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| 1673 |
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| Test Act. All persons holding office were compelled to take oaths of allegiance and of supremacy, to adjure transubstantiation, and to take the sacrament of the Church of England. After 1689, English passed bills of indemnity for individual magistrates who had not conformed. | 1 |
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| 1677, Nov. 4 |
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| Mary, daughter of the duke of York, married William of Orange. | 2 |
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| 1678, Sept |
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| Popish Plot. Titus Oates alleged that Don John of Austria and Père La Chaise had plotted to murder Charles and establish Roman Catholicism in England. Five Catholic lords (Powys, Bellasis, Stafford, Petre, Arundel) sent to the tower. Coleman, confessor of the duchess of York, convicted and executed. Papists' Disabling Act excluded Catholics from Parliament. | 3 |
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| 1679, Jan. 24 |
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| Cavalier Parliament dissolved. | 4 |
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| 1679, March 6 |
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| New Parliament met but prorogued before it had done any business (Oct. 7). Charles secured his brother's succession despite parliamentary resistance. | 5 |
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| 1679, May |
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| Habeas Corpus Act required judges to issue any prisoner a writ of habeas corpus, directing the jailer to produce the body of the prisoner and show cause for his imprisonment; prisoners should be indicted in the first term of their imprisonment and sentenced no later than the second term. Once found innocent, a prisoner could not be retried for the same crime. | 6 |
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| 1679 |
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| Covenanters rose in Scotland against the repressive measures of Lauderdale. Presbyterians repressed but not successfully. Passage of a Test Act against Presbyterians (1681). Argyle tried and condemned; he fled the country (Dec. 1681). | 7 |
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| 1683 |
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| Rye House Plot. Whig plot to seize king led to the arrest of many Whigs. | 8 |
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| 1685 |
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| Monmouth and Argyll rebelled. Argyll landed in Scotland, lacked support, and was captured and executed (June 30). Monmouth landed in Dorsetshire and proclaimed himself king, but he and his followers were defeated at Sedgemoor (July 6). | 9 |
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| 1685–88 |
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| James II, a Catholic who sought to test his authority by challenging the antipapal laws. | 10 |
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| 1686 |
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| James appointed a Catholic, Sir Edward Hales, to office. In a test suit, judges found in favor of the king. Such cases rapidly roused opinion against James. | 11 |
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| 1687 |
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| James issued the first Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, which granted liberty to all denominations in England and Scotland. | 12 |
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