1664 - Political Events

Political Events

Portuguese forces defeat a Spanish army in the Battle of Castelo Rodrigo, building on last year's victory at Ameixal (see 1665).

Austrian field marshal Raimondo Montecuccoli gains a decisive victory over Ottoman forces August 1 at St. Gotthard on the Raab River and is hailed as the savior of Christendom (see 1660). Now 55, he is named generalissimo of all the Hapsburg imperial armies (see 1668).

Nieuw Amsterdam becomes New York August 27 as 300 English soldiers under Colonel Richard Nicolls, 40, take the town from the Dutch under orders from Charles II (see 1626). Nicolls renames the town in honor of the king's brother James, duke of York, who is granted the territory of New Netherland, including eastern Maine and islands to the south and west of Cape Cod, claimed by England on the basis of John Cabot's explorations in the late 1490s. Hudson Valley Dutch patroons become English landlords. The duke of York has granted land between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers June 24 to John Berkeley, first baron Berkeley of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, 54, formerly governor of the Isle of Jersey and now treasurer of the Royal Navy (see 1665).

French forces occupy the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the English soon drive them off, but the French will seize the island again in 1667 (see Treaties of Breda, 1667).

France's Louis XIV gives the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales authority over the Caribbean island of Martinique (see 1658; 1674).

New France's new governor-general removes four protégés of Bishop François de Montmorency Laval from the colony's sovereign council following a quarrel with the bishop (see 1663; exploration, colonization [Talon], 1665).

English seamen take Africa's Cape Verde Islands from Dutch forces, although no war has been declared.

The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb orders his viceroy in the south to put a stop to the Marathan rebel Shivaji's anti-Muslim uprising (see 1659), but Shivaji stages a midnight raid on the viceroy's camp. The viceroy loses all the fingers of one hand, his son is killed, and he withdraws. Shivaji then sacks the coastal town of Surat and carries off great amounts of plunder as he builds up a large Hindu following among the Mawali hill-dwellers (see 1665).