born at St. Malo in 1673, were both originally common sailors, but raised themselves to notice by their daring enterprises with squadrons of privateers from their native towns. Bart, among other exploits, landed at, and burnt part of Newcastle in 1696; he was in consequence created a noble, and died in 1702. Du Guai Trouin, who survived till 1736, captured Rio de Janeiro in 1711, and in 1731 severely chastised the piracies of the Algerines. A.D. 1666. The English fleet, under the orders of Prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle (George Monk), have a four days' fight with the Dutch, in the Downs, June 1-4, in which the victory is doubtful. On July 25 the Dutch are defeated with great loss off the North Foreland, and chased into their harbours. Near 200 sail taken or burnt at Schelling soon after*. The Dutch and French fleets are prevented from forming a junction by Prince Rupert. burgh, but are defeated on the Pentland-hills, Nov. 28. Many are subsequently executed. A Dutch squadron is captured off the coast of Norway, Dec. 25. A.D. 1667. The Dutch fleet attacks Burntisland.. without success, April 29. They next threaten the Yorkshire coast, but do not attempt a landing. The united Dutch and French fleet defeated by Sir John Harman, in the London is almost totally destroyed West Indies, May 10. He also capby fire, Sept. 2-6. A day of fast-tures Surinam. ing and humiliation is kept in consequence, Oct. 10. An act passed for the orderly rebuilding of the city of London", [18 & 19 Car. II. c. 8]. An insurrection breaks out in the west of Scotland, in November. The insurgents attempt to surprise Edin • One Laurence van Heemskerk, a Dutch opponent of De Witt, was the proposer of this. The king, his brother the duke of York, the duke of Albemarle, and many gentlemen of the court laboured zealously to stop the progress of the fire, which was at last effected by blowing up houses with gunpowder. John Evelyn, (who, as a commissioner of the navy, had charge of several hospitals filled with sick and wounded seamen,) passed on foot through the extent of the burnt city on September 7, and remarks in his Diary, "At my return I was infinitely concerned to find that goodly church St. Paul's now a sad ruin, and that beautiful portico, for structure comparable to any in Europe, as not long repaired by the late king, [see A.D. 1631,] now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, and nothing remaining entire but the inscription in the architrave, shewing by whom it was built, which had not one letter of it defaced. ....It is observable that the lead over the altar at the east end was untouched, and among the divers monuments, the body of one bishop remained entire. Thus lay in ashes that most venerable church, one of the most ancient pieces of early piety in the Christian world, beside near a hundred more. The lead, iron-work, bells, plate, &c., melted; the exquisitely wrought Mercers' chapel, the sumptuous Exchange, the august fabric of Christ Church, all the companies' halls, splendid buildings, arches, entries, all in dust; the fountains dried up and ruined, whilst the very waters remained boiling: the voragoes of subterranean cellars, wells and dungeons, formerly warehouses, still burning in stench and dark clouds of smoke, so that in five or six miles' traversing about, I did not see one load Negotiations for peace are opened at Breda, May 14. In consequence the equipment of the English fleet is neglected. Instigated by the English refugees in Holland, De Witt sends De Ruyter with a strong fleet into the Thames. He destroys the unfinished fort at of timber unconsumed, nor many stones but what were calcined white as snow.....I then went towards Islington and Highgate, where one might have seen 200,000 people of all ranks and degrees dispersed, and lying along by their heaps of what they could save from the fire, deploring their loss, and though ready to perish for hunger and destitution, yet not asking one penny for relief, which to me appeared a stranger sight than any I had yet beheld." It began soon after midnight of Saturday, Sept. 1. All ground cleared by the fire was to be built on within three years, or else sold by the corporation and the money paid to the owner; the mayor and aldermen were empowered to regulate the price of labour, and to suppress combinations; labourers working were to become freemen; there were to be four different classes of houses, and any built contrary to rule were to be pulled