After the assassination of Henry IV, his wife Marie de Médicis becomes regent for the 9-year-old Louis XIII

Michael Romanov is elected tsar, beginning a new dynasty on the Russian throne

The Protestant Frederick V (elector palatine of the Rhine) is elected king by the rebellious Bohemian nobles

The battle of the White Mountain, to the west of Prague, ends the brief reign of Frederick V in Bohemia

Three brothers among the Dahomey people establish a long-lasting kingdom in the Bight of Benin

On the death of his father, James VI and I, Charles I becomes king of England and Scotland

The Swedish army wins another convincing victory at Lützen, but Gustavus II dies leading a cavalry charge

Charles I comes in person to the House of Commons, but fails in his attempt to arrest the Five Members whom he accuses of treason

Charles I leaves London and heads for the north of England, where his support is the strongest

Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I, travels to Holland, taking with her the English crown jewels

The Mongols depose the ruling dynasty of Tibet and offer the country to the Dalai Lama, to be ruled by him with Mongol military support

Charles I withdraws to Oxford, where he establishes his court for the rest of the war

Louis XIV inherits the throne of France at the age of four

The last Ming emperor hangs himself, and China acquires a new and final dynasty - the Qing

A young Hindu prince, Shivaji, captures Bijapur in a campaign against Muslim rulers, enabling him to establish the large and long-lasting Maratha empire

Charles I is held at his palace of Hampton Court, as a prisoner of Cromwell and parliament

Charles I, brought to trial before 135 commissioners in Westminster Hall, refuses to recognise the court's validity

After a trial lasting a week in Westminster Hall, Charles I is convicted of treason for fighting a war against parliament

Charles I is beheaded on a scaffold erected in the street in London's Whitehall

Charles II, in the Hague, inherits the English and Scottish thrones of his executed father, Charles I

Parliament in London abolishes the monarchy in England, as 'unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous'

Charles II returns to Scotland and is crowned king of Scots in the traditional manner at Scone

Queen Christina, a secret convert to Catholicism, abdicates in Sweden and travels to Rome

For the final years of his life the emperor Shah Jahan is held a prisoner, by his son Aurangzeb, in Agra's Red Fort

Monck persuades Charles II to sign, at Breda in Holland, a declaration of policies to heal the wounds of the Civil War