end path that the man in the audience takes a lifetime to cover."

Camus's third example of the absurd man is the conqueror, the warrior who forgoes all promises of eternity to affect and engage fully in human history. He chooses action over contemplation, aware of the fact that nothing can last and no victory is final.

Chapter 3: Absurd Creation
Here Camus explores the absurd creator or artist. Since explanation is impossible, absurd art is restricted to a description of the myriad experiences in the world. "If the world were clear, art would not exist." Absurd creation, of course, also must refrain from judging and from alluding to even the slightest shadow of hope.

He then analyzes the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky in this light, especially The Diary of a Writer, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov. All these works start from the absurd position, and the first two explore the theme of philosophical suicide. However, both The Diary and his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, ultimately find a path to hope and faith and thus fail as truly absurd creations.

Chapter 4: The Myth of Sisyphus
In the last chapter, Camus outlines the legend of Sisyphus who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die. When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. After finally capturing Sisyphus, the gods decided that his punishment would last for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death, and is condemned to a meaningless task.

Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."

Camus is interested in Sisyphus's thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. After the stone falls back down the mountain Camus states that "It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end." This is the truly tragic moment when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." Acknowledging the truth will conquer it; Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, continues pushing. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that "all is well," continuing "one must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Appendix
The essay contains an appendix titled "Hope and the Absurd in the work of Franz Kafka". While Camus acknowledges that Kafka's work represents an exquisite description of the absurd condition, he claims that Kafka fails as an absurd writer because his work retains a glimmer of hope.

Myth
Inspired by Greek mythology, Camus makes the connection between life as an eternal beginning obedient to the absurd and Sisyphus, hero of Greek mythology. Why such a punishment? Camus cites several versions of the myth, most of which explain Sisyphus' punishment by insulting the gods. A particular version lends to Sisyphus, dying, the will to feel the love of his wife by asking her not to give him a burial and to throw his body in the public square, after his death. According to another version, Sisyphus discovers the affair between the ruler of Olympus, Zeus, and Aegina; he goes to monetize the information with the father, the Asopus River. In exchange for his revelation, he received a fountain for his citadel. His too-much insight irritates the gods who condemn him to push a rock to the top of a mountain, which inevitably rolls towards the valley before the hero's goal is achieved.

Unlike the Sisyphus usually presented in mythology, Camus considers that "one must imagine Sisyphus happy". Sisyphus finds happiness in the accomplishment of the task he undertakes and not in the meaning of this task.

"Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe now without a master seems to him neither sterile nor fertile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of this mountain full of night, alone forms a world. The struggle itself to the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Although he based his reasoning on numerous philosophical treatises and the work of novelists such as Dostoevsky and Kafka, many intellectuals of the time insinuated that he had "not read the authors he quotes". He nevertheless argues that happiness is about living one's life while being aware of its absurdity because consciousness allows us to better control our existence. This attitude towards fate could be compared to Spinoza's.

title: The Myth of Sisyphus