down; no timber buildings were to be allowed, except the Waterhouse near London-bridge. Further powers, chiefly relating to the rebuilding of St. Paul's and other churches, were given in 1670, by stat. 22 Car. II. Sheerness, June 11. The duke of | cluded between England, Holland and Albemarle sinks ships in the Medway, Sweden, to restrain the aggressive to prevent the advance of the Dutch. proceedings of Louis XIV.", (Jan. 13, They, however, burn several vessels at April 25). Chatham, June 13, but fail in an attack on Upnor Castle, and lose five of their ships. The Dutch advance nearly to Gravesend, June 29, but are driven off by Sir Edward Sprague', and retire to their own coast. Peace is concluded with the Dutch, July 21. The earl of Clarendon falls into disgrace. He is deprived of his office, Aug. 30, is impeached by the Commons, Nov. 12, and retires to the continent, by command of the king, Nov. 29. A new ministry, termed the King's Cabal, is formed, on the dismissal of Clarendon. Its principal members are the duke of Buckingham', Lord Arlington, and Sir William Coventry, a commissioner of the treasury. Lord Ashley and Sir Thomas Clifford1 are associated with them. The earl of Lauderdale continues the head of affairs in Scotland. A.D. 1668. Louis XIV. and the Emperor Leopold agree to a treaty for the eventual partition of the Spanish monarchy. The parliament meets, Feb. 10. A quarrel occurs between the two Houses, on the case of Thomas Skinner, and they adjourn May 8, without transacting any business of importance. Bishop Wilkins, Sir Matthew Hale, and others, endeavour to bring about a Comprehension of the dissenters. Baxter and his friends, however, make the same extravagant demands as at the Savoy Conference, and nothing is effected". Buckingham, having become prime minister, endeavours to remove the duke of York from his post of lord high admiral. The king carries on secret negotiations with Louis XIV. in order to obattain money. This was at length accomplished, and Charles became the pensioner of the French king, bound to assist him in his designs against A treaty of triple alliance is con- the Dutch, and expecting assistance This was meant to replace the strong castle of Queenborough, which had been unwisely destroyed under the Commonwealth, leaving that part of the coast defenceless. A chain that had been placed to check their progress gave way at the first shock, having been treacherously cut and tied together again by some of the people of the dockyard, who had served under the Commonwealth, and were notorious sec taries. f It was apprehended that they might try to reach London, and at least one ship (the "Leinster") was sunk at Blackwall to hinder them. It was valued at £1,477 25., according to the Secret Service accounts of Charles II. The charges against him were chiefly, venality in the discharge of his office (said to be proved by the sale of Dunkirk, and the vast fortune that he had acquired), betraying the king's secrets, and an intention to introduce military government. An'act was passed [19 & 20 Car. II. c. 2] commanding him to appear to take his trial in a limited time; illness prevented his compliance, and he became, in consequence, liable to banishment for life. He died at Rouen in 1674. The name is usually taken as a word arbitrarily formed of the initial letters of the names of the principal members, with the addition of L for Lauderdale, but it is found in the works of Whitelock, Evelyn, and Pepys, of earlier date, and merely means any select committee; it is in fact equivalent to the " cabinet" of later times. George Villiers, born Jan. 30, 1628. He lost his estates as a royalist, but recovered them by marrying the daughter of Lord Fairfax. He is the "Zimri" of Dryden's satire. After a long course of profligacy he died in comparative poverty, April 16, 1687. cated at Christ Church, Oxford, served in the king's army, afterwards went abroad, and acted as the agent of Charles II. in Spain. He became secretary of state soon after the Restoration, was created an earl in 1672, was driven from office in 1674, and died in 1685. He was of an old Devonshire family, was born in 1630, and was brought forward by Arlington. His activity in the House of Commons, and his opportune conversion to Romanism, recommended him at court; he was created a peer, (Lord Clifford of Chudleigh), and supplanted his patron. He became lord treasurer, but was driven from office by the operation of the Test Act, in 1673, and