1650-1679 A.D. The Great Fire of London & St. Peter's Square

by Deborah Marino Sep 20, 2022

The king was just beheaded.

This was a big deal, and not just for England, but for every country with a monarch...which was basically every country. The people could not only depose a king, but try, convict, and sentence him to death? Interesting times.

Ready to immerse yourself in the seventeenth century? Click here for a YouTube playlist of music & ambiance to set the mood.

(Feature Photo: A painting of the Great Fire of London in 1666; Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1650

RULERS & ROYALTY: The Council of State is ruling England (king was beheaded last year) – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Ferdinand III is emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburg line) – Pope Innocent X is the 236th pope/bishop of Rome

Fredrick William "The Great Elector" is the 5th Duke of Prussia, which is in Poland; Hohenzollern Castle, in the Swabian Alps of Germany, is fully built and habitable, and is under Habsburg control

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The Next Prince of Orange

November 6, William II Prince of Orange, dies of smallpox, aged 26, at the Hague in the Dutch Republic; His son, William III, who was just born two days ago on November 4, becomes the next one to take the title; William's mother, Mary, Princess Royal, is the daughter of King Charles I of England--who was just beheaded by the revolutionaries last year when England abolished its monarchy (the monarchy will be restored when Charles I's son, Charles II, is restored to the throne 1660)

William III will become the King of England and Scotland in 1688

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"By 1650, some 160,000 people were living at Potosí, the vast mining center in the Viceroyalty of Peru, where the ore was so concentrated that pure silver could almost be scooped out of the ground." (Spain, The Center of the World 1519-1682, Pg. 259)

A painting is done of a Beest Street in The Hague, a city in the Netherlands (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1651

RULERS & ROYALTY: The Council of State is ruling England (king was beheaded two years ago) – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Ferdinand III is emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburg line) – Pope Innocent X is the 236th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England)

1652

RULERS & ROYALTY: The Council of State is ruling England (king was beheaded three years ago) – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Ferdinand III is emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (Habsburg line) – Pope Innocent X is the 236th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 1 in November

The first coffee house is set up in London in St. Michael’s Alley, off Cornhill (London the Biography, Pg. 314)

1653

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 2 in November

Sir Thomas Staples dies (Great, great, great, grandfather to C.S. Lewis)

1654

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 3 in November

A second coffee house is set up in London, close by the first one (see 1652) in St. Michael’s Churchyard

1655

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 4 in November

January 7, Pope Innocent X dies, aged 80 (b. 1574)

April 7, Alexander VII becomes the 237th pope (Photo: A portrait of Pope Alexander VII by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1656

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 5 in November

Gian Lorenzo Bernini is commissioned by Pope Alexander VII to build St. Peters Square outside St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (now part of the Vatican buildings)

Dutch mathematician and physicist Christian Huygens constructs the first pendulum clock

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, sits for a portrait by Samuel Cooper (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1657

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 6 in November

April 2, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman emperor, dies, aged 48; His son will be elected as Holy Roman Emperor next year

June 3, William Harvey, an English physician dies in London; He had discovered that the blood pumping from the heart circulates back to the heart

The third recorded coffee house in London, the Rainbow, located in Fleet Street by the gate of the Inner Temple, is prosecuted for being “’a great nuisance and prejudice to the neighborhood’ but the principle complaint was of ‘evil smells’ as well as the danger of fire” (London the Biography, Pg. 314)

1658

RULERS & ROYALTY: Oliver Cromwell is Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (no monarchy) – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I ascends the throne as Holy Roman Emperor (reigns until 1705) (the Roman Emperor is also King of Germany, and from 1440 to 1740, the Holy Roman Emperors were Habsburgs of Germany, also included in the empire at this time is Italy, Bohemia [Czechoslovakia], Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Croatia) – Alexander VII is the 237^th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 7 in November

June 3, A whale is seen in the Thames river in London (London the Autobiography)

1659

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 8 in November

1660

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II becomes king of England, Scotland and Ireland (English monarchy restored this year) – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire – Alexander VII is the 237^th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 9 in November

May 29, Charles II arrives in London to reclaim the English throne (Photo: King Charles II in Garter Robes by John Michael Wright, painted between 1660-1665, Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1661

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Phillip IV is emperor of the Spanish Empire (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire – Alexander VII is the 237^th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 10 in November

1662

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 11 in November

Atlas Major, an eleven volume atlas that contained nearly six hundred maps is publish; The cartographer, Joan Blaeu, is one of the first commercial cartographers to embrace Copernicus's heliocentric model; He depicts classical gods representing the planets, along with the two halves of the spherical earth, and made them all orbit Apollo, the god of the sun (Germany, A Nation in its Time, Pg. 85)

