Charles II (1630 – 1685)

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 May1660, 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.