1603 - 1713
A Stuart Union: Civil war & New Horizons . . .
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Union of Crowns: James I & VI (1603) . . . Gunpowder plot (1605) . . . English civil war (1642-46) . . . Commonwealth & Cromwell (1649-1659) . . . Great Plague (1665) . . . Fire of London [Pepys, Evelyn etc.](1666) . . . Test Act (1673) . . . the 'Glorious Revolution' [William of Orange](1688) . . . expansion of commercial / trading 'empire' (latter 17th C) . . . Age of Reason & Scientific Discovery . . . Newton's "Principia" (1687) . . . agricultural improvement & expansion . . . increased coal production . . . major expansion of trade . . . Bank of England (1694) . . . Britain turns outwards to the world (1700's on) . . . growth of newspapers . . . rise of City finance . . . succession of extremely cold winters & poor summers . . . widespread starvation in rural areas in upland / west coastal Ireland & Scotland . . . knock-on effects elsewhere hastened the decline of rural / agricultural existence in marginal areas . . . Act of Union (1707) . . .
Many severe winters * some spells of warm & dry weather * significantly colder than current / 21st century values * by the late 1600's, temperatures across N. Atlantic north of 50degN were 1 to 3 degC lower than latter part of 20th century . . . the 'peak' period for the Little Ice Age (in British Isles) is regarded as 1550-1700 [mostly within this timeslice] - a time of notable glacier & arctic pack-ice advance & increased frequency of cyclonic storms in the NE Atlantic / NW maritime Europe region: Lamb, in CHMW, states that ... " winds from North & East of higher frequency relative to periods before and after ". . . the "Maunder minimum" [ of sunspot activity] from 1645 to 1715 which is thought to have been responsible.				Weather Log
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