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Charles II of England

 
Biography: Charles II
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Charles II (1630-1685) was king of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685. Restored to the throne after the Cromwellian experiment, he prevented a renewed outbreak of civil strife for a critical generation.

Charles II, the son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in London on May 29, 1630. For the first 8 years of his life, he was heir apparent in what seemed a quiet land. By 1638 he must have been aware that the calm was that deceptive moment before the storm. By the time he was 12, his father's kingdom had been torn apart by civil war, and by 1646 Charles was in exile. In 1649 he watched helplessly from the Continent while his father was tried and executed in England. This set of circumstances, and the demeaning 10 years of poverty and plotting that followed, seemed to be the paramount influence in his life. Unlike his brother James, the Duke of York and later King James II, he developed a suspicion not of men but of the ideologies that moved men. Ironically it was lack of ideological commitment, and his suspicion of such commitment, that made him suspect in his own times and that has condemned him in the eyes of many historians.

After 1649 Charles's principal interest was the reestablishment of the monarchy, and he used whatever means he thought necessary to achieve this end. In March 1650 he accepted the Scots' offer of support in his effort and accepted the Scots' covenant and Presbyterianism as a concomitant to such support. With the failure of Charles and the Scots at the battle of Worcester in 1651, the prince never again evidenced any interest in Presbyterianism other than repugnance.

His Accession

On his accession in 1660 Charles ended the trails and execution of regicides long before royalist appetites were appeased, and he refused to sponsor any attempts to appropriate, from former supporters of the Commonwealth, land sold by royalists during the interregnum. Moreover, he tried without success to arrive at a broader Anglican religious dispensation in 1660 and to contradict the St. Bartholomew's Day oath, which turned Nonconformist ministers out of ecclesiastical livings in 1662. These actions proceeded from the declaration he had made at Breda in April 1660, in which he attempted to persuade Gen. Monck and Parliament to return England to the monarchical form. His attempts, however, to implement this declaration came long after Monck's army had disbanded and after the Cavalier Parliament had been elected. Historians point out that this declaration was in keeping with Charles's disposition, which was marked by a reluctance to act and a tendency to make enemies and to mask intention with the appearance of wit and love of pleasure.

Although Charles could and did act decisively in moments of crisis, he preferred to act through ministers who would serve as lightning rods to consume popular displeasure. When it served his purposes, he would undermine and deceive his own ministries. Thus, although the Earl of Clarendon served as Charles's first minister from 1660 to 1666, during the last 3 of those years he could only partially depend on royal support. In 1666, because of the disgrace of defeat in the Dutch war and the loss of Clarendon's abilities to control the lower house and produce revenues, his enemies pushed for his impeachment. Charles, who had never approved of Clarendon's religious policies or his high-handedness in government, joined in the destruction of the ministry.

The Cabal

Following the attempted impeachment and the exile of Clarendon, Charles turned to the formation of a government whose chief ministers were those who sponsored the old opposition. This group, known collectively by the initials of their names as the Cabal, was never used in a truly collective sense. To Charles, the Cabal's principal function was to lead the lower house of Parliament to a more generous posture in funding the government and to an acceptance of the royal policy on religion. The members of the Cabal were more likely to be consulted individually rather than collectively by the King, and certain members of this ministry were privy to, and sponsors of, certain aspects of the royal policy in which the others had no knowledge or interest. The ministry was not successful in leading Parliament and was already breaking up when Charles promulgated his Declaration of indulgence in 1672. On this issue - the use of the royal power to suspend religious statutes and to establish by administrative fiat Charles's goal of religious toleration - the ministry was shattered.

To Charles, the Cabal had been disappointing from its earliest days. It had not produced a subsidy-granting majority from the anti-Clarendonians in the lower house. Further, the attempts by two of its members, the 2d Duke of Buckingham and the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, to build a power structure through anti-Catholicism and suspicion of the heir apparent frightened both other members of the ministry as well as the King.

Later Reign

The failure of the King's Indulgence and the subsequent anti-Catholic Test Act of 1673 forced Charles to look for new ministerial leadership. In Sir Thomas Osborne, soon to be Earl of Danby, Charles found a new figure to lead his government. Danby had been instrumental in bringing down Clarendon, but his policy and supporters closely followed Clarendon lines with the single exception of an anti-French rather than an anti-Dutch foreign policy. Danby, however, demonstrated a genius at finance that had never been a strength of Clarendon's government.

From its inception Danby's coalition was faced with an opposition led by Shaftesbury and Buckingham and their followers. The principal issue used by this opposition was the suspected Catholicism of the King and court and the known Catholicism of the Duke of York, the heir apparent. From 1674 Parliament spent progressively more time on debating whether Danby and his supporters or Shaftesbury and his were more virtuously anti-Catholic. In the meantime the King was, in the late 1670s, forming a northern alliance against French expansion.

In 1678 Titus Oates appeared with the tale of a Popish Plot to assassinate the King. Although Shaftesbury and the opposition were not connected with Oates, they soon turned national hysteria over the plot to their advantage. They launched a double-pronged attack to overturn Danby and to exclude York as the heir apparent. Supplied with evidence and funds from the French ambassador, Shaftesbury's party demanded Danby's impeachment. At this point Charles was forced to take over the management of the government. With enormous skill, he used the controversy over Danby to distract Parliament from Shaftesbury's primary aim - changing the succession to the throne.

During the 3 years of the plot hysteria, the King used every device to divert, split, and madden the opposition with the hopes that in time the nation would become suspicious of Shaftesbury's intentions. By 1681, Charles was able to dismiss Parliament.

From that time until his death, on Feb. 6, 1685, Charles personally directed the government. He was able to destroy the opposition, and on his death he left a possibility for absolutism which was greater than any seen in England since the time of Henry VIII.

Further Reading

Arthur Bryant, King Charles II (1935; rev. ed. 1955), is the best study of Charles, but it is idolatrous and should be balanced with the more Whiggish general work by David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vols., 1934; rev. ed. 1962), and the neutral, disappointing volume by G. N. Clarke, The Later Stuarts, 1660-1714 (1934; 2d ed. 1955), vol. 10 in "The Oxford History of England" series. Lord Acton, Historical Essays and Studies (1907), contains a highly romantic and not very trustworthy chapter on Charles II. Godfrey Davies, The Restoration of Charles II, 1658-1660 (1955), is a specialized study.

Additional Sources

Fraser, Antonia, Charles II: his life and times, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993.

Fraser, Antonia, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration, New York: Knopf: distributed by Random House, 1979.

Hutton, Ronald, Charles the Second, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Oxford England: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Jones, J. R. (James Rees), Charles II: royal politician, London; Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1987.

Miller, John, Charles II, London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1991.

Ollard, Richard Lawrence, The image of the king: Charles I and Charles II, New York: Atheneum, 1979.

Palmer, Tony, Charles II: portrait of an age, London: Cassell, 1979.

