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 Charles II
The son of the executed King Charles I , Charles II was
restored to the monarchy in 1660, giving rise to the Restoration period
in British history. Charles was known as the ‘Merry Monarch’ for his
hedonistic lifestyle and patronage of the arts.
When
Charles I was executed for treason in 1649, following his defeat in the
English Civil War, his two sons, Charles, the eldest, and James, the
younger, went into exile in France. With the monarchy abolished,
Britain was ruled as a republic under Oliver Cromwell as Protector. But
Cromwell proved to be just as dictatorial as the king that Parliament
had deposed and when Cromwell’s son Richard attempted to take control
after his father’s death, Parliament decided that the experiment was
going horribly wrong.
 Fearing anarchy, Parliament set
about restoring Charles and he was crowned King on 29 May 1660, his 30th
birthday. Charles II proved a successful ruler and a resourceful
politician, and the Restoration period is regarded as a golden age for
the arts and science in Britain, helped by Charles’ patronage of the
Royal Society.
But the reign of Charles II was not
without its difficulties and the wounds of the Civil War were still
fresh. Though Charles agreed amnesty for Cromwell’s supporters, his
mother Henrietta of France pressured him into having those that
executed Charles I, executed themselves. Oliver Cromwell’s body was
even exhumed and beheaded!
The country was still deeply
divided over religion and mistrust and persecution of Catholics was
rife. Charles who hoped for greater religious tolerance, (and who many
believed was secretly Catholic) attempted to pass various laws to
encourage religious freedom, but was promptly refused, Parliament even
passing a law forbidding Catholics from sitting in Parliament. Charles
also had to contend with a number of plots to oust or assassinate him,
including a supposed Catholic plot to replace him with his Catholic
brother James.
But the greatest of threats to the
nation came from nature. In 1665, London was hit by the Great Plague,
as an outbreak of bubonic plague, carried by the fleas of rats, killed
around a fifth of the population of London and the Royal court was
forced to move to Oxford for a time. Then on 2nd September 1666, London
was hit by a second disaster after a fire broke out at a bakery in
Pudding Lane, developing into the Great Fire of London.
The
Great Fire was one of the biggest calamities to hit London, destroying
13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, 6 chapels, 44 Company Halls, the
Royal Exchange, the Guildhall, Bridewell Palace, four Thames bridges
and St Paul’s Cathedral . 16 people died in the fire, but some 100,000,
one sixth of London’s population, were made homeless.
Following
the Great Fire, Charles II set the task of rebuilding London to the
great architect Christopher Wren, who drafted an urban plan of widened
streets, broad boulevards, basic sewage draining systems and buildings
of stone and brick, setting the street plan of London of today.
Christopher Wren also rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, his crowning glory and the finest example of Restoration architecture in Britain.
Abroad,
Charles’ reign saw increased colonisation in India, the East Indies and
America, where New Amsterdam was captured from the Dutch in 1664 and
renamed New York.
The ‘Merry Monarch’, as Charles II
was known, was quite the ladies’ man. King Charles fathered several
illegitimate children and had numerous mistresses, including notorious
courtesan Barbara Villiers and famous actress Nell Gywnne.
Interestingly, the late Diana Princess of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of
Cornwall , the second wife of Charles Prince of Wales are both descended
from illegitimate sons of Charles II.
But despite,
Charles’ prolificacy, he left no legitimate heir and the crown passed
to his impetuous, short tempered, unpopular and Roman Catholic brother
James II .
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