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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1641 | - 1641: Triennial Act requires Parliament to be summoned every three years; Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by Parliament; Catholics in Ireland revolt; some 30,000 Protestants massacred; Grand Remonstrance of Parliament to Charles I
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| 2 | 1642 | - 1642: Charles I fails in attempt to arrest five members of Parliament and rejects Parliament's Nineteen Propositions; Civil War (until 1645) begins with battle of Edgehill between Cavaliers (Royalists) and Roundheads (Parliamentarians)
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| 3 | 1643 | - 1643: Solemn League and Covenant is signed by Parliament
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| 4 | 1644 | - 1644: Battle of Marston Moor; Oliver Cromwell defeats Prince Rupert
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| 5 | 1645 | - 1645: Formation of Cromwell's New Model Army; Battle of Naseby; Charles I defeated by Parliamentary forces
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| 6 | 1646 | - 1646: Charles I surrenders to the Scots
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| 7 | 1647 | - 1647: Scots surrender Charles I to Parliament; he escapes to the Isle of Wright; makes secret treaty with Scots
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| 8 | 1648 | - 1648: Scots invade England and are defeated by Cromwell at battle of Preston Pride's Purge: Presbyterians expelled from Parliament (known as the Rump Parliament); Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War
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| 9 | 1649 | - 1649: Charles I is tried and executed; The Commonwealth, in which ; England is governed as a republic, is established and lasts until 1660; Cromwell harshly suppresses Catholic rebellions in Ireland
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| 10 | 1650 | - 1650: Charles II lands in Scotland; is proclaimed king
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| 11 | 1651 | - 1651: Thomas Hobbes, in 'Leviathan', argued from a mechanistic theory that man is a selfishly individualistic animal at constant war with others. In the state of nature, life is "nasty, brutish, and short."
- 1651: Charles II invades England and is defeated at Battle of Worcester; Charles escapes to France; First Navigation Act, England gains virtual monopoly of foreign trade
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| 12 | 1653 | - 1653: Cromwell dissolves the "Rump" and becomes Lord Protector
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| 13 | 1654 | - 1654: James Ussher, Protestant archbishop of Armagh, determined by a close reading of scriptural genealogies that the events described on the first page of the Book of Genesis occurred in 4004 B.C.
- 1654: Treaty of Westminster between England and Dutch Republic
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| 14 | 1655 | - 1655: Christiaan Huygens discovered 'Titan,' Saturn's largest moon, and that what Galileo had thought were moons were actually rings. He was the first to note markings on Mars.
- 1655: England divided into 12 military districts by Cromwell; seizes Jamaica from Spain
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| 15 | 1656 | - 1656: Huygens built the first pendulum-regulated clock. Two years later, Huygens, in Horologium, claimed that his clock could establish longitude at sea which was not then possible and had led to many maritime disasters.
- 1656: War with Spain (until 1659)
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| 16 | 1658 | - 1658: Oliver Cromwell dies; succeeded as Lord Protector by son Richard; Battle of the Dunes, England and France defeat Spain; England gains Dunkirk
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| 17 | 1659 | - 1659: Richard Cromwell forced to resign by the army; "Rump" Parliament restored
- 1659: First cheque drawn in London
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| 18 | 1660 | - 1660: Convention Parliament restores Charles II to throne
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| 19 | 1661 | - 1661: Clarendon Code; "Cavalier" Parliament of Charles II passes series of repressive laws against Nonconformists; English acquire Bombay
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| 20 | 1662 | - 1662: Boyle, using a vacuum pump of his own invention, determined that the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely proportional
- 1662: John Graunt, in 'Observations upon the Bills of Mortality', using London population data, noted that life expectancy is 27 years, with nearly two/thirds dying before 16 years.
- 1662: Act of Uniformity passed in England
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| 21 | 1664 | - 1664: England siezes New Amsterdam from the Dutch, change name to New York
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| 22 | 1665 | - 1665: Great Plague in London
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| 23 | 1666 | - 1666: Great Fire of London
- 1666: First European printed paper banknote issued
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| 24 | 1667 | - 1667: Dutch fleet defeats the English in Medway river; treaties of Breda among Netherlands, England, France, and Denmark
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| 25 | 1668 | - 1668: Triple Alliance of England, Netherlands, and Sweden against France
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| 26 | 1669 | - 1669: Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, 'De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas', the first notice of his calculus.
