Timeline |
22 Aug 1642 CE | Civil war in England officially began as Charles I declared war on Parliament from Nottingham. Charles I went to the House of Commons to arrest some of its members and was refused entry. From this point on no monarch was allowed entry. The war ended in 1651. | |
2 Jul 1644 CE | Lord Cromwell crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England. | |
14 Jun 1645 CE | Oliver Cromwell's army routed the King's army at Naseby. | |
4 Jun 1647 CE | The English army seized King Charles I as a hostage. | |
30 Jan 1649 CE | The Prince of Wales becomes King Charles II, of England, although technically Britain is a republic. | |
30 Jan 1649 CE | King Charles I of England was beheaded at Banqueting House, Whitehall by the hangman Richard Brandon. Britain then became a republic between 1649 and 1660. | |
30 Jan 1649 CE | Parliament became the supreme power in England under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who ruled over Parliament as Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth from 1649-1658. | |
23 Jun 1650 CE | After his arrival in Scotland, Charles II signs the Scotish Covenant. | |
1 Jan 1651 CE | Charles II Stuart was crowned King of Scotland at Scone. | |
3 Sep 1651 CE | The Battle of Worcester when Charles II and his Scottish army was defeated by Oliver Cromwell and the parliamentarian army. | |
3 Sep 1658 CE | Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the New Commonwealth, ruler over England's parliament, dies from malaria. He is suceeded by his son Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector. When Oliver Cromwell was dying, he refused to take the only known treatment (quinine from cinchona) because it was introduced by Jesuits. | |
1659 CE | Richard Cromwell resigns as English Lord Protector. | |
4 Apr 1660 CE | King Charles II signes the 'Declaration of Breda' to establish a general amnesty and freedom of conscience. | |
8 May 1660 CE | Charles II was proclaimed King of England. When a new Westminster parliament was elected, no representatives from Scotland were requested. Hence, the Cromwellian Union lapsed. | |
23 May 1660 CE | Charles II arived in England from Europe. | |
29 May 1660 CE | Charles II, who had fled to France, arrived in London and is restored to the English throne after the Puritan Commonwealth. | |
May 1660 CE | King Charles II returns from exile sails from Scheveningen to England. | |
Jun 1660 CE | Charles II was crowned King in Westminster Abbey. | |
Aug 1660 CE | The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion was passed. | |
1660 CE | British Long Parliament disbands. | |
1660 CE | English King Charles II visits Netherlands. | |
1661 CE | King Charles II marries Portuguese princess Catherina the Braganca. | |
1661 CE | The first Yacht race, England's King Charles vs his brother James. | |
1661 CE | The first pariament of King Charles II meets at Westminster. | |
1661 CE | The Corporation Act excludes 'Nonconformists' from holding office in England. | |
1661 CE | The Militia Act was passed which vested control of the armed forces in the Crown and guarenteed funding for the army from Parliament. | |
c. 1661 CE | The the Triennial Act of 1641 was repealed. | |
1662 CE | The Act of Uniformity compels Puritans to accept the doctrines of the Church of England or leave the church. | |
1662 CE | The Royal Society was given its royal charter by King Charles II. It soon became the world's foremost scientific society. | |
1662 CE | To raise cash, Charles II sold Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds. | |
24 Mar 1663 CE | Charles II of England awarded lands known as Carolina in North America to eight members of the nobility who assisted in his restoration. This established the American Colony of North Carolina. | |
8 Jul 1663 CE | King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island guaranteeing freedom of worship.. | |
27 Jul 1663 CE | British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, requiring all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports. | |
1663 CE | King Charles II affirms charter of Royal African Company. | |
12 Mar 1664 CE | New Jersey became a British colony as King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James, the Duke of York. | |
22 Mar 1664 CE | Charles II gave large tracks of land from west of the Connecticut River to the east of Delaware Bay in North America to his brother James, the Duke of York. | |
5 Sep 1664 CE | After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam,under Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered to 300 British, soldiers. The British later renamed it New York. | |
1665 CE | British rename New Amsterdam to New York after the Dutch pull out. | |
