ABSTRACT
The birth of the Royal Society followed an extremely tumultuous period in British history. In the England of the preceding 25 years a civil war had been fought, a king had been beheaded, and extreme political and religious repression had been endured. For part of this period English society had been on the verge of anarchy. The revival of the monarchy in 1660 was therefore looked upon not so much as an attempt to reimpose the old social order, but as a last chance to restore any social order.
