1660 in England - Events

Events

• 1 January
  • Colonel George Monck with his regiment crosses from Scotland to England at the village of Coldstream and advances towards London in support of English Restoration.
  • Samuel Pepys begins his diary.
• 3 February - George Monck and his regiment arrive in London.
• 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 will be the first Shakespearean performance of the Restoration era; Thomas Betterton makes his stage debut in the title rôle.
• 21 February - Presbyterian Members of Parliament expelled in 1648 are readmitted.
• 27 February - John Thurloe is reinstated as England's Secretary of State for a short time.
• 16 March - The Long Parliament disbands.
• 4 April - Declaration of Breda promises amnesty, freedom of conscience, and army back pay, in return for the Restoration of the Crown.
• 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.
• 25 April - The Convention Parliament meets to discuss the Restoration. The House of Lords reconvenes for the first time since its abolition in 1649.
• 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.
• 8 May - Parliament declares that Charles has been lawful King of England since 1649 and invites him to return.
• 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.
• 25 May - Charles II lands at Dover.
• 29 May - Charles II arrives in London and assumes the throne, marking the beginning of the English Restoration, commemorated as Oak Apple Day.
• 25 June - General Post Office established by Charles II.
• 29 June - John Thurloe is released.
• 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.
• 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.
• 3 September - James, Duke of York, the King's brother, and Anne Hyde are privately married in London.
• 25 September - One of the earliest references to tea in England appears in Samuel Pepys's diary.
• 13 October - Ten regicides who signed the death warrant of Charles I are hanged, drawn and quartered.
• 25 October - King Charles proposes that some Presbyterian ministers become bishops to heal rifts in the Church; the plan is later abandoned.
• 11 November - Imprisonment of John Bunyan in Bedford Gaol for preaching without a licence.
• 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).
• 8 December - First actress to appear on the professional stage, as Desdemona in Othello; variously considered to be Margaret Hughes, Anne Marshall or Katherine Corey.
• Undated - The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa is chartered with a monopoly over the English slave trade. It is led by Duke of York.