| c. 600 Ethelbert of Kent commits dooms of his folk to writing. |
| c. 1256 Bracton’s De legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae. |
| 1292 Year Books begin. |
| c. 1470 Fortescue’s De laudibus legum Angliae. |
| c. 1475 Littleton’s Tenures. |
| 1523–30 Saint German’s Doctor and Student. |
| 1532 Perkins’s Profitable Book. |
| 1571 Plowden’s Law Reports. |
| 1581 Lambarde’s Eirenarcha. |
| 1585 Dyer’s Law Reports. |
| 1594 John Cosin born (d. 1672). |
| 1600–15 Coke’s Law Reports. |
| 1609 Benjamin Whichcote born (d. 1683). |
| 1610 Hardy’s Mariamne. |
| 1610 D’Urfé’s Astrée. |
| 1611 Robert Leighton born (d. 1684). |
| 1612 Samuel Butler born (d. 1680). |
| 1612 Thomas Killigrew born (d. 1683). |
| 1614 Napier of Merchiston discovers logarithms. |
| 1614 Henry More born (d. 1687). |
| 1616 Joseph Beaumont born (d. 1699). |
| 1617 Ralph Cudworth born (d. 1688). |
| 1620 John Evelyn born (d. 1706). |
| 1624 George Fox born (d. 1691). |
| 1627 (?) John Wilson born (d. 1696). |
| 1628 Harvey’s Exercitatio. |
| 1628–44 Coke’s Institutes. |
| 1630 Isaac Barrow born (d. 1677). |
| 1630 Sir Richard Bulstrode born (d. 1711). |
| 1630 John Tillotson born (d. 1694). |
| 1631 Richard Cumberland, bp. of Peterborough, born (d. 1718). |
| 1631 John Dryden born (d. 1700). |
| 1632 Samuel Pepys born (d. 1703). |
| 1633 (?) Wentworth Dillon, 4th earl of Roscommon, born (d. 1685). |
| 1634 Sir George Etherege born (d. 1691). |
| 1634 Sir John Reresby born (d. 1689). |
| 1634 Académie française founded. |
| 1635 Edward Stillingfleet born (d. 1699). |
| 1636 Joseph Glanvill born (d. 1680). |
| 1636 Selden’s Mare Clausum. |
| 1636 Corneille’s Cid. |
| 1638 Charles Sackville, 6th earl of Dorset, born (d. 1706). |
| 1638 Corneille’s Cid acted in English. |
| 1639 (?) Sir Charles Sedley born (d. 1701). |
| 1640 Mrs. Aphra Behn born (d. 1689). |
| 1640 William Wycherley born (d. 1716). |
| 1641 Thomas Rymer born (d. 1713). |
| 1641 Evelyn’s Diary begins (ptd. 1818). |
| 1641 Shelton’s Tachygraphy. |
| 1642 Closing of theatres. |
| 1642 (?) Thomas Shadwell born (d. 1692). |
| 1643 Gilbert Burnet born (d. 1715). |
| 1644 William Penn born (d. 1718). |
| 1646 (?) Anthony Hamilton born (d. 1720). |
| 1647 John Wilmot, 2nd earl of Rochester, born (d. 1680). |
| 1647 Henry More’s Philosophicall Poems. |
| 1647 Selden’s Fleta. |
| 1648 Robert Barclay born (d. 1690). |
| 1648 Elkanah Settle born (d. 1724). |
| 1648 John Sheffield, 3rd earl of Mulgrave, 1st duke of Buckinghamshire and Normanby, born (d. 1721). |
| 1648 Death of lord Herbert of Cherbury. |
| 1648 Joseph Beaumont’s Psyche. |
| 1649 Execution of Charles I. Commonwealth. |
| 1650 Madeleine de Scudéry’s Grand Cyrus. |
| 1650 Glisson’s Tractatus de Rachitide. |
| 1651 Hobbes’s Leviathan. |
| 1651 D’Avenant’s Gondibert. |
| 1652 Thomas Otway born (d. 1685). |
| 1652 Culverwel’s Light of Nature. |
| 1652–4 Dorothy Osborne’s Letters (ptd. 1888). |
| 1653 Oliver Cromwell Protector. |
| 1653 Thomas D’Urfey born (d. 1723). |
| 1653 (?) Nathaniel Lee born (d. 1692). |
| 1653 John Oldham born (d. 1683). |
| 1653 Urquhart’s Rabelais, Books I, II (Book III 1693–4; Books IV, V, by Motteux, 1708). |
| 1653–5 Scudéry’s Grand Cyrus in English. |
| 1655 Wallis’s Arithmetica Infinitorum. |
| 1656 D’Avenant’s Siege of Rhodes. |
| 1656 Harrington’s Oceana. |
| 1656 Osborne’s Advice to a Son. |
| 1656 Pascal’s Lettres provinciales. |
| 1657 John Dennis born (d. 1734). |
| 1658 Death of Oliver Cromwell. |
| 1658 Richard Cromwell Protector. |
| 1659 Dryden’s Poem upon the death of Oliver, Lord Protector. |
| 1659 More’s Immortality of the Soul. |
| 1659 Pearson’s Exposition of the Creed. |
| 1659 Thomas Rugge’s Diurnall (unpublished) begins. |
| 1659 Stillingfleet’s Irenicum. |
| 1659 The Whole Duty of Man. |