died soon after. m Louis claimed the Spanish Netherlands, in right of his wife, Maria Theresa of Spain. Though she had formally renounced the succession, he invaded them, and nearly achieved their conquest. Skinner was a trader, who, complaining to the king's council of injuries sustained from the East India Company, was referred to the House of Lords for redress. The Lords adjudged him compensation; the company, in a petition to the Commons, denied the jurisdiction of the Peers. The Commons voted that whoever should put in force the order of the Peers as to Skinner was an infringer of their privileges; the Peers declared the petition a scandalous libel, and all intercourse between the Houses was broken off. The quarrel was not accommodated until 1670, when the votes on each side were cancelled, and Skinner was left uncompensated. • See A. D. 1661. P The House of Commons, instead of favouring the scheme, addressed the king desiring that the laws against the nonconformists should be strictly Henry Bennett, born in 1618. He was edu-enforced. in establishing arbitrary government | under the recent Conventicle Act, are in England". James Mitchell, one of the Covenanters, attempts to assassinate Archbishop Sharpe, July 11. By accident he wounds Honeyman, bishop of Orkney'. The government issues an "indulgence," in virtue of which many of the Scottish ministers conform to the episcopal government. The more vehement, however, refuse, and persist in holding field-meetings, which the troops are ordered to disperse. The island of Bombay granted to the East India Company. They are allowed in 1677 to establish a mint there. A.D. 1669. The duke of York avows his conversion to Romanism. The parliament meets Oct. 19. The case of Skinner being revived, the disputes of the two Houses prevent any business being transacted, and they are prorogued Dec. 11. Captain John Kempthorne, in the "Mary Rose," beats off seven large Barbary corsairs in the Straits of Gibraltar, Dec. 29. A.D. 1670. The parliament meets, Feb. 14, and sits till April II. A new act passed against seditious conventicles, [22 Car. II. c. 1]. Mead and Penn ", two quakers, tried A scandalous treaty, for these purposes, was signed at Dover, May 22, 1670. He escaped to Holland, but returning to Scotland in 1674, was imprisoned for a while, tortured, and at length executed Jan. 18, 1678. This gallant action is commemorated by a picture in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, with the inscription, "Two we burnt, and two we sunk, and two did run away, t And one we brought to Leghorn roads, to shew we'd won the day." The penalties of the act of 1664 were reduced to 55. for the first, and ros. for every future offence. A meeting of five persons constituted the offence: the owner of any house suffering a conventicle was to pay £20; the preacher was to pay £20 or £40, and if he was not able to pay, or had fled, the penalty was to be levied on his hearers. Penn was the son of Sir William Penn, the admiral, who captured Jamaica. He afterwards became the founder of the settlement of Pennsylvania, was a confidential agent of James II., and was in consequence exposed to much odium after the Revolution. He died in 1718, aged 74. The presiding judge was George Jefferies. This man, whose name has become a byword for all that can disgrace the judicial character, was born in Denbighshire, about 1640, was bred to the bar, and became recorder of London. In the dis acquitted, Sept. 5; the jurors are fined, and imprisoned, as are the quakers, for alleged contempt of court, in refusing to uncover their heads. The parliament meets Oct. 24. An attempt is made to assassinate the duke of Ormond, in London, Dec. 6. The Hudson's Bay Company established by charter, Prince Rupert being its great promoter. A.D. 1671. An act passed to prevent malicious wounding and maiming1, [22 & 23 Car. II. c. 1]; the offence is declared a capital felony. A quarrel as to a claim by the Peers to alter money-bills occasions the premature prorogation of the Houses, April 22. Colonel Blood attempts to carry off the regalia from the Tower", May 9. A.D. 1672. tion of Lord Ashley, seizes on the The king, probably at the instigabankers' funds in the Exchequer, Jan. 2, and thus prepares for war. An unsuccessful attempt is made to capture the Dutch Smyrna fleet, March 3. England and France declare war against the Dutch, March 17. The king issues a declaration of indulgence dispensing with the laws against nonconformity, Mar. 