1680 in England

Incumbents

• Monarch – Charles II
• Parliament – Exclusion Bill

  Events

• February – Rev. Ralph Davenant's will provides for foundation of the Davenant Foundation School for poor boys in Whitechapel.
• 21 October – Charles II's fourth parliament assembles. The term Whig comes to be used for those in favour of the Exclusion Bill and Tory for those who oppose it.
• 4 November – a second Exclusion Bill is proposed to exclude the Catholic James, Duke of York from inheriting the throne.
• 15 November – the Exclusion Bill is defeated in the House of Lords.
• 7 December – William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, is condemned to death by perjured evidence in the House of Lords for conspiracy in the supposed "Popish Plot".
• Undated
• * First fire insurance office established, the Phoenix.
• * Trinity House erects a lighthouse on St Agnes, Isles of Scilly.

  Births

• 23 January – Joseph Ames, author
• 14 February – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, privy councillor
• 20 June – Sir John Aubrey, 3rd Baronet, politician
• 12 October – Arthur Collier, philosopher
• Blackbeard, pirate
• John Colson, mathematician
• Barnabas Gunn, organist and composer
• John Machin, mathematician
• Sarah Derith, politically active salon hostess

  Deaths

• 14 January – George Carteret, statesman
• 17 February – Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, statesman and writer
• 16 May – Sir William Blackett, 1st Baronet, of Matfen, Member of Parliament
• 22 May – Richard Sawkins, pirate
• 25 September – Samuel Butler, poet
• 26 July – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, poet
• 20 August – William Bedloe, informer
• 24 August – Thomas Blood, thief of the English Crown Jewels
• 9 September – Henry Marten, regicide
• 11 September – Roger Crab, Puritan political writer
• 30 November – Peter Lely, painter
• December – Elizabeth Killigrew, Viscountess Shannon, courtier and royal mistress
• 8 December – Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, politician
• 29 December – William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, martyr
• Cornelius Essex, pirate
• Sir James Harington, 3rd Baronet, Member of Parliament