Charles II of England
Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660 after eleven years without a monarchy, and spent his reign making sure he did not go on his travels again. He was nineteen when his father was executed in 1649 and spent the next decade in exile — invading Scotland, being crowned there, and being beaten at Worcester in 1651, after which he escaped to France over six weeks with a price on his head, at one point hiding in an oak tree, a story he told for the rest of his life. The Restoration came not by conquest but because the republic collapsed after Cromwell's death, and General Monck marched south and recalled the old parliament. Charles's Declaration of Breda promised a general pardon, arrears of pay and liberty to tender consciences, leaving the details to parliament, which is a fair summary of his political method throughout. The regicides who could be caught were hanged, drawn and quartered, and Cromwell's body was dug up and hanged. His reign contained the plague of 1665, the fire of 1666, a Dutch fleet in the Medway, the founding of the Royal Society, and a series of parliamentary crises over his brother's Catholicism that produced the first political parties. He took French subsidies under a secret treaty in exchange for promising to declare himself Catholic, which he did only on his deathbed. He had at least twelve acknowledged illegitimate children and no legitimate ones, and died in 1685 apologising for taking such an unconscionable time about it. His brother James succeeded him and was gone in three years, which is a fair verdict on the difference between them. The settlement that followed in 1688 was built on exactly the questions Charles had spent twenty-five years avoiding answering.
- Lived: 1630 CE – 1685 CE
- Nationality: British
- Roles: king, ruler
