1 January
3 February – George Monck and his regiment arrive in London .[ 4]
11 February – Monck demands reinstatement of the Long Parliament .[ 2]
21 February – Presbyterian Members of Parliament expelled by "Pride's Purge " in 1648 are readmitted, reinstating the Long Parliament .[ 5]
27 February – John Thurloe is reinstated as England's Secretary of State for a short time.
February – John Rhodes reopens the old Cockpit Theatre in London , forms a company of young actors and begins to stage plays. His production of Pericles Shakespearean performance of the Restoration era; Thomas Betterton makes his stage debut in the title role.
16 March – the Long Parliament (first elected in 1640) votes to dissolve itself, calling for a free general election.[ 5]
4 April – Declaration of Breda issued by the exiled Charles II promises amnesty, freedom of conscience and army back pay in return for the Restoration of the Crown.[ 4]
22 April – General John Lambert , having escaped from imprisonment in the Tower of London and attempted to rekindle the Civil War in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause " to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill , is recaptured at Daventry by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby .[ 6]
25 April – first meeting of the Convention Parliament , newly elected as a "free parliament",[ 7] Commonwealth or to the monarchy, but predominantly Royalist and Presbyterian in its membership, with only 16 members of the former Rump re-elected.[ 4] House of Lords reconvenes for the first time since its abolition in 1649 .[ 5]
1 May – the Declaration of Breda is presented to the Parliament of England which acknowledges that the lawful government of the nation is by King, Lords and Commons.[ 5]
8 May – Parliament declares that Charles has been lawful King of England since 1649 and invites him to return.[ 5]
15 May – John Thurloe is arrested for high treason .
19 May – the newly restored Church of England Convocation of the English Clergy canonises King Charles I as King Charles the Martyr and Saint Charles Stuart, the only saint formally canonised within the Anglican Communion .
23 May (2 June N.S. ) – Charles II embarks from Scheveningen on HMS Royal Charles (1660) , captained by Edward Montagu (created Earl of Sandwich two months later).
25 May – Charles II lands on Dover beach and is met by Monck.[ 8]
29 May – Charles II arrives in London and assumes the throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration ,[ 4] Oak Apple Day .
25 June – General Post Office established by Charles II.[ 9]
29 June – John Thurloe is released.
27 July – Regicides William Goffe and Edward Whalley , fleeing the country, arrive in Massachusetts .
2 August – Charles II issues a grant for two theatre companies: a King's Company under his own patronage, led by Thomas Killigrew , and a Duke's Company under the patronage of his brother, the Duke of York , led by Sir William Davenant .
27 August – the books of John Milton are burnt because of his attacks on King Charles II.[ 3]
29 August – Indemnity and Oblivion Act passes into law, granting indemnities to those who had been active in the Interregnum (other than regicides ).
September – William Juxon appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury .[ 10]
3 September – in a ceremony starting at 11pm, James, Duke of York , the King's brother and heir, and Anne Hyde are privately married at her father's London home. Their first child is born 2 months later.
25 September – one of the earliest references to tea in England appears in Samuel Pepys 's diary.[ 3]
13 October – the first of ten regicides of Charles I to be executed this year is hanged, drawn and quartered .[ 4]
25 October – King Charles proposes that some Presbyterian ministers become bishops to heal rifts in the Church; the plan is later abandoned.[ 4]
11 November – imprisonment of John Bunyan in Bedford Gaol for preaching without a licence.[ 3]
19 November – James, Duke of York , as Lord High Admiral of England , proclaims that use of the newly restored Union Jack is reserved to ships of the Royal Navy and merchant ships should fly the Red Ensign .[ 11]
28 November – at Gresham College , twelve men, including Christopher Wren , Robert Boyle , John Wilkins , and Robert Moray , meet after a lecture by Wren and decide to found "a College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning" (later known as the Royal Society ).[ 3]
8 December – first English actress to appear on the professional stage in a non-singing role, as Desdemona in Othello Margaret Hughes , Anne Marshall or Katherine Corey .[ 12] [ 13] [ 14]
18 December – the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is chartered ; it will come to have a monopoly over the English slave trade . It is led by Duke of York .
24 December – Tenures Abolition Act changes several types of feudal land tenure in England .[ 15]
16 April – Hans Sloane , physician, in Ireland (died 1753)
By May – Anne Killigrew , poet and painter (died 1685)
28 May – King George I of Great Britain , in Hanover (died 1727)
29 May – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough , friend of Queen Anne (died 1744)
24 July – Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury , politician (died 1718)
ca. September – Daniel Defoe , writer (died 1731)
20 October – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven , statesman (died 1723)
ca. 20 February – Philip Skippon , Parliamentarian Sergeant-Major-General (born c. 1600)
25 April – Henry Hammond , Royalist canon and scholar, of the stone (born 1605)
1 June – Mary Dyer , Quaker, hanged in Boston, Massachusetts (born c. 1611)
30 June – William Oughtred , mathematician (born 1574)
18 September – Henry Stuart, Duke of Gloucester , member of the royal family, of smallpox (born 1639)
13 October – Thomas Harrison , Parliamentarian Major-General, regicide, hanged (born 1616)
15 October – John Carew , Parliamentarian, regicide, hanged (born 1622)
17 October – Parliamentarian regicides, hanged
5 November – Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle , socialite (born 1599)
24 December – Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange , of smallpox (born 1631)
↑ "January 1" . Chambers' Book of Days . Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-09 .1 2 Keay, Anna (April 2022). "The maid who restored the monarchy". History Today 72 (4): 64– 9. 1 2 3 4 5 Penguin Pocket On This Day . Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-14-102715-0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History . London: Century Ltd. pp. 187– 188. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2 1 2 3 4 5 "The Convention Parliament" . British Civil Wars, Commonwealth and Protectorate . 2007-06-16. Archived from the original on 2012-08-22. Retrieved 2012-10-24 .↑ Greaves, Richard L. (1986). Deliver Us From Evil: the radical underground in Britain, 1660-1663 27– 29. ISBN 0-19-503985-8 ↑ Macaulay, Thomas Babington . History of England . pp. 109– 110.↑ "Friday 25 May 1660" . The Diary of Samuel Pepys . Retrieved 2011-08-24 .↑ Allan, Marshall (2003). Intelligence and Espionage in the Reign of Charles II, 1660–1685 79. ISBN 0-521-43180-8 . Retrieved 24 August 2011 . ↑ Quintrell, Brian (2004). "Juxon, William (bap. 1582, d. 1663)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/15179 . Retrieved 2011-08-24 . (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.) ↑ Groom, Nick (2007). The Union Jack: the story of the British Flag (Paperback ed.). London: Atlantic Books. pp. 150– 1. ISBN 978-1-84354-337-4 ↑ The Hutchinson Factfinder . Helicon. 1999. ISBN 1-85986-000-1 ↑ Howe, Elizabeth (1992). The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660– 1700 24 . ↑ Gilder, Rosamond (1931). Enter the Actress: The First Women in the Theatre . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 166. ↑ "Charles II, 1660: An Act takeing away the Court of Wards and Liveries and Tenures in Capite and by Knights Service and Purveyance, and for settling a Revenue upon his Majesty in Lieu thereof" . Statutes of the Realm . Vol. 5: 1628–80. 1819. pp. 259– 266. Retrieved 2025-08-29 – via British History Online.
