Events from the year

1655 Events January–March * January 5 – Emperor Go-Sai ascends to the throne of Japan. * January 7 – Pope Innocent X, leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Papal States, dies after more than 10 years of rule. * Febr ...

in England.

Incumbents

Lord Protector Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') was a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometimes ...

– Oliver Cromwell * Parliament – First Protectorate (until 22 January)

Events

* 22 January – Oliver Cromwell dissolves the First Protectorate Parliament. * 11–14 March –

Penruddock uprising The Penruddock Uprising was a Royalist revolt launched on 11 March 1655, intending to restore Charles II to the throne of England. It was led by John Penruddock, a Wiltshire landowner who fought for Charles I in the First English Civil War; ...

: a Royalist uprising beginning in Wiltshire is defeated by a skirmish in South Molton. * 28 April –

Admiral Robert Blake General at Sea Robert Blake (27 September 1598 – 17 August 1657) was an English naval officer who served as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1656 to 1657. Blake is recognised as the chief founder of England's naval supremacy, a d ...

destroys the pirate fleet of the bey of Tunis. * 10–27 May – Anglo-Spanish War:

Invasion of Jamaica The Invasion of Jamaica took place in May 1655, during the 1654 to 1660 Anglo-Spanish War, when an English expeditionary force captured Spanish Jamaica. It was part of an ambitious plan by Oliver Cromwell to acquire new colonies in the America ...

– Forces led by William Penn and Robert Venables capture the island of Jamaica from Spain. * 9 August – the Rule of the Major-Generals, a period of direct military government, begins. * 24 November –

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

services prohibited by Cromwell. * 4–18 December –

Whitehall Conference {{onesource, date=October 2008 The Whitehall Conference was a gathering of prominent English merchants, clergymen, and lawyers convened by Oliver Cromwell for the purpose of debating whether Jews should be readmitted to England. The conference la ...

convened by Cromwell to debate the Resettlement of the Jews in England.

Ongoing events

* Anglo-Spanish War 1654–1660

Publications

John Wallis John Wallis (; la, Wallisius; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal ...

's ''

Arithmetica Infinitorum John Wallis (; la, Wallisius; ) was an English clergyman and mathematician who is given partial credit for the development of infinitesimal calculus. Between 1643 and 1689 he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal ...

'', first work on

differential calculus In mathematics, differential calculus is a subfield of calculus that studies the rates at which quantities change. It is one of the two traditional divisions of calculus, the other being integral calculus—the study of the area beneath a curve. ...

Births

* 11 January – Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk, politician and soldier (died 1701) * 23 April ''(bapt.)'' –

Andrew Allam Andrew Allam (1655 – 17 June 1685) was an English academic and miscellaneous writer. Life The son of a humble family, he was born at Garsington, near Oxford, and was educated under a noted schoolmaster of the time, William Wildgoose, of Brasen ...

, writer (died 1685) * 25 April – John Lowther, 1st Viscount Lonsdale, politician (died 1700) * 3 June – William Nicolson, bishop and antiquary (died 1727) * 20 July – Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, statesman (died 1701) * 12 November – Francis Nicholson, military officer and colonial governor (died 1728) * 28 December – Charles Cornwallis, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, First Lord of the British Admiralty (died 1698) * Sir John Barker, 4th Baronet, politician (died 1696)

Deaths

* 31 January ''(bur.)'' – Anthony Stapley, Regicide (born 1590) * February – George Brydges, 6th Baron Chandos, (born 1620) * 18 March –

Father Richard Smith Richard Smith (Hanworth, England, November 1568 – Paris, 18 March 1655), (officially the Bishop of Chalcedon, Bishop ''in partibus'' of Chalcedon). Having studied at the English College in Rome, he taught at Valladolid and Seville. He succee ...

, Bishop (born 1568) * 16 May – John Penruddock, Cavalier (born 1619) (executed) * after May –

Elizabeth Alkin Elizabeth Alkin ( 1600 – 1655) was a publisher, nurse and spy for the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War. Among the many derogatory names she was called by royalist sympathisers, that of Parliament Joan is one by which she is ...

, Parliamentarian publisher, nurse and spy (born c. 1600) * by 9 June –

Thomas Mauleverer Sir Thomas Mauleverer, 1st Baronet (9 April 1599 – c. June 1655) was an English politician and prominent Roundhead during the English Civil War. Sir Thomas Mauleverer was born into a family with large estates in Yorkshire. His father, Sir Rich ...

, Member of Parliament and Regicide (born 1599) * 26 June – Edward Conway, 2nd Viscount Conway, (born 1594) * 19 November – Stephen Marshall, clergyman (born 1594)

References

{{Year in Europe, 1655 Years of the 17th century in England