Wheatley, Dennis, "Old Rowley": a very private life of Charles II, London: Arrow Books, 1977.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Charles II
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(born May 29, 1630, London, Eng. — died Feb. 6, 1685, London) King of Great Britain and Ireland (1660 – 85). Son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, he supported his father in the English Civil Wars. After his father's execution, he invaded England in 1651 but was defeated at Worcester. He then spent years in exile until Oliver Cromwell died and conditions favored a return to the monarchy. His Declaration of Breda paved the way for him to be proclaimed king in May 1660 (see Restoration). He became known as "the Merry Monarch" for his lifting of Puritan restrictions on entertainment and his own love of pleasure; his best-known mistress was the actress Nell Gwyn. Important events of his reign included the controversial Treaty of Dover and two wars with the Dutch (see Anglo-Dutch Wars). By the 1670s the miscarriages of his queen, Catherine of Braganza, had reduced hopes that he would have a legitimate heir (though he left at least 14 illegitimate offspring). He almost lost control of his government when hysteria arose over the Popish Plot to replace him with his Roman Catholic brother James (the future James II). Charles kept his nerve, reestablished his political control, and eventually enjoyed a resurgence in loyalty. His political adaptability and acumen enabled him to steer his country through the struggle between Anglicans, Catholics, and dissenters that marked his reign.

For more information on Charles II, visit Britannica.com.

Archaeology Dictionary: Charles II
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[Na]

King of England from ad 1660, of the House of Stuart. Born 1630, eldest son of Charles I, he married Catherine, daughter of John IV of Portugal. He died in ad 1685 aged 54, having reigned 24 years.
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Charles II
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Charles II, 1630-85, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660-85), eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

Early Life

Prince of Wales at the time of the English civil war, Charles was sent (1645) to the W of England with his council, which included Edward Hyde (later 1st earl of Clarendon) and Thomas Wriothesley, 4th earl of Southampton. In 1646, Charles was forced to escape to France, where he stayed with his mother and was tutored by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. In 1649, Charles vainly attempted to save his father's life by presenting to Parliament a signed blank sheet of paper, thereby granting whatever terms might be requested.

Exiled King

After his father's execution (1649), Charles was proclaimed king in Scotland and in parts of Ireland and England. He accepted the terms of the Scottish Covenanters and went (1650) to Scotland, where he was crowned (1651), after agreeing to enforce Presbyterianism in England as well as Scotland. In 1651 he marched into England but was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the battle of Worcester. Charles then escaped to France, where he lived in relative poverty. The Anglo-French negotiations of 1654 forced Charles into Germany, but he moved to the Spanish Netherlands after he had concluded (1656) a treaty with Spain.

Restoration and Reign

In 1660 Gen. George Monck engineered Charles's Restoration to the throne, and the king returned to England. Charles had promised a general amnesty in his conciliatory Declaration of Breda, and he and Clarendon, who became first minister, acted immediately to secure passage of the Act of Indemnity, pardoning all except the regicides. Charles also favored religious toleration (largely because of his own leanings toward Roman Catholicism), but the strongly Anglican Cavalier Parliament, which first convened in 1661, passed the series of statutes known as the Clarendon Code, which was designed to strike at religious nonconformity. The king attempted unsuccessfully to suspend these statutes by the declaration of indulgence of 1662, which he was forced (1663) to withdraw.

Charles's government endorsed the foreign policy of the Commonwealth with its Navigation Acts, which contributed to the outbreak (1664) of the second of the Dutch Wars. While the war was being waged, London suffered the great plague of 1665 and the fire of 1666. Clarendon fell from power in 1667, the year the war ended, to be replaced by the Cabal ministry.

Charles then took England into the Triple Alliance (1668) with Holland and Sweden, but he simultaneously sought the support of Louis XIV of France, with whom he negotiated the secret Treaty of Dover (1670). By this treaty, designed to free the king from dependence on Parliament, Charles was to adopt Roman Catholicism, convert his subjects, and wage war against the Dutch, for which Louis was to advance him a large subsidy and 6,000 men. In 1672 the third Dutch War began. Many suspected it to be a cloak for the introduction of arbitrary government and Roman Catholicism. Charles was forced to rescind (1672) his second declaration of indulgence toward dissenters, to approve (1673) the Test Act, and to sign (1674) a peace with the Dutch.

Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby, became chief minister on the disintegration of the Cabal and inaugurated a foreign policy friendly to Holland. Charles, unable to secure money from an increasingly hostile Parliament, signed a series of secret agreements with Louis XIV, by which he received large French subsidies in return for a pro-French policy, although he feigned sympathy with the anti-French movement at home. His alliance with Louis, however, was broken (1677) by the marriage of his niece Mary to his nephew (and Louis's archenemy) William of Orange (later William III).

Anti-Catholic feeling in England exploded (1678) in the affair of the Popish Plot (see Oates, Titus), in which Charles did not intervene until his wife, Catherine of Braganza, was accused. However, the affair was made use of by the 1st earl of Shaftesbury, who led a movement to exclude Charles's brother, the Catholic duke of York (later James II), from succession to the throne, promoting instead the claim of Charles's illegitimate son the duke of Monmouth.

In 1681 the king dissolved Parliament to block passage of Shaftesbury's Exclusion Act, and thenceforth Charles ruled as an absolute monarch, without a Parliament. His personal popularity increased after the exclusion crisis and particularly after the unsuccessful Rye House Plot. He took steps to root out the supporters of exclusion (now known as the Whigs) from positions of power, coercing municipal governments into obedience by the threat that he would rescind the city charters.

Charles died a Roman Catholic and was succeeded by his brother James. He had no legitimate offspring but many children by his various mistresses, who included Lucy Walter, Barbara Villiers (duchess of Cleveland), Louise Kéroualle (duchess of Portsmouth), and Nell Gwyn.

Character and Influence

Charles was a ruler of considerable political skill. His reign was marked by a gradual increase in the power of Parliament, which he learned to circumvent rather than manipulate. The period also saw the rise of the great political parties, Whig and Tory; the advance of colonization and trade in India, America, and the East Indies; and the great progress of England as a sea power. The pleasure-loving character of the king set the tone of the brilliant Restoration period in art and literature.

Bibliography

See contemporaneous accounts by G. Burnet, J. Evelyn, and S. Pepys; letters ed. by A. Bryant (rev. ed. 1955) and H. Pearson (1960); G. N. Clark, The Later Stuarts (2d ed. 1956); D. Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vol., 2d ed. 1962); J. R. Jones, Charles II: Royal Politician (1987).

History 1450-1789: Charles II
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Charles II (England) (1630–1685; ruled 1660–1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Charles II was the dominant royal figure in England, Scotland, and Ireland for most of the late seventeenth century. Born on 29 May 1630, Charles succeeded to the throne on 30 January 1649. He could hardly have become king in worse circumstances, for his father, Charles I, had been beheaded by English revolutionaries who then abolished the monarchy. Young Charles had fled to the Continent three years before, and heard the news in exile in Holland. Although his reign legally dates from the moment that his father died, he was left to wander in poverty around western Europe for the first eleven years of it, as the guest successively of the Dutch, the French, the Germans, and the Spanish. In England the republicans who had killed his father continued to provide the real government of the country, most powerfully in the person of Oliver Cromwell, who ruled as Lord Protector between 1654 and 1658. Charles plotted incessantly to regain his thrones by invasion or rebellion, and came closest in 1650–1651, when the Scots crowned him as their king and he invaded England with an army of them. That army, however, was destroyed at Worcester, leaving the English republicans to conquer Scotland and Charles to escape back to continental Europe by hiding in an oak tree and in various country houses owned by royal supporters. When he was invited back to his three thrones in 1660, it was because the republican government had collapsed as a result of internal fighting among its members following the death of Cromwell (3 September 1658). Charles formally acceeded to power in his three kingdoms on his thirtieth birthday, 29 May 1660, when he entered London to the cheers of huge crowds. He remarked dryly that he could not understand, in view of all this rejoicing, why none of the people applauding had done anything to help him until that point. The cynicism and suspicion of the remark is significant: always after his return, Charles never fully trusted the British nor felt secure among them.