| 1659 Molière’s Précieuses Ridicules. |
| 1660 Restoration. |
| 1660 Dryden’s Astraea Redux. |
| 1660 Pepys begins his Diary (ptd. 1825). |
| 1660 John Smith’s Select Discourses. |
| 1660 Thomas Southerne born (d. 1746). |
| 1660 Madeleine de Scudéry’s Almahide. |
| 1661 Boyle’s law of compressibility. |
| 1661 Thomas Fuller died. |
| 1661 Glanvill’s Vanity of Dogmatizing. |
| 1661 Graunt’s Natural and Political Observations on the Bills of Mortality. |
| 1662 Act of Uniformity. |
| 1662 Royal Society’s charter. |
| 1662 Richard Bentley born (d. 1742). |
| 1662 Henry More’s prose works collected. |
| 1662 Sir W. Petty’s Treatise of Taxes and Contributions. |
| 1662 Stillingfleet’s Origines sacrae. |
| 1662 Wilson’s Cheats. |
| 1663 Butler’s Hudibras, Pt. I (Pt. II 1664; Pt. III 1678). |
| 1663 Cowley’s Cutter of Coleman Street. |
| 1663 Dryden’s Wild Gallant. |
| 1663 Katherine Philips’s version of Corneille’s Pompée. |
| 1663 Edward Somerset 2nd marquis of Worcester’s Century of Inventions. |
| 1664 Sir John Vanbrugh born (d. 1726). |
| 1664 Death of Sanderson. |
| 1664 Cotton’s Scarronides. |
| 1664 Dryden’s Rival-Ladies. |
| 1664 Etherege’s Comical Revenge. |
| 1664 Evelyn’s Sylva. |
| 1664 Wilson’s Projectors. |
| 1665 Plague of London. |
| 1665 Head’s English Rogue. |
| 1665 Sir R. Howard’s Foure New Plays. |
| 1665 La Fontaine’s Contes. |
| 1665 La Rochefoucauld’s Maximes. |
| 1666 Fire of London. |
| 1666 The London Gazette begins. |
| 1666 Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis. |
| 1666 Dugdale’s Origines juridicales. |
| 1666 Willis’s Anatome cerebri. |
| 1667 Death of Cowley. |
| 1667 Dryden’s Secret Love. |
| 1667 Sprat’s History of the Royal Society. |
| 1667 Molière’s Tartuffe. |
| 1667 Racine’s Andromaque. |
| 1668 Death of D’Avenant. |
| 1668 Dryden’s An Evening’s Love. |
| 1668 Dryden’s Essay of Dramatick Poesie. |
| 1668 Sedley’s Mulberry Garden. |
| 1668 La Fontaine’s Fables. |
| 1668 Molière’s Avare. |
| 1668 Racine’s Plaideurs. |
| 1669 Pepys ends his Diary. |
| 1669 Death of Sir John Denham. |
| 1669 Penn’s No Cross No Crown. |
| 1669 Katherine Philips’s Poems. |
| 1669 Anthony à Wood’s Antiquities of Oxford. |
| 1669–70 Dryden’s Conquest of Granada. |
| 1670 William Congreve born (d. 1729). |
| 1670 Dryden appointed poet laureate. |
| 1670 Mayow’s experiments on respiration. |
| 1670 Molière’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme. |
| 1670 Pascal’s Pensées. |
| 1671 Colley Cibber born (d. 1757). |
| 1671 The Rehearsal. |
| 1671 Tillotson’s Sermons. |
| 1672 Addison born (d. 1719). |
| 1672 Cumberland’s De legibus Naturae. |
| 1672 Dryden’s essay Of Heroick Plays. |
| 1672 Puffendorf’s De jure naturae et gentium. |
| 1673 Death of Molière. |
| 1673 Settle’s The Empress of Morocco. |
| 1674 Death of Milton. |
| 1674 Nicholas Rowe born (d. 1718). |
| 1674 Wycherley’s The Plain Dealer acted (ptd. 1677). |
| 1674 Boileau’s Lutrin and Art Poétique. |
| 1674 Delphin classics. |
| 1675 Dryden’s Aureng-Zebe acted (ptd. 1676). |
| 1675 Wycherley’s Country Wife. |
| 1676 Etherege’s Man of Mode. |
| 1676 Otway’s Don Carlos. |
| 1676 Ray’s edition of Willughby’s Ornithologia. |
| 1677 Crowne’s Destruction of Jerusalem. |
| 1677 Lee’s Rival Queens. |
| 1677 La Fayette’s Princesse de Clèves. |
| 1678 The popish plot. |
| 1678 Narcissus Luttrell’s Brief historical relation begins (ptd. 1857). |
| 1678 George Farquhar born (d. 1707). |
| 1678 Death of Andrew Marvell. |
| 1678 Cudworth’s True Intellectual System of the Universe. |
| 1678 Dryden’s All for Love. |
| 1678 Otway’s Friendship in Fashion. |
| 1678 Rymer’s Tragedies of the Last Age. |
| 1678 South’s Sermons. |
| 1679 Death of Hobbes. |
| 1679 Dryden’s Preface concerning the Grounds of Criticism in Tragedy (with Troilus and Cressida). |
| 1679 Oldham’s Satyrs upon the Jesuits. |
