1659
Events January–March * January 14 – In the Battle of the Lines of Elvas, fought near the small city of Elvas in Portugal during the Portuguese Restoration War, the Spanish Army under the command of Luis Méndez de Haro suffers heavy casualties, with over 11,000 of its nearly 16,000 soldiers killed, wounded or taken prisoner; the smaller Portuguese force of 10,500 troops, commanded by André de Albuquerque Ribafria (who is killed in the battle) suffers less than 900 casualties. * January 24 – Pierre Corneille's ''Oedipe'' premieres in Paris. * January 27 – The third and final session of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland is opened by Lord Protector Richard Cromwell, with Chaloner Chute as the Speaker of the House of Commons, with 567 members. "Cromwell's Other House", which replaced the House of Lords during the last years of the Protectorate, opens on the same day, with Richard Cromwell as its speaker. * January ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Third Protectorate Parliament
The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons. It was a bicameral Parliament, with an Upper House having a power of veto over the Commons. Events After the death of Oliver Cromwell his son Richard Cromwell succeeded him as Lord Protector of the Protectorate on 3 September 1658. As a civilian, Richard did not have the full confidence of the Army, particularly as the administration had a perennial budget deficit of half a million pounds and the Army was owed nearly nine hundred thousand pounds in back pay. His only option was to call a Parliament in the hope that it would cement his position by general recognition of the ruling class and by raising new taxes to pay the arrears owed to the Army. The Third Protectorate Parliament was summoned on 9 December 1658 on the basis of the old franchise, and assembled on 27 January 1659. Richard was recognised ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Commonwealth Of England
The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660 when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles I. The republic's existence was declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth", adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. During the period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them, in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and the Anglo-Scottish war of 1650–1652. In 1653, after dissolution of the Rump Parliament, the Army Council adopted the Instrument of Government which made Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of a united "Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland", inaugurating the period now usually known as the Protecto ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spana Prosecution
The Spana Prosecution was a major criminal case which took place in Rome in the Papal States between January 1659 and March 1660.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' The Papal authorities under the leadership of lieutenant governor Stefano Bracchi investigated a case involving a criminal net of poisoners, mainly women, for selling the famous poison Aqua Tofana to clients who wished to commit murder, in particular women who wished to become widows. The process involved over forty people, including professional poisoners and clients, some of them members of the aristocracy, and resulted in punishment ranging from exile and lifetime house arrest to the execution of five main figures, among them the central figure Gironima Spana. Background In 1624, a woman by the name Giulia Mangiardi (1581-1651) arrived to Rome from Palermo in Sicily. Her proper name was Giulia Mangiardi, but she has traditionally become known ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (4 October 162612 July 1712) was an English statesman who was the second and last Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death in 1658 Richard became Lord Protector, but lacked authority. He tried to mediate between the army and civil society and allowed a Parliament containing many disaffected Presbyterians and Cavalier, Royalists to sit. Suspicions that civilian councillors were intent on supplanting the army were brought to a head by an attempt to prosecute a major-general for actions against a Royalist. The army made a threatening show of force against Richard and may have had him in detention. He formally renounced power nine months after succeeding. Although a Royalist revolt was crushed by the recalled civil war figure General John Lambert (general), John Lambert, who then prevented the Rump Parliament from reconvening and created a Committee of Safety, Lam ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Portuguese Restoration War
The Portuguese Restoration War ( pt, Guerra da Restauração) was the war between History of Portugal (1640–1777), Portugal and Habsburg Spain, Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668), Treaty of Lisbon in 1668, bringing a formal end to the Iberian Union. The period from 1640 to 1668 was marked by periodic skirmishes between Portugal and Spain, as well as short episodes of more serious warfare, much of it occasioned by Spanish and Portuguese entanglements with non-Iberian powers. Spain was involved in the Thirty Years' War until 1648 and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War until 1659, while Portugal was involved in the Dutch–Portuguese War until 1663. In the seventeenth century and afterwards, this period of sporadic conflict was simply known, in Portugal and elsewhere, as the ''Acclamation War''. The war established the House of Braganza as Portugal's new ruling dynasty, replacing the House of Habs ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Assault On Copenhagen (1659)
The Battle of Copenhagen also known as the Assault on Copenhagen on 11 February 1659 was a major battle during the Second Northern War, taking place during the siege of Copenhagen by the Swedish army. Background During the Northern Wars, the Swedish army under Charles X Gustav of Sweden, after invading the Danish mainland of Jutland, swiftly crossed the frozen straits and occupied most of the Danish island of Zealand, with the invasion beginning on 11 February 1658. This forced the Danes to sue for peace. A preliminary treaty, the Treaty of Taastrup, was signed on 18 February 1658, with the final treaty, the Treaty of Roskilde, signed on 26 February 1658, granting Sweden major territorial gains. The Swedish king, however, was not content with his stunning victory, and at the Privy Council held at Gottorp on 7 July Charles X Gustav resolved to wipe his inconvenient rival from the map of Europe. Without any warning, in defiance of international treaty, he ordered his troops to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chaloner Chute