On returning to his realms, he found many problems left in all three by two decades of war and revolution, but also great enthusiasm for the restoration of the monarchy. He must, therefore, take some blame for the fact that within three years he had become unpopular in England and was quarreling with its Parliament. This was partly due to his financial extravagance and adulterous habits; he married a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, in 1662 and then paraded his current mistress before her and the court. It was also because he tried to increase his own power over national religion by playing off against each other the newly restored national church and the Protestant dissenters who worshipped outside it. He only succeeded in disappointing both. Charles's response to this situation was to try to regain popularity with a reckless foreign adventure, an unprovoked attack on the Dutch that he thought would win riches and military glory. The resulting war ended in defeat in 1667, however, leaving him humiliated and heavily in debt. He tried to find his way out of these problems by a still more risky adventure, a secret agreement with France to launch another attack on the Dutch state that he believed would avenge his earlier defeat and leave him rich and powerful enough to disregard his critics in Parliament. The result, by 1674, was another defeat and the complete discrediting of his government.

He then hired a brilliant politician, the earl of Danby, to repair his finances and restore his reputation, and for four years this seemed to work. Danby managed Parliament carefully and projected an image of the king as a responsible and patriotic ruler and defender of the Church of England. Charles, however, could not resist another secret deal to take money from the Catholic French as an insurance policy. When this was revealed to the public in 1678, Danby's government fell and for three years Charles repeatedly called and dissolved new Parliaments, finding himself unable to manage a working relationship with any. He steered his way out of the crisis very shrewdly, offering measured concessions to his critics, hiring new and talented ministers, and behaving responsibly. By the time of his sudden death on 6 February 1685, his government was stable and strong again at home, although he was still unable to work with a Parliament and thus could not wage war.

Two very different views of Charles appear in modern literature. One, found mostly in scholarly histories, emphasizes his weaknesses as a monarch: his dislike of paperwork and administration, his duplicity, his vindictive cruelty, his determination to keep his ministers feeling insecure and to set them against each other, and his taste for reckless gambling, in both foreign and domestic affairs. Popular biographies and works of creative literature (and cinema) emphasize his charm, accessibility, affability, wit, and love of novelty, which undoubtedly encouraged the growth of science, architecture, and theater in England. He introduced the ruling classes to yachting, croquet, and champagne, and fathered at least twelve illegitimate children by seven different mistresses. Both portraits are just, but in the last analysis a king is expected to rule, and his shortcomings as a political leader contributed significantly to the instability of the British Isles during his reign. He has enjoyed a popularity in the twentieth century that he never knew in the seventeenth.

Bibliography

Bryant, Sir Arthur. King Charles II. London, 1931. A typical admiring popular biography.

Fraser, Antonia. King Charles II. London, 1979. A more recent popular biography.

Hutton, Ronald. Charles II: King of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Oxford and New York, 1989. The first full-length scholarly study.

Miller, John. After the Civil Wars: English Politics and Government in the Reign of Charles II. London, 2000. An evaluation of the nature and impact of policy making during Charles's regime.

——. Charles II. London, 1991. Another complete study by a scholar.

Spurr, John. England in the 1670s: This Masquerading Age. Oxford, 2000. An analysis of one decade in Charles's reign, especially valuable for its analysis of popular attitudes toward the government.

—RONALD HUTTON

Quotes By: Charles II
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Quotes:

"For its merit I will knight it, and then it will be Sir-Loin."

"He had been, he said, an unconscionable time dying; but he hoped that they would excuse it."

Wikipedia: Charles II of England
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Charles II
Charles II in the robes of the Order of the Garter, c. 1675, as painted by Sir Peter Lely.
King of Scotland
Reign 30 January 1649 – 3 September 1651[1]
Coronation 1 January 1651
Predecessor Charles I
Successor The Covenanters
King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (more...)
Reign 29 May 1660[2] – 6 February 1685
Coronation 23 April 1661
Predecessor Charles I (de jure)
Council of State (de facto)
Successor James VII & II
Spouse Catherine of Braganza
Issue
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth
Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland
Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton
George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland
Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond
House House of Stuart
Father Charles I of England
Mother Henrietta Maria of France
Born 29 May 1630(1630-05-29)
St. James's Palace, London England
Died 6 February 1685 (aged 54)
Whitehall Palace, London
Burial Westminster Abbey
Signature

Charles II (29 May 1630 OS – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Charles II's father King Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time. Instead they passed a statute making such a proclamation unlawful. England entered the period known to history as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth and the country was a de facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell. The Parliament of Scotland, however, proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649 in Edinburgh. He was crowned King of Scotland at Scone on 1 January 1651. Following his defeat by Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Charles fled to mainland Europe and spent the next nine years in exile in France, the United Provinces and the Spanish Netherlands.

A political crisis following the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in Charles being invited to return and assume the throne in what became known as the Restoration. Charles II arrived on English soil on 27 May 1660 and entered London on his 30th birthday, 29 May 1660. After 1660, all legal documents were dated as if Charles had succeeded his father in 1649. Charles was crowned King of England and Ireland at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661.

Charles's English parliament enacted anti-Puritan laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England. Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he himself favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of Charles's early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, Charles entered into the secret treaty of Dover, an alliance with his first cousin King Louis XIV of France under the terms of which Louis agreed to aid Charles in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay Charles a pension, and Charles promised to convert to Roman Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oates's revelations of a supposed "Popish Plot" sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles's brother and heir (James, Duke of York) was a Roman Catholic. This crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were killed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1679, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.

Charles was popularly known as the Merrie Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no children, but Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses.

Contents

Early life

Charles II as an infant
Charles II when Prince of Wales by William Dobson, circa 1642 or 1643.

Charles Stuart, the eldest surviving son of King Charles I of England and Scotland and Henrietta Maria of France, was born in St. James's Palace on 29 May 1630 (8 June 1630 NS). He was baptised in the Chapel Royal on 27 June by the Anglican Bishop of London William Laud and brought up in the care of the Protestant Countess of Dorset, though his godparents included his mother's Catholic relations, King Louis XIII and the Dowager Queen of France.[3] At birth, he automatically became (as the eldest surviving son of the Sovereign) Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay (along with several other associated titles); at or around his eighth birthday he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested with the Honours of the Principality of Wales.[4]

During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought parliamentary and Puritan forces in the English Civil War. Charles accompanied his father during the Battle of Edgehill and, at the age of fourteen, participated in the campaigns of 1645, when he was made titular commander of the English forces in the West Country.[5] By Spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety, going first to the Isles of Scilly, then to Jersey, and finally to France, where his mother was already living in exile and his first cousin, eight-year-old Louis XIV of France, sat on the throne.[6]

In 1648, during the Second English Civil War, Charles moved to The Hague, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange seemed more likely to provide substantial aid to the Royalist cause than the Queen's French relations.[7] However, the royalist fleet that came under Charles's control was not used to any advantage, and did not reach Scotland in time to join up with the royalist Engagers army of the Duke of Hamilton, before it was defeated at the Battle of Preston.[8]

At The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married.[9] Their son, James Crofts (afterwards Duke of Monmouth and Duke of Buccleuch), was to become the most prominent of Charles's many illegitimate sons in British political life.

