1661
Mazarin Dies, Louis XIV Takes Power
Cardinal Mazarin, the last of the great minister-cardinals, died at Vincennes. The twenty-two-year-old Louis XIV stunned his council by announcing he would henceforth govern alone. When ministers asked to whom they should address their reports, he said to me. The age of personal monarchy had arrived, and for the next fifty-four years no minister would rule France except through the king's will.
Kangxi Emperor Ascends
The seven-year-old Xuanye succeeded his father Shunzhi and ruled at first through four regents. In 1669, he would seize personal power by arresting the dominant regent Oboi and begin the reign that made the Qing dynasty secure, prosperous, and intellectually vigorous. He would rule until 1722, presiding over one of the longest and most culturally productive reigns in Chinese history.
Boyle Publishes The Sceptical Chymist
The Anglo-Irish natural philosopher Robert Boyle published a dialogue attacking the ancient doctrines of four elements and three principles and arguing that chemistry should be founded on careful experiment and quantitative measurement. Alchemy began its long retreat; modern chemistry had its founding manifesto, and the discipline would slowly transform from mystical art into the rigorous experimental science we recognize today.
Koxinga Expels the Dutch from Taiwan
The Ming loyalist warlord Zheng Chenggong, known to Europeans as Koxinga, besieged the Dutch fortress of Zeelandia on the west coast of Taiwan for nine months and drove the VOC from the island. He established a Chinese kingdom there that held out against the Qing until 1683, the last remnant of Ming resistance in an empire that had already fallen.