• 4 February –
Oliver Cromwell dissolves the
Second Protectorate Parliament. • April – first
stage coach services advertised: 4-day trips from
London to
Exeter,
York and
Chester. • 14 June –
Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660):
Battle of the Dunes – a
French and English army defeats the
Spanish in the
Spanish Netherlands. • 25–27 June – Anglo-Spanish War:
Battle of Rio Nuevo – a Spanish invasion force fails to recapture
Jamaica from the English. • 30 August –
hurricane storms in southern England, the worst for centuries. • 3 September –
Oliver Cromwell dies in
Whitehall (probably of
sepsis) aged 59 on the anniversary of his great military victories at
Dunbar and
Worcester, and his 3rd son
Richard is appointed to his father's position as
Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. • October •
Savoy Declaration,
A Declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in the Congregational Churches in England, is drawn up by
Independents and
Congregationalists meeting at the
Savoy Hospital, London. • First domestic
pendulum clocks advertised for sale in England, by
Ahasuerus Fromanteel of London. • 23 November – The elaborate funeral ceremony of the former Lord Protector,
Oliver Cromwell (who had died on 3 September and was buried in
Westminster Abbey two weeks later), is carried out in London. A little more than two years later (in January 1661), his body will be disinterred, subjected to a
posthumous execution and
his head placed on a spike. • Undated –
Tea first arrives in England, exported from
China via
Holland. ==Publications==