1622

January–May

• January 7 - The Holy Roman Empire and Transylvania sign the Peace of Nikolsburg.
• February 8 - King James I of England dissolves the English Parliament.
• March 12 - Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Ávila, Isidore the Farmer and Philip Neri are canonized by Pope Gregory XV.
• March 22 - Jamestown massacre: Algonquian natives kill 347 English settlers outside Jamestown, Virginia, and burn the Henricus settlement. This begins the American Indian Wars.

  April–June

• April 22 - Hormuz is captured from the Portuguese, by an Anglo-Persian force.
• April 27 - Thirty Years' War - Skirmish at Mingolsheim: Protestant forces under Mansfeld and Georg Friedrich of Baden-Durlach defeat the Imperial forces under Tilly. The Protestants win, but afterwards Tilly links up with a Spanish army under Gonzalo de Córdoba, greatly increasing his strength.
• May 6 - Thirty Years' War: While waiting for the Protestant forces of Christian the Younger of Brunswick to join them, Mansfeld and Georg Friedrich of Baden-Durlach split up their forces as a diversion for the Imperial army of Tilly. Their plan fails, as Tilly manages to cut off Georg Friedrich at Wimpfen. At the ensuing Battle of Wimpfen, Georg Friedrich's army is almost completely destroyed.
• May 13 - The Eendracht, a VOC ship and the second recorded European ship to make landfall on Australian soil, is wrecked off the western coast of Ambon Island, Dutch East Indies.
• May 20 - Ottoman Sultan Osman II is strangled by rebelling Janissaries, who revolted when they heard rumours that Osman II was planning to move against them.
• May 25 - The English ship Tryall, which left Plymouth, England for Batavia, wrecks on the Tryal Rocks, nine months later.
• May - Huguenot rebellions: The Huguenot city of Royan is taken by royal forces, after a short siege.
• June 11 - Huguenot rebellions: The Huguenot city of Nègrepelisse is taken, after a short siege by royal forces. The entire population of the city is subsequently massacred, and the city is burned to the ground.
• June 20 - Thirty Years' War: Imperial forces under Tilly attempt to prevent Christian the Younger of Brunswick from moving his army across the Main River, to link up with Mansfeld. At the Battle of Höchst, Tilly manages to inflict considerable casualties on the Protestant forces, as well as seizing Brunswick's baggage train. Nonetheless, the bulk of Brunswick's forces manage to unite with Mansfeld.
• June 24 - Dutch–Portuguese War - Battle of Macau: The outnumbered Portuguese forces successfully defend Macau from the Dutch fleet, keeping a Portuguese foothold in the Far East.

  July–September

• July 13 - Thirty Years' War: After Mansfeld fails to relieve the siege of Heidelberg, Frederick V of the Palatinate cancels Mansfeld's contract and disbands his army. The unemployed army of Mansfeld and Christian the Younger of Brunswick is subsequently hired by the Dutch.
• July 13 or July 14 - English and Dutch ships defeat the Portuguese, near Portuguese East Africa.
• July 18 - Eighty Years' War: Bergen op Zoom is besieged by a Spanish army, under the command of Ambrogio Spinola.
• August 29 - Thirty Years' War: While on their way to relieve the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom in the Netherlands, the army of Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick is blocked by a Spanish army, led by Gonzalo de Córdoba. In the Battle of Fleurus, Cordoba manages to fight off the Protestant assault. The next day, Cordoba surprises the retreating Protestant army with his cavalry, resulting in the destruction of most of the Protestant army.
• September 5 - Armand Jean du Plessis becomes Cardinal Richelieu.
• September 6 - Spanish treasure fleet sinks off Marquesas Keys in the straits of Florida. Atocha, Margarita, and Rosario are the most heavily laden treasure ships found in the 20th century.
• September 10 - 55 Christians are executed in Nagasaki during the Great Genna Martyrdom.
• September 19 - Thirty Years' War: Heidelberg, the capital of the Electorate of the Palatinate, is taken by the Imperial army of Tilly' after a three-month siege.

  October–December

• October 2 - Eighty Years' War: After a siege of 86 days, Bergen op Zoom is relieved by a Dutch army led by Maurice of Nassau and Ernst von Mansfeld.
• October 18 - Huguenot rebellions: The first Huguenot rebellion ends, with the signing of the Treaty of Montpellier.
• October 27 - Huguenot rebellions: The inconclusive Naval battle of Saint-Martin-de-Ré is fought between the Huguenot fleet of La Rochelle, commanded by Jean Guiton, and a royal fleet under the command of Charles of Guise.
• November 2 - After a siege of 13 days, the German city of Mannheim is captured from England by a force of Spanish and Imperial Holy Roman troops led by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly.
• November 25 - King Christian IV of Denmark invites the Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to settle in the newly-built Danish town of Lykstad, promising them the free exercise of their religion without persecution. The city remains part of Denmark until 1864 until it is captured in the Second Schleswig War and is now part of Germany as Glückstadt.
• November 30 - A fleet of 43 Dutch ships from Suriname attacks the Araya Peninsula in Venezuela in an attempt to halt construction of a Spanish fortress. The Spanish drive the Dutch away after six weeks of fighting, ending January 13, 1623.
• December 18 - Portuguese forces with Imbangala allies score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in modern-day Angola as part of the First Kongo-Portuguese War.
• December 22 - The Spanish colonial city of Bucaramanga is founded in the colony of Nueva Grandada in what is now Colombia.

  Date unknown

• Dutch ships under Jochem Swartenhont, while escorting a convoy, repel a Spanish squadron near Gibraltar.
• Portugal loses control of the island of Ormus, after 107 years.
• Albertus Magnus is beatified, and Teresa of Ávila is canonized, by the Roman Catholic Church.
• Rosicrucianism furor breaks out in Paris.
• War between the Netherlands and Spain recommences, after the Twelve Years' Truce.
• The Golden Horn freezes.
• First record of bottled spring water in England at Holy Well, Malvern.