Charles I was captured in 1647. He escaped and was recaptured in 1648. Despite his son's diplomatic efforts to save him, Charles I was beheaded in 1649, and England became a republic. Immediately following the execution of Charles I however, the Parliament of Scotland declared Charles II King of Scotland in succession to his father on 5 February 1649 provided he accept certain conditions. To succeed, Charles was reluctantly induced to make promises that he would abide by the terms of a treaty agreed between him and the Scots Parliament at Breda, and support the Solemn League and Covenant, which authorized Presbyterian church governance across Britain. Upon his arrival in Scotland on 23 June 1650, Charles formally agreed to the Covenant; his abandonment of Episcopal church governance, although winning him support in Scotland, left him unpopular in England. Charles himself soon came to despise the "villainy" and "hypocrisy" of the Covenanters.[10]

On 3 September 1650, the Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Dunbar by a much smaller force led by Oliver Cromwell. The Scots forces were divided into royalist Engagers and Presbyterian Covenanters, who even fought each other. Disillusioned by the Covenanters, in October Charles attempted to escape from them and rode north to join with an Engager force, an event which became known as "the Start", but within two days the Presbyterians had caught up with and recovered him.[11] Nevertheless, the Scots remained Charles's best hope of restoration, and he was crowned King of Scotland at Scone on 1 January 1651. With Cromwell's forces threatening Charles's position in Scotland, it was decided to mount an attack on England. With many of the Scots (including Argyll and other leading Covenanters) refusing to participate, and with few English royalists joining the force as it moved south into England, the invasion ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, following which Charles hid in the Royal Oak at Boscobel House. Through six weeks of narrow escapes Charles managed to flee England in disguise, landing in Normandy on 16 October, despite a reward of £1,000 on his head, risk of death for anyone caught helping him and the difficulty in disguising Charles, who was unusually tall at over 6 feet (185 cm) high.[12][13]

Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, essentially placing them under military rule. Impoverished, Charles could not obtain sufficient support to mount a serious challenge to Cromwell's government. Despite the Stuart family connections through Henrietta Maria and the Princess of Orange, France and the United Provinces allied themselves with Cromwell's government from 1654, forcing Charles to turn for aid to Spain, which at that time ruled the Southern Netherlands. He attempted to raise an army, but failed for lack of finance.[14]

Restoration

Main article: English Restoration
Scottish and English Royalty
House of Stuart
England Arms 1603.svg
Charles II
Illegitimate sons included
   James Scott, Duke of Monmouth
   Charles FitzRoy, Duke of Cleveland and Southampton
   Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton
   George FitzRoy, Duke of Northumberland
   Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans
   Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond and Lennox

After the death of Cromwell in 1658, Charles's chances of regaining the Crown at first seemed slim as Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard. However, the new Lord Protector, with no power base in either Parliament or the New Model Army, was forced to abdicate in 1659 and the Protectorate was abolished. During the civil and military unrest which followed, George Monck, the Governor of Scotland, was concerned that the nation would descend into anarchy.[15] Monck and his army marched into the City of London and forced the Rump Parliament to re-admit members of the Long Parliament excluded in December 1648 during Pride's Purge. The Long Parliament dissolved itself and for the first time in almost 20 years, there was a general election.[16] The outgoing Parliament designed the electoral qualifications so as to ensure, as they thought, the return of a Presbyterian majority.[17]

The restrictions against royalist candidates and voters were widely ignored, and the elections resulted in a House of Commons which was fairly evenly divided on political grounds between Royalists and Parliamentarians and on religious grounds between Anglicans and Presbyterians.[17] The new so-called Convention Parliament assembled on 25 April 1660, and soon afterwards received news of the Declaration of Breda, in which Charles agreed, amongst other things, to pardon many of his father's enemies. The English Parliament resolved to proclaim Charles king and invite him to return, which message reached Charles at Breda on 8 May 1660.[18] In Ireland, a convention had been called earlier in the year, and on 14 May it declared for Charles as King.[19]

Charles set out for England, arriving in Dover on 25 May 1660 and reaching London on 29 May (which is considered the date of the Restoration, and was Charles's 30th birthday). Although Charles and Parliament granted amnesty to Cromwell's supporters in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, this made specific provision for 50 people to be excluded.[20] In the end nine of the regicides were executed:[21] they were hanged, drawn and quartered; others were given life imprisonment or simply excluded from office for life. The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw were subjected to the indignity of posthumous decapitations.[22]

Charles agreed to give up feudal dues which had been revived by his father; in return, the English Parliament granted him an annual income of £1,200,000 generated largely from customs and excise dues with which to run the government. The grant, however, proved to be insufficient for most of Charles's reign. The aforesaid sum was only an indication of the maximum the King was allowed to withdraw from the Treasury each year; for the most part, the actual revenue was much lower, which led to mounting debts, and further attempts to raise money through poll taxes, land taxes and hearth taxes.

In the latter half of 1660, Charles's joy at the Restoration was tempered by the deaths of his youngest brother, Henry, and sister, Mary, of smallpox. At around the same time, Anne Hyde, the daughter of the Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde, revealed that she was pregnant by Charles's brother, James, whom she had secretly married. Edward Hyde, who had not known of either the marriage or the pregnancy, was created Earl of Clarendon and his position as Charles's favourite minister was strengthened.[23]

Coronation

Charles in his Coronation robes.

The Convention Parliament was dissolved in December 1660 and Charles's coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. Charles was the last sovereign to make the traditional procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey the day before the coronation.[24] Shortly after the coronation, the second English Parliament of the reign assembled. Dubbed the Cavalier Parliament, it was overwhelmingly Royalist and Anglican. It sought to discourage non-conformity to the Church of England, and passed several acts to secure Anglican dominance. The Corporation Act 1661 required municipal officeholders to swear allegiance;[25] the Act of Uniformity 1662 made the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer compulsory; the Conventicle Act 1664 prohibited religious assemblies of more than five people, except under the auspices of the Church of England; and the Five Mile Act 1665 prohibited clergymen from coming within five miles (8 km) of a parish from which they had been banished. The Conventicle and Five Mile Acts remained in effect for the remainder of Charles's reign. The Acts became known as the "Clarendon Code", after Lord Clarendon, even though he was not directly responsible for them and even spoke against the Five Mile Act.[26]

Social change

The English Restoration represented much change socially after the Interregnum. Puritanism lost its momentum. Restoration literature celebrated or reacted to the "Restoration Court." Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell. Bawdy "Restoration Comedy" became a recognizable genre. In addition, women were allowed to perform on stage for the first time. Libertines like John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, joined the restored court. Of Charles II, Wilmot wrote:

God bless our good and gracious king,
Whose promise none relies on;
Who never said a foolish thing,
Nor ever did a wise one.

