Editing 1672 (section)

=== January&ndash;March ===
* [[January 2]] &ndash; After the government of [[England]] is unable to pay the nation's debts, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] decrees the [[Stop of the Exchequer]], the suspension of payments for one year "upon any warrant, securities or orders, whether registered or not registered therein, and payable within that time, excepting only such payments as shall grow due upon orders on the subsidy, according to the Act of Parliament, and orders and securities upon the fee farm rents, both which are to be proceeded upon as if such a stop had never been made."  The money saved by not paying debts is redirected toward the expenses of the upcoming war with the [[Dutch Republic]], but the effect is for the halt by banks for extending further credit to the Crown. Before the end of the year, the suspension of payments is extended from December 31 to May 31, and then to January 31, 1674.
* [[January 11]] &ndash; The [[Royal Society|Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge]], national science academy for England, elects [[Isaac Newton]] to its membership, and then demonstrates Newton's [[Newtonian telescope|reflecting telescope]] to King Charles II.
* [[January 13]] &ndash; [[Pope Clement X]] issues regulations for the prerequisites of removing [[relic]]s of [[saint#Catholic Church|Roman Catholic saints]] from sacred cemeteries, requiring advance approval from the [[Cardinal Vicar]] in Rome before the remains of the saint can be allowed for view.  The Cardinal Vicar is directed to bar regular persons from viewing remains, and to limit inspection to high prelates and to princes.
* [[January 25]] &ndash; The [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane#First theatre: Theatre Royal, Bridges Street (1663)|Theatre Royal]], located at the time on Bridges Street in London, burns down.<ref>Brian Dobbs, ''Drury Lane: Three Centuries of the Theatre Royal, 1663–1971'' (Cassell, 1972) p. 51</ref>  A replacement structure is built on Drury Lane in 1674. 
* [[February 16]] (February 6, 1671 O.S.) &ndash; [[Isaac Newton]] sends a paper for publication regarding his experiments on the refraction of light through glass prisms and makes the first identification of the "[[primary color]]s" of [[light|visible light]] on the [[electromagnetic spectrum]], reporting that "The Original or primary colours are, Red, Yellow, Green, Blew, and a Violet-purple, together with Orange, Indico, and an indefinite variety of Intermediate gradations."<ref>[https://zenodo.org/record/1432118#.YjjdwzjMJEY "A Letter of Mr. Isaac Newton, Professor of the Mathematicks in the University of Cambridge; Containing His New Theory about Light and Colors: Sent by the Author to the Publisher from Cambridge, Febr. 6. 1671/72; In Order to be Communicated to the R. Society"], ''Philosophical Transactions'', February 19, 1671/72</ref>
* [[February 25]] &ndash; [[William III of England|Willem, Prince of Orange]], the 21-year-old Stadtholder of Gelderland and Utrecht, is approved by the [[States General of the Netherlands|States General of the Dutch Republic]] to command the [[Dutch States Army]] for the impending war with England.  
* [[March 12]] &ndash; [[Action of 12 March 1672]], a 2-day naval engagement between an English coastal patrol and a Dutch Smyrna convoy off the south coast of England. The English fleet suffers severe damage while most of the Dutch convoy escapes, although one of the Dutch commanders (De Haaze) is killed and one warship taken as a prize (''[[Klein Hollandia]]'') sinks; the latter will be rediscovered in 2019.<ref>{{cite news|last=Davies|first=Caroline|title='Remarkable': Eastbourne shipwreck identified as 17th-century Dutch warship|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/27/remarkable-eastbourne-shipwreck-identified-as-17th-century-dutch-warship|access-date=2023-01-27|work=The Guardian|location=London|date=2023-01-27}}</ref>
* [[March 15]] &ndash; [[Charles II of England]] issues the [[Declaration of Indulgence (1672)|Royal Declaration of Indulgence]], suspending execution of [[penal law (Britain)|Penal Laws]] against [[Protestant]] [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]] and [[Roman Catholics]] in his realms;<ref name="Cassell's Chronology">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|url=https://archive.org/details/cassellschronolo0000will|url-access=registration|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8}}</ref> this will be withdrawn the following year under pressure from the [[Parliament of England]].
* [[March 16]] &ndash; At the [[Synod of Jerusalem (1672)|Synod of Jerusalem]], presided over by [[Dositheos II of Jerusalem]], the 68 bishops and representatives from the whole of [[Eastern Orthodox]] Christendom close by approving the Orthodox dogma against the challenge of [[Protestantism]], declaring against "the falsehoods of the adversaries which they have devised against the Eastern Church" and making a goal of "reformation of their innovations and for their return to the catholic and apostolic church in which their forefathers also were."<ref>''The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem, Sometimes Called the Council of Bethlehem, Holden Under Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1672'', translated by J. N. W. B. Robertson (Thomas Baker publishing, 1899) pp. 173-181</ref>
* [[March 17]] &ndash; The [[Third Anglo-Dutch War]] begins as the [[Kingdom of England]] declares war on the [[Dutch Republic]].<ref name="Cassell's Chronology"/>