Stuart Britain Key Dates: Charles II

1660

The Convention Parliament meets

Indemnity Act

The Declaration of Breda

Charles II returns

Worcester House Conference

1661

Savoy House Conference

Cavalier Parliament meets

Militia Act, Corporation Act, Act on censorship, Quaker Act (the first parts of the Clarendon Code)

Venner’s Rising

1662

New Prayer Book

Act of Uniformity

Hearth Tax

The first Declaration of Indulgence

24th August 1662

Act of Uniformity goes into effect on St Bartholomew’s Day causing 1,909 people to leave the Church

1663

The Declaration of Indulgence is cancelled

1664

Triennial Act of 1641 is replaced by an updated weaker version

Conventicle Act

1665

The Second Anglo-Dutch War begins

Five Mile Act (last Clarendon Code Act)

Great Plague in London

1666

France and Denmark join the war against England

The Great Fire of London

1667

France invades and conquers the Spanish Netherlands

Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War

Clarendon flees to France to escape impeachment

1668

Alliance between England, the United Provinces and Sweden

The rise of the CABAL

1670

A second Conventicle Act to get rid of loopholes from the first

Treaty of Dover with France

1672

Second Declaration of Indulgence

Third Anglo-Dutch War begins

1673

The Second Declaration of Indulgence is cancelled

The Test Act

James Duke of York resigns as Lord High Admiral

1674

The Third Anglo-Dutch War ends with the Treaty of Westminster

The CABAL falls and Danby gains power

1675-6

Charles is in negotiations for subsidies secretly with King Louis XIV of France

1677

Jame Duke of York’s daughter Mary is married to William of Orange

1678

An allegation of a Popish Plot against Charles II’s life is made

December 1678

Danby is impeached by the House of Commons

January 1679

Charles dissolves the Cavalier Parliament to protect Danby

March 1679

The First Exclusion Parliament meets

Impeachment proceedings against Danby

The first Exclusion Bill is read twice in the Commons

May 1679

The first Exclusion Parliament is dissolved

October 1680

Second Exclusion Parliament meets

Second Exclusion Bill passes in the Commons

November 1680

The second Exclusion Bill is defeated in the Lords

January 1681

The second Exclusion Parliament is dissolved

March 1681

The Third Exclusion Parliament meets in Oxford

A third Exclusion Bill passes the Commons and Lords but Charles II dissolves Parliament

1681

Shaftesbury is charged with treason but acquitted

Whig supporters Edward Pitzharris and Stephen College are executed

Purges expelling Whigs from municipal and county governments continue for the next 3-4 years from this point

1681-1685

The ‘Stuart Revenge’ or Tory Reaction

1682

Shaftesbury flees into exile in Holland

1683

Rye House Plot

Whig leaders Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney are executed for the alleged part in the Rye House Plot

1684

Danby released from the Tower

James Duke of York restored to the Privy Council

1685

Charles II dies