To which Charles is reputed to have replied:

"That is true; for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers."[27]

Great Plague and Fire

In 1665, Charles was faced with a great health crisis: the Great Plague of London. The death toll at one point reached a peak of 7000 in the week of 17 September.[28] Charles, his family and court fled London in July to Salisbury; Parliament met in Oxford.[29] Various attempts at containing the disease by London public health officials all fell in vain and the disease continued to spread rapidly.[30]

Adding to London's woes, but marking the end of the plague, was what later became famously known as the Great Fire of London, which started on 2 September 1666. The fire consumed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral.[31] Charles, and his brother James, joined and directed the fire-fighting effort. The public blamed Roman Catholic conspirators for the fire,[32] though it had actually started in a bakehouse in Pudding Lane.[31]

Foreign and colonial policy

Since 1640, Portugal had been fighting a war against Spain to restore its independence after a dynastic union of 60 years between the crowns of Spain and Portugal. Portugal had been helped by France, but in the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 Portugal was abandoned by its French ally. Upon Charles's restoration, Queen Luísa of Portugal, acting as regent, opened negotiations with England that resulted in an alliance. On 23 June 1661, a marriage treaty was signed, and in May 1662, Charles married Catherine of Braganza in the parish of St Thomas à Becket, Portsmouth.[4] Catherine's dowry brought the territories of Tangier and Bombay to British control. The latter had a major lasting influence on the development of the British Empire in India. During the same year, in an unpopular move, he sold Dunkirk, which (although a valuable strategic outpost) was a drain on Charles's limited finances,[33] to his first cousin King Louis XIV of France for about £375,000.[34].

Appreciative of the assistance given to him in gaining the throne, Charles awarded North American lands then known as Carolina—named after his father—to eight nobles (known as Lords Proprietors) in 1663.

A medal struck in 1667 by John Roettier to commemorate the Second Dutch War, showing Charles II's full titles around the edge

Whereas the Navigation Acts of 1650, which hurt Dutch trade by giving English vessels a monopoly, started the First Dutch War (1652–1654), the Second Dutch War (1665–1667) was started by English attempts to muscle in on Dutch possessions in Africa and North America. The conflict began well for the English, with the capture of New Amsterdam (renamed New York in honour of Charles's brother James, Duke of York) and a victory at the Battle of Lowestoft, but in 1667 the Dutch launched a surprise attack upon the English (the Raid on the Medway) when they sailed up the River Thames to where a major part of the English fleet was docked. Almost all of the ships were sunk except for the flagship, the HMS Royal Charles, which was taken back to the Netherlands as a trophy.[35] The Second Dutch War ended with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667).

As a result of the Second Dutch War, Charles dismissed Lord Clarendon, whom he used as a scapegoat for the war.[36] Clarendon fled to France when impeached for high treason (which carried the penalty of death). Power passed to five politicians known collectively by a whimsical acronym as the Cabal—Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury) and Lauderdale. In fact, the Cabal rarely acted in consort, and the court was often divided between two factions led by Arlington and Buckingham, with Arlington the more successful.[37]

In 1668, England allied itself with Sweden, and with its former enemy the Netherlands, in order to oppose Louis XIV in the War of Devolution. Louis made peace with the Triple Alliance, but he continued to maintain his aggressive intentions towards the Netherlands. In 1670, Charles, seeking to solve his financial troubles, agreed to the Treaty of Dover, under which Louis XIV would pay him £160,000 each year. In exchange, Charles agreed to supply Louis with troops and to announce his conversion to Roman Catholicism "as soon as the welfare of his kingdom will permit".[38] Louis was to provide him with 6,000 troops to suppress those who opposed the conversion. Charles endeavoured to ensure that the Treaty—especially the conversion clause—remained secret.[39] It remains unclear if Charles ever seriously intended to convert.[19]

Meanwhile, by a series of five charters, Charles granted the British East India Company the rights to autonomous territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops, to form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas in India.[40] Earlier in 1668 he leased the islands of Bombay for a nominal sum of £10 paid in gold.[41] The Portuguese territories that Catherine brought with her as dowry had proved too expensive to maintain; Tangier was abandoned.[42]

In 1670, Charles also granted a royal charter to establish the Hudson's Bay Company. The company eventually became the oldest corporation in Canada. It started out in the lucrative fur trade with the native peoples, but eventually governed and colonized about 7,770,000 square kilometres (3,000,000 square miles) of North America.[43]

Conflict with Parliament

Although previously favourable to the Crown, the Cavalier Parliament was alienated by the king's wars and religious policies during the 1670s. In 1672, Charles issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence, in which he purported to suspend all penal laws against Roman Catholics and other religious dissenters. In the same year, he openly supported Catholic France and started the Third Anglo-Dutch War.[44]

The Cavalier Parliament opposed the Declaration of Indulgence on constitutional grounds (claiming that the King had no right to arbitrarily suspend laws) rather than on political ones. Charles withdrew the Declaration, and also agreed to the Test Act, which not only required public officials to receive the sacrament under the forms prescribed by the Church of England,[45] but also later forced them to denounce certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as "superstitious and idolatrous".[46] Clifford, who had converted to Catholicism, resigned rather than take the oath, and died shortly after. By 1674 England had gained nothing from the Anglo-Dutch War, and the Cavalier Parliament refused to provide further funds, forcing Charles to make peace. The power of the Cabal waned and that of Clifford's replacement, Lord Danby, grew.

Charles presented with the first pineapple grown in England (1675 painting by Hendrik Danckerts).

Charles's wife Queen Catherine was unable to produce an heir; her four pregnancies had ended in miscarriages and stillbirths in 1662, February 1666, May 1668 and June 1669.[4] Charles's heir-presumptive was therefore his unpopular Roman Catholic brother, James, Duke of York. Partly in order to assuage public fears that the royal family was too Catholic, Charles agreed that James's daughter, Mary, should marry the Protestant William of Orange.[47] In 1678, Titus Oates, who had been alternately both Anglican and a former Jesuit priest, falsely warned of a "Popish Plot" to assassinate the king, even accusing the Queen of complicity. Charles did not believe the allegations, but ordered his chief minister Lord Danby to investigate. While Lord Danby seems to have been sceptical about Oates's claims, the Cavalier Parliament took them seriously.[48] The people were seized with an anti-Catholic hysteria;[49] judges and juries across the land condemned the supposed conspirators; numerous innocent individuals were executed.[50]

Later in 1678, Lord Danby was impeached by the House of Commons on the charge of high treason. Although much of the nation had sought war with Catholic France, Charles had secretly negotiated with Louis XIV, trying to reach an agreement under which England would remain neutral in return for money. Lord Danby had publicly professed that he was hostile to France, but had reservedly agreed to abide by Charles's wishes. Unfortunately for him, the House of Commons failed to view him as a reluctant participant in the scandal, instead believing that he was the author of the policy. To save Lord Danby from the impeachment trial, Charles dissolved the Cavalier Parliament in January 1679.[51]

The new English Parliament, which met in March of the same year, was quite hostile to Charles. Having lost the support of Parliament, Lord Danby resigned his post of Lord High Treasurer, but received a pardon from the king. In defiance of the royal will, the House of Commons declared that the dissolution of Parliament did not interrupt impeachment proceedings, and that the pardon was therefore invalid. When the House of Lords attempted to impose the punishment of exile—which the Commons thought too mild—the impeachment became stalled between the two Houses. As he had been required to do so many times during his reign, Charles bowed to the wishes of his opponents, committing Lord Danby to the Tower of London. Lord Danby would be held there for another five years.[52]

Later years

Another political storm which faced Charles was that of succession to the Throne. The prospect of a Catholic monarch was vehemently opposed by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (previously Baron Ashley and a member of the Cabal, which had fallen apart in 1673), and his power base was strengthened when the House of Commons of 1679 introduced the Exclusion Bill, which sought to exclude the Duke of York from the line of succession. Some even sought to confer the Crown to the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, the eldest of Charles's illegitimate children. The Abhorrers—those who thought the Exclusion Bill was abhorrent—were named Tories (after a term for dispossessed Irish Catholic bandits), while the Petitioners—those who supported a petitioning campaign in favour of the Exclusion Bill—became called Whigs (after a term for rebellious Scottish Presbyterians).[53]

Half-Crown of Charles II, 1683. The inscription reads CAROLUS II DEI GRATIA (Charles II by the Grace of God).

