1652 in England

Incumbents

10 April – Prudence Lee becomes the last woman in England burned alive at the stake for mariticide, at Smithfield, London^[1] (subsequent recipients of the sentence being in practice strangled before burning).
19 May – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Dover fought inconclusively off Dover between Lt.-Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into two squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne.^[2]
13 June – George Fox preaches to a large crowd on Firbank Fell in Westmorland, leading to the establishment of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
30 June – First Anglo-Dutch War: Britain formally declares war on the Dutch Republic (United Provinces of the Netherlands).^[3]
26 August – First Anglo-Dutch War: An English fleet attacks an outward-bound Dutch convoy of the escorted by 23 men-of-war and six fire ships commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter at the Battle of Plymouth; the Dutch escape.
6 September – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Elba, a Dutch naval victory.
8 October – First Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of the Kentish Knock fought in the North Sea about 30 km from the mouth of the river Thames; the Dutch are forced to withdraw.
30 November – First Anglo-Dutch War: English under Blake defeated by Dutch under Tromp at the Battle of Dungeness.^[3]
Royal Navy Dockyard established at Harwich.
Probable date – second coffeehouse in England opened, in London, by Pasqua Rosée.

Thomas Nicols' Lapidary, or, the history of pretious stones, the first work in English on gemstones.^[4]

2 January – Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of London (died 1733)
13 January – Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, politician (died 1694)
16 January – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury, politician (died 1699)
3 March – Thomas Otway, dramatist (died 1685)
13 April – Thomas Ward, religious writer, Catholic convert (died 1708)
1 May – John King, churchman (died 1732)
7 May – Edward Northey, barrister and politician (died 1723)
3 August – Samuel Western, politician (died 1699)
11 October – Nathaniel Higginson, politician (died 1708)
3 November – William Lowndes, politician (died 1724)
20 December – Samuel Bradford, bishop and politician (died 1731)

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