1665 CE | British King Charles II declares war on The Netherlands at the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667). | |
1665 CE | The Great Plague of London killed a quarter of the population, an estimated 68,000 people. | |
1665 CE | The British Five-Mile Act prevents 'Nonconformist' clergy from coming within five miles of their parish towns. | |
2 Sep 1666 CE | Great London Fire begins in Pudding Lane when 80% of London is destroyed, including St Paul's Church. | |
2 Sep 1666 CE | A fire demolished about four-fifths of London which started at the house of King Charles II's baker, Thomas Farrinor. Approximately 13,200 houses, 90 churches and 50 livery company halls burned down or exploded but only claimed only 16 lives. It actually helped impede the spread of the Black Plague, as most of the disease-carrying rats were killed in the fire. | |
5 Sep 1666 CE | The Fire of London was extinguished after two days. | |
18 Jun 1667 CE | The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames and threatened London. | |
21 Jul 1667 CE | The Peace of Breda ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War and ceded Dutch New Amsterdam to the English. The South American country of Surinam, formerly Dutch Guiana, was ceded by England to the Dutch in exchange. | |
1667 CE | The French and the British sign an anti-Dutch military accord. | |
1668 CE | English King Charles II gives Bombay to East India Company. | |
Apr 1670 CE | Colonists landed on the western bank of the Ashley River, five miles from the sea, and named their settlement Charles Town in honor of Charles II, King of England. | |
26 May 1670 CE | A treaty was signed in secret in Dover, England, between Charles II and Louis XIV ending hostilities between them. | |
May 1670 CE | The Hudson Bay Co. was chartered by England's King Charles II. | |
1671 CE | The second son of King Charles I, James, became a Catholic, leading to the first attempts to exclude him from succession but he later became James VII of Scotland and II of England (1685-1688). | |
1672 CE | Britain declares war on the Netherlands at the beginning of the third Anglo-Dutch war (1672-1674). | |
1672 CE | British King Charles II enacts the 'Declaration of Indulgence'. | |
1673 CE | English King Charles II accepts the 'Test Act' which excluded Roman Catholics from public office. | |
1674 CE | Netherlands and England sign Peace of Westminster when New York City formally becomes British, ending the third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674). | |
1675 CE | Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II to provide navigational information to sailors. | |
1675 CE | (1675-1710) In London, Old St. Paul's Cathedral was replaced with a new design by Sir Christopher Wren. | |
1675 CE | Lely painted a portrait of Nell Gwynn, the favorite mistress of Charles II. It is now in the London National Gallery. | |
29 May 1677 CE | King Charles II and 12 Virginia Indian chiefs signed a treaty that established a 3-mile non-encroachment zone around Indian land. The Mattaponi Indians in 1997 invoked this treaty to protect against encroachment. | |
1677 CE | Britich King Charles II agrees to an anti-French covenant with Netherlands. | |
28 Nov 1678 CE | England's King Charles II accused his wife, Catherine of Braganza, of treason, because she had yet to bear him children. | |
1678 CE | The 'Popish Plot' was fabricated by Titas Oats, who alleged that there was a Catholic plot to murder Charles II of Britain. The government over-reacts and many Catholics are persecuted. | |
1679 CE | Habeaus Corpus Act passes in Britain. This means that there can be no false or arbitary arrest and imprisonment. | |
1679 CE | King Charles II disbands English parliament. | |
1679 CE | The Exclusion Bill (1679-1681) attempts to exclude James, brother of King Charles II, from the succession. | |
1679 CE | The names 'Whig' and 'Tory' are first used as names for British political parties. | |
4 Mar 1681 CE | England's King Charles II granted a charter to British Quaker William Penn making him sole propritor of an area of land that later became Pennsylvania. Penn laid out the city of Philadelphia as a gridiron about 2 miles long, east to west, and a mile wide. | |
1681 CE | The third Exclusion Parliament meets in London. | |
1681 CE | The Earl of Shaftsbury challenged the king on the question of succession. The king dissolved Parliament and threw Shaftsbury into the Tower of London and charged him with treason. Shaftsbury was acquitted and went to Holland with John Locke. | |
1683 CE | The Rye House Plot to murder King Charles II is discovered. | |
6 Feb 1685 CE | Charles II of England died and was succeeded by his brother, James II, a Roman Catholic. Charles II became a Roman Catholic on his deathbed. | |