1658

"[God] hath visited near and remote places, towns and hamlets with hot fevers and dangerous diseases, as a chastisement if not punishment of the thankless use of temporal blessings; permitting and allowing the Spirit of Error to scatter its injurious passion amongst us, in spiritual matters here and there, rising up and propagating a new unheard of, abominable Heresy, called Quakers..."

-Peter Stuyvesant

Born in 1658:

• Italian composer Giuseppe Torelli.
• English actress Elizabeth Barry.
• French painter Claude Audran III.
• Swedish mathematician Nils Celsuis.
• Japanese painter Ogata Korin.
• Scottish merchant William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England.
• British naval figure Charles Mordaunt, later 3rd Earl of Peterborough.
• Scottish Jacobite politician James Hamilton, later 4th Duke of Hamilton.
• Mary of Modena, future wife of James II.

• English royalist poet John Cleveland.
• Englsh poet Richard Lovelace.
• Dutch painter Pieter de Bloot.
• French musical theorist Antoine de Cousu.
• Edward Sexby, one of The Levellers who had supported the overthrow of Charles I but opposed The Protectorate, imprisoned in the Tower of London.
• English soldier and regicide Thomas Pride, hatchet man for the 1648 purge of Royalists from Parliament.
• Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.  His son Richard succeeds him, but it's just not the same.

• William Chamberlayne's play Love's Victory appears.
• Sir Thomas Browne publishes The Garden of Cyrus, a rambling treatise on ancient artistic motifs.
• Peter Stuyvesant, governor of Nieuw Nederland, arrests several leaders of Flushing for harboring Quakers. He issues a proclamation blaming Quakers for any unrest.  He also bans the playing of tennis during church hours.
• At the Battle of the Dunes, a Spanish-English army attempting to relieve the siege of Dunkirk is defeated by the besieging English-French army.  The city becomes part of the Protectorate just before Oliver Cromwell's death.
• Speaking of which, Richard Cromwell is caught in between the generals of the New Model Army on one side, and the nobility and middle class on the other.   The military ignore Richard, who had never been in the Army, and who had come to power only after his two older brothers died.   Parliament refuses to release money to pay the army or navy, and civil order begins to unravel very quickly.
• Parliament also passes a law prohibiting Roman Catholics from traveling more than five miles from their houses without a license.
• As Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan falls ill, his sons fight amongst themselves for power.  Heir apparent Dara Shukoh defeats his brother Shah Shuja at the Battle of Bahadurgarh.  Then, Aurangzeb and his brother Murad Baksh (who had declared himself Emperor from Gujarat) defeat Dara Shukoh at the Battle of Samugarh; Dara Shukoh has to flee.  In Goindval, Dara Shukoh meets with Sikh Guru Har Rai Ji; this will make the Sikhs a special target of Aurangzeb during his reign.  Shah Jehan recovers from his illness, and tries to have Aurangzeb waylaid as he marches on Delhi, but Aurangzeb finds out and imprisons his father in Delhi's Red Fort.  From his cell in the Red Fort's Octagonal tower, Shah Jehan can see the Taj Mahal he had built for his favorite wife.  Some claim Shah Jehan's imprisonment was respectful, others claim it was a torment.  At the same time, French traveler Francois Bernier arrives in Delhi and ingratiates himself with Aurangzeb.
• The Dutch ship Waeckende Boey makes the first ever sigting of Rottnest Island.
• The fall of Jaffna completes the Dutch capture of Sri Lanka from Portugal.
• Ottoman grand vizier Mehmed Köprülü captures Transylvania for his sultan Mehmet IV.
• Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong, aka "Koxinga", begins a campaign against Qing rule in Fujian Province.
• Massachusetts extends its settlement up along the Maine coast.  The colony also banishes all Quakers form the colony on pain of death; most flee to Rhode Island or Maryland.
• Polish king Jan Kazimierz and Cossack Hetman Lesko Shkura sign an agreement, giving Poland control of Ukraine.
• Swedish king Karl X Gustaf invades Denmark.  The Swedish navy defeats the Dutch at the Battle of Öresund. The resulting Treaty of Roskilde gives Sweden the Skåne region and the cities of Malmö and Trondheim. Karl X makes a truce with Russia.  Russian forces promptly invade Poland (northwards, in Lithuania), winning the Battle of Werki.

1657 - 1658 - 1659

How They Were Made - 17th Century