An Instance of the Fingerpost

Chronology

1625 Death of James I, accession of Charles I.

1629 Charles begins experiment to rule without Parliament.

1640 Parliament recalled; Charles defeated in war against Scotland.

1642 Outbreak of Civil War in England; Charles wins victory over Parliamentary army at Edgehill; Oxford becomes Royalist headquarters.

1644 Battle of Cropredy Bridge, Charles’s army wiped out at Marston Moor.

1645 Battle of Naseby; decisive defeat of Royalists.

1646 Oxford surrenders under siege.

1647 War ends with defeat and capture of Charles.

1648 Visitation of the Universities and purging of Fellows with Royalist sympathies.

1649 Execution of Charles I; Charles II in exile. Establishment of Commonwealth.

1650s Dominance of Oliver Cromwell, “Lord Protector” of England. Boyle, Wallis, and others form the kernel of the Royal Society in Oxford.

1658 Death of Cromwell; brief succession of his son, Richard, as Protector.

1659 Resignation of Richard Cromwell; Parliament recalled; fall of John Thurloe as Secretary of State. Attempt at rising by Royalists crushed.

1660 Recall of Charles II from exile; Earl of Clarendon as Lord Chancellor.

1661 Brief and unsuccessful rising of London Fifth Monarchists. Charles marries Portuguese princess and earns enmity of Spain. Second Purge of Universities.

1662 Acts passed by Parliament to enforce conformity of religion, despite Charles’s desire for tolerance; persecution of Quakers; plots by Spain against Charles.

1663 Perpetual rumors of assassination plots against Charles. Earl of Bristol attempts to impeach Clarendon. Experiments by Richard Lower and Christopher Wren on blood transfusion. Formal foundation of Royal Society.

1667 Fall of Clarendon. Ascendancy of Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington.

1678 The “Popish plot”—widespread hysteria caused by fictitious accusations that foreign Jesuits were planning massacre of Protestants.

1685 Death of Charles, accession of his Catholic brother, James II.

1688 The “Glorious Revolution”—James expelled, constitutional settlement ensures primacy of Parliament and supremacy of Protestantism.