1680.

1681.

1682.

1683.

1684.

1685.

In consequence of a speech by George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, the Exclusion Bill is rejected by the Lords.

Dec.

Stafford [see note (a), p. 76], chief of the Popish victims, is beheaded.

Jan. The king by message declares that he never will assent to the Exclusion Bill. The Commons refuse to vote supplies. Parliament is dissolved.

March 21. Charles' fifth Parliament meets at Oxford. Many of the members bring armed followers. The Commons again bring in the Exclusion Bill. Charles proposes that the government shall be carried on after his death in James' name by the Prince of Orange as regent for James.

March 28.

The Commons order the bill to be read a second time next day. Parliament is dissolved the same day, and does not meet again during the rest of the reign.

Louis agrees to pay five million livres to Charles in the next
three years.

Nov. 24. The Government prosecutes Shaftesbury for treason,
but the bill is ignored by the grand jury in London.
The Duke of Monmouth makes a progress through England,
assumes royal state, and touches for the king's evil.

The charters of London and other towns are examined by a decree
of "quo warranto," and during the next two years are remo
delled in the interests of the court.

Shaftesbury goes to Holland, and dies, January 22, 1683.
June. The Ryehouse Plot (a plan entered into by Rumbold and
some extreme Whigs to murder the king and the Duke of
York) is discovered. Rumbold escapes to Holland.

July 21. The University of Oxford passes a decree condemning
the doctrine that resistance to a king is lawful (a).

July 21. William, Lord Russell (b), is tried and executed for a
supposed share in the Ryehouse Plot. Essex dies in prison.
Dec. Algernon Sydney is also convicted and executed, unpub-
lished writings of his being used for want of a second witness.
Monmouth is pardoned for his late proceedings, but is banished to
Holland. Rochester is made President of the Council.
Feb. 6. The king dies.

James declares in a speech to the Council that he will maintain the
government, both in Church and State, as by law established.
[Ministry-Rochester, Lord Treasurer; Halifax, President of

the Council; Godolphin, Chamberlain; and Sunderland,
Secretary of State.]

James continues to levy the taxes which had been voted only for
Charles' life. He receives £67,000 from France.

Titus Oates and Dangerfield, having been convicted of perjury,
are cruelly punished. Baxter, the Presbyterian divine, is
severely punished.

1685.

1686.

1687.

1688.

May 22. Parliament meets and gains the release of Danby and
the Popish peers. Parliament votes the revenue of Charles
II., with the addition of a tax on sugar and tobacco.
Insurrection of Monmouth, June 11. He lands in Dorset-
shire, takes the title of king at Taunton, is defeated_at
Sedgemoor, July 6, and, having been captured in the New
Forest, is executed, July 15.

His adherents are terribly punished by Colonel Kirke, and by
Judge Jeffreys in the Bloody Assize.

Oct. 21. Halifax is deprived of his office.

Dec. Sunderland is made president of the Council as well as secretary.

June. Sir Edward Hales having received a commission in the army contrary to the Test Act, the judges give an opinion favourable to the dispensing power of the king. In consequence many Romanists receive commissions in the army and Church preferment.

July.

A new court of Ecclesiastical Commission is set up.
Compton, Bishop of London, is suspended by this court.
A camp of 13,000 troops is formed at Hounslow to overawe London.
Massey, a Romanist, is made Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.
The chapel at Whitehall is opened for the public celebration
of Romanist rites.

Clarendon is recalled from Ireland, and succeeded by Tyrconnel.
Rochester, having refused to change his religion, is removed
from the Treasury, which is put in commission.

April. The Declaration of Indulgence is published, which suspends the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics and Protestant Dissenters.

Both Oxford and Cambridge are attacked by the Ecclesi-
astical Commission.

July 2. Parliament is dissolved, having been prorogued since
Dec. 1685. July 3. James receives a Papal nuncio.

James having asked the lord-lieutenants to furnish a list of
Papists and Nonconformists suitable for members of Parlia-
ment, many of them resign.

May 4. James issues the Declaration of Indulgence again, and orders the clergy to read it on May 20 and 27.

Archbishop Sancroft and six other bishops present their petition to be excused (May 18), and very few clergy read the Declaration.

June 10.

(a).

A son, afterwards the Old Pretender, is born to James

June 29, 30. The seven bishops are tried and acquitted.
June 30. A letter is sent to William of Orange asking him to
bring an army and secure the liberties of the people, signed
by Devonshire, Shrewsbury, Danby, Lumley, Compton, Bishop
of London, Admiral Edward Russell, and Henry Sydney,
Sept. 30. William of Orange issues his Declaration, giving
a list of James' bad acts, and declaring that, as husband of
Mary, he was coming with an army to secure a free and legal
Parliament, by whose decision he would abide.