| 1679 Collected edition of the Year Books. |
| 1680 Burnett’s Some passages in the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester. |
| 1680 Lee’s Theodosius. |
| 1680 Otway’s Orphan. |
| 1680 Temple’s Miscellanea. Pt. I (Pt. II, 1690; Pt. III, 1701). |
| 1681 Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I. |
| 1681 Dryden’s Spanish Fryar. |
| 1681 Glanvill’s Sadducismus triumphatus. |
| 1681 Hobbes’s Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Law ptd. |
| 1682 Death of Sir Thomas Browne. |
| 1682 Advocates’ library founded. |
| 1682 Banks’s Unhappy Favourite and Vertue Betray’d. |
| 1682 Dryden’s The Medal and Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. II. |
| 1682 Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe and Religio Laici. |
| 1682 Otway’s Venice Preserv’d. |
| 1682 Petty’s Political Arithmetic. |
| 1682 Ray’s Methodus plantarum. |
| 1683 Crowne’s City Politiques. |
| 1684 Death of Corneille. |
| 1684 The Turkish Spy. |
| 1685 Crowne’s Sir Courtly Nice. |
| 1685–8 James II. |
| 1686 Willughby and Ray’s Historia piscium. |
| 1687 Dryden’s The Hind and the Panther. |
| 1687 Newton’s Principia. |
| 1687 La Bryuère’s Caractères. |
| 1688 Pope born. |
| 1688 Halifax’s Character of a Trimmer. |
| 1688 Shadwell’s Squire of Alsatia. |
| 1689 Locke’s first letter on Toleration. (2nd letter 1690; 3rd 1692.) |
| 1689 Selden’s Table-Talk. |
| 1689 Shadwell’s Bury Fair. |
| 1689–94 William and Mary. |
| 1690 Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and Essay concerning Human Understanding. |
| 1691 Boyle lectures founded. |
| 1691 Sherlock’s Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment. |
| 1691 Racine’s Athalie. |
| 1692 Rymer’s Short View of Tragedy (dated 1693). |
| 1692 Temple’s Memoirs. |
| 1693 Congreve’s Old Bachelor; Double-Dealer. |
| 1693 Dryden’s Discourse concerning Satire. |
| 1693 Hacket’s Life of Bishop Williams. |
| 1693 Leslie’s Short and easy method with the Deists. |
| 1693 Penn’s Some Fruits of Solitude. |
| 1693 Ray’s Synopsis animalium. |
| 1694 Burthogge’s Essay upon reason. |
| 1694 George Fox’s Journal. |
| 1694 Southerne’s The Fatal Marriage. |
| 1695–1702 William III. |
| 1695 Congreve’s Love for Love. |
| 1696 Baxter’s Autobiography. |
| 1696 Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift. |
| 1696 Southerne’s Oroonoko. |
| 1696 Tate and Brady’s new version of the Psalms. |
| 1696 Toland’s Christianity not mysterious. |
| 1697 Congreve’s Mourning Bride. |
| 1697 Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast. |
| 1697 Vanbrugh’s Relapse and Provok’d Wife. |
| 1698 Jeremy Collier’s Short View of the immorality of the English Stage. |
| 1698 Farquhar’s Love and a Bottle. |
| 1699 Farquhar’s The Constant Couple. |
| 1699 Death of Racine. |
| 1700 Congreve’s Way of the World. |
| 1700 Dryden’s Fables. |
| 1700 Halifax’s Miscellanies. |
| 1700 Cottonian library presented to the nation. |
| 1700–3 Temple’s Letters (ed. Swift). |
| 1701 Farquhar’s Sir Harry Wildair. |
| 1701 Norris’s Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World, Pt. I (Pt. II, 1704). |
| 1702–14 Anne. |
| 1703 Rowe’s Fair Penitent. |
| 1704 Robert Nelson’s Companion for the Festivals and Fasts. |
| 1705 Vanbrugh’s Confederacy. |
| 1706 Farquhar’s Recruiting Officer. |
| 1707 Farquhar’s Beaux’ Stratagem. |
| 1712 Philips’s Distrest Mother. |
| 1713 Mémoires de la vie du Comte de Gramont. |
| 1714 Rowe’s Tragedy of Jane Shore. |
| 1715 Rowe’s Tragedy of the Lady Jane Gray. |
| 1720 Hughes’s Siege of Damascus. |
| 1731 Cudworth’s Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (publ. posthumously). |
| 1740 Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber. |
| 1764 Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s Autobiography ptd. |