Chaloner Chute I (died 14 April 1659) of The Vyne, Sherborne St John, Hampshire, was an English lawyer, Member of Parliament and Speaker of the House of Commons during the Commonwealth. Origins Chute was the son of Charles Chute of the Middle Temple, a lawyer, by his wife Ursula Chaloner, a daughter of John Chaloner of Fulham in Middlesex. Career He was admitted to the Middle Temple and was called to the bar. He developed a great reputation as a defence lawyer in several high-profile cases including those of Sir Edward Herbert (the king's attorney-general), Archbishop Laud, the eleven members of the House of Commons charged by Fairfax and his army as delinquents, and James Duke of Hamilton. In 1653 he bought from Lord Sandys The Vyne, a very large Tudor manor house in Hampshire. He demolished much of the northern part of the decaying building and employed the architect John Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, to add the portico to the north front in the 1650s, the first of its kin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cromwell's Other House
The Other House (also referred to as the Upper House, House of Peers and House of Lords), established by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Humble Petition and Advice, was one of the two chambers of the parliaments that legislated for England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, in 1658 and 1659, the final years of the Protectorate.The Humble Partition states "to create the 'Other House,' the members to be such as should be nominated by his highness and approved by the commons". George Craik notes "The commonwealth-men, it appears, would tolerate neither the designation 'House of Lords.' nor that of 'Upper House.' The thing was, therefore, termed 'the Other House;' that branch of the legislature losing not less in real power than it lost in name or dignity: they were not to exceed seventy in number, nor to be less than forty, whereof one-and-twenty were to form a quorum; they were not to give any vote by proxy; on death or removal no new members were to be admitt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of The Lines Of Elvas
The Battle of the Lines of Elvas (), was fought on 14 January 1659, in Elvas, between Portugal and Spain during the Portuguese Restoration War. It ended in a decisive Portuguese victory. Background By 1659, the Portuguese Restoration War which began in 1640 had degenerated into a stalemate. Other than cross border raids, little fighting had occurred and neither the Spanish or Portuguese armies could achieve a decisive battlefield victory. Philip IV of Spain sought to end the conflict by laying siege to and capturing a major Portuguese position, thereby luring out and destroying any Portuguese army that tried to aid the embattled garrison. The town of Elvas was chosen as a target due to the threat it posed to the Spanish city of Badajoz, as seen during the Battle of Montijo in 1644 when a Portuguese army based at Elvas had crossed the border, raided Spanish towns, and attacked a Spanish army. The capture of Elvas and Fort Santa Luzia would also allow the Spanish Army to proceed d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Elvas
Elvas () is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about east of Lisbon, and about west of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. The municipality population was 23,078, in an area of . The city itself had a population of 16,640 . Elvas is among the finest examples of intensive usage of the ''trace italienne'' ( star fort) in military architecture, and has been a World Heritage Site since 30June 2012. The inscribed site name is Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications. History Elvas lies on a hill northwest of the Guadiana river. The Amoreira Aqueduct long supplies the city with pure water; it was begun early in the 15th century and completed in 1622. For some distance it includes four tiers of superimposed arches, with a total height of . It was wrested from the Moors by Afonso I of Portugal in 11 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gironima Spana
{{One source, date=February 2022 Gironima Spana (1615-5 July 1659) was an Italian poisoner and astrologer.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' She was the central figure in the infamous Spana Prosecution against a net of poison merchant women in Rome, who distributed the famous poison Aqua Tofana to clients who wished to commit murder, in particular women who wished to become widows. She was executed alongside four women accomplices for having distributed poison to clients with the intent of murder. She has also been called Girolama Spara, Girolama Spala, L’ Astrologa, La Profetessa and L'Indovina, but Gironima Spana was the spelling she herself used in court documents. Biography Early life and origin Gironima Spana was born in Sicily as the daughter of the wealthy Niccolo Spano, who was provisioning Spanish galleys and overseeing expenditures of Palermo's Ospedale degli Spagnol. She became the stepdaug ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Giovanna De Grandis
{{Expand Swedish, Giovanna De Grandis, date=February 2022 Giovanna De Grandis (died 5 July 1659, Rome) was an Italian poisoner.Monson, Craig A.: The Black Widows of the Eternal City: The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous poisoners' She was one of the central figures of the infamous Spana Prosecution, one of only six to be executed among over forty people to be implicated. Life Giovanna De Grandis was born in Rome. She was working as a laundress when she was recruited to the organization of Gironima Spana, who trafficked in lethal poison. De Grandis was an important member of the Spana organisation: she had direct contact with Spana and was one of the few of Spana's associates whom Spana entrusted the task to not only sell, but also to manufacture poison. She and Spana herself manufactured the poison using arsenic acquired by the priest Don Girolamo, since apothecaries did not sell arsenic to women. De Grandis was arrested in flagrante on 31 January 1659 and imprisoned in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |