Before the Restoration
James I
First Stuart
king of England
1566-1625
Before the Restoration
Charles I
King from 1625
1600-1649
Before the Restoration
Commonwealth
1649-1659
James II
King for 3 years
1633 -1701
1610
1600
1620
1680
1660
1650
1670
1640
1630
1690
In 1625, Charles I became king of England, Scotland and Ireland, like his father before him. He was an unpopular king who habitually agreed to do things when he was secretly doing the opposite. England fell into civil war under his rule.
The Great Fire of London broke out on 2 September 1666.
Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. This was the end of the Tudor dynasty because the throne passed to her cousin from the House of Stuart, James VI of Scotland who became James I of England.
1605 was the year of the Gunpowder Plot, when Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up parliament and assassinate James I.
In 1625 James I died. The throne passed to his son, Charles I.
In 1625, Charles I became king of England, Scotland and Ireland, like his father before him. He was an unpopular king who habitually agreed to do things when he was secretly doing the opposite. England fell into civil war under his rule.
The English Civil War was between the Royalists (known as the Cavaliers), who were supporters of King Charles I (and after his execution, King Charles II), and the Parliamentarians (known as the Roundheads).
The war was in three phases:
1642-1646 First English Civil War, won by the Parliamentarians
1648-1649 Second English Civil War, also won by the Parliamentarians, ending with the execution of Charles I.
The Civil War continued after Charles I was beheaded, with the Royalists taking up the cause of his son, Charles II.
1649-1651 Third English Civil War, won by the Parliamentarians
Charles II failed to take back control of England from the Parliamentarians, and England became a republic known as the Commonwealth. Charles escaped to exile in France.
1653-1659 Oliver Cromwell made England a Protectorate.
Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.
His son, Richard Cromwell, became Lord Protector until 1659.
In 1659, less than a year after Oliver Cromwell's death, the army rose up against the new Lord Protector and paved the way for the return of the king.
In 1660, King Charles II returned from exile and was restored to the throne, which is why this period is called the Restoration.
In 1665, the Great Plague killed about 100,000 people.
1666: the Great Fire of London!
Charles II had no legitimate children, despite having lots of illegitimate ones. When he died in 1685, his brother, James II, became king.
James II was a Catholic, and as a result, not a popular king. Less than four years after he came to the throne, his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, were encouraged by Protestant nobles to invade England from the Netherlands. James fled, and William and Mary ruled England together from 1689.
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