Law Code of 1649
The law code that bound peasants to the land for good
After the Salt Riot of 1648, the Assembly of the Land adopted in January 1649 a new code of 25 chapters and nearly a thousand articles, the first Russian law to be printed. It abolished the time limit for recovering runaways: peasants were bound to their lords for ever, and serfdom became complete.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1640–1668 Portugal regains independence — 9 years earlier
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — 1 year earlier
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — same year
Africa
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — 25 years earlier
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — 13 years later
Asia
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — 17 years earlier
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — 5 years earlier
- 1673–1681 Revolt of the Three Feudatories — 24 years later
Alive at the time
- René Descartes (aged 53)
- Rembrandt (aged 43)
- Louis XIV (aged 11)
- Isaac Newton (aged 6)
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba (aged 66)
- Thomas Hobbes (aged 61)
- Shah Jahan (aged 57)
- Oliver Cromwell (aged 50)
- Charles I (aged 49)
- Tokugawa Iemitsu (aged 45)