The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. With the exception of the Long Parliament, it was the longest-lasting English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of Charles II of England. Like its predecessor, the Convention Parliament, it was overwhelmingly Royalist and is also known as the Pensioner Parliament for the many pensions it granted to adherents of the King.

The first session of the Cavalier Parliament opened on 8 May 1661. Among the first orders of business was the confirmation of the acts of the previous year's irregular Convention of 1660 as legitimate (notably, the Indemnity and Oblivion Act). Parliament immediately ordered the public burning of the Solemn League and Covenant by a common hangman. It also repealed the 1642 Bishops Exclusion Act, thereby allowing Church of England bishops to resume their temporal positions, including their seats in the House of Lords. Other notable pieces of first session legislation include the Militia Act placing the armed forces unambiguously under the king's authority, and the Sedition Act. It also continued proceedings against the regicides of Charles I.

Later the same year (1661), Parliament passed the Corporation Act, the first of a series of acts known as the Clarendon Code, to cement the episcopal Anglican church as the official church of England. The Clarendon code is normally given as the following four acts:

The Quaker Act 1662, specifically targeting Quakers, can also be cited as part of the new religious 'code'. In January 1661, the Fifth Monarchists, anticipating the arrival of Jesus Christ to claim the throne, led a succession of revolts under the command of Vavasor Powell and Thomas Venner. To silence radical agitators and pamphleteers, Parliament passed the Licensing of the Press Act 1662, instituting government censorship of the press.

On the economic legislation, the Cavalier parliament had a notable Mercantilist bent. To promote the English cloth industry, it outlawed the exportation of raw materials, such as wool, raw hides and fuller's clay (1662) and forbade the importation of finished materials like lace and embroidery (1662). It repealed old domestic restrictions on linen manufacturing (1663). To encourage the development of the American colonies as raw-material producers and consumers of English manufactured goods, the Cavalier parliament confirmed and reinforced the Navigation Act passed by the prior parliament in 1660, with the new Staple Act in 1663, requiring foreigners trading with the American colonies to transship their goods through English ports. Old corn laws were adjusted to the advantage of English farmers: the old restrictions on the exportation of wheat was gradually relaxed, exportation becoming fully free in 1670 and even subsidized with bounties after 1673. Conversely, the importation of wheat was restricted, with the first prohibitive tariffs on the importation of grains introduced in 1663 in a two-tier system, adjusted (1670) into a three-tier system based on current price. The importation of Irish cattle into Britain was forbidden (1666), giving English beef producers a protected home market (in trade, Scotland was already excluded altogether, treated as a foreign country on par with France). To facilitate the overseas operations of the charter companies, parliament inserted a clause into the 1663 Staple Act allowing the free exportation of coin and bullion – over the vigorous opposition of Arthur Annesley (Earl Anglesey), the leading mercantilist in parliament. To encourage the inflow of gold and silver from abroad and into circulation, the Coinage Act 1666 abolished seignorage, and introduced free minting at the Royal Mint.

The prior Convention of 1660 had promised King Charles II a generous annual revenue of £1.2 million, secured on customs duties and excise taxes. It was up to Cavalier parliament to ensure that the promise was kept. But in the first few years, the revenue fell short of the promised amount, and parliament had to look for new ways to make up for it. Parliament was responsible for the introduction of the controversial hearth tax (1662), with its unpopular and intrusive method of assessment (tax collectors had to go inside everyone's private homes to count hearths). Another problem also emerged at this time: the sudden rise in the number of paupers, which had catapulted with the demobilization of the army. It was feared they would migrate en masse to the better-off parishes and swamp their social assistance programs. So, in another controversial piece of legislation, parliament changed the Elizabethan Poor Laws with the Act of Settlement and Removal (1662), legally restricting the poor to seeking assistance in their own home parish.

Other significant and curious pieces of early legislation include the first licensing of hackney carriages (1662), an act against "excessive gaming" (1663) and a famous 1663 act authorizing the erection of toll gates on the Great North Road, the prelude to a series of acts to help finance road-building for highways.

In 1664, the Cavalier parliament amended the old Triennial Act so that it was now only suggested (rather than required) that the king summon a parliamentary session at least once every three years. In 1665, parliament met in Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London. The next year, in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London which ravaged the city in September 1666, parliament set up a court to settle disputes between landlords and tenants of burned buildings (Fire of London Disputes Act 1666), and passed a series of acts setting down regulations for rebuilding of the city (Rebuilding of London Act 1666).