Events
- 3 January – An explosion of several barrels of gunpowder in Tower Street, London kills 67 people and destroys 60 houses.
- 20 to 27 January – Trial and conviction of King Charles I by a High Court of Justice convened in Westminster Hall.
- 30 January
- King Charles I beheaded outside the Banqueting House, Whitehall.
- The Commonwealth of England, a republican form of government comprising members of the Rump Parliament, replaces the monarchy as the form of government of England and later of Scotland and Ireland.
- Prince Charles Stuart declares himself King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. At this time none of the three Kingdoms have recognised him as ruler.
- 9 February – Eikon Basilike: the Pourtrature of His Sacred Majestie in His Solitudes and Sufferings, purporting to be the spiritual autobiography of Charles I, is published.
- 17 March – The Rump Parliament formally abolishes the English monarchy by passing an act abolishing the kingship.
- 19 March – The House of Commons passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring that it is "useless and dangerous to the people of England".
- March – Robert Blake is promoted to become a General at Sea of the English fleet.
- 2 May – Lawyer and regicide Sir Isaac Dorislaus, while in The Hague to negotiate an alliance with the Dutch Republic, is murdered by royalist exiles.
- 17 May – Banbury mutiny ends – leaders of the Leveller mutineers in the New Model Army are hanged.
- 19 May – An act declaring England to be a Commonwealth is passed by the Rump Parliament.
- 22 May–October – Robert Blake blockades Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Ireland.
- August – The Diggers abandon their last major colony, at St. George's Hill, Weybridge.
- 15 August – Oliver Cromwell lands in Dublin to begin the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
- 3–11 September – Siege of Drogheda in Ireland: Cromwell's New Model Army massacres the Irish Catholic Confederation garrison.
- 2–11 October – Sack of Wexford in Ireland: New Model Army massacres the Irish Catholic Confederation garrison.
- October – John Milton's Eikonoklastes: in Answer to a Book Intitl'd Eikon Basilike, a defence of the execution of Charles I, is published.
Read more about this topic: 1649 In England
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“When the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of action where laurels not nurtured with the blood of my country may be gathered, I shall urge sincere prayers for your obtaining every honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“If I have renounced the search of truth, if I have come into the port of some pretending dogmatism, some new church, some Schelling or Cousin, I have died to all use of these new events that are born out of prolific time into multitude of life every hour. I am as bankrupt to whom brilliant opportunities offer in vain. He has just foreclosed his freedom, tied his hands, locked himself up and given the key to another to keep.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)