The Restoration

The monarchy returned to England in 1660, when Charles II was invited back after Cromwell's death and took the throne again as king, restoring the Church of England as the country's official church. Disaster struck the capital only a few years later: plague spread through London in 1665, killing huge numbers of people, especially in the poorer districts, before a great fire the following year tore through much of the city.

That fire destroyed the old cathedral that had stood on the site of St Paul's Cathedral in London, and Christopher Wren rebuilt it, leaving a dome that is still a familiar part of the skyline today. Parliament also strengthened ordinary people's legal protections in this period: the Habeas Corpus Act was written into law in 1679, guaranteeing that nobody could be imprisoned without the right to a proper hearing before a court.