1640
Long Parliament Convenes
Desperate for funds, Charles I summoned a new parliament, which would sit, on and off, for twenty years. It impeached royal favorites, abolished prerogative courts, and soon found itself legislating while the king plotted to arrest its leaders. The English constitutional revolution had begun, and the ancient contest between Crown and Commons was about to turn violent.
Japan Closes to the Outside World
With the final expulsion of Portuguese merchants and the killing of an envoy fleet from Macau, Japan's seclusion was essentially complete. Only a small Dutch post on Dejima and carefully controlled Chinese trade at Nagasaki linked the islands to the outside world. Japan chose the shape of its own modernity.
English Factory at Madras
East India Company merchants, looking for a site outside Portuguese Goa and Dutch Pulicat, obtained a grant of land on the Coromandel coast and began building Fort Saint George at Madraspatnam. The town would become one of the three presidencies of British India and, eventually, the modern city of Chennai.
Portugal Regains Independence
A group of Portuguese nobles stormed the royal palace in Lisbon, defenestrated a Spanish secretary, and proclaimed the Duke of Braganza as King Joao IV. After sixty years in union with Spain, Portugal was independent again. A long war followed, but Lisbon had its own crown, and the Portuguese empire from Brazil to Macau answered once more to a Portuguese king.
Catalan Revolt
On Corpus Christi Day, Barcelona reapers attacked royal officials and killed the viceroy. Catalonia rose against Olivares's war taxes and military billeting, declared itself a republic, and then placed itself under French protection. Spain's empire began to unravel from within, and the revolt demonstrated that Castilian centralism would always face fierce resistance from the peninsula's other historic nations.
Short Parliament
Charles I, broke after a failed Scottish campaign, summoned his first parliament in eleven years to ask for money. It demanded redress of grievances first; he dissolved it within three weeks. The fiasco only deepened the crisis and forced him to call another parliament almost immediately, one that would sit for two decades and oversee his trial and execution.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1640?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1640. The most significant is Long Parliament Convenes: Desperate for funds, Charles I summoned a new parliament, which would sit, on and off, for twenty years.
What era was 1640 part of?
1640 falls within the Renaissance (1501-1650). Reformation, conquest, and the world drawn whole.
Which regions saw notable events in 1640?
The curated events from 1640 span Europe, East Asia and South Asia.