1668 in England

Events from the year 1668 in England.

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles II

Events

• 17 January – George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, fights a duel with Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (with whose wife he was having an affair) in which the latter is fatally wounded and a second is killed.
• 23 January – England signs the Triple Alliance with the Dutch Republic and Sweden.
• 13 February – Charles II mediates a peace treaty between Spain and Portugal.
• 13 April – John Dryden becomes Poet Laureate.
• April (traditional date) – Actress Nell Gwyn becomes the King's mistress.
• 7 May – Queen Catherine miscarries.
• May – The King's former mistress, Barbara Castlemaine, leaves the Court and is pensioned.
• 21 September – The British East India Company takes over Bombay under a Royal Charter of 27 March.
• December – William Penn imprisoned for nearly 8 months in the Tower of London for writing a pamphlet attacking Trinitarian doctrine.

Undated

• The Forest of Dean is re-established as a royal forest.
• Isaac Newton builds the first reflecting telescope (Newton's reflector)
• Richard Duckworth's Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing, the first work on change ringing, is compiled and published complete by Fabian Stedman in London.
• George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, probably originates the field sport of organised fox hunting in England with The Bilsdale Hunt in Yorkshire.
• 1668 or 1669 – James, Duke of York, the heir to the throne, secretly takes Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church.

Births

• November (baptised) – Thomas Woolston, deist (died 1733)
• December (baptised) – Sarah Fyge Egerton, poet (died 1723)
• John Eccles, composer (died 1735)
• Approximate date
• Thomas Archer, baroque architect (died 1743)
• John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett (died 1743)

Deaths

• 21 February – John Thurloe, Puritan spy (born 1616)
• 16 March – Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury (born 1623)
• 7 April – Sir William Davenant, poet (born 1606)
• 19 September – Sir William Waller, English Civil War general (born c. 1635)
• 17 November – Joseph Alleine, English non–conformist preacher (born 1634)
• probable date – Daniel Blagrave, Member of Parliament (born 1603)

References