The Restoration

• In 1660, Parliament invited Charles II to come back from exile in the Netherlands. He was crowned King Charles II and made it clear that he had ‘no wish to go on his travels again’.
• Charles II understood that he could not always do as he wished but would sometimes need to reach an agreement with Parliament. Generally, Parliament supported his policies. The Church of England again became the established official Church. Both Roman Catholics and Puritans were kept out of power.
• During Charles II’s reign, in 1665, a major plague outbreak occurred in London. Thousands of people died, especially in poorer areas. The following year, a great fire destroyed much of the city, including many churches and St Paul’s Cathedral.
• London was rebuilt with a new St Paul’s, designed by a famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Samuel Pepys wrote about these events in a diary which was later published and is still read today.
• The Habeas Corpus Act became law in 1679. This was a very important piece of legislation which remains relevant today. Habeas corpus is Latin for ‘you must present the person in court’. The Act guaranteed that no one could be held prisoner unlawfully. Every prisoner has a right to a court hearing.
• Charles II was interested in science. The Royal Society was formed during his reign to promote ‘natural knowledge’. This is the oldest surviving scientific society in the world. Among its early members were Sir Edmund Halley, who successfully predicted the return of the comet now called Halley’s Comet, and Sir Isaac Newton.
• Born in Lincolnshire, eastern England, Isaac Newton became interested in science while studying at Cambridge University. His most famous published work was Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (‘Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy’), which showed how gravity applied to the universe.
• Newton discovered that white light is made up of the colours of the rainbow.