1640 in England

Events from the year 1640 in the Kingdom of England.

Incumbents

Monarch - King Charles I

Events

• 12 January - Thomas Wentworth becomes Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and Earl of Strafford.^[1]
• 17 January - John Finch becomes Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.^[1]
• 13 April - King Charles I summons the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the second of the Bishops Wars.^[1]
• 17 April - John Pym makes a speech attacking the King in Parliament.^[1]
• 4 May - Oliver St John calls on Parliament to outlaw ship money.^[1]
• 5 May - The King dismisses the Short Parliament and prepares to attack Scotland.^[1]
• 6 May - The Earl of Warwick, Lord Brooke, Lord Saye, John Pym, John Hampden, and Sir Walter Earle arrested.^[1]
• 20 August - An Army of Scottish Covenanters invades England.^[1]
• 28 August - Battle of Newburn: The Covenanter army defeats the English army.^[1]
• 26 October - Treaty of Ripon signed between the King and the Covenanters.^[1]
• 3 November - The Long Parliament is summoned.^[1]
• 25 November - The Earl of Strafford imprisoned in the Tower of London.^[1]
• 18 December - Archbishop Laud impeached for treason.^[1]
• undated - Habeas Corpus Act ("An Act for the Regulating the Privie Councell and for taking away the Court commonly called the Star Chamber") passed, abolishing the Star Chamber.^[2]

Births

• 25 January - William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, soldier and statesman (died 1707)
• 30 March - John Trenchard, statesman (died 1695)
• 10 July - Aphra Behn, author (died 1689)
• 13 December - Robert Plot, naturalist (died 1696)

Deaths

• 14 January - Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer and judge (born 1578)
• 25 January - Robert Burton, scholar (born 1577)
• 17 March - Philip Massinger, dramatist (born 1583)
• 3 June
  • John Aylmer, political theorist (born 1521)
  • Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, politician (born 1584)
• 20 October - John Ball, Puritan clergyman (born 1585)
• 8 December - Princess Anne of England (born 1637)
• probable - John Ford, dramatist (born 1586)

References

See also