1663

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 12 in November

A full survey of Holyrood House is carried out by the Charles II’s Master Mason, John Mylne (in 1670 funds were voted for the repair of the house)

1664

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 13 in November

The Great Plague (bubonic) comes to London late in the year from the Parish of Saint Giles, carried by rats

1665

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Phillip IV, emperor of the Spanish Empire, dies and Carlos II succeeds him (Habsburg line) – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France (Bourbon line) – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire – Alexander VII is the 237^th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 14 in November

September 17, Phillip IV, emperor of the Spanish Empire, dies, aged 60, and his son, Carlos II, called "The Bewitched" succeeds him aged only 4 years old (will turn 5 in November); He is called "The Bewitched" because of his physicals disabilities and ineffectual reign which will end with his death in 35 years in 1700; He will be the last of the Habsburg line of Spanish emperors

The Great Plague runs ramped through London

1666

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Carlos II is emperor of the Spanish Empire – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire – Alexander VII is the 237^th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 15 in November

September 2, The Great Fire of London breaks out at 2 a.m. out of the house of the king’s baker in Pudding Lane

1667

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Carlos II is emperor of the Spanish Empire – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France – Alexis I is on the Russian throne – Leopold I is on the throne as Holy Roman Emperor – Pope Alexander VII dies and Clement IX becomes the 238th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 16 in November

The Dutch fleet sails up the Thames to invade England, but the invasion is a debacle and the English Royal Navy is formed

May 22, Pope Alexander VII dies, aged 68 (b. 1599)

June 20, Clement IX becomes the 238th pope/bishop of Rome

November 30, The English author Jonathan Swift is born in Dublin, Ireland

1668

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 17 in November

The Sheldonian Theatre, the site of Oxford University degree ceremonies, is completed to a design by Sir Christopher Wren (Photo: The Sheldonian Theatre in the year 2019, Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

1669

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Carlos II is emperor of the Spanish Empire – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France – Alexis I is tsar of Russia – Leopold I is emperor of the Holy Roman/German Empire – Pope Clement IX dies, no pope until next year

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 18 in November

The painter Rembrandt dies in Amsterdam

December 9, Clement IX dies, aged 69, in Rome, the Papal States

1670

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 19 in November

April 29, Clement X becomes the pope/bishop of Rome

1671

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 20 in November

The foundation inscription is inscribed in the Quadrangle of Holyrood House in Scotland, in abbreviation it reads: “Founded by Robert Mylne, Master Mason, 1671,” the work of the renovation is overseen and directed by the Secretary of State for Scotland, John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale (created 1^st Duke of Lauderdale in 1672)

1672

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 21 in November

1673

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 22 in November

1674

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 23 in November

1675

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 24 in November

Christopher Wren, the English architect, begins to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral; St. Paul's had completely burned down 9 years ago in 1666

The future Queen Anne (r. 1702 – 1714), now 10 years-old, meets her best friend Sarah Jennings, who is 16 years-old

1676

RULERS & ROYALTY: Charles II is king of England, Scotland and Ireland – Carlos II is emperor of the Spanish Empire – Louis XIV "The Sun King" is king of France – Feodor III tsar of Russia – Leopold I is emperor of the Holy Roman/German Empire – Clement X dies and Innocent XI becomes the 240th pope/bishop of Rome

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 25 in November

February 8, Alexis I, tsar of Russia, dies, aged 46, in Moscow and his son, Feodor III, becomes tsar at 14 years-old (turns 15 in June)

July 22, Pope Clement X dies, aged 86

September 21, Innocent XI becomes pope/bishop of Rome

1677

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 26 in November

June 9, Feodor III, tsar of Russia, turns 16

November 4, William III, Prince of Orange and future king of England and Scotland marries his cousin Mary, daughter of his maternal uncle

1678

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 27 in November

June 9, Feodor III, tsar of Russia, turns 17

Sarah Jennings (princess Anne’s best friend) marries the dashing John Churchill, who will go on to achieve fame as the victor in the wars against Louis XVI of France (and who was given the land to build Blenheim palace, named for the Battle of Blenheim)

1679

William III is Prince of Orange (and later king of England); He turns 28 in November

June 9, Feodor III, tsar of Russia, turns 18

Highclere Castle is built in Hampshire, England (where the British drama Downton Abbey will be filmed) (Photo: Highclere Castle in the year 2019, Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

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