Events January–March January 4 – First English Civil War: Charles I attempts to arrest six leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. February 5 – The Bishops Exclusion Act is passed in England to prevent any member of the clergy from holding political office. February 15 – Endymion Porter is voted to be a "dangerous counsellor" by the English parliament. February 17 – The Treaty of Axim is signed between the Dutch West India Company and the chiefs of the Nzema people in what is now the African nation of Ghana. February 18 – A group of Protestant English settlers in Ireland surrender to Irish authorities at Castlebar in County Mayo in hopes of having their lives spared, and are killed one week later on orders of Edmond Bourke. February 20 – The Treaty of The Hague, between the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Portugal, is ratified by the Republic's States-General. February 22 – The Italian opera Il palazzo incantato (The Enchanted Palace), by Luigi Rossi with libretto by Giulion Rospigliosi, is given its first performance. March 1 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in America. March 19 – The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship, close the town gates, and declare support for Confederate Ireland. April–June April - Hannibal Sehested was appointed Governor-General of Norway. April 8 – George Spencer is executed by the New Haven Colony, for alleged bestiality. May 1 – Honours granted by Charles I, from this date onward, are retrospectively annulled by Parliament. May 17 – Ville-Marie (later Montreal) is founded as a permanent settlement. May 18 – In Ireland, the five week Siege of Limerick, under control by English Protestants, is started by the Irish Confederation. June 1 – The "Nineteen Propositions" are sent by the English House of Lords and House of Commons to King Charles I, asking the King to consent to parliamentary approval for the members of his privy council, his chief officers, and new seats created for the House of Lords, as well as regulating the education and choice of marital partners of the King's children, and barring Roman Catholics from the Lords. June 10 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Archbishop of Mexico, fires the Viceroy of New Spain, Diego López Pacheco, allegedly on orders of King Philip IV, and takes office as the new Viceroy. Palafox