After Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector from 1658 to 1659, ceded power to the Rump Parliament, Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert then dominated government for a year.

The Presbyterian members, excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648, were recalled, and on 24 December the army restored the Long Parliament.

He tried to rekindle the civil war in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill, but he was recaptured by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby, a participant in the regicide of Charles I who hoped to win a pardon by handing Lambert over to the new regime.

[2] The restoration was not what George Monck, as an apparent engineer of the Restoration, had intended – if indeed he knew what he intended, for in Clarendon's sardonic words; "the whole machine was infinitely above his strength ... and it is glory enough to his memory that he was instrumental in bringing those things to pass which he had neither wisdom to foresee, nor courage to attempt, nor understanding to contrive".On 4 April 1660, Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda, in which he made several promises in relation to the reclamation of the crown of England.

To celebrate His Majesty's Return to his Parliament, 29 May was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine returned to the service of England, became a member of the privy council, and was provided with an annuity.

[10] The Indemnity and Oblivion Act, which became law on 29 August 1660, pardoned all past treason against the crown, but specifically excluded those involved in the trial and execution of Charles I. Thirty-one of the 59 commissioners (judges) who had signed the death warrant in 1649 were living.

Because Parliament is a court, the highest in the land, a bill of attainder is a legislative act declaring a person guilty of treason or felony, in contrast to the regular judicial process of trial and conviction.

Henry Vane the Younger served on the Council of State during the Interregnum even though he refused to take the oath which expressed approbation (approval) of the King's execution.

People reportedly "pranced around May poles as a way of taunting the Presbyterians and Independents" and "burned copies of the Solemn League and Covenant".

[citation needed] Coote, Broghill and Maurice Eustace were initially the main political figures in the Restoration.

In 1662 James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde returned as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and became the predominant political figure of the Restoration period.

[17] Barbados, as a haven for refugees fleeing the English republic, had held for Charles II under Lord Willoughby until defeated by George Ayscue.

[18] The planters, however, were not eager for the return of the former governor Lord Willoughby, fearing disputes over titles, but the King ordered he be restored.

[22] The Colony of New Haven provided refuge for Regicides such as Edward Whalley, William Goffe and John Dixwell and would be subsequently merged into Connecticut in 1662, perhaps in punishment.

[citation needed] Maryland had resisted the republic until finally occupied by New England Puritans/Parliamentary forces after the Battle of the Severn in 1655.

The already existing contest between the mostly Parliamentarian Adventurers (shareholders) of the company in England and the Bermudians, who had their own House of Assembly (and many of whom were becoming landowners as they were sold the land they had previously farmed as tenants as the profitability of the tobacco farmed exclusively for the company fell), placed the Bermudians on the side of the Crown despite the large number of Puritans in the colony.

Its Independent Puritans were forced to emigrate, settling the Bahamas under prominent Bermudian settler, sometime Governor of Bermuda, and Parliamentary loyalist William Sayle as the Eleutheran Adventurers.

Freed of the company's restraints, the emerging local merchant class came to dominate and shape Bermuda's progress, as Bermudians abandoned agriculture en masse and turned to seafaring.

[25] Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship, Puritanism lost its momentum, and bawdy comedy became a recognisable genre.

It is a literature that includes extremes, for it encompasses both Paradise Lost and the John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high-spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of The Pilgrim's Progress.

[26] The return of the king and his court from exile led to the replacement of the Puritan severity of the Cromwellian style with a taste for magnificence and opulence and to the introduction of Dutch and French artistic influences.

These are evident in furniture in the use of floral marquetry, walnut instead of oak, twisted turned supports and legs, exotic veneers, cane seats and backs on chairs, sumptuous tapestry and velvet upholstery and ornate carved and gilded scrolling bases for cabinets.

[31] These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing, by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first celebrity actors.

[32] The Restoration spectacular, or elaborately staged machine play, hit the London public stage in the late 17th-century Restoration period, enthralling audiences with action, music, dance, moveable scenery, baroque illusionistic painting, gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and fireworks.

These shows have always had a bad reputation as a vulgar and commercial threat to the witty, "legitimate" Restoration drama; however, they drew Londoners in unprecedented numbers and left them dazzled and delighted.

When seven bishops, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, submitted a petition requesting the reconsideration of the King's religious policies, they were arrested and tried for seditious libel.

[38] When William arrived on 5 November 1688, James lost his nerve, declined to attack the invading Dutch and tried to flee to France.

To fill this vacancy, James's daughter Mary was declared Queen; she was to rule jointly with her husband William, Prince of Orange, who would be king.

[39] The abuses charged to James included the suspension of the Test Acts after having sworn as king to uphold the supremacy of the Church of England,[40] the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for merely petitioning the crown, the establishment of a standing army, and the imposition of cruel punishments.