Fearing that the Exclusion Bill would be passed, and bolstered by some acquittals in the continuing Plot trials, which seemed to him to indicate a more favourable public mood towards Catholicism, Charles dissolved the English Parliament, for a second time that year, in the summer of 1679. Charles's hopes for a more moderate Parliament were not fulfilled, within a few months he had dissolved Parliament yet again, after it sought to pass the Exclusion Bill. When a new Parliament assembled at Oxford in March 1681, Charles dissolved it for a fourth time after just a few days.[54] During the 1680s, however, popular support for the Exclusion Bill ebbed, and Charles experienced a nationwide surge of loyalty, for many of his subjects felt that Parliament had been too assertive. Lord Shaftesbury was charged with treason and fled to Holland, where he died. For the remainder of his reign, Charles ruled as an absolute monarch.[55]

Charles's opposition to the Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants. Protestant conspirators formulated the Rye House Plot, a plan to murder the King and the Duke of York as they returned to London after horse races in Newmarket. A great fire, however, destroyed Charles's lodgings at Newmarket, which forced him to leave the races early thus, inadvertently, avoiding the planned attack. News of the failed plot was leaked.[56] Protestant politicians such as Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, Algernon Sydney, Lord William Russell and the Duke of Monmouth were implicated in the plot. Lord Essex slit his own throat while imprisoned in the Tower of London; Sydney and Russell were executed for high treason on very flimsy evidence; and the Duke of Monmouth went into exile at the court of William of Orange. Lord Danby and the surviving Catholic lords held in the Tower were released and the King's Catholic brother, James, acquired greater influence at court.[57] Titus Oates was convicted and imprisoned for defamation.[58]

Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of 2 February 1685, and died at 11:45 a.m. four days later at Whitehall Palace (at the age of 54). The symptoms of his final illness are similar to those of uraemia (a clinical syndrome due to kidney dysfunction).[59] On his deathbed Charles asked his brother, James, to look after his mistresses: "be well to Portsmouth, and let not poor Nelly starve",[60] and told his courtiers: "I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying."[61] On the last evening of his life he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, though the extent to which he was fully conscious or committed, and with whom the idea originated, is unclear.[62] He was buried in Westminster Abbey "without any manner of pomp"[61] on 14 February[63] and was succeeded by his brother who became James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland.

Posterity and legacy

A monument to Charles II at Lichfield Cathedral

Charles left no legitimate heir. He did, however, have a dozen children by seven mistresses;[64] five of those children were borne by a single woman, the notorious Barbara Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, for whom the Dukedom of Cleveland was created. His other mistresses included Catherine Pegge, Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, Lucy Walter, Elizabeth Killigrew and Nell Gwyn. Many of his children received dukedoms or earldoms; the present Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Duke of Richmond and Gordon, Duke of Grafton and Duke of St Albans all descend from Charles in direct male line.[65] The public resented paying taxes that were spent on maintaining Charles's mistresses and illegitimate children;[66] John Wilmot wrote of Charles:

Restless he rolls from whore to whore
A merry monarch, scandalous and poor.[67]

Diana, Princess of Wales was descended from two of Charles's illegitimate sons, the Duke of Grafton and the Duke of Richmond. Diana's son, Prince William of Wales, second in line to the British Throne, is likely to be the first monarch descended from Charles II.

Charles II by Grinling Gibbons (1676), Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Charles's eldest son, the Duke of Monmouth, led a rebellion against James II, but was defeated at the battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, captured, and executed. James II, however, was eventually dethroned in 1688 in the course of the Glorious Revolution. James was the last Catholic monarch to rule Britain.

Looking back on Charles's reign, Tories tended to view it as a time of benevolent monarchy whereas Whigs perceived it as a terrible despotism. Today it is possible to assess Charles without the taint of partisanship, and he is seen as more of a lovable rogue—in the words of John Evelyn: "a prince of many virtues and many great imperfections, debonair, easy of access, not bloody or cruel".[68]—and is depicted extensively in literature and other media.

Charles, a patron of the arts and sciences, helped found the Royal Society, a scientific group whose early members included Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and Sir Isaac Newton, and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Charles was the personal patron of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who helped rebuild London after the Great Fire in 1666. Wren also constructed the Royal Hospital Chelsea, which Charles founded as a home for retired soldiers in 1682. Theatre licenses granted by Charles were the first in England to permit women to play female roles on stage (they were previously played by boys).[69]

The anniversary of Charles's Restoration (which was also his birthday)—29 May—was recognized in England until the mid-nineteenth century as Oak Apple Day, after the Royal Oak in which Charles hid during his escape from the forces of Oliver Cromwell. Traditional celebrations involved the wearing of oak leaves but these have now died out.[70] The anniversary of the Restoration is also an official Collar Day.

London's Soho Square, built in the late 1670s was originally called King Square in honour of Charles II, and a statue of him, erected in 1681, still stands in the square.[71] A statue of Charles II in ancient Roman dress by Grinling Gibbons (1676), has stood since 1692 in the Figure Court of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. He is also commemorated by a statue near the south portal of Lichfield Cathedral to honour his restoration of that cathedral following the English Civil War.(See pictures)

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Royal styles of
Charles II of England

England COA.svg
Reference style His Majesty
Spoken style Your Majesty
Alternative style Sire
Royal styles of
Charles II of Scotland

Royal coat of arms of Scotland.svg
Reference style His Grace
Spoken style Your Grace
Alternative style Sire

Titles and styles

  • 29 May 1630 – May 1638: The Duke of Cornwall
  • May 1638 – 30 January 1649: The Prince of Wales
  • 30 January 1649 – 6 February 1685: His Majesty The King
    • in Scotland: His Grace The King

Charles's full titles as Prince of Wales were Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

The official style of Charles II was Charles the Second, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.[72] (The claim to France was only nominal, and had been asserted by every English King since Edward III, regardless of the amount of French territory actually controlled.)

Honours

Arms

As Prince of Wales, Charles's arms were those of the kingdom (which he later inherited), differenced by a label argent of three points[73]. His arms as monarch were: Quarterly, I and IV Grandquarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland).

