The Reign of Charles II
Charles II was an English monarch from the house of Stuart who was born on May 29th, 1630 and died on February 6th, 1685.
By right of birth, Charles II held the combined titles of King of England, King of Scots and King of Ireland from the time of his father Charles I's execution in 1649, although he would not be officially pronounced King until 1660. The reason for this was the state of politics in England at that time.
Charles I's reign actually ended when the monarchy was abolished by the Parliament at the end of the English Civil War. While Charles II was a legitimate heir to the throne, the lack of a monarchical system of government meant that he was a King by name only and he spent many of the intervening years until his actual coronation as an exile in France.
While Charles II was not able to assume the throne of leadership in England, he was proclaimed King of Scotland soon after his father's death on February 5 and later on in Jersey in February 16, 1649. As was the case in England though, his title as King did not hold much weight, in spite of the fact that even a few British colonies did recognize him as King.
In fact it took some negotiation, 2 years worth of hard bargaining with the Presbyterians, before they would accept him as their rightful leader and Charles II finally was proclaimed King of Scots on January 1, 1651 in Scone. Many historians think however that Charles' coronation was borne less out of a desire to have another Stuart as King than Scotland's unwillingness to have England meddle in their affairs.
One of Charles concessions to the Scottish was that the Church of Scotland would be free to retain its Presbyterian path and not shift towards Anglicanism, as many in England wanted it to. While this may have won him points with the Scottish, whose support he needed if he was ever to assume the title of King again, this understandably made him very unpopular among the powerful people of the Church of England.
During this time, England and later on Scotland and Ireland were consolidated into a single Commonwealth republic with the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell assuming the leadership role. Shortly after Charles II' coronation in Scotland, republican armies under Cromwell's leadership began to move in towards his enclave in the country. Charles retaliated by attacking England and in the ensuing war in which Charles armies were severely outnumbered, he was forced to escape England and flee to France.
While in France, Charles tried unsuccessfully to assemble an army to fight Cromwell's forces but his lack of financial resources made this an impossible feat. All his hopes of assuming the throne seemed lost until Oliver Cromwell died in 1658.
While Cromwell's son, Richard assumed the role of new Lord Protector of England; he did not have any considerable influence in either the Parliament or his father's new Model Army and was later forced to step down in 1659. This paved the way to a series of agreements with the Parliament and Charles was finally able to ascend to the throne.
The reign of King Charles II was characterized by unbridled liveliness and hedonism in contrast to the Puritanical atmosphere of Commonwealth England. The people were only too happy to have their previous freedoms restored and Charles II became known as the "Merry Monarch".
Charles was an avid supporter of the arts and during his time, public plays, dramas and musical performances enjoyed a new, vibrant period of growth.
Like his predecessors James I's and Charles I's reigns before him, Charles II's rule was fraught with bitter conflicts and struggles for power between the monarchy and the Parliament of England, although it must be said that it never quite escalated to the level that it was with Charles I (who was executed on orders of the Parliament).
In any case, this animosity was a constant thorn in Charles II side so to speak, and it was not until he abolished the Parliament and assumed total control towards the end of his reign that he was able to make any significant accomplishments.
Charles was fully aware that when his father abolished the Parliament during his own reign, it was one of the decisive actions that led to his eventual downfall. Fortunately for Charles when he made the decision to abolish Parliament yet again, he was enjoying a close and very productive political relationship with the King of France. With the money he received as a result of this alliance, Charles was able to maintain taxes at their current level thereby avoiding the widespread indignation of his subjects.
While Charles was able to neatly sidestep the two main impediments to his father's reign, the issue of taxes and any major conflict with Parliament, he was not so successful in avoiding the various other conflicts that arose from his manner of handling both domestic and foreign religious issues.
These issues, which were directly and indirectly related to the animosity between the Catholic and Protestant churches, were a local manifestation of the bigger conflict between the two Churches which was sweeping across most of Europe. As the case often is with religious disagreements, church politics plays a major part and for Charles who was right in the middle of these warring factions, this was no exception.
That the time of Charles reign was a breeding ground for political intrigue and controversies was only made more apparent by the formation of both the Whig and the Tory political parties.
It had long been suspected that Charles was a practicing Roman Catholic for longer than was commonly known and he kept his religious beliefs secret in order to avoid scrutiny by the Protestant faction.
This was after all what his own brother James had done for most of his life. While the beginning of Charles' conversion to the Roman Catholic faith is disputed, what is known is that by the time he died in 1685, he was by all accounts a devout Roman Catholic.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 25/07/2008
