1685 in England

Events from the year 1685 in England. This year sees a change of monarch.

Incumbents

Monarch – Charles II, then James II

Events

6 February – death of Charles II at Whitehall Palace after four days' illness, having been received into the Roman Catholic church on the previous evening. His brother, the Catholic James Stuart, Duke of York, becomes King James II of England.
23 April – coronation of King James II at Westminster Abbey, including anthems by Henry Purcell.
May – Titus Oates, found guilty of perjury for his part in the alleged "Popish Plot", is sentenced by Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys|Judge Jeffreys] to be imprisoned, pilloried and whipped.
19 May – beginning of the first session of the Loyal Parliament.
11 June – Monmouth Rebellion: Duke of Monmouth">James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth">Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland, lands at Lyme Regis with an invasion force brought from the Dutch Republic to challenge his uncle, James II, for the Crown of England.
20 June – Monmouth Rebellion: James, Duke of Monmouth, declares himself at Taunton to be King and heir to his father's Kingdoms as James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland.
6 July – Monmouth Rebellion: the Battle of Sedgemoor between the armies of King James II and rebel forces under Monmouth, the last pitched battle fought on English soil. Monmouth's army is defeated and the Duke himself is captured shortly after the battle.
15 July – the Duke of Monmouth is beheaded at Tower Hill, London, by Jack Ketch with several blows of the axe.
25 August to 23 September – England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice] Jeffreys holds the Bloody Assizes to try Monmouth's supporters, beginning at Winchester and ending at Wells. Over a thousand receive sentences of hanging or transportation.
28 September – Jeffreys is appointed Lord Chancellor by the king.
29 September – the first organised street lighting, using oil lamps, is established in London by Edward Hemming.
22 October – Louis XIV of France issues the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revokes the Edict of Nantes and declares Protestantism illegal in his country, causing Huguenot refugees to flee to England and elsewhere; among them is the Toyé family, who establish the jewellery and clothing business which, as Toye, Kenning and Spencer, will still be operating in the hands of the original family in the 21st century.
23 October – Elizabeth Gaunt, humanitarian, burned at the stake at Tyburn for alleged complicity in the Rye House Plot, becomes the last woman executed for political treason in England. She is not granted the customary mercy of strangulation before burning.
November – at the king's request, Ferdinando d'Adda is sent as the first Papal Nuncio to England since 1558.
20 November – the Loyal Parliament is prorogued and never meets again.
Alice Molland becomes the last known person in England to be sentenced to death for witchcraft, in Exeter.

Births

10 February – Aaron Hill, writer
12 March – George Berkeley, philosopher
30 June – John Gay, writer
3 July – Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet, cavalry officer
18 August – Brook Taylor, mathematician
17 December – Thomas Tickell, writer

Deaths

2 January – Sir Harbottle Grimston, 2nd Baronet, politician
6 February – King Charles II of England
24 February – Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, politician and military leader
14 April – Thomas Otway, dramatist
16 June – Anne Killigrew, poet and painter
22 June – Thomas Dangerfield, conspirator, homicide
15 July – James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of Charles II, executed
28 July – Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, statesman
23 October – Henry Cornish, London alderman, executed
30 October – executed
* John Ayloffe, political radical
* Richard Nelthorpe, lawyer and conspirator
12 December – John Pell, mathematician