1652 - Political Events

Political Events

The Battle of Bleneau April 7 brings victory to the Great Condé over Marshal Turenne, who has switched back to the side of Cardinal Mazarin and the regent Anne of Austria (see 1651). Turenne forces the new Fronde army to break off, and both armies march to Paris to negotiate. The Archduke Leopold takes more fortresses in Flanders, the duc de Lorraine marches to join Condé (his mercenaries plunder Champagne en route), Turenne intercepts Lorraine, buys him off, and hems in the Frondeurs July 2 in the Faubourg St. Antoine outside Paris. Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, 25, duchesse de Montpensier, persuades Parisians to open the city gates to the Fronde army that her father supports and turns the guns of the Bastille on Turenne's royal forces; an insurrectionist government is proclaimed, Cardinal Mazarin flees France, but the Parisian bourgeoisie quarrels with the Fronde. The Great Condé leaves town October 13 (he will wind up in the Spanish Netherlands), and Parisians permit Louis XIV to enter the city October 21 (see 1653).

An Anglo-Dutch War precipitated by last year's Navigation Act is proclaimed July 8 after the English have gained an initial victory in May off the Downs, where the Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp has skirmished with Admiral Robert Blake, Royal Navy, who has been given command of the fleet in the English Channel. Prince Rupert has been driven from the Mediterranean and has resumed his depredations in the Azores and West Indies (see 1648; crime, 1653).

England's Rump Parliament antagonizes the army with an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (see 1651). The army charges members of Parliament with having received bribes from Royalists whose estates were confiscated (see 1653).

The rebellion that began in Ulster in 1641 is finally quelled as the last Irish insurgents surrender. Sir Phelim O'Neill, now 48, will be tried for treason next year and executed by the English.

Barbados and other English Caribbean colonies surrender to a fleet commanded by officers loyal to the new Commonwealth government of Oliver Cromwell. Barbados governor Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby, leaves the island.

Former Royalist Army commander Ralph Hopton, Baron Hopton (of Stratton), dies at Bruges in September at age 56.

Rebellious Catalonians at Barcelona surrender in October under terms negotiated by Juan José de Austria (see 1651).

The new Japanese shōgun Ietsuna Tokugawa survives the second of two attempted coups at Edo in the last challenge to its sovereignty that the Tokugawa family will face until the 19th century.