Charles II was known as the “Merry Monarch” because of how lively and happy he was. This was also true of his court, which was mostly based on having fun and cavorting. Charles II was born to King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria. Soon after he was born, he was named Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. He later took up the title of Prince of Wales. He and his father both fought in the Battle of Edgehill when he was only 14 years old. But because the war didn’t go well, young Charles was forced to live in exile. He went back to be crowned king of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Charles II’s reign was marked by two tragic events in British history – the Great Plague of London and the Great Fire of London. He didn’t get along very well with the Parliament, and he also planned useless military missions against the Dutch. In English history, his time is known as the “restoration” time.
Early years and childhood
Charles I and Henrietta Maria had Charles II at St. James’s Palace in London. His father was the king of Scotland, England, and Ireland.
William Laud, the Anglican Bishop of London, baptized him at The Chapel Royal. He was given the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay when he was born. He became Prince of Wales when he was eight years old.
During the English Civil War in the 1640s, he stood by his father, who fought against the Parliamentary and Puritan forces.
By the time he was 14, he was made the official leader of the English forces in the West Country and took part in the battles of 1645. But because his father was about to die, he ran away first to the Isles of Scilly, then to Jersey, and finally to France.
By 1648, he had moved to The Hague, South Holland, where his sister Mary and brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange helped him in the royalist cause.
Accession and Rule
His father was killed in 1649, and the Parliament of Scotland made him King of Great Britain and Ireland that same year. But the English Parliament said that the declaration was against the law.
He couldn’t go to Scotland unless he agreed to follow the Presbyterian faith in the British Isles. He later gave General Montrose the job of threatening the Scots with an invasion, which would force them to make a deal that would help him.
When he arrived in Scotland on June 23, 1650, he formally joined the Presbyterian Church and gave up the Episcopal Church in Britain. Even though Scotland backed him, his move made him very unpopular in the rest of Britain. On January 1, 1651, he was crowned King of Scotland.
Later in 1651, the English Civil War ended when Oliver Cromwell beat the Scottish forces at The Battle of Worcester. Charles II ran away to England to avoid being caught.
After the Battle of Worcester, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of Scotland, England, the British Isles, and Ireland. Charles II went into exile in France, the United Provinces, and the Spanish Netherlands.
Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, and his son Richard took over as the next Lord Protector. Richard, on the other hand, had no power in the Parliament, and when the Protectorate ended the next year, he gave up his throne.
In April 1660, the Convention Parliament voted for a resolution and later decided to choose a free parliament. After the Declaration of Breda, later that same year, Charles II agreed to forgive the people who had hurt his father.
In May 1660, the English Parliament asked him to come back once the monarchy was back. When he got to London on May 29, he was treated well and called the king.
On April 23, 1661, he was crowned in London at Westminster Abbey in the City of Westminster. He took part in the traditional procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey the day before. He was the last king or queen to do that.
During his time as king, the Clarendon Code was passed by the English parliament. This was passed to stop people from not following the rules of the Church of England.
In 1665, the Great Plague of London was one of the biggest problems he had to deal with as king. Seven thousand people died every week. There were many attempts to stop the disease, but they all failed because it spread so quickly.
The Great Fire of London in 1666 added fuel to the flames. Even though it marked the end of the Great Plague, the fire that started on September 2 burned about 13,200 homes and 87 churches, including St. Paul’s Cathedral.
During this time, the English navy lost to the Dutch Fleet in the war against Holland. He was afraid that France would attack England because of how weak it was, so he sent his sister Henrietta to make a deal with King Louis XIV of France.
He tried to get people in the parliament to agree with him by giving them money. He even told them to make friends with the government of France. But most of the people who were in the House of Commons were loyal Protestants.
Even though he promised Louis XIV he would stop the Protestants from hurting Catholics, he was not able to do so. Also, he couldn’t put Catholics in high positions or make them members of Parliament.
In 1672, he signed The Royal Declaration of Indulgence, which was an attempt to give Protestant nonconformists and Roman Catholics the freedom to practice their own religions. The English Parliament, however, put a stop to this.
Near the end, a lot of thought went into the question of who would take over the throne. He dissolved parliament many times to stop the Exclusion Bill from becoming law, which would have made it impossible for his brother James to take the throne.
Personal History and Legacies
Around 1648, he was dating Lucy Walter while he was living in The Hague, South Holland. They didn’t get married, but their son was named James Crofts.
He married the daughter of the King of Portugal, Catherine of Braganza, in 1662. Catherine did not give him a child, but he had many children with his mistresses, including Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, Moll Davis, Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Killigrew, Catherine Pegge, and Louise de Kéroulaille, Duchess of Portsmouth.
He died at the Whitehall Palace in London at the age of 54, four days after he had an apoplectic fit. He said that he was a Roman Catholic at the time of his death.
To honor him, statues of him have been put up in places like Soho Square, Edinburgh’s Parliament Square, Three Cocks Lane in Gloucester, and Lichfield Cathedral. People have drawn pictures of him. Charleston, a city in South Carolina, is named after him.
He supported science and art and started the Royal Observatory. He also backed the Royal Society, which was led at the time by Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, and Sir Isaac Newton.
Estimated Net worth
Prince Charles is part of the royal family of Britain. He is Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’s oldest son. Prince Charles is worth $100 million in total.
Trivia
People often call this English king or queen “Merry Monarch.” The time he or she was in charge is called the Restoration Period.