15. putes with the city he joined the court party, and he was promoted to the office of chief justice, in 1683. By James II. he was made lord-chancellor, in Sept. 1685, as a reward for his exertions in punishing the adherents of the duke of Monmouth. His conduct on the bench had long been distinguished for coarseness; but in his " campaign," as the king himself called it, Jefferies displayed such atrocious cruelty as rendered him the object of abhorrence. On the flight of his master he attempted to flee also, but was taken at Wapping disguised as a sailor, Dec. 13, and being with difficulty saved from summary execution, was lodged in the Tower, where he died, April 18, 1689. y The leader of the party was a Colonel Blood, an Irish adventurer, who soon after attempted to steal the regalia from the Tower of London. This act was occasioned by an outrageous attack on Sir John Coventry, (Dec. 21, 1670,) by some of the royal guard, in consequence of an observation which he had made on the profligate life of the king. The duke of Monmouth, Charles' natural son, was the instigator of the attack, but he escaped punishment. a Blood was pardoned by the king, and even received a grant of lands in compensation for losses during the civil war; he eventually died in the King's Bench Prison, in 1681. Anthony Ashley Cooper, who was soon afterwards created earl of Shaftesbury. This declaration was known to be issued on the in Southwold-bay, May 28, and chases it into harbour, May 30. The English fleet defeats the Dutch English blockade the mouth of the | Maes, when they are attacked by the Dutch, Aug. 11, and being deserted by the French, suffer considerable loss', and are driven off. Louis XIV. overruns great part of Holland, having with him a body of English troops under the duke of Monmouth. The stadtholdership re-established in Holland, in the person of William, prince of Orange; the brothers De Witt, his great opponents, are murdered by the populace, Aug. 4. Sir Edward Sprague severely represses the Barbary pirates. The earl of Shaftesbury is made lord-chancellor, Nov. 17. A.D. 1673. The parliament meets, Feb. 4. They complain of the king's declaration of indulgence, which he at length consents to withdraw, May 8. The Test Act [25 Car. II. c. 2] passed, by which all persons holding office are obliged to take the sacrament according to the mode of the English Church, and also to subscribe | a declaration against transubstantiation. The duke of York, Lord Clifford, and others, in consequence resign their posts. Prince Rupert takes the command of the English fleet, in place of the duke of York. The Dutch are defeated on their own coast, May 28 and June 4. The advice of Clifford and Ashley, and as one was an avowed Romanist and the other an infidel, it was justly regarded as meant rather to injure the Church than to serve the nonconformists. The duke of York commanded the English, who, though victors, being much inferior in number to the Dutch, suffered severely; the earl of Sandwich perished, with many others. A French squadron, professedly the allies of the English, stood off, and took no part in the action. • It had been in abeyance since the death of his father in 1650, and was now re-established in consequence of the alarm excited by the progress of the French. The young prince (afterwards William III. of England) was successful against the invaders, who retired precipitately before the close of the next year. fAmong the killed was Sir Edward Sprague, who had driven the Dutch from the Thames in 1667. Captain Kempthorne, who had been knighted for his gallantry in the Mediterranean (see A.D. 1669), greatly distinguished himself, and was in consequence made an admiral. He was succeeded by Sir Heneage Finch (afterwards earl of Nottingham), who retained the office till his death, Dec. 18, 1682. It had been taken by them very shortly before. Latimer in 1673, earl of Danby in 1674,) and The parliament adjourned, Nov. 4. The earl of Shaftesbury is deprived of the chancellorships, Nov. 9. He again becomes the leader of the opposition. The island of St. Helena is recaptured from the Dutch ". A.D. 1674. The parliament meets, Jan. 7. The ministers are driven from office, by votes of the parliament. Viscount Latimer (Thomas Osborne, afterwards earl of Danby) becomes chief minister. Peace is concluded with Holland, Feb. 9. A large sum of money is paid to the king by the Dutch, and the honour of the flag' is conceded. Shaftesbury and others