1648 in England

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles I
• Parliament – Revolutionary Long, Revolutionary Rump

  Events

• 17 January – the Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the Second English Civil War.
• February – ordinances passed against plays; actors to be fined and theatres pulled down.
• 8 March – Royalists seize Pembroke Castle in Wales.
• 30 April – Royalists capture Berwick and Carlisle.
• 2 May
• * The Parliament of Scotland votes in favour of war with England on behalf of the King.
• * The Parliament of England passes an act against blasphemy.
• 8 May – Second English Civil War: Parliamentary victory at the Battle of St. Fagans.
• 1 June – Second English Civil War: Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Maidstone.
• 11 July – Second English Civil War: Siege of Pembroke ends with surrender of Pembroke Castle to Cromwell.
• 17-19 August – Second English Civil War: Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army defeats the Royalist Scottish army of the Duke of Hamilton at the Battle of Preston.
• 27 August – Second English Civil War: Thomas Fairfax takes Colchester for Parliament.
• 11 September – the Levellers' largest petition, "To The Right Honourable The Commons Of England", is presented to the Long Parliament after amassing signatories including about a third of all Londoners.
• 15 September-27 November – Second English Civil War: Parliamentary Commissioners and the King negotiate the Treaty of Newport at Newport, Isle of Wight.
• 7-18 November – the New Model Army's General Council, convening at St Albans Abbey, debates and adopts the "Remonstrance of General Fairfax and the Council of Officers", largely drawn up by Henry Ireton, proclaiming the sovereignty of the people and calling for a trial of the King. On 20 November, a delegation of officers present the Remonstrance to Parliament.
• 1 December – the King, under arrest, is moved from the Isle of Wight to Hurst Castle on the mainland.
• 5 December – majority of the House of Commons votes in favour of accepting the Treaty of Newport.
• 6 December – Pride's Purge: Troops of the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride arrest or exclude Presbyterian members of the Long Parliament who are not supporters of the Army's Grandees or Independents, creating the Rump Parliament which on 13 December annuls the Treaty of Newport.
• 7 December – Cromwell returns to London having taken the surrender of Pontefract Castle.
• 19-22 December – the King, under arrest, is moved from Hurst Castle to Windsor.
• 28-29 December – the Rump Parliament gives first and second readings to an ordinance instituting a special High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I.

  Undated

• George Fox founds the Religious Society of Friends.

  Births

• 1 January – Elkanah Settle, writer
• 23 February – Arabella Churchill, mistress of King James II
• 7 April – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, statesman and poet
• August – Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton, politician
• 15 December – Gregory King, statistician
• John Coode, colonial governor
• Moll Davis, entertainer and courtesan, a mistress of King Charles II
• Richard Hoare, banker
• James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, nobleman
• Thomas Thynne, landowner and politician

  Deaths

• 7 January ' – Henry Burton, puritan theologian
• 2 February – George Abbot, puritan writer
• 16 February – Robert Holborne, lawyer and politician
• 23 February ' – Laurence Hilliard, miniature painter
• 14 March – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, general
• 20 August – Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, diplomat, poet, and philosopher
• 28 August
• * George Lisle, Royalist commander
• * Charles Lucas, Royalist commander
• 30 October
• * Thomas Rainsborough, Leveller
• * Thomas Rawton, Leveller
• 17 November – Thomas Ford, composer
• December – Peter Oliver, miniature painter