Romans	Saxons	Vikings	Normans	Tudors	Victorians	World War
43	450	793	1066	1485	1837	1914

The first Stuart King, James I , came to the throne in 1603. He was already King James the Sixth of Scotland. He united the two countries under one king.

In 1605 a group of men tried to blow up both him and the Houses of Parliament. This Gunpowder Plot failed.

Houses of Parliament

In 1625 Charles II came to the throne. In 1635 he opened Hyde Park to the public and in 1637 created Richmond Park for hunting.

Civil war broke out in 1642 between supporters of the king and parliamentary forces, led by a Puritan called Oliver Cromwell. The King lost and was beheaded in London in 1649 and Britain became a republic known as the Commonwealth. In 1660 the monarchy was returned.

Plague and Fire

London suffered to disasters in later Stuart years.

In 1665 the Great Plague killed about 70,000 people. The bubonic plague was brought to London by rats on board trading ships. It spread very quickly because people lived in very close quarters and hygiene standards were very low

In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed two thirds of the City: 13,200 houses, 430 streets and 89 churches. The fire could be seen from forty miles round the capital. It started as a small fire accidentally in Pudding Lane in the City of London, and raged for four days as an enormous fire.

The reason why we know so many details about the fire is that two men who were alive at that time kept diaries in which they described the dramatic events. The names of these two people were Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn.

Photographs of the two houses in Cloth Fair that survived the Great Fire.
The houses were built between 1597 and 1614

To prevent such a disaster happening again King Charles ll commanded that all new houses in London should be of stone and brick not wood.   Christopher Wren constructed St Paul's Cathedral (between 1675 and 1711) as well as many churches.

St Paul's Cathedral built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Buckingham Palace was built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham.

Buckingham Palace