1696 in England

Events from the year 1696 in England.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – William III

Events

 * January
 * Great Recoinage of 1696: The Parliament of England passes the Recoinage Act.
 * Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
 * 27 January – the ship HMS Royal Sovereign (formerly HMS Sovereign of the Seas, 1638) catches fire and burns at Chatham, after 57 years of service.
 * 15 February – a Jacobite assassination attempt against King William III is foiled.
 * March – Habeas Corpus suspended during a Jacobite invasion scare.
 * April – window tax introduced.
 * May – Great Recoinage of 1696: Shortage of silver coinage results in the guinea being officially revalued at 21 shillings, instead of 30.
 * 21 November – John Vanbrugh's play The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger first performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Undated

 * Board of Trade and Plantations established.
 * Main façades of Chatsworth House in Derbyshire completed in a pioneering English Baroque style.

Publications

 * Edward Lloyd (coffeehouse owner) probably begins publication of Lloyd's News, a predecessor of Lloyd's List, in London.
 * Poets Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady publish New Version of the Psalms of David ("Tate and Brady"), a metrical psalter.

Births

 * 27 June – William Pepperrell, colonial soldier (died 1759)
 * 14 July – William Oldys, antiquarian and bibliographer (died 1761)
 * 12 August – Maurice Greene, composer (died 1755)
 * 13 October – John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey, statesman and writer (died 1743)
 * 22 December – James Oglethorpe, general and founder of the state of Georgia as a colony (died 1785)

Deaths

 * 18 March – Robert Charnock, conspirator (born c. 1663)
 * 30 April – Robert Plot, naturalist (born 1640)
 * 28 May – William Gregory, politician and judge (born 1625)
 * 30 May – Henry Capell, 1st Baron Capell, First Lord of the Admiralty (born 1638)
 * 24 June – Philip Henry, minister (born 1631)
 * 11 July – William Godolphin, politician (born 1635)
 * 13 September – Caleb Banks, politician (born 1659)
 * 8 December – Charles Porter, English-born judge (born 1631)
 * 12 December – John Hampden (1653–1696), politician (born 1653)