Events January–March January 4 – The stratovolcano Mount Parker in the Philippines) has a major eruption. January 14 – The Battle of Malacca concludes with the Dutch East India Company ending Portuguese control of Malacca. January 18 – The Junta de Braços (parliament) of Catalonia, led by Pau Claris, proclaims the Catalan Republic under French protection. February 16 – King Charles I of England gives his assent to the Triennial Act, reluctantly committing himself to parliamentary sessions of at least fifty days, every three years. March 7 – King Charles I of England decrees that all Roman Catholic priests must leave England by April 7 or face being arrested and treated as traitors. March 22 – The trial for high treason begins for Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, director of England's Council of the North. March 27 – The Battle of Pressnitz begins between the Holy Roman Empire and Sweden. The Siege of São Filipe begins in the Azores as the Portuguese Navy fights to drive the Spanish out. After almost 11 months, the Portuguese prevail on March 4, 1642. April–June April 7 – The deadline for Catholic priests to leave England expires. Among those who refused to leave, Ambrose Barlow and William Ward become martyrs. Barlow surrenders on Easter Sunday, April 25, and hanged on September 10; he will be canonized as a saint in 1970. Ward is caught on July 15 and executed on July 26. April 15 – Aegidius Ursinus de Vivere is appointed by Pope Urban VII to be the Roman Catholic Church's Patriarch of Jerusalem. April 21 – England's House of Commons votes 204 to 59 in favor of the conviction for treason and the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and the House of Lords acquiesces. King Charles refuses to give the necessary royal assent. April 25 – The Wu Sangui#Battle of Songjin begins in what is now the North Korean city of Kimch'aek, but at the time part of the Chinese Empire controlled by the Ming dynasty. The Ming, led by General Wu Sangui, defeating the Qing rebels. April 30 – In Morocco, rebel leader and secessionist Sidi al-Ayachi is assassinated. May 3 – The Protestation of 1641 is passed by England's Parliament, requiring all officeholders to swear an oath of allegiance to King Charles I and to the Church of England. May 7 – England's House of Lords votes, 51 to