commence intrigues with the purpose of excluding the duke of York from the succession to the throne, and substituting the duke of Monmouth. ment for corruption *, but the proceed- | The duke of Buckingham, Lords Saing fails. Conferences for peace are opened at Nimeguen, July. lisbury, Shaftesbury, and Wharton, offend the House of Peers by contending that the long prorogation Many English vessels are captured amounted to a dissolution of parliaby the French on the charge of carry-ment, and are committed to the ing Dutch property, on which war Tower", Feb. 17. with France is loudly demanded'. A quarrel as to hearing of appeals arises between the two Houses, and at length the parliament is prorogued (Nov. 22) for a period of fifteen months. The London coffee-houses are closed by royal proclamation, as being the resort of "disaffected persons, who spread false, malicious, and scandalous reports, to the defamation of his majesty's government, and the disturbance of the quiet of the realm," Dec. 29. This step is much clamoured against, and the proclamation is withdrawn. The better observance of the Lord's Day provided for by statute, [29 Car. II. c. 7]. The statutable punishment of burning for heresy abolished, [c. 9]. William, prince of Orange, marries the princess Mary, daughter of the duke of York, Nov. 4. Archbishop Sheldon dies, Nov. 9. He is succeeded by William Sancroft P, dean of St. Paul's. The corporation of the Sons of the Clergy founded. A.D. 1678. The king forms a treaty with Holland, Jan. 26, by which he engages to withdraw the English auxiliaries from the French army, The king forms another secret treaty with France, May 17, and in consequence recalls the troops which he had, as a threat to Louis, recently sent to Flanders. The peace of Nimeguen is concluded, under the mediation of the king, Aug. 10, which establishes a temporary peace between France, Spain, and Holland. Titus Oates, a man of infamous The parliament reassembles, Feb. 15. | character, informs the king of an al The mover was Lord Russell, executed in 1683, as concerned in the Rye-house Plot. A petition, presented by certain merchants in August, 1676, stated that fifty-three ships had been thus seized since December, 1673. On the 14th January the boats of his squadron, under the command of Cloudesley Shovel (then a young lieutenant), burnt four large ships of war in the harbour of Tripoli; he afterwards cannonaded the town, destroyed their naval stores, and obliged them to agree to abstain from piracy. Soon after he visited Algiers, and brought the dey to a similar temporary submission. Two years after he was similarly employed, and either captured or destroyed almost every vessel belonging to the Algerines. The others petitioned for their release, and obtained it in June, but Shaftesbury, who had applied to the courts of law, was confined until February, 1678, when he was released upon begging pardon on his knees in the House. • See A.D. 1401. He was born at Fresingfield, in Suffolk, in 1616, of a good family, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was ejected in 1649, and travelled abroad until the Restoration, when he was made master of his college, dean of York, then of | St. Paul's, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. His passive resistance in this high post to the arbitrary measures of James II. had a great effect in producing the expulsion of that monarch, but the archbishop having once sworn allegiance to him, conscientiously felt himself unable to acknowledge William and Mary as his successors, and preferred to suffer instead the deprivation of his office. He retired to a small property at his native place, and died there, Nov. 24, 1693. They were about 8,000 strong, and were commanded by the duke of Monmouth; John Churchill (afterwards duke of Marlborough) served among them. Louis parted with them unwillingly, and bribed Shaftesbury and others to complain that they were brought to England to establish arbitrary power. In consequence, a part were sent to Flanders to assist the Spaniards, but matters were so arranged they never came in contact with their former associates. He was born at Oakham about 1620, his father being then incumbent of All Saints, Hastings. He became an Anabaptist, but conformed to the Church at the Restoration, held two or three curacies, and served at sea as a chaplain. At length he went abroad, and professed conversion to Romanism, but was expelled from the English college at St. Omer, |