Charles II Stuart ^{1 2}

  General Notes:

Byname THE MERRY MONARCH, Charles was king of Great Britain and Ireland (1660-85), who was restored to the throne after years of exile during the Puritan Commonwealth. The years of his reign are known in English history as the Restoration period. His political adaptability and his knowledge of men enabled him to steer his country through the convolutions of the struggle between Anglicans, Catholics, and dissenters that marked much of his reign.

Birth and early years.

Charles II, the eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, was born at St. James's Palace, London. His early years were unremarkable, but before he was 20 his conventional education had been completely overshadowed by the harsh lessons of defeat in the Civil War against the Puritans and subsequent isolation and poverty. Thus Charles emerged into precocious maturity, cynical, self-indulgent, skilled in the sort of moral evasions that make life comfortable even in adversity. (See English Civil Wars.)

But though the early years of tawdry dissipation have tarnished the romance of his adventures, not all of his actions were discreditable. He tried to fight his father's battles in the west of England in 1645; he resisted the attempts of his mother and his sister Henrietta Anne to convert him to Catholicism and remained openly loyal to his Protestant faith. In 1648 he made strenuous efforts to save his father; and when, after Charles I's execution in 1649, he was proclaimed Charles II by the Scots in defiance of the English republic, he was prepared to go to Scotland and swallow the stringently anti-Catholic and anti-Anglican Presbyterian Covenant as the price for alliance. But the sacrifice of friends and principles was futile and left him deeply embittered. The Scottish army was routed by the English under Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar in September 1650, and in 1651 Charles's invasion of England ended in defeat at Worcester. The young king became a fugitive, hunted through England for 40 days but protected by a handful of his loyal subjects until he escaped to France in October 1651. (See Solemn League and Covenant.)

His safety was comfortless, however. He was destitute and friendless, unable to bring pressure against an increasingly powerful England. France and the Dutch United Provinces were closed to him by Cromwell's diplomacy and he turned to Spain, with whom he concluded a treaty in April 1656. He persuaded his brother James to relinquish his command in the French army and gave him some regiments of Anglo-Irish troops in Spanish service, but poverty doomed this nucleus of a royalist army to impotence. European princes took little interest in Charles and his cause, and his proffers of marriage were declined. Even Cromwell's death did little to improve his prospects. But George Monck, one of Cromwell's leading generals, realized that under Cromwell's successors the country was in danger of being torn apart and with his formidable army created the situation favourable to Charles's restoration in 1660.

Most Englishmen now favoured a return to a stable and legitimate monarchy, and, although more was known of Charles II's vices than his virtues, he had, under the steadying influence of Edward Hyde, his chief adviser, avoided any damaging compromise of his religion or constitutional principles. With Hyde's help, Charles issued in April 1660 his Declaration of Breda, expressing his personal desire for a general amnesty, liberty of conscience, an equitable settlement of land disputes, and full payment of arrears to the army. The actual terms were to be left to a free parliament, and on this provisional basis Charles was proclaimed king in May 1660. Landing at Dover on May 25, he reached a rejoicing London on his 30th birthday.

Charles II left no legitimate issue. He did, however, have several children by a number of mistresses (many of whom were wives of noblemen); many of his mistresses and illegitimate children received dukedoms or earldoms. He publicly acknowledged fourteen children by seven mistresses; six of those children were borne by a single woman, the notorious Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, whom Charles granted the Dukedom of Cleveland. His other favourite mistresses were Nell Gwynne and Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. Charles also acknowledged children by Lucy Walter, Elizabeth Killigrew, Viscountess Shannon and Catherine Pegge, Lady Greene.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Acceded: 1660. King of Great Britain and Ireland

Charles married Catherine of Bragança, daughter of John IV the Fortunate de Bragança and Luiza Maria de Guzman, in May 1662 in Portsmouth, , England. (Catherine of Bragança was born on 25 Nov 1638 in Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal and died on 30 Nov 1705 in Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal.)

Charles associated with Barbara Villiers. (Barbara Villiers was born in 1641 and died on 9 Oct 1709.)

Charles had children with Eleanor (Nell) Gywnne. (Eleanor (Nell) Gywnne was born in 1650 and died on 14 Nov 1687.)

Charles Associated with Louise Renée de Penancoet de Kérouaille. (Louise Renée de Penancoet de Kérouaille was born in 1649 and died in 1734.)