1655 - Political Events

Political Events

Henry Wilmot, 1st earl of Rochester, leads a weak uprising against Oliver Cromwell's Puritan government in March at Marston Moor, near York. Rochester was created earl 3 years ago, but Cromwell's Roundheads force him to flee to the Continent, Cromwell suppresses another uprising at Salisbury, and he divides England into 12 military districts, each controlled by a force that is financed by a 10 percent tax on Royalist estates. Irish Jacobite Richard Talbot, 25, is arrested at London in November on charges of having plotted to overthrow Cromwell's Protectorate, but he soon escapes to Flanders.

Swedish forces invade Poland as Karl X Gustav takes advantage of Poland's struggle to save her Ukrainian territories from Russia. Karl launches the First Northern War that will end with Poland losing her last Baltic territories (see 1660; Russia, 1656).

A French fleet under the command of César, duc de Vendôme, defeats a Spanish fleet off Barcelona.

An English fleet under the command of Vice Admiral William Penn, 34, takes Jamaica in the West Indies from the Spanish, who have called the sugar-rich island San Iago. Penn's action precipitates a 3-year war with Spain that will free England from dependence on Spain for imports of sugar, molasses, and cacao beans from the island. Oliver Cromwell has appointed colonist Edward Winslow one of the leaders of the expedition against the Spaniards, but Winslow dies on the return voyage May 8 at age 59.

Dutch colonists occupy New Sweden on orders from Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands (see 1638).