1678 in England

Events from the year 1678 in England.

• Monarch – Charles II

• 10 January – England and the Dutch Republic sign a mutual alliance against France.^[1]
• 21 March – Thomas Shadwell's comedy A True Widow is given its first performance, at The Duke's Theatre in London, staged by the Duke's Company.
• 31 May – the Godiva Procession, a commemoration held in honour of Lady Godiva's legendary 11th century naked horseback ride through the streets of Coventry in protest against her husband's treatment of the citizens, begins.
• 6 September – Titus Oates first presents sworn allegations of the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II.^[2] On 28 September before the Privy Council he makes allegations against numerous Jesuits and Catholic nobles. Oates applies the term Tory to those who disbelieve his allegations.
• 17 October – magistrate Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey is found murdered in Primrose Hill, London. Titus Oates claims it as a proof of his allegations.^[2]
• 25 October – five Catholic peers accused of involvement in the "Popish Plot" are arrested at the instance of the House of Commons and committed to the Tower of London. On 1 November, impeachment proceedings begin.
• 26 November – William Staley, a Catholic banker, becomes the first person to be executed in connection with the "Popish Plot".
• 3 December – the Test Act provides that members of both the House of Lords and House of Commons must swear an anti-Catholic oath before taking office.
• Second Burying in Woollen Act, to support the home textile industry, more rigidly enforced.^[3]

• 18 February – John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.^[4]
• John Dryden's play All for Love.^[2]

• July – Thomas Hearne, antiquarian (died 1735)
• 16 September – Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, statesman and philosopher (died 1751)
• 8 December – Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton, diplomat (died 1757)
• 14 December – Daniel Neal, historian (died 1743)
• 30 December – William Croft, composer (died 1727)

• 12 April – Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick, courtier and diarist (born 1625 in Ireland)
• 16 August – Andrew Marvell, writer (born 1621)
• 28 August – John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton, soldier (born 1602)
• 12 October – Edmund Berry Godfrey, magistrate (born 1621)
• 1 November – William Coddington, first Governor of Rhode Island (born 1601)