Charles II., born at St James's on 29th May 1630, was present at Edgehill (1642), and in 1646, after a twelvemonth in the western counties, escaped to France by way of Scilly and Jersey. He got little good from two years spent in Paris; then he passed on to Holland, where he met with a better reception, and whence in 1648, with nineteen
English royalist war-ships, he made an expedition to the Thames. His father beheaded—Charles did his utmost to save him, even sending a carte blanche to the English parliament—and his hopes disappointed from Ireland and Montrose, in 1650 he accepted the terms of the Scottish commissioners, and landed on 23d June at the mouth of the Spey. That was a dreary time of prayers, fastings, and sermons (six sermons a day) for the gay young prince. Less a king than state-prisoner, he must sign and re-sign the two Covenants, must put away his old friends, must acknowledge the sins of his house, his father's blood-guiltiness and mother's idolatry. But the defeat at Dunbar and his 'start' for the Highlands gained Charles somewhat more liberty; and, having on 1st January 1651 been crowned at Scone, in the following August he suddenly marched, with 10,000 men, into England. Few joined the Scots, and, catching them up at Worcester, Cromwell utterly routed them on 3d September. For six weeks Charles wandered a fugitive, a thousand pounds set on his head, through the western and southern counties, now hiding in the oak at Boscobel, now riding disguised as a serving-man, anon lurking at Stonehenge. More than forty persons were privy to his secret, yet on 15th October he embarked at Shoreham for Normandy. Then followed nearly three years of exile in France, nearly two at Cologne, then three in the Low Countries, needy everywhere, everywhere profligate; but at last, on 26th May 1660, Charles landed at Dover, recalled to the throne by the fall of the Protectorate, and the nation's dread of military despotism. 'It must be my own fault,' he jested, 'that I did not come sooner back, for I find no one but tells me he has always longed for my home-coming.'
Of the four parliaments that succeeded the Convention, the first or 'Cavalier' parliament lasted through nearly two-thirds of the entire reign, from May 1661 to January 1679; from March 1681 Charles ruled without one. The first seven years (1660-67) were the period of Clarendon's ascendancy, of constitutional loyalty to church and state, as anti-Catholic as it was anti-Puritan. Next came the Catholic-Presbyterian Cabal, broken up by the Test Act of 1673; and then the fierce struggle between the Court and Country factions, in which Shaftesbury played the chief part, and from which, in the end, Charles issued victorious.
As early as 1661 he accepted a secret subsidy from France, and no act of his reign was more unpopular than the sale next year of Dunkirk. In 1665 a naval Dutch war, due to commercial jealousy, was forced on by Clarendon's enemies, who saw in it a chance of ousting him. In spite of two English victories, with an indecisive engagement between (Lowestoft, Downs, and North Foreland), in June 1667 De Ruyter sailed up the Thames, and burned several war-ships lying at Chatham—that night Charles was very merry in his harem. The peace of Breda (21st July), which in August was followed by Clarendon's downfall, left both nations exhausted, and France the sole gainer. Temple's Triple Alliance (23d January 1668), between England, Holland, and Sweden, was on Charles's part a mere bid for popularity, a means too of raising his price with Louis XIV.; and by the secret Treaty of Dover (20th May 1670) he entered on an offensive alliance with France, became its pensioner, and undertook to effect the conversion of England. A sea-fight with the Dutch in Southwold Bay (1672) was bloody but indecisive; and the strong anti-French feeling forced Charles to conclude a peace (1674), and to consent to the marriage of his niece Mary with his nephew William of Orange (1677). Still, by two other secret treaties (1676-78), and by also intriguing with the opposition, Louis secured his end, to cut England off from continental politics.
At home, the abortive Savoy Conference was followed by the ejection of nearly 2000 Nonconformist ministers (24th August 1662); the Great Plague (May to December 1665) carried off nearly seventy thousand Londoners; and the Great Fire (2d to 6th September