Webb Family Tree

1628 AD Petition of Rights - In 1628 the English Parliament passed the Petition of Rights. Under its terms the King could not levy any new taxes without the consent of Parliament. Furthermore soldiers could not be billeted in private homes. Martial law could not be imposed in time of peace. Finally, the petition of Rights forbid the imprisonment of individuals without cause.

1630 AD Fictional Character Don Juan Appears - The character of Don Juan appeared for the first time in a literary work by Tirso de Molina. The first work it appeared in was El Burlador de Sevilla.

1630 AD Massachusetts Bay Colony -On June 12, 1630, the flagship of the Massachusetts Bay Company arrived in Salem to officially found the new colony. The company was founded by English Puritans, most of whom were educated and wealthy. A fleet of eleven ships brought hundreds of settlers to Salem. John Winthrop became the first governor of the colony.

1634 AD Catholics Found Maryland- One Hundred and Twenty Eight Catholic settlers arrived on the island of Saint Clements. Their settlement became called Maryliand

1634 AD Peace of Prague In September 1634 Protestant forces under the command of Bernahard of Saxe-Weimer were defeated at the battle of Nordligen in Bavaria. The majority of the German princes then abandoned the Protestant coalition leading to the Peace of Prague. This agreement took place between the elector of Saxony and the Holy Roman Emperor. The agreement voided the Edict of Restitutions. That edict had stated that there was only one religion in a country, that of the ruler.
This did not bring about an end to a war, rather the opposite took place. Catholic France, now fearing the increased power of the Habsburgs, allied itself with the Protestants. It invaded Spanish controlled Netherlands and the Thiry Years War was transformed from a religious war to one about power and land.

1635 AD Roger Williams Founds Rhode Island-Roger Williams was a Puritan clergyman in Massachusetts. Williams made some threatening proposals to his fellow settlers: Williams was found guilty of disseminating "new and dangerous opinions." As a result, he was to be banished from the colony. Before the Massachusetts settlers could banish him back to England, Williams escaped and fled to Rhode Island, where he established his own colony. This colony provided complete religious freedom for all people, including Catholics and Jews.

1637 AD Descartes Publishes Discours de la Methode - In 1637 Rene Descartes published Discours de la methode . This was a philosophical introduction to his scientific works in dioptrics, meteorology and geometry.

1637- Settlers Kill 500 Indians-On June 5th, 500 Indians (men, women, and children) were killed, thus ending the Pequot War. The Indians were attacked by combined forces from the Massachusetts and Connecticut Militia.

1638 AD Galileo Explains Principles of Falling Bodies In 1638 Galileo published Discorsi e Demonstrazione Matematiche Intorno a Due Nuove Scienze. This worked presented the mathematical principals of falling bodies and projectile motion.

1638 AD Uprising in Japan The Shimabara uprising comes to an end when the 30,000 peasants occupying Nara Castle surrender for lack of food. The 120,000 man army of the Japanese shogun Iemistsu kills most of them. The shogun then orders all Portuguese traders from Japan and bans the construction of any ship large enough to sail the oceans.

1640 AD Triennal Act -In April 1640 the English Parliament met for the first time in 11 years. The King had called the Parliament into session to request financial support. The Parliament refused and instead presented King Charles I a list of grievances. His reaction was to disband the Parliament. During the summer of 1640 a brief war known as the Bishops War broke out with Scotts who invaded northern England. It ended with the Treat of Ripon. In November Charles was persuaded by his advisors to once again call the Parliament into session. This meeting which lasted four years became known as the Long Parliament. In the course of the meeting the Triennial Act was passed. It required a meeting of the Parliament once every three years. In addition the prerogative courts were abolished and the king was prevented from dissolving the Parliament without its agreement

1642 AD English Civil War Begins -Charles I continued his disagreements with Parliament. In addition he attempted to increase the amount of ritual in the Church of England; something opposed by many Protestants who felt that it was a return to the more ritualistic Catholic practices. In 1642 the disputes led to civil war between Parliament and the King. Parliament won the battle with Oliver Cromwell leading the Roundheads against the Royalist. Cromwell, whose force was also known as the New Model Army, had the best trained army and that, combined with the religious fervor of it soldiers, led to their victory. Once Cromwell was victorious he ousted all those in the Parliament who did not support him, creating what became known as the rump Parliament. It approved the beheading of Charles I which took place in January 1869. Cromwell declared England a republic, but when Parliament failed to go along with all Cromwell wanted he disbanded the Parliament and ruled until his death as dictator.

1651 AD Charles II is Defeated and Flees France -Charles II arrived in Scotland from France and was proclaimed King of Scotland and England. He was defeated in September 1650 at the battle of Dunbar by Oliver Cromwell. Despite his defeat Charles is crowned King of Scotland at Scone on January 1, 1651. On September 3rd Charles II was defeated again at the Battle of Worcester. Charles II was forced to flee back to England.

1652 AD Capetown Founded - Cape Town South Africa was founded by the surgeon of a Dutch ship- Jan van Reibeck. He goes ashore with 70 men.

