In the year AD 1629...

  • The Thirty Years' War enters its eleventh year.
    • The Danish Intervention comes to an end in the wake of German Catholic general Albrecht von Wallenstein's successful invasion of Denmark. Danish king Christian IV signs the Treaty of Lübeck with Wallenstein, allowing him to keep his Danish territories in exchange for discontinuing any further involvement in the conflict.
    • The Protestant princes are exhausted by the fighting and ready to come to the table and recognize Hapsburg preeminence in exchange for freedom of religion and confirmation of their landholdings, but in a triumph of religious zeal over political expediency, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II instead issues the Edict of Restitution, demanding that the Protestant princes return all lands seized from the Holy Roman Empire since 1555 and thus guaranteeing an all-out battle to the finish, which would require another two decades of fighting.
    • Taking the exact opposite course of action as Ferdinand, pragmatic leader of France Cardinal Richelieu grants the Grace of Alais, guaranteeing freedom of worship to French Protestants and thus protecting the unity of his own nation at the very moment that German unity was decisively shattered.
  • The Polish-Swedish War of 1625–1629 comes to an end. Despite a brilliant victory by Stanisław Koniecpolski over Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Trzciana, Polish leaders are tired of war and grant the Swedes a very favorable peace settlement under the Truce of Altmark, ceding most of Livonia, the important port of Riga, and several Prussian ports to Sweden, turning over the surviving ships in the Polish Navy to Sweden, and granting the Swedes the right to levy a 3.5% tax on all Polish trade in the Baltic Sea. The end of this conflict and the spoils gained allow Sweden to turn its attention to Germany, and pave the way for Sweden's entry into the Thirty Years' War the following year.
  • In response to a increasingly hostile Parliament, English king Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules directly for the next 11 years, a period that his enemies will call the "Eleven Years Tyranny."
  • China's Ming Dynasty is on the verge of collapse. The Chongzhen Emperor reaffirms harsh penalties for female infanticide in the face of worsening economic conditions, and half the post stations in China are closed down for lack of funds.
  • In Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate bans women from performing in the popular Kabuki plays in an effort to reduce prostitution, thus beginning a tradition of men playing female roles in Kabuki theater.
  • Dutch admiral Piet Hein, who had just retired to enjoy the riches he had won capturing the Spanish Silver Fleet the year before, is recalled to active duty, given supreme command of the entire Dutch Navy, and ordered clear the North Sea of pirates who are in the pay of Spanish king Philip IV. Hein hunts down and destroys most of the pirates, but is killed in a battle at Dunkirk at age 51, so he never did get to enjoy his long awaited retirement.
  • Puritan settlements in what is now Massachusetts receive a royal charter and officially become the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
  • English entrepreneur John Mason claims the lands between the Piscataqua and the Merrimack rivers, which he names New Hampshire.
  • To encourage further Dutch colonization in North America, the Dutch West India Company establishes the patroon system, whereby anyone establishing a settlement of at least 50 persons within four years was granted large estates in perpetuity, with feudal-style rights over the inhabitants, thus creating a hereditary landed aristocracy in what is now New York and New Jersey.
  • In Canada, the English capture Quebec City from the French in a sudden surprise attack, and will retain control of it until 1632.
  • More interested in his art and his gardens than in reigning, Japanese emperor Go-Mizuno abdicates his throne in favor of his daughter Empress Meisho, making her only the 7th female to grace the Chrysanthemum Throne in Japanese history.
  • The Dutch East India Company's newly launched trading ship Batavia wrecks on a reef off the western coast of Australia on her maiden voyage, while the crew is in the midst of a mutiny.
  • John Milton writes his ode, "On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity."

These people were born in 1629:

These people died in 1629:


1628 - 1629 - 1630

17th century

How they were made