Ancestry

Children

Main article: Descendants of Charles II of England

By Marguerite or Margaret de Carteret

  1. Letters claiming that she bore Charles a son named James de la Cloche in 1646 are dismissed by historians as forgeries.[74]

By Lucy Walter (c.1630–1658)

  1. James Crofts, later Scott (1649–1685), created Duke of Monmouth (1663) in England and Duke of Buccleuch (1663) in Scotland. Ancestor of Sarah, Duchess of York. Lucy Walter had a daughter, Mary Crofts, born after James, but Charles II was not the father.[4]

By Elizabeth Killigrew (1622–1680), daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew, married Francis Boyle, 1st Viscount Shannon in 1660

  1. Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria FitzRoy (1650–1684), married William Paston, 2nd Earl of Yarmouth

By Catherine Pegge

  1. Charles FitzCharles (1657–1680), known as "Don Carlo", created Earl of Plymouth (1675)
  2. Catherine FitzCharles (born 1658; she either died young or became a nun at Dunkirk)[75]

By Barbara Villiers Palmer (1641–1709), wife of Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine created Duchess of Cleveland in her own right

  1. Anne Palmer (Fitzroy) (1661–1722), Countess of Sussex, married Thomas Lennard, 1st Earl of Sussex. She may have been the daughter of Roger Palmer, but Charles accepted her.[76]
  2. Charles Fitzroy (1662–1730) created Duke of Southampton (1675), became 2nd Duke of Cleveland (1709)
  3. Henry Fitzroy (1663–1690), created Earl of Euston (1672), Duke of Grafton (1675), also 7-greats-grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales
  4. Charlotte Fitzroy (1664–1717). She married Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield.
  5. George Fitzroy (1665–1716), created Earl of Northumberland (1674), Duke of Northumberland (1678)
  6. Barbara (Benedicta) Fitzroy (1672–1737) – She was probably the child of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, who was another of Cleveland's many lovers,[77] and was never acknowledged by Charles as his own daughter.[78]

By Nell Gwyn (1650–1687)

  1. Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726), created Duke of St Albans (1684)
  2. James, Lord Beauclerk (1671–1680)

By Louise Renée de Penancoet de Kérouaille (1649–1734), created Duchess of Portsmouth in her own right (1673)

  1. Charles Lennox (1672–1723), created Duke of Richmond (1675) in England and Duke of Lennox (1675) in Scotland. Ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall, and Sarah, Duchess of York.

By Mary 'Moll' Davis, courtesan and actress of repute[79]

  1. Lady Mary Tudor (1673–1726), married Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater; after Edward's death, she married Henry Graham, and upon his death she married James Rooke.

Other probable mistresses:

  1. Christabella Wyndham[80]
  2. Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin[81]
  3. Winifred Wells – one of the Queen's Maids of Honour[82]
  4. Jane Roberts – the daughter of a clergyman[82]
  5. Elizabeth Berkeley, née Bagot, Dowager Countess of Falmouth – the widow of Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth[82][83]
  6. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Countess of Kildare[82]

Footnotes

  1. ^ From the death of his father to his defeat at the Battle of Worcester
  2. ^ The traditional date of the Restoration marking the first assembly of King and Parliament together since the abolition of the monarchy in 1649. The English Parliament recognised Charles as King of England by unanimous vote on the 2 May 1660, although royalists had recognised him as such since the death of his father on 30 January 1649. During Charles's reign all legal documents were dated as if his reign had begun from his father's execution in 1649.
  3. ^ Fraser, p.13 and Hutton, pp.1–4
  4. ^ a b c d Weir, Alison (1996). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Revised edition. Random House. pp. 255–257. ISBN 0712674489. 
  5. ^ Fraser, p.32 and Hutton, pp.6–7
  6. ^ Fraser, pp.38–45 and Miller, Charles II p.6
  7. ^ Fraser, pp.55–56
  8. ^ Fraser, pp.57–60
  9. ^ Fraser, pp.65–66, 155, Hutton, p.26, and Miller, Charles II p.5
  10. ^ Fraser, p.97 and Hutton, p.53
  11. ^ Fraser, pp.96–97 and Hutton, pp.56–57
  12. ^ Fraser, pp.98–128 and Hutton, pp.53–69
  13. ^ One thousand pounds was a vast sum at the time, greater than an average workman's lifetime earnings (Fraser, p.117)
  14. ^ Hutton, pp.74–112
  15. ^ Fraser, pp.160–165
  16. ^ The diary of Samuel Pepys, 16 March 1660
  17. ^ a b Miller, Charles II pp.24–25
  18. ^ Hutton, p.131
  19. ^ a b Seaward, Paul (September 2004; online edn, May 2006), "Charles II (1630–1685)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press), doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5144, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5144, retrieved 2007-09-07 
  20. ^ Fraser, p.190
  21. ^ "Charles II (r. 1660–1685)". The official web site of the British Monarchy. http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheStuarts/CharlesII.aspx. Retrieved 2007-09-07. 
  22. ^ Fraser, p.185
  23. ^ Fraser, pp.210–202, Hutton, pp.155–156 and Miller, Charles II pp.43–44
  24. ^ Keay, A. (2002). The Crown Jewels. The Historic Royal Palaces. ISBN 1 873993 20 X. 
  25. ^ Hutton, p.169
  26. ^ Hutton, p.229
  27. ^ A thorough discourse concerning this epigram and the king's response can be found from the 19th to 21st paragraph of the Forward of the "The Tryal of William Penn and William Mead" [1]
  28. ^ Fraser, p.238
  29. ^ Miller, Charles II p.120
  30. ^ Defoe, Daniel (1894). History of the Plague in England. New York: American Book Company. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17221. 
  31. ^ a b Porter, Stephen (January 2007), "The great fire of London", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press), http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95647.html, retrieved 2007-10-12 
  32. ^ Fraser, pp.243–247 and Miller, Charles II pp.121–122
  33. ^ It cost the Treasury £321,000 per year (Hutton, p.184)
  34. ^ Miller, Charles II pp.93, 99
  35. ^ The ship's transom remains on display, now at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
  36. ^ Hutton, pp.250–251
  37. ^ Hutton, p.254 and Miller, Charles II p.175–176
  38. ^ Fraser, p.275
  39. ^ Fraser, p.275–276 and Miller, Charles II p.180
  40. ^ "East India Company" (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, Volume 8, p.835
  41. ^ "Bombay: History of a City". The British Library Board. http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/trading/bombay/history.html. Retrieved 2007-05-18. 
  42. ^ Hutton, p.426
  43. ^ "Our History". Hudson's Bay Company. http://www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/. Retrieved 2007-10-12. 
  44. ^ Fraser, pp.305–308 and Hutton, pp.284–285
  45. ^ Raithby, John (ed.) (1819), "Charles II, 1672: An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants", Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80: 782–785, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47451, retrieved 2007-10-08 
  46. ^ Raithby, John (ed.) (1819), "Charles II, 1678: (Stat. 2.) An Act for the more effectuall preserving the Kings Person and Government by disableing Papists from sitting in either House of Parlyament", Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80: 894–896, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=47482, retrieved 2007-10-08 
  47. ^ Fraser, pp.347–348 and Hutton, pp.345–346
  48. ^ Hutton, pp.359–362
  49. ^ Fraser, p.360
  50. ^ Fraser, p.375
  51. ^ Miller, Charles II pp.278, 301–304
  52. ^ Hutton, pp.367–374 and Miller, Charles II pp.306–309
  53. ^ Hutton, pp. 373, 377, 391 and Miller, Charles II pp.310–320
  54. ^ Hutton, pp.376–401 and Miller Charles II pp.314–345
  55. ^ Hutton, pp.430–441
  56. ^ Fraser, p.426
  57. ^ Hutton, pp.420–423 and Miller Charles II pp.366–368
  58. ^ Fraser, p.437
  59. ^ Fraser, p.450 and Hutton, p.443
  60. ^ Fraser, p.456
  61. ^ a b Bryant, Mark (2001). Private Lives. London: Cassell. ISBN 0304357588 p.73
  62. ^ Hutton, pp.443 and 456
  63. ^ Fraser, p.459
  64. ^ Fraser, p.411
  65. ^ Fraser, p.413
  66. ^ Hutton, p.338
  67. ^ Miller, Charles II p.95
  68. ^ Miller, Charles II pp.382–383
  69. ^ Hutton, p.185
  70. ^ Fraser, p.118
  71. ^ "Soho Square Area: Portland Estate: Soho Square Garden" in Survey of London vol. 33 and 34 (1966) St Anne Soho, pp. 51-53. Date accessed: 12 January 2008.
  72. '^ Guinness Book of Answers (1991), p. 708; Ashley, Mike (1998) The Mammoth Book of Kings and Queens, p. 654
  73. ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family
  74. ^ Fraser, pp.43–44 and Hutton, p.25
  75. ^ Hutton, p.125
  76. ^ Cokayne, George E.; Revised and enlarged by Gibbs, Vicary; Edited by Doubleday, H. A., Warrand, D., and de Walden, Lord Howard (1926). "Appendix F. Bastards of Charles II". The Complete Peerage. London: The St. Catherine Press, Ltd. Volume VI, pp.706–708. 
  77. ^ Miller, Charles II pp.97, 123
  78. ^ Fraser, pp.65 and 286
  79. ^ Fraser, p.287
  80. ^ Fraser, p.37 and Miller, Charles II p.5
  81. ^ Fraser, pp.341–342, Hutton, p.336 and Miller, Charles II p.228
  82. ^ a b c d Fraser, p.285 and Hutton, p.262
  83. ^ Melville, Lewis (2005). The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II. Loving Healing Press. ISBN 1932690131. http://books.google.com/books?id=FCxRqOrMVQUC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=charles+ii+bagot&source=web&ots=i_bOsL1O1k&sig=4KVdOCPbG-VBo5SMLDUXyaDlBdA#PPA96,M1. Retrieved 2007-12-18. 

