1651 - Political Events

Political Events

England's Charles II is crowned at Scone January 1. He sends Patrick Ruthven, earl of Forth, on a mission to Sweden, but the earl returns and dies at Dundee February 2 at age 77. Oliver Cromwell takes Perth in early August and defeats Royalist forces September 3 at the Battle of Worcester with help from John Lambert (see 1650). Charles has 8,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and some guns (10,000 of his 12,000 men are Scots), but he is far outnumbered by Cromwell's 18,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and guns. Some 3,000 of the Royalist army are killed, 7,000 taken prisoner, and Cromwell captures all the Royalist guns. William Hamilton, 2nd duke of Hamilton, sustains wounds in the battle and dies at Worcester September 12 at age 34. Royalist general Thomas Wentworth, earl of Cleveland, commands a cavalry regiment but is among those taken prisoner and will be held in the Tower of London until 1656. James Stanley, 7th earl of Derby, and Henry Wilmot, 1st earl of Rochester, help the king make his escape but Derby is captured by the parliamentary forces and beheaded at Bolton, Lancashire, October 15 at age 44 (his widow defends the Isle of Man and will survive until 1663). Disguised as a servant to the daughter of a Royalist squire, Charles escapes to France October 17 after traveling through a countryside alive with Roundheads (see 1660; Rump Parliament, 1652).

England's lord deputy of Ireland and acting commander in chief Henry Ireton dies at Limerick November 28 at age 40, following a siege of the city; his widow, Bridget, soon marries her father's general Charles Fleetwood, 33, who will succeed to Ireton's command next year and rule Ireland with an iron hand until 1655.

Spanish forces under the command of Juan José de Austria lay siege to Barcelona as Catalonians rebel (see 1652).

The French Parlement gains reluctant consent from the queen mother Anne of Austria in February to dismiss Cardinal Mazarin and release the Great Condé (see 1650). Mazarin flees the country, and Pope Innocent X makes his foe Jean François Paul de Gondi the cardinal de Retz, but the regent Anne of Austria gives orders in August that the Great Condé be indicted. He obtains support from Marshal Turenne and begins a second war of the princes in September that will continue for 2 years; Mazarin returns in December with 7,000 German troops to put down the rebellion (see 1652).

The Swedish general Lennart, count Torstensson, dies at Stockholm April 7 at age 47, so crippled by gout that he has often been unable to mount his horse and had to lead his army in a litter.

The Battle of Beresteczko that rages from June 28 to 30 on the Styr River south of Lutsk in Volynia ends in victory for Poland's Jan II Casimir over the rebel Cossack leader Bogdan Chmielnicki, whose forces have come under formal Ottoman protection in April and been reinforced by the sultan's Tatar vassals in the Crimea. Outnumbered three to one, the Poles are saved when the Tatar khan removes his forces in the midst of battle, possibly to defend Kiev from an approaching Lithuanian army. The Polish general Jerema Wisnowiecki dies August 20 at age 39 (approximate) on the eve of another battle against the Cossacks. A peace settlement signed at Biala Cerkiew September 28 reduces the number of "registered" Cossacks from 40,000 to 20,000 and strips them of their right to settle in various provinces that were designated 2 years ago in the Compact of Zborów. The Cossacks do not accept the terms of the settlement, which are rejected also by Poland's Sejm (parliament) (see 1654).

The elector of Brandenburg Maximilian I von Bayern dies September 17 at age 78 and is succeeded by his 13-year-old son, who will reign as Ferdinand Maria until his death in 1679.

The Ottoman sultana Kösem tries to kill her 12-year-old grandson, the sultan Mehmed IV, but is herself strangled to death September 2 at age 66 (approximate) by men in the entourage of her daughter-in-law Turhan.

China's Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty court issues a proclamation in March calling the late regent Dorgon a usurper, depriving him of his princely rank, stripping him of his other honors, and disavowing his relationship to the imperial house (see 1650). A petition from two officials asking that his reputation be redeemed is rejected, and it will be 122 years before his extraordinary services in establishing the Qing dynasty are fully recognized.

The Japanese shōgun Iemitsu Tokugawa dies of beriberi at Edo June 8 at age 47 (his diet has been based heavily on white rice) after a 28-year reign that has consolidated Tokugawa rule through national isolationism, oppression of the people, and suppression of Christianity. His son Ietsuna, 10, will reign until 1679, exhausting the treasury and debasing the nation's coinage.