The term Restoration in reference to the year 1660 refers to the restoration of Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 to his realms across the British Empire at that time.

England

On 4 April 1660, Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda

Declaration of Breda

The Declaration of Breda was a proclamation by Charles II of England in which he promised a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum for all those who recognised Charles as the lawful king; the retention by the current owners of property purchased during...

, in which he made several promises in relation to the reclamation of the crown of England. Monck organized the Convention Parliament, which met for the first time on 25 April. On 8 May it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

 on 30 January 1649. "[C]onstitutionally, it was as if the last nineteen years had never happened". Charles returned from exile, leaving The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

 on 23 May and landing at Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 on 25 May. He entered London on 29 May, his birthday. To celebrate "his Majesty's Return to his Parliament", 29 May was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day

Oak Apple Day

Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day was a holiday celebrated in England on 29 May to commemorate the restoration of the English monarchy, in May 1660...

. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661.

Ireland

"The commonwealth parliamentary union was, after 1660, treated as null and void". As in England the republic was deemed constitutionally never to have occurred. The Convention Parliament was dissolved by Charles II in January 1661, and he summoned his first parliament in Ireland in May 1661. In 1662, 29 May

Oak Apple Day

Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day was a holiday celebrated in England on 29 May to commemorate the restoration of the English monarchy, in May 1660...

 was made a public holiday.

Coote, Broghill and Sir Maurice Eustace

Sir Maurice Eustace

-Family background:Eustace was born between 1590 and 1595, at Castlemartin, County Kildare, the son of William Fitzjohn Eustace,constable of Naas. The Eustaces of Castlemartin were cousins of Viscount Baltinglass, but played no part in the Desmond Rebellions, being generally noted for loyalty to...

 were initially the main political figures in the Restoration. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle was given the position of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

 but he did not assume office. In 1662 the 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

 returned as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and became the predominant political figure of the Restoration period.

Scotland

Charles was proclaimed King again on 14 May 1660. He was not crowned having being previously crowned at Scone in 1651. The Restoration "presented an occasion of univeral celebration and rejoicing throughout Scotland".

Charles II summoned his parliament on 1 January 1661, which began to undo all that been forced on his father Charles I of Scotland

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

. The Rescissory Act 1661

Rescissory Act 1661

The Rescissory Act restoring Episcopacy, 1661 passed on the March 28, 1661 in the Scottish Parliament. At one stroke, it annulled the legislation of the last twenty years, covering the time of the Commonwealth and Civil wars. This Act virtually made return to Episcopacy, so that monarchy and...

 made all legislation back to 1633 'void and null'.

Caribbean

Barbados, as a haven for refugees fleeing the English republic

Commonwealth of England

The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...

, had held for Charles II under Lord Willoughby

Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham

Francis Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham was an English peer of the House of Lords.He succeeded to the title 14 October 1617 on the death in infancy of his elder brother Henry Willoughby, 4th Lord Willoughby of Parham...

 until defeated by George Ayscue

George Ayscue

Admiral Sir George Ayscue was an English naval officer who served in the Civil War and the Anglo-Dutch Wars.In 1648, during the Civil War, while serving as a captain in the navy of the English Parliament, he prevented the fleet from defecting to the Royalists, and was promoted to General at Sea...

. When news reached Barbados of the King's restoration, Thomas Modyford

Thomas Modyford

Colonel Sir Thomas Modyford, 1st Baronet was a planter of Barbados and Governor of Jamaica, 1664-70.Modyford was the son of a mayor of Exeter with family connections to the Duke of Albemarle, who emigrated to Barbados as a young man with other family members in 1647, in the opening stages of the...

 declared Barbados for the King in July 1660. 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.

Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 had been a conquest of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

's and Charles II's claim to the island was therefore questionable. However, Charles II chose not to restore Jamaica to Spain and in 1661 it became a British colony and the planters would claim that they held rights as Englishmen by the King's assumption of the dominion of Jamaica. The first governor was Lord Windsor. He was replaced in 1664 by Thomas Modyford who had been ousted from Barbados.

North America

New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, with its Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 settlement, had supported the Commonwealth and the Protectorate

The Protectorate

In British history, the Protectorate was the period 1653–1659 during which the Commonwealth of England was governed by a Lord Protector.-Background:...

. Acceptance of the Restoration was reluctant in some quarters as it highlighted the failure of puritan reform. Rhode Island

Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...

 declared in October 1660 and Massachusetts

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

 lastly in August 1661. New Haven provided refuge for Regicides such as Edward Whalley

Edward Whalley

Edward Whalley was an English military leader during the English Civil War, and was one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of King Charles I of England.-Early career:The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown...

, William Goffe

William Goffe

William Goffe was an English Roundhead politician and soldier, perhaps best known for his role in the execution of King Charles I and later flight to America.-Early life:...

 and John Dixwell

John Dixwell

John Dixwell was one of the judges who tried King Charles I of England and condemned him to death.-Biography:He was the younger son of Edgar Dixwell, but was raised by his uncle Basil Dixwell of Broome Park, near Canterbury in Kent...

 and would be subsequently merged into Connecticut

Connecticut Colony

The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...

 in 1662, perhaps in punishment. John Winthrop, a former governor of Connecticut, and one of whose sons had been a captain in Monck

George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle

George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG was an English soldier and politician and a key figure in the restoration of Charles II.-Early life and career:...

's army, went to England at the Restoration and in 1662 obtained a Royal Charter

Royal Charter

A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 for Connecticut with New Haven annexed to it.

Maryland

Province of Maryland

The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...

 had resisted the republic until finally occupied by New England Puritans/Parliamentary forces after the Battle of the Severn

Battle of the Severn

The Battle of the Severn was a skirmish fought on March 25, 1655, on the Severn River at Horn Point, across Spa Creek from Annapolis, Maryland, in what at that time was referred to as "Providence", in what is now the neighborhood of Eastport. Following the battle, Providence changed its name to...

 in 1655. In 1660 the Governor Josias Fendall

Josias Fendall

Lieutenant-General Josias Fendall, Esq. , was the 4th Proprietary Governor of Maryland. He was born in England, and came to the Province of Maryland. He was the progenitor of the Fendall family in America....

 tried to turn Maryland into a Commonwealth of its own in what is known as Fendall's Rebellion but with the fall of the republic in England he was left without support and was replaced by Philip Calvert upon the Restoration.

Virginia was the most loyal of King Charles II's dominions. It had according to the eighteenth century historian Robert Beverley, Jr.

Robert Beverley, Jr.

Robert Beverley, Jr. was an important historian of early colonial Virginia. He was born in Jamestown and died in King and Queen County, Virginia...

 been "the last of all the King's Dominions that submitted to the Usurpation". Virginia had provided sanctuary for Cavaliers fleeing the English republic

Commonwealth of England

The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...

. Sir William Berkeley, who had previously been governor up until 1652, was elected governor in 1660 by the House of Burgesses

House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...

 and he promptly declared for the King. The Anglican Church was restored as the established church.

In 1663 the Province of Carolina

Province of Carolina

The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...

 was formed as a reward given to some supporters of the Restoration. The province was named after the King's father, Charles I

Charles I of England

Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...

.