References

Further reading

Search Wikisource Wikisource has original works written by or about: Charles II of England
  • Abbott, Jacob (1849). History of King Charles the Second of England. Available at Project Gutenberg, Retrieved on 2007-05-18
  • Hamilton, Anthony, Memoirs of the court of Charles II, P.F. Collier & Son, 1910. Memoirs of Philibert, comte de Gramont
  • Harris, Tim (2005). Restoration: Charles II and his kingdoms, 1660–1685. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0713991917. 
  • Jones, J. R. (1987). Charles II: Royal Politician. London. 
  • Keay, Anna (2008). The Magnificent Monarch: Charles II and the Ceremonies of Power. London: Hambledon Continuum. ISBN 9781847252258. 
  • Kenyon, J. P. (1957), "Review Article: The Reign of Charles II", Cambridge Historical Journal XIII: 82–86 
  • Miller, John (1985). Restoration England: the reign of Charles II. London: Longman. ISBN 0582353963. 

External links

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Charles II of England
Born: 29 May 1630 Died: 6 February 1685
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles I
Succession interrupted
by the English Interregnum		 King of England
1660 – 1685		 Succeeded by
James VII & II
King of Scotland
1649 – 1651
1660 – 1685
King of Ireland
1660 – 1685
British royalty
Preceded by
Elizabeth Stuart		 Heir to the English, Scottish and Irish Thrones
as heir apparent
29 May 1630 – 30 January 1649		 Succeeded by
James II of England
Preceded by
Charles		 Prince of Wales Vacant
Title next held by
James Francis Edward Stuart
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Charles		 Duke of Cornwall
1630 - 1649		 Vacant
Title next held by
James Francis Edward Stuart
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by
Charles		 Duke of Rothesay
1630 - 1649		 Vacant
Title next held by
James Francis Edward Stuart
Political offices
Preceded by
The Duke of York
later became King James II		 Lord High Admiral
1673		 Succeeded by
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Preceded by
The Earl of Nottingham
as First Lord of the Admiralty		 Lord High Admiral
1684 – 1685		 Succeeded by
King James II
Titles in pretence
Loss of title
 — TITULAR —
King of England
1649 – 1660		 Reclaimed throne
v • d • e
Tudor rose.svg  English monarchs  UK Royal Coat of Arms.svg
Kingdom of the
English
886–1066
Kingdom of
England
1066–1649
Commonwealth of
England, Scotland and Ireland
1653–1659
Kingdom of
England
1660–1707
Flag of England.svg

Charles II3  · James II3  · William III and Mary II3  · Anne3
1Overlord of Britain. 2Also ruler of Ireland. 3Also ruler of Scotland. 4Lord Protector.
Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics.
v • d • e
Pictish and Scottish Monarchs
Monarchs of the Picts
(traditional)
Monarchs of the Scots
(traditional)
Royal coat of arms of Scotland.svg
Kenneth I MacAlpin · Donald I · Constantine I (II) · Áed · Giric · Eochaid (doubtful) · Donald II · Constantine II (III) · Malcolm I · Indulf · Dub · Cuilén · Amlaíb · Kenneth II · Constantine III (IV) · Kenneth III · Malcolm II · Duncan I · Macbeth · Lulach · Malcolm III Canmore · Donald III · Duncan II · Donald III · Edgar · Alexander I · David I · Malcolm IV · William I · Alexander II · Alexander III · Margaret (disputed)  · First Interregnum · John · Second Interregnum · Robert I · David II · Robert II · Robert III · James I · James II · James III · James IV · James V · Mary I · James VI* · Charles I* · Charles II · The Covenanters · The Protectorate · Charles II* · James VII* · Mary II* · William II* · Anne*
* also monarch of England and Ireland.
v • d • e
Dukes of Cornwall

HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall (1952–present)
Edward, the Black Prince (1337–1376) · Richard II (1376–1377) · Henry V (1399–1413) · Henry VI (1421–1422) · Edward of Westminster (1453–1471) · Edward V (1470–1483) · Edward of Middleham (1483–1484) · Arthur Tudor (1486–1502) · Henry VIII (1502–1509) · Henry Tudor (1511) · Henry Tudor (1514) · Edward VI (1537–1547) · Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1603–1612) · Charles I (1612–1625) · Charles II (1630–1649) · Prince James Stuart "The Old Pretender" (1688–1689) · George II (1714–1727) · Prince Frederick (1727–1751) · George IV (1762–1820) · Edward VII (1841–1901) · George V (1901–1910) · Edward VIII (1910–1936)
Flag of the Duke of Cornwall.svg
v • d • e
Dukes of Rothesay

HRH The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay (1952–present)
 David (1398–1402) · James I (1402–1406) · Alexander (1430) · James II (1430–1437) · James III (1452–1460) · James IV (1473–1488) · James (1507–1508)  · Arthur (1509–1510) · James V (1512–1513) · James (1540–1541) · James VI (1566–1567)  · Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1603–1612) · Charles I (1612–1625) · Charles James (1629) · Charles II (1630–1649) · Prince James (1688–1689) · George II (1714–1727) · Prince Frederick (1727–1751)  · George IV (1762–1820) · Edward VII (1841–1901) · George V (1901–1910) · Edward VIII (1910–1936)


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