Events from the year1642 inEngland, opening year of theEnglish Civil War andWars of the Three Kingdoms.

• Monarch –Charles I

• 4 January –Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of theLong Parliament, but they escape.^[1] This is the last time any monarch enters theHouse of Commons.
• January – Charles I agrees to parliament's request to order that the last Wednesday in each month should be kept as a fast day.^[2]
• 18 January–March – theProtestation of 1641, an oath of allegiance to the King and Church of England, is circulated around the country for signature by all adult males, theProtestation Returns of 1641–1642.
• 13 February – Charles assents to theBishops Exclusion Act thereby removing all bishops from theHouse of Lords.^[1]
• 23 February–11 March – QueenHenrietta Maria and her eldest daughterMary leaveFalmouth, Cornwall, to go into exile at the Dutch court inThe Hague.^[3] Just before she leaves, Mary becomes the first child of an English Sovereign to be granted the titlePrincess Royal.
• 27 February – Charles rejects theMilitia Bill.^[1]
• 5 March – Parliament declares that "the People are bound by the Ordinance for the Militia, though it has not received the Royal Assent".^[1]
• April – the governor ofKingston upon Hull twice refuses access to the King.
• 1 June – Parliament approves theNineteen Propositions to be sent to the King, demanding parliamentary control of the civil government of the kingdom.
• 21 June – The King's Answer, rejecting theNineteen Propositions, is read in Parliament.^[1]
• 10 July–30 July – Charlesbesieges Hull in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal.^[1]
• 22 August – Charles raises the royal battle standard overNottingham Castle, so beginning theFirst English Civil War against his own Parliament.^[1]
• 2 September – Parliament ordersthe theatres of London to be closed, effectively ending the era ofEnglish Renaissance theatre.^[1]
• 7 September – First English Civil War:
  • Siege of Portsmouth (begun on 10 August) ends with Royalists surrendering the port to Parliament.
  • Battle of Babylon Hill in Dorset, an indecisive skirmish.
• 23 September – First English Civil War: Royalist victory at theBattle of Powick Bridge.^[4]
• 23 October – First English Civil War: Royalist victory at theBattle of Edgehill, the firstpitched battle of the War.^[1]
• 29 October – King Charles entersOxford and establishes his court there.^[4]
• 12 November –Battle of Brentford: Royalist forces defeat Parliamentarians.
• 13 November –Battle of Turnham Green: Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to takeLondon.^[1]
• 1 December –Storming of Farnham Castle: Parliamentarian forces easily take the Surrey stronghold from Royalist defenders.
• Theangel is last minted this year.

• 5 March –John Archdale, colonial governor (died 1717)
• 15 March(bapt.) –Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester (died 1711)
• 20 June –George Hickes, nonjuring bishop and scholar (died 1715)
• 23 December –John Holt, Lord Chief Justice (died 1710)
• 25 December –Isaac Newton, mathematician and physicist (died 1727)

• 7 February –William Bedell, deposed Bishop of Kilmore (born 1571)
• 24 October –Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey,Fen drainage adventurer and soldier (born 1583)
• 7 November –Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, politician (born c. 1563)

• 1642 in England
• Years of the 17th century in England

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata