1640 in England

← 1639 1638 1637 1640 in England → 1641 1642 1643
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See also:	Other events of 1640

Events from the year 1640 in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles I
• Parliament – Short (starting 13 April, until 5 May), Royalist Long (starting 3 November)

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 Bishops' War against the Scottish Covenanters.[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 – a Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland.[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] it will not be dissolved for 20 years.
• 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)
• 7 December (bapt.) – Fabian Stedman, pioneer of change ringing (died 1713)
• 17 November – Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, née Villiers, a mistress of King Charles II (died 1709)
• 13 December – Robert Plot, naturalist (died 1696)
• 14 December – Aphra Behn, author (died 1689)

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)
• 22 March – Thomas Carew, poet (born 1595)
• 28 April (bur.) – William Alabaster, poet and playwright (born 1567)
• 3 June – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, politician (born 1584)
• 20 October – John Ball, Puritan clergyman (born 1585)
• 8 December – Princess Anne, daughter of King Charles I (born 1637)
• possible – John Ford, dramatist (born 1586)

References

1. "British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate 1638-60".
2. "Charles I, 1640: An Act for [the Regulating the Privie Councell and for taking away the Court commonly called the Star Chamber]". British History Online. Retrieved 2011-01-27.