Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the de jure King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. Charles II's father, Charles I, had been executed in 1649 following the English Civil War; the monarchy was then abolished and replaced with a military dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell. In 1660, shortly after Cromwell's death, the monarchy was restored under Charles II.
King of England, Scotland and Ireland
Unlike his father, Charles II was skilled at managing Parliament. It was during his reign that the Whig and Tory political parties developed. He famously fathered numerous illegitimate children, of whom he acknowledged fourteen. Known as the "Merry Monarch," Charles was a patron of the arts and less restrictive than many of his predecessors. By converting to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed, Charles II became the first Roman Catholic to reign over England since Mary I's death in 1558.
Early life
Charles, the eldest son of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria, was born in St James's Palace on 29 May 1630. At birth, he automatically became (as the eldest son of the Sovereign) Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay; shortly after his birth, he was created Prince of Wales. Due to the disruption caused by the English Civil War, he was never formally invested with the Honours of the Principality of Wales.
During the 1640s, when the Prince of Wales was still young, Charles I fought parliamentary and Puritan forces in the English Civil War. The Prince of Wales accompanied his father during the Battle of Edgehill and, at the age of fifteen, participated in the battles of 1645. In 1646, his father, fearing for his safety, ordered him to go to France. He had an affair with Lucy Walters (who, some alleged, secretly married him); their son, James Scott (afterwards Duke of Monmouth and Duke of Buccleuch), was the only one of Charles II's bastards who would later play a significant part in politics.
Charles I was captured by the rebels in 1647, escaped, and was recaptured in 1648. Despite his son's efforts to save him, Charles I was executed in 1649, and England was proclaimed a republic. At the same time, however, much of Scotland remained loyal to the royalist cause. On 5 February 1649, Charles II was proclaimed King of Scots in Edinburgh, on the understanding that he would agree the Scottish Covenant (an agreement to remodel the Church of England by replacing Anglicanism with Presbyterianism, the form of church governance preferred by most in Scotland). Upon his arrival in Scotland on 23 June 1650, he formally agreed to the Covenant; his abandonment of Anglicanism, although winning him support in Scotland, left him unpopular in England. He was crowned King of Scots at Scone on 1 January 1651, and mounted an attack on the England, then under the military dictator Oliver Cromwell. The invasion ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, following which Charles is said to have hidden in the Royal Oak at Boscobel House, subsequently escaping to France in disguise.
Impoverished, Charles could not obtain sufficient support to mount a serious challenge to Cromwell's government. France and the United Provinces allied themselves with Cromwell's government, forcing Charles to turn to Spain for aid. He attempted to raise an army, but failed due to his financial shortcomings.
Restoration
Even after the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, Charles's chances of regaining the Crown seemed slim. Oliver Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard Cromwell. The new Lord Protector was incompetent and unwilling to rule, and abdicated in 1659; the Protectorate of England was abolished, and the Commonwealth of England established. During the civil and military unrest which followed, George Monck, the Governor of Scotland, was concerned that the nation would descend into anarchy and sought to restore the monarchy. Monck and his army marched into the City of London, where, with much popular support, he forced the Long Parliament to dissolve itself. For the first time in almost twenty years, the members of Parliament faced a general election.
The People, having noticed the civil unrest which followed Oliver Cromwell's death, elected a predominantly Royalist House of Commons. The Convention Parliament, which assembled on 25 April 1660, received Declaration of Breda (in which Charles agreed, amongst other things, to pardon many of his father's enemies) on 8 May. It subsequently declared that Charles II had been the lawful Sovereign since Charles I's execution in 1649.
Charles set out for England, arriving on 23 May 1660, reaching London on 29 May (which is considered the date of the Restoration, and was Charles's thirtieth birthday). Although Charles granted amesty to Cromwell's supporters in the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion, he did not pardon the judges and officials involved in his father's trial and execution. Some of the "regicides" were executed in 1660; others were given life imprisonment. The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw were subjected to the indignity of a posthumous execution.
Appreciative of the assistance given to him in gaining the throne, on March 24, 1663, Charles awarded eight nobles lands then known as the colony of Carolina -- named after his father -- now in the USA.
The period following the "Restoration" of the Monarchy became a recognisable period of English history, characterised by the Great Plague of 1665, the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the subsequent rebuilding of London. Theatres reopened with women eventually allowed to perform on stage and the Church of England became more liberal after the severe restrictions of Cromwell's administration. Charles himself became known as "The Merry Monarch".
Finance, France and Catholicism
Parliament granted Charles a lifetime revenue. In return Charles gave up the remaining mediaeval rights including knight service and feudal dues from wardships.
To raise cash, in 1662 Charles sold Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds. In 1667 he was responsible for appointing George Downing (the builder of Downing Street) to radically reform the Treasury and the collection of taxes. And, in a secret protocol to the 1670 Treaty of Dover, he received French financial assistance of 200,000 pounds each year in exchange for agreeing to enter the Third Anglo-Dutch War and to "declare himself a Catholic as soon as the welfare of his realm will permit". When the protocol later became known, it seriously compromised Charles, losing him the nation's trust, though his popular image did recover in the 1680s.
Politics
During the early years of his reign, Charles's chief advisor was Edward Hyde, for whom he created the title Earl of Clarendon in 1661. Clarendon was also the father-in-law of Charles's younger brother, the Duke of York. However, by 1667, after the disastrous Second Anglo-Dutch War, Clarendon had fallen out of favour and was sent into exile. Clarendon was replaced by a quintet of advisors: Clifford, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale, whose initials are believed by some to be the origin of the term cabal. There was considerable religious controversy, even within this small group, and the groundswell of opinion in the country reached an anti-Catholic climax with the discovery of the so-called "Popish Plot", the invention of a charlatan, Titus Oates.
Charles II dissolved the Cavalier Parliament on January 24, 1679.
Marriage
Charles continued to keep mistresses, the most famous of whom was the actress, Nell Gwyn or Gwynne. Others included Louise de Keroualle (Duchess of Portsmouth), and Barbara Villiers (Duchess of Cleveland and Countess of Castlemaine). In 1662, he had married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess, who gave him possession of Bombay and Tangier. Their marriage was childless (Catherine gave birth to three stillborn children between 1666 and 1669), resulting in some uncertainty about the succession when he died.
Death
Charles died of a stroke at the Palace of Whitehall. He converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed. He was succeeded by his younger brother as James II of England and James VII of Scotland. In 1692 Catherine moved to Portugal.
Style and arms
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." (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.) His arms 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).
External link
- History of King Charles the Second of England; Jacob Abbott, 1849, Project Gutenberg edition.
| Preceded by: Charles I |
King of England | Succeeded by: James II/VII |
| King of Scots | ||
| King of Ireland |