1646 in England

Events from the year 1646 in the Kingdom of England.

Incumbents

Monarch - Charles I

Events

• 9 January - Battle of Bovey Heath: Parliament secures a significant victory over the Royalists in Devon.
• 12 January - Royalists abandon the siege of Plymouth.
• 16 February - The Battle of Torrington at Great Torrington in Devon, the last major battle of the First English Civil War, gives a decisive Parliamentary victory over the Royalists.
• March - Matthew Hopkins begins witch-hunting in the eastern counties.
• 2 March - The Prince of Wales escapes from Cornwall into exile.
• 13 March - Parliament captures Cornwall after Royalists surrender at Truro.
• 21 March - Last Royalist army in the field surrenders at Stow-on-the-Wold, although individual fortresses still hold out.
• 13 April - Exeter surrenders to Parliamentary forces.
• 19 April - Barnstaple surrenders to Parliamentary forces.
• 27 April - King Charles I flees from Oxford in disguise.
• 5 May - King Charles I surrenders his forces to a Scottish army at Southwell, Nottinghamshire.
• 20 June: Third Siege of Oxford concludes with signing of the surrender of the Royalist garrison at Oxford to General Thomas Fairfax's Parliamentary New Model Army; on 24 June the main force marches out, ending the First English Civil War.
• 7 July - Levellers William Walwyn and Richard Overton publish Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens calling for the abolition of the monarchy.
• 22 July - The Siege of Worcester ends with the city's capture by the Parliamentary forces led by Thomas Rainsborough.
• 27 July - Wallingford Castle surrenders to Sir Thomas Fairfax after a 65-day siege.
• 30 July - In Newcastle upon Tyne Parliamentary commissioners and Scottish Covenanters demand that the King gives up control of the army and place restrictions on Catholics.
• 17 August - The garrison at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall, the last mainland English Royalist stronghold, surrenders after a 155-day siege.
• 19 August - Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester, surrenders Raglan Castle in Wales to General Fairfax after a 2-month siege.
• October - Anglican episcopacy formally abolished.
• 23 December - The Covenanters hand over the King to the Parliamentarians.
• 25 December - Scuffles in Bury St Edmunds over the celebration of Christmas.

Publications

• Thomas Browne's work Pseudodoxia Epidemica, which introduces the word 'electricity' to the language.
• James Shirley's Poems including the masque The Triumph of Beauty.
• John Suckling's play The Goblins.
• The Westminster Confession of Faith.

Births

• 19 August - John Flamsteed, astronomer (died 1719)
• 9 November - John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, politician (died 1701)
• 27 November - Edward Howard, 2nd Earl of Carlisle, politician (died 1692)

Deaths

• 24 March - Sir Thomas Aston, 1st Baronet, Member of Parliament (born 1600)
• 20 July - William Twisse, church leader (born 1578)
• 1 September - Francis Windebank, statesman (born 1582)
• 14 September - Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, English Civil War general (born 1591)
• 4 October - Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, statesman (born 1586)
• 28 October (bur.) - William Dobson, portrait painter (born 1611)