1641

Year 1641 (MDCXLI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1641

January - June

* January 18 - Pau Claris proclaims the Catalan Republic.

July - December

* July 12 - Portugal and the Dutch Republic sign a Treaty of Offensive and Defensive Alliance. The treaty is not respected by both parties and as a consequence it has no effect in the Portuguese colonies (Brazil and Angola) that are under Dutch rule.
* August 10 - Charles I of England flees London for the north.
* October - Irish Rebellion of 1641: The Gaelic Irish in Ulster revolt against the English settlers.
* November 4 - A Dutch fleet, with Michiel de Ruyter as third in command, beats back a Spanish-Dunkirker fleet in an action at Cape St Vincent.
* November 22 - The Long Parliament passes the Grand Remonstrance, part of a series of legislation designed to contain Charles I's absolutist tendencies.

Undated

* The English House of Commons pass the Triennial Act, which compels the king to summon Parliament every three years in England.
* The Dutch found a trading colony on Dejima, near Nagasaki, Japan.
* Portugal is ousted from Malacca by the Dutch.
* Claudio Monteverdi's opera "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" is first performed.
* Moses Amyraut's "De l'elevation de la foy et de l'abaissement de la raison en la creance des mysteres de la religion" is published.
* René Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy" is originally published.
* The Norwegian city of Kristiansand is founded by King Christian IV.
* The Swedish town of Falun is given city rights by Queen Kristina.
* English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
* A massive epidemic breaks out in northern and central China, just 3 years before the fall of the Ming Dynasty. It races south down along the Grand Canal of China and the densely-populated settlements there, from the northern terminus at Beijing, to the fertile Jiangnan region. In some local areas and towns it wipes out 90% of the local populace.

Births

* January 13 - Patrick Hume, 1st Earl of Marchmont, Scottish statesman (d. 1724)
* January 18 - François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (d. 1691)
* February 2 - Claude de la Colombière, French Catholic priest (d. 1682)
* March - Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester (d. 1711)
* April 8 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (d. 1704)
* April 15 - Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician and antiquarian (d. 1722)
* May - Juan Núñez de la Peña, Spanish historian (d. 1721)
* May 10 - Dudley North, English economist (d. 1691)
* May 28 - Janez Vajkard Valvasor, Slovenian polymath (d. 1693)
* June 30 - Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, Irish general (d. 1719)
* July 30 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)
* August 5 - John Hathorne, American magistrate (d. 1717)
* September - Nehemiah Grew, biologist (d. 1712)
* September 7 - Tokugawa Ietsuna, Japanese shogun (d. 1680)
* October 5 - Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV of France (d. 1707)
* November 23 - Anthonie Heinsius, Dutch statesman (d. 1720)
*"date unknown"
**Pierre Allix, French Protestant clergyman (d. 1717)
**Diego Ladrón de Guevara, viceroy of Peru (d. 1718)
**Dodo von Knyphausen, German nobleman (d. 1698)
**Empress XiaoHui, consort of the Shunzhi Emperor of China (d. 1717)

Deaths

* January 3 - Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer (b. c. 1618)
* January 11 - Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar, Spanish poet (b. 1583)
* March 8 - Xu Xiake, Chinese adventurer and geographer (b. 1587)
* April 13 - Richard Montagu, English clergyman (b. 1577)
* April 15 - Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (b. 1581)
* April 27 - Wilhelm von Rath, German soldier and scholar (b. 1585)
* May 10 - Johan Banér, Swedish soldier (b. 1596)
* May 12 - Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, English statesman (b. 1593)
* August 9 - Augustine Baker, Welsh Benedictine mystic (b. 1575)
* September 10 - Ambrose Barlow, English Catholic martyr (b. 1585) (executed)
* October 31 - Cornelis Jol, Dutch naval commander and privateer (b. 1597)
* November 9
** Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Governor of the Netherlands and Bishop of Toledo (b. c.1609)
** Maren Spliid, Danish alleged witch (b. c. 1600) (executed)
*December 9 - Sir Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (b. 1599)
*"date unknown"
**Estêvão de Brito, Portuguese composer (b. c. 1570)
**Mukai Shogen Tadakatsu, Japanese admiral (b. 1582)