| 1642 | Outbreak of English Civil War between parliamentary and royalist forces. |
| 1644 | 14 October, Penn born in London. |
| 1648 | Peace of Westphalia ends Thirty Years’ War in Europe. |
| 1649 | Execution of King Charles I in England. Proclamation of English Commonwealth. |
| 1653 | Oliver Cromwell inaugurates Protectorate. |
| 1658 | Cromwell dies. |
| 1660 | Restoration of Stuart monarchy in England (accession of Charles II). Penn enters Christ Church College, Oxford. |
| 1662 | Penn expelled from Oxford for religious nonconformity. |
| 1663 | Penn studies at the Protestant Academy in Saumur, France. |
| 1665 | Penn enters Lincoln’s Inn, London, to study law. |
| 1667 | Penn converts to Quakerism in Ireland; is arrested for the first time. |
| 1670 | September: Penn-Mead trial, commemorated in Penn’s People’s Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted. Death of Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn. |
| 1672 | Penn marries Gulielma Springett. Charles II
|