1642 Start of the Civil War

1645 Battle of Naseby

1647 End of Civil War the army disbanded

1648 Start of the second Civil War with Royalist risings in Kent & Wales.

30 January 1649 Charles 1 beheaded.

1649 - 60 The Commonwealth period

1653 - 59 The Protectorate

1665 Foundation of the London |Gazette

1666 Newton discovers the law of gravitation

1669 Death of Rembrandt

 Charles II King of England

Charles II was in personal character gay (Original meaning not 90's meaning) and easy-going, this won him many personal friends. He had two objects in view one to if possible restore Roman Catholicism, for he was himself a Roman Catholic in secret; the other, in which he was more successful, was to get rid of the control of Parliament. For the honour and welfare of his kingdom he had little thought.

In May 1665 the Great Plague began, which in that year killed 68,000 Londoners alone, spreading over the next two years into the provinces. Parliament moved to Oxford and the Royal Court to Salisbury. Archbishop Sheldon stayed on in London; it must have been the medieval equivalent of what we in the 20-century imagine the aftermath of a nuclear war. Closed houses, doors marked with the red cross inscribed, 'Lord have mercy on us'. There were torchlight burials and bells ringing for carts to take away the corpses.

Thames frozen over in London on December 13th., the year 1666 began with a severe frost which ended on January 6th.. After that date boats could again move on the river Thames in London.

An Act of Parliament was passed ordering burial to be made in woollen fabric, as a measure to assist the wool trade

Then in September 1666 the Great Fire destroyed old London. Breaking out in the early morning in Pudding Lane, swept through the city of narrow streets and lath & timber houses fanned by an easterly gale after a summer of drought. Destroying everything in its path the fire burned for four days only being controlled and extinguished by blowing up houses in its path to make a firebreak. 13,000 houses were destroyed & 84 churches. Members of Parliament returned to Westminster stumbling over hot ashes, with wild talk of a plot by Papist & Frenchmen. The Thames froze over that winter. People must have thought God was venting his wrath on the city.

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