1652 AD The 1st Anglo-Dutch War Begins - The British and the Dutch were natural maritime rivals both having developed an international trading system that spanned the globe. The first Anglo Dutch War broke out on 1651 after the English passage of the Navigation Act. The Navigation Act limited trading to the British colonies to English or colonial vessels. The English forces succeeded in blockading Dutch ports. There were a number of fleet encounters the last of which is depicted here at Scheveningen, where the Dutch were soundly defeated. They were forced to accept the Navigation Acts under the terms of the Treaty of Westminister.

1655 AD The First Northern War Begins - With Poland engaged in a war with Russia to maintain control of the Ukraine, Charles X King of Sweden invaded Poland. He occupied Warsaw on October 8, 1655 and Krakow on October 19, 1655. Prussia first sided with Sweden then switched sides the next year.

1658 AD Bogdan Khmelntiski killed 100,000 Jews in Ukraine - During the Bogdan Chmielnicki uprising against the Poles in the Ukraine, the Jews of the Ukraine were made a special target. In the course of the uprising 100,000 Jews were killed throughout the Ukraine.

1659 AD Peace of Pyrenees France and Spain reach a peace accord called the Peace of Pyrenees. The agreement confirmed the ascendancy of France at the expense of Hapsburg Spain. Spain was forced to cede territory to France. The border between France and Spain became the Pyrenees Mountains.

1660 AD Treaty Copenhagen- The Treaty of Copenhagen was signed in June 1660, bringing an end to the war between Sweden and Denmark. The agreement established the boundaries between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Those boundaries have endured until today.

1660 AD Peace of Breda Charles II in exile in France issued the Declaration of Breda in which he offered to reconcile with the British Parliament, which was meeting after the death of Oliver Cromwell. The Parliament accepted his declaration and Charles returned to England to be crowned King of England. His return restored the monarchy to England and brought an end an extended period of civil strife.

1664 AD Second Anglo-Dutch War - The Second Anglo- Dutch War took place after the Second Navigation Act was passed including a number of major naval battles between the British and the Dutch. The first battle took place in 1665. It is known as the Battle of Lowestoft and occurred after the capture of an Anglo-Hamburg convoy by the Dutch. The British and Dutch fleets engaged off Lowestoft. The battle was hard fought between ships of the two fleets. The British and Dutch flagships engaged directly with each other, and although the battle initially favored the Dutch, the Dutch flagship suddenly blew up and victory was with the British. During the course of the war the British captured the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York. The British suffered a major naval defeat when the Dutch navy successfully penetrated the Medway River and captured the British flagship Royal Charles. The war ended with the Treaties of Bred. Under its terms the status quo is maintained, however the British retain New York. The Navigation Acts were slightly modified to allow Dutch ships with goods from the Rhine to call on British ports.

1664 AD Dutch Yield Colony To The British The British arrived in New Amsterdam with overwhleming firepower. They were able to convince the Dutch to surrender without firing a single shot. They soon named the colony “New York.”

1667 AD Peace of Andrusova Ends Thirteen Year War The 13 Years War between Russia and Poland ended on January 20th when Poland agreed to cede Kiev, Smolensk and Eastern Ukraine to Russia.

1667 AD Bacons Revolt- Hostilities escalated between the Indians around the Virginia colony and the colonists. Virginia governor William Berekely refused to empower settlers to go after the Indians. James Bacon, a recent immigrant, led a force against the Indians. He was declared a traitor by Berekely and jailed. After being freed, he raised an army of supporters who took control of Jamestown, forcing the governor to flee. The rebellion collapsed when Bacon died suddenly.

1669 AD Newton Explains Calculus -Isaac Newton published his basic theories to calculus in 1669.

1669 AD Rembrandt Dies Rembrandt Harmenszoon vn Rihn a Dutch painter died.Some of his well known works include Night Watch and Simeon in the Temple.

1672 AD Admission Was Charged for a Concert -London audiences paid admission to see several concerts, beginning the trend that would change the economic structure of the arts in Western culture. Up to this point, the creation and presentation of art, including music, was generally supported by the church or by private patrons of royal or noble birth. When the financing of the arts began to come from middle class audiences, composers and other creative artists became much more independent of patrons, and could sell their music and performances directly to the general public.

1672 AD Newton Founds Study of Mechanics In 1687 Newton founded the study of mechanics. The underlying basis was Newton's three laws of motion. One of them his principal of universal gravitation stated that two bodies attract each other with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

1672 AD Newton Premiers Reflecting Telescope -In 1704 Isaac Newton published his work "Optick". This was the result of Newton's work on reflection, refraction, diffraction and the spectra of light.

1673 AD Moliere Dies In 1673 Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) the French playwright died. He was the best known French classical dramatist. His works included Le Misanthrope and Les Femmes Savantes.

1674 AD Boyle's Law -Between 1660 and 1674 Robert Boyle developed a pneumatic pump. He was then able to describe the relationship between pressure and volume. This is today known as Boyles Law.

1675 AD Vermeer Dies In 1675- Jan Vermeer a Dutch painter died. He was best known for his careful use of light. Some of his best known works include Servant Pouring Milk and View of Delft.