Events from the year 1640 in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles I

Events

• 5 January – Parliament fixes a quorum of 40 for its proceedings to be transacted.^[1]
• 12 January – Thomas Wentworth becomes Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and Earl of Strafford.^[2]
• 17 January – John Finch becomes Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.^[2]
• 13 April – King Charles I summons the Short Parliament in an attempt to fund the Second Bishops' War against the Scottish Covenanters.^[2]
• 17 April – John Pym makes a speech attacking the King in Parliament.^[2]
• 4 May – Oliver St John calls on Parliament to outlaw ship money.^[2]
• 5 May – the King dismisses the Short Parliament and prepares to attack Scotland.^[2]
• 6 May – the Earl of Warwick, Lord Brooke, Lord Saye, John Pym, John Hampden, and Sir Walter Earle arrested.^[2]
• 20 August – a Scottish Covenanter army invades Northumberland.^[2]
• 28 August – Battle of Newburn: the Covenanter army defeats the English army.^[2]
• 26 October – Treaty of Ripon signed between the King and the Covenanters.^[2]
• 3 November – the Long Parliament is summoned;^[2] it will not be dissolved for 20 years.
• 25 November – the Earl of Strafford imprisoned in the Tower of London.^[2]
• 11 December – a crowd of 1,500 Londoners presents the Root and Branch petition to the Long Parliament, calling for the abolition of episcopacy in the Church of England.
• 18 December – Archbishop Laud impeached for treason.^[2]
• undated – Habeas Corpus Act ("An Act for the Regulating the Privie Councell and for taking away the Court commonly called the Star Chamber") passed, abolishing the Star Chamber.^[3]

Births

• 11 January – Sir Robert Burdett, 3rd Baronet, politician (died 1716)
• 25 January – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, soldier and statesman (died 1707)
• 6 February – William Campion, politician (died 1702)
• 13 February – Richard Edgcumbe, politician (died 1688)
• 29 February – Benjamin Keach, Particular Baptist preacher (died 1704)
• 30 March – John Trenchard, statesman (died 1695)
• 19 June – Thomas Widdrington, politician (died 1660)
• 29 June – Elizabeth Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield (died 1665)^[4]
• 12 October – Sir Roger Twisden, 2nd Baronet (died 1703)
• 18 October – William Stanley, Member of Parliament (died 1670)
• 23 October – Elisabeth Pepys, née de St Michel, wife of Samuel (died 1669)
• 28 October – Streynsham Master, colonial administrator (died 1724)
• 5 November – John Verney, 1st Viscount Fermanagh, politician and merchant (died 1717)
• 17 November – Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, née Villiers, a mistress of King Charles II (died 1709)
• 7 December (bapt.) – Fabian Stedman, pioneer of change ringing (died 1713)
• 13 December – Robert Plot, naturalist (died 1696)
• 14 December – Aphra Behn, née Amis, Johnson or Cooper?, author (died 1689)

Deaths

• 14 January – Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, lawyer and judge (born 1578)
• 25 January – Robert Burton, scholar (born 1577)
• 17 March – Philip Massinger, dramatist (born 1583)
• 22 March – Thomas Carew, poet (born 1595)
• 28 April (bur.) – William Alabaster, poet and dramatist (born 1567)
• 3 June – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, politician (born 1584)
• 20 October – John Ball, Puritan clergyman (born 1585)
• 13 November – Laurence Chaderton, academic and churchman (born 1536)
• 8 December – Princess Anne, daughter of King Charles I (born 1637)