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| 27 | 1670 | - 1670: Secret Treaty of Dover between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France to restore Roman Catholicism to England; Hudson's Bay Company founded
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| 28 | 1672 | - 1672: Third Anglo-Dutch war (until 1674); William III (of Orange) becomes ruler of Netherlands
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| 29 | 1673 | - 1673: Test Act aims to deprive English Roman Catholics and Nonconformists of public office
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| 30 | 1674 | - 1674: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus in a distillation of human urine
- 1674: Anton van Leeuwenhoek reported his discovery of protozoa, using his newly-devised microscope
- 1674: Treaty of Westminster between England and the Netherlands
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| 31 | 1677 | - 1677: William III, ruler of the Netherlands, marries Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne
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| 32 | 1678 | - 1678: Popish Plot' in England; Titus Oates falsely alleges a Catholic plot to murder Charles II
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| 33 | 1679 | - 1679: Act of Habeas Corpus passed, forbidding imprisonment without trial; Parliament's Bill of Exclusion against the Roman Catholic Duke of York blocked by Charles II; Parliament dismissed; Charles II rejects petitions calling for a new Parliament; petitioners become known as Whigs; their opponents (royalists) known as Tories
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| 34 | 1681 | - 1681: Whigs reintroduce Exclusion Bill; Charles II dissolves Parliament
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| 35 | 1685 | - 1685: James II of England and VII of Scotland (to 1688); rebellion by Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, against James II is put down
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| 36 | 1686 | - 1686: James II disregards Test Act; Roman Catholics appointed to public office
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| 37 | 1687 | - 1687: James II issues Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, extends toleration to all religions
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| 38 | 1688 | - 1688: Edward Lloyd's coffee house opens in England
- 1688: England's 'Glorious Revolution'; William III of Orange is invited to save England from Roman Catholicism, lands in England, James II flees to France
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| 39 | 1689 | - 1689: Convention Parliament issues Bill of Rights; establishes a constitutional monarchy in Britain; bars Roman Catholics from the throne; William III and Mary II become joint monarchs of England and Scotland (to1694), Toleration Act grants freedom of worship to dissenters in England; Grand Alliance of the League of Augsburg, England, and the Netherlands
- 1689: Parliament draws up the Declaration of Right detailing the unconstitutional acts of King James II. James' daughter and her husband, his nephew, become joint sovereigns of Britain as King William III and Queen Mary II. Parliament passes the Bill of Rights. Toleration Act grants rights to Trinitarian Protestant dissenters. Catholic forces loyal to James II land in Ireland from France and lay siege to Londonderry
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| 40 | 1690 | - 1690: King William defeats the Irish and French armies of his father-in-law at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland
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| 41 | 1691 | - 1691: The Treaty of Limerick allows Cathloics in Ireland to exercise their religion freely, but severe penal laws soon follow. The French War begins
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| 42 | 1692 | - 1692: The Glencoe Massacre occurs
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| 43 | 1694 | - 1694: Death of Queen Mary; King William now rules alone. Foundation of the Bank of England. Triennial Act sets the maximum duration of a parliament to three years
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| 44 | 1695 | - 1695: Lapse of the Licensing Act
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| 45 | 1697 | - 1697: Peace of Ryswick between the allied powers of the League of Augsburg and France ends the French War. Civil List Act votes funds for the maintenance of the Royal Household
- 1697: Blasphemy Act in England
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| 46 | 1698 | - 1698: Thomas Savery patented an engine which produced a vacuum by condensing steam. It was employed for raising water from a mine and supplying water to several country houses.
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| 47 | 1701 | - 1701: The Act of Settlement settles the Royal Succession on the Protestant descendants of Sophia of Hanover. Death of the former King James II in exile in France. The French king recognizes James II's son as "King James III". King William forms a grand alliance between England, Holland and Austria to prevent the union of the Spanish and French crowns. The War of the Spanish Succession breaks out in Europe over the vacant throne
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| 48 | 1702 | - 1702: Death of King William III in a riding accident. He is succeeded by his sister-in-law, Queen Anne. England declares war on France as part of the War of the Spanish Succession
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| 49 | 1704 | - 1704: Johann Sebastian Bach began composing music
- 1704: British, Dutch, German and Austrian troops, under the Duke of Marlborough, defeat the French and Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim. British, Bavarian and Austrian troops under Marlborough defeat the French at the Battle of Ramillies, and expel the French from the Netherlands. The British capture Gibraltar from Spain
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| 50 | 1706 | - 1706: The Evening Post', first evening newspaper issued in London
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| 51 | 1707 | - 1707: The Act of Union unites the kingdoms of England and Scotland and transfers the seat of Scottish Government to London
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| 52 | 1708 | - 1708: The Duke of Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Oudenarede. The French incur heavy losses. Queen Anne vetoes a parliamentary bill to recognise the Scottish militia. This is the last time a bill is vetoed by the sovereign
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| 53 | 1709 | - 1709: Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit constructed an alcohol thermometer
- 1709: Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Malplaquet
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| 54 | 1710 | - 1710: A Tory ministry is formed, under Harley, with the impeachment of Dr. Sacheverell and the fall of the Whig government
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| 55 | 1713 | - 1713: The Treaty of Utrecht is signed by Britain and France, thus concluding the War of the Spanish Succession
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| 56 | 1714 | - 1714: Death of Queen Anne at Kensington Palace. She is succeeded by her distant cousin, the Elector George of Hanover, as King George I. A new parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority, led by Charles Townshend and Robert Walpole
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| 57 | 1715 | - 1715: Thomas Fairchild produced the first artificial hybrid plant
- 1715: The Jacobite Rebellion begins in Scotland with the aim of overthrowing the Hanovarian succession and placing the "Old Pretender" - James II's son - on the throne. The rebellion is easily defeated
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| 58 | 1716 | - 1716: The Septennial Act sets General Elections to be held every seven years
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| 59 | 1717 | - 1717: Townshend is dismissed from government by George I, causing Walpole to resign. The Whig party is split. Convocation is suspended
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| 60 | 1719 | - 1719: South Sea Bubble bursts, leaving many investors ruined after speculating with stock of the 'South Sea Company'
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| 61 | 1721 | - 1721: Sir Robert Walpole Prime Minister to 1742 (Whig)
- 1721: Sir Robert Walpole returns to government as First Lord of the Treasury. He remains in office until 1742 and effectively becomes Britain's first Prime Minister
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