1664 Birth of John Vanbrugh. Katherine Philips, Poems (pirated).

1665 Second Anglo Dutch War (until 1667). Plague in London.

1666 Fire of London. Death of Abraham Cowley. Boileau, Satires; Moliere, Le Misanthrope. Commencement of Philosophical Transactions by Royal Society.

1667 Dismissal of Clarendon; the Cabal (until 1673). Birth of John Arbuthnot. John Bunyan, Grace Abounding; John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, Indian Emperor, Of Dramatick Poesy; John Milton, Paradise Lost (1st edn.); Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society

1668 Dryden appointed Poet Laureate. Beginning of Mercurius Librarius (Term Catalogues); Cowley, Works, with life by Sprat.

1670 Birth of William Congreve. Milton, The History of Britain; Pascal, Pensées; Izaac Walton, Lives.

1671 Milton, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes.

1672 Third Anglo-Dutch War (until 1674); second Declaration of Indulgence. Births of Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Buckingham, Rehearsal; Marvell, Rehearsal Transpros’d (Pt. II, 1673).

1673 Second Declaration of Indulgence withdrawn, and Test Act signed. End of Cabal.

1674 Death of Milton. Opening of Theatre Royal. Boileau, L’Art Poetique; Milton, Paradise Lost (2nd edn., in 12 books); Thomas Shadwell, Enchanted Island.

1675 William Wycherley, Country Wife.

1676 George Etherege, Man of Mode; Shadwell, Virtuoso.

1677 Aphra Behn, The Rover, Pt. I (Pt. II, 1681); Wycherley, Plain Dealer.

1678 Popish Plot. Beginning of Christopher Wren’s work on St Pauls’. Death of Andrew Marvell; birth of George Farquhar. John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, I (Part II, 1684); Samuel Butler, Hudibras, III;

1679 Exclusion Crisis (until 1681). Birth of Thomas Parnell. Gilbert Burnet, History of the Reformation (Vols. II & III, 1681 & 1715).

1680 Deaths of Butler, Rochester, La Rochefoucauld. Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha; Rochester, Poems; Roscommon, Horace’s Art of Poetry Made English; Sir William Temple, Miscellanea, I.

1681 Thomas Burnet, Telluris Theoria Sacra, Books I and II; John Oldham, Satires Upon the Jesuits; Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel.

1682 Death of Sir Thomas Browne. Dryden, The Medall, Religio Laici, Mac Flecknoe, Absalom and Achitophel, II; Lucretius, De natura rerum (tr. Thomas Creech); Thomas Otway, Venice Preservd; Sir William Petty, Essay Concerning the Multiplication of Mankind.

1683 Rye House Plot. Death of Oldham.

1684 Behn, Love-Letters Between a Noble-Man and his Sister (1684-7).

1685 February: Death of Charles II and Accession of James II. June to July: Monmouth Rebellion; October. Edict of Nantes revoked. Birth of John Gay; birth of George Berkeley. Sylvae (including contributions by Dryden); Dryden, ‘To the Pious Memory of Mrs Anne Killigrew’, and Threnodia Augustalis.

1686Behn, The Lucky Chance. Dryden, Hind and the Panther; ‘Song for St. Cecelia’s Day’.

1687 April James II’s Declaration of Indulgence. Isaac Newton, Principia.

1688 Glorious Revolution: November: William of Orange invades England; December: James II flees to France (transfer of the crown to William and Mary in 1689). Birth of Alexander Pope; death of Bunyan; Shadwell named Poet Laureate in succession to Dryden; Charles Perrault, Parallèle des Anciens and des Modernes (completed 1697).

1689 Accession of William and Mary. Birth of Samuel Richardson; death of Behn. John Locke, First Letter on Toleration

1690 James II defeated by William III in Ireland (Battle of the Boyne) and flees to France. Dryden, Don Sebastian; Locke, Two Treatises of Government, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (enlarged 1694-1700); Second Letter on Toleration; Petty, Political Arithmetick (see 1682); Temple, Miscellanea, II, includes ‘An Essay upon the Ancient and Modern Learning,’ which triggers Phalaris controversy (rev. 1692).

1691 Treaty of Limerick ends war in Ireland.

1692 Death of Shadwell. Locke, Third Letter on Toleration; Thomas Rymer, Short View of Tragedy.

1693 Beginning of National Debt. Congreve, Old Batchelor; Dryden, ‘Discourse Concerning Satire,’ prefixed to trs. of Juvenal and Persius; Locke, Thoughts Concerning Education.

1694 Death of Mary II; Founding of Bank of England. Congreve, Double Dealer; Dictionary of French Academy; William Wotton, Reflections on Ancient and Modern Learning.

1695 Death of Henry Purcell. Richardd Blackmore, Prince Arthur; Charles Boyle, ed., Epistles of Phalaris; Congreve, Love for Love; Locke, Reasonableness of Christianity and Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity (second Vindication, 1697) Southerne, Oroonoko.

1697 Birth of William Hogarth. Richard Bentley, ‘Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris’ (in 2nd edn. of Wotton’s Reflections, see 1694); Blackmore, King Arthur; Dryden, Works of Virgil; Vanbrugh, Provok’d Wife.

1698 Charles Boyle, Dr. Bentley’s Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of Aesop Examin’d; Jeremy Collier, Short View of the English Stage; William Molyneux, The Case of Ireland Stated.

1699 Bentley, Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, with an Answer to the Honourable Charles Boyle; Garth, The Dispensary.

1700 Death of Charles II of Spain; final statute against Catholics; dispute over Irish forfeitures; Act of Resumption; death of Duke of Gloucester; Partition Treaty. Death of Dryden; birth of James Thomson. Blackmore, Satire against Wit; Cervantes, Don Quixote, tr. Motteux; Congreve, Way of the World. Daniel Defoe, Enquiry into Occasional Conformity; Dryden, Fables and Secular Masque; Fénelon, Dialogue des Morts; James Harrington, Works, with life by Toland; Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare.

1701 Death of James II; pretender recognized by Louis XIV; Act of Settlement; General Election (Tory landslide); Impeachment of Somers; General Election (Whig recovery); Joseph Addison, ‘Letter to Halifax’ (written); Charles Davenant, Essay on the Balance of Power; John Dennis, Advancement of Modern Poetry; Richard Steele, Christian Hero.

1702 Death of William III, accession of Anne; Tory ministry; Godolphin-Marlborough influence; Harley Speaker of the House of Commons; War of Spanish Succession. Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion (1702-4); Defoe, Shortest-Way with the Dissenters; William King, De Origine Mali; Observator (1702-12); Poems on Affairs of State (1702-7); Shaftesbury, Paradoxes of State

1703 First Occasional Conformity Bill defeated in Lords; campaign in Flanders; Great Storm (27 November); Defoe imprisoned, pilloried and released. Abel Boyer, History of the Reign of Queen Anne (1703-20); Steele, The Lying Lover; Ned Ward, London Spy (collected edn., 18 monthly parts , November 1698-1703).

1704 Battle of Blenheim; Queen Anne’s bounty; Nottingham ministry resigns; Harley Secretary of State; Bolingbroke Secretary at War; death of Locke. Defoe, Review (1704-12); Dennis, Grounds of Criticism in Poetry and Liberty Asserted; Wycherley, Miscellany Poems.

1705 General Election, Whig victory, ‘Junto’ administration; Marlborough breaks through lines of Brabant; ‘Church in Danger’; Haymarket Opera House opened by Vanburgh; Addison Commissioner of Appeals. Addison, The Campaign and Remarks on Italy; Samuel Clarke, Being and Attributes of God; Bernard de Mandeville, The Grumbling Hive; Steele, The Tender Husband; John Toland, Socinianism Truly Stated; Vanburgh, The Confederacy; Wotton, Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning, 3rd edn., with a Defense of the Reflections, including ‘Observations upon The Tale of a Tub’.

1706 Act of Succession; Battle of Ramillies; Sunderland Secretary of State; Steele made Gazetteer; death of John Evelyn; birth of Benjamin Franklin. Addison, Rosamond; Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer; Locke, Conduct of Understanding, On Miracles and Fourth Letter on Toleration; Delarivier Manley, Almyna; White Kennett, Complete History of England (1706-19).

1707 Union of England and Scotland; births of Henry Fielding and Charles Wesley. Colley Cibber, Comical Lovers, The Double Gallant and The Lady’s Last Stake; Defoe, Modest Vindication of Present Ministry; Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem; John Philips, Ode to Bolingbroke; Prior, Poems on Several Occasions (pirated); Thomas Tickell, Oxford.

1708 Battle of Oudemarde; Harley and St. John resign; Catalonia Campaign; Somers returns to office; Naturalization Act; Addison Keeper of Records, Dublin Castle. Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiasticae; Jeremy Collier, Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain (1708-14); Fontenelle, Dialogues of the Dead, tr. Hughes; Locke, Letters; John Philips, Cyder; Shaftesbury, Letter Concerning Enthusiasm; Lewis Theobald, Persian Princess

1709 Charles XII defeated at Pultawa; Sacheverell’s sermon; births of Samuel Johnson and George Lyttelton; Copyright Act (first, 14-year term, renewable for another 14 if author is alive); Steele dismissed from the Gazette. Berkeley, New Theory of Vision; Manley, The New Atalantis; Ambrose Philips, ‘Pastorals’ and Pope, ‘Pastorals’, published in the Tonson Poetical Miscellanies VI; Prior, Poems on Several Occasions; Nicholas Rowe’s Shakespeare (1709-10); Shaftesbury, The Moralists.

1710 January: Marlborough threatens to resign commision over Tory influence of Abigail Masham at court. March: trial of Sacheverell ends disappointingly for Whig managers. August: Godolphin dismissed as Lord Treasurer, replaced by Tory treasury under Robert Harley. October: landslide victory brings Tories to power. Samuel Clements, Faults on Both Sides; Berkeley, Principles of Human Knowledge; September: Addison begins The Whig Examiner. Bayle, Dictionary, first English edn.; Congreve, Collected Works; Manley, Memoirs of Europe.

1711 January: Peace conference at Utrecht begins. February: Tory ‘October Club’ attacks Harley for perceived moderation. March: assassination attempt by Guiscard on Harley. May: Harley created Lord Treasurer and Earl of Oxford; Pope, Essay on Criticism. November: Nottingham (Swift’s ‘Dismal’) breaks with Harley. December: Marlborough dismissed. Pope, Essay on Criticism; Steele, Tatlerii final number, January; Addison and Steele, Spectator (1 March 1711 - 6 December 1712); Shaftesbury, Characteristicks.

1712 July: St. John created Viscount Bolingbroke. October: Oxford and Bolingbroke clash in cabinet. Pope, Rape of the Lock (2-canto version); Arbuthnot, Proposal for an Art of Political Lying.

1713 March: Peace and commerce treaties signed by Britain and France at Utrecht. August: Bolingbroke’s bid to control ministry defeated by Harley; general election, another Tory victory. December: Queen Anne seriously ill. Pope, Windsor-Forest; Gay, Rural Sports; Parnell, Essay on the Different Styles of Poetry; Addison, Cato; Steele, Guardian, Englishman

1714 January: Steele, Crisis. July: Oxford dismissed by Queen Anne. August: death of Queen Anne; accession of George I. Beginning of Whig supremacy.

1715 June: Pope, Iliad, books I-IV.

1717 January: Pope, Gay and Arbuthnot, Three Hours After Marriage. Pope, Works.

1718 Death of Parnell

1719 June: death of Addison.

1720 March: Declaratory Act (that the British Parliament may make laws binding on Ireland). August: collapse of the ‘South Sea Bubble’. November: Trenchard and Gordon begin publishing Cato’s Letters.

1721 Emergence of Robert Walpole as de facto Prime Minister. September: death of Prior. December: Parnell, Poems on Several Occasions, with Pope’s ‘Epistle of Oxford’ as preface.

1722 July: patent to strike copper coins for Ireland granted to William Wood. August: Atterbury implicated in Jacobite ‘Layer’s Plot’.

1724 May: death of Oxford. October: £300 reward offered for naming of the author of fourth Drapier’s Letter. Gilbert Burnet, History of his Own Time.

1725 April: Bolingbroke returns from exile in France. September: Cancellation of Wood’s patent. Pope’s edition of Shakespeare and translation of Homer’s Odyssey (to 1726).

1726 March: Theobald, Shakespeare Restored. December: Pultney and Bolingbroke launch opposition periodical The Craftsman.

1727 June: death of George I, accession of George II. Autumn: floods, crop failures and rural poverty in Ireland. Gay, Fables. Death of Newton.

1728 January: Gay’s Beggar’s Opera begins triumphant run at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. May: Pope, Dunciad; numerous printed attacks on Pope.

1729 April: Pope, Dunciad Variorum

Townshend resigns as Secretary of State. Trial of Francis Charteris. Colley Cibber made Poet Laureate.

1731 December: Pope, Epistle to Burlington. First issue of Gentleman’s Magazine. Death of Defoe.

1732 December: Death of John Gay. Hogarth, Harlot’s Progress.

1733 January: Pope, Epistle to Bathurst. February: Pope, first Imitation of Horace; An Essay on Man. Excise Crisis.

1734 January: Pope, Epistle to Cobham. Prosecution of Philip Doddridge; Hogarth, Rake’s Progress (engravings published 1735).

1735 January: Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot. February: death of Arbuthnot. Bolingbroke returns to France.

1736 Porteous Riots; repeal of Test and Corporation Acts defeated. Butler, Analogy of Religion.

1737 May: Pope’s ed. of his letters. Prince of Wales expelled from court; Death of Queen Caroline.

1738 October: death of Thomas Sheridan. Pope visited by Bolingbroke. Last report of Society for Reformation of Manners.

1739 October: War of Jenkins’ Ear.

1740 War of Austrian Succession.

1742 March: Pope, The New Dunciad (i.e. book IV)

1744 May: death of Pope.

1745 Death of Walpole. Jacobite rebellion.