Restoration England, 1660–1685

What Restoration England, 1660–1685 covers

Restoration England, 1660–1685 is examined in Paper 2, Shaping the nation. It covers crown and Parliament, the Catholic question, Charles II’s court, crisis: the Great Plague of 1665 and the Fire of London, restoration culture, land: the East India Company and overseas possessions, trade: mercantilism, the Navigation Acts and the slave trade, war: sea power and conflict with the Dutch and the historic environment of Restoration England.

The 11 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Crown and ParliamentCharles I's execution and the republic, the return of the king, the Declaration of Breda, the Catholic succession, the Clarendon Code, the Hearth Tax, the Test Act, Whigs and Tories, and rule without Parliament.Open →
• The Catholic questionTitus Oates and the Popish Plot, the death of Godfrey and Coleman's letters, the persecution of Catholics and Oates's downfall, the Exclusion Bill and Shaftesbury's Whigs, how Charles II defeated exclusion, the Duke of Monmouth, the Rye House Plot and its results, and James's open Catholicism.Open →
• Charles II’s courtThe Merry Monarch, Charles II's strengths and weaknesses, his sports, his mistresses, his illegitimate children, Whitehall Palace, periwigs and the vest, why people wanted a place at court, and the court wits.Open →
• Crisis: the Great Plague of 1665 and the Fire of LondonThe real and supposed causes of the Great Plague of 1665, the shutting up of houses and other measures, the Bills of Mortality and Pepys, the death toll, the Fire of London of 1666, why it spread and who was blamed, what it destroyed, the Rebuilding Act and Wren's unbuilt plan.Open →
• Restoration cultureThe reopened theatres, Restoration comedy and the first actresses, Aphra Behn, the legal and social position of women, the coffee houses, the Royal Society with Boyle and Hooke, Samuel Pepys's diary and naval work, and Christopher Wren's churches and St Paul's Cathedral.Open →
• Land: the East India Company and overseas possessionsThe East India Company's charter powers, its factories and cargoes, Bombay from Catherine of Braganza's dowry, the Hudson's Bay Company and the fur trade, Tangier and why it was abandoned, Jamaica, and Henry Morgan.Open →
• Trade: mercantilism, the Navigation Acts and the slave tradeMercantilism and the value of colonies, the Navigation Act of 1660, enumerated goods and the Staple Act, who gained and who lost from the Acts, and the Royal African Company, the triangular trade and the Middle Passage that carried enslaved Africans to the plantations.Open →
• War: sea power and conflict with the DutchThe Restoration navy and its dockyards, the line of battle and broadside guns, the Second Dutch War from New York to Lowestoft, the raid on the Medway and the Treaty of Breda, the Third Dutch War and the Treaty of Dover, and England's changing relations with France and Spain.Open →
• The historic environment of Restoration EnglandA site's position, function and use, its fabric and the materials of the reign, the people behind it, Restoration design features and interiors, what they say about values and religion, and links to the reign.Open →
• Historic site: the Dutch Raid on the Medway (2027)The 2027 historic environment site: Chatham and the Medway as the navy's base, why the fleet was laid up, how de Ruyter's ships took Sheerness, broke the chain and burned or seized the great warships, and the fallout for Clarendon.Open →
• Historic site: St Paul's Cathedral (2028)The 2028 historic environment site: rebuilding St Paul's after the Great Fire, Wren's rejected Great Model and the Warrant Design, the coal tax that paid for it, its triple dome and Baroque style, and Wren's tomb in the crypt.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Restoration England, 1660–1685 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Whigs vs Tories

  Whigs: party that wanted a Catholic kept off the throne and defended Parliament and the dissenters. Tories: party that upheld the hereditary line and the Church of England.

• Clarendon Code vs Test Act

  Clarendon Code: four laws of the 1660s making worship in the Church of England compulsory. Test Act: 1673 law shutting Catholics out of public office.

• Popish Plot vs Rye House Plot

  Popish Plot: Titus Oates's invented Catholic conspiracy of 1678 to murder Charles II. Rye House Plot: 1683 scheme to ambush the king and his brother riding home from Newmarket.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What had happened to Charles II's father?

   Model answer

   Charles I was defeated in the civil wars and beheaded outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall in January 1649.

2. 2

   How was England governed between 1649 and 1660?

   Model answer

   As a republic, first as the Commonwealth and then as the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, with no king and, for much of it, no freely elected parliament.

3. 3

   What made it possible to bring back a king in 1660?

   Model answer

   Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and his son Richard could not hold the army together, so General George Monck marched south from Scotland and called a new Parliament.

4. 4

   What did Charles promise in the Declaration of Breda in April 1660?

   Model answer

   A pardon for his father's enemies, freedom of conscience in religion, the army's unpaid wages, and that disputes over confiscated land would be settled by Parliament.

5. 5

   Who was left out of the pardon granted by the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion in 1660?

   Model answer

   The regicides who had signed the death warrant of Charles I; several were hanged, drawn and quartered, and Cromwell's corpse was dug up and hung in chains.

6. 6

   Why did the succession worry so many people during the reign?

   Model answer

   Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza produced no surviving children, so the crown would pass to his brother James, who was a Catholic.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Restoration England, 1660–1685 revision questions

What does Restoration England, 1660–1685 cover in AQA GCSE History?

11 subtopics: crown and parliament, the catholic question, charles ii’s court, crisis: the great plague of 1665 and the fire of london, restoration culture, land: the east india company and overseas possessions, trade: mercantilism, the navigation acts and the slave trade, war: sea power and conflict with the dutch, the historic environment of restoration england, historic site: the dutch raid on the medway (2027) and historic site: st paul's cathedral (2028). Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Restoration England, 1660–1685 organised?

By the AQA 8145 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.