The Restoration The Restoration is used to refer to the restoration of the monarchy (specifically the Stuart monarchy) in Britain in 1660, immediately following eleven tumultuous years of Republican rule under Oliver Cromwell – a time known as the Commonwealth period. In May 1660, Charles II returned from exile and was restored as King of England, Scotland and Ireland. The following November, he appointed Edward East as his Royal Clockmaker. Despite the Restoration and the return of the system of royal patronage, the clockmaking market in London was slow to find its feet, due to an onslaught of cataclysmic events. The Great Plague and Great Fire of London rocked the Capitol in 1665 and 1666, respectively, destabilising infrastructure and industry and causing huge loss of life. Clockmaker Samuel Knibb was among those who died during one of the last waves of plague in London. There was also a Dutch attack on the Royal Navy on the River Medway. Many interpreted these events as God’s punishment on the immoral king and his court. However, Charles II's restoration to the throne also heralded a time of flourishing for the arts and sciences. In 1675, the King founded the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and appointed the highly regarded astronomer John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal. The King also chartered and was the royal patron of the Royal Society, where the great and the good of science (such as Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren) were able to interact, debate theory, and engage in scientific research and experiments – many of which changed the world. It was also a time in which the greatest horological thinkers and inventors, such as Ahasuerus Fromanteel and Thomas Tompion, pushed the boundaries of their craft, ushering in a golden age of British clockmaking. This golden age saw a flurry of formidable and heretofore unmatched rate of horological innovation in a very short time between 1665 and 1726, culminating in the creation of John Harrison's Harrison of Barrow regulator, a precision clock that would remain the world's most accurate clock for the next 150 years. Image Credit Charles II (1630–1685). John Michael Wright, c.1676. RCIN 404951. Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023, https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/charles-ii-art-power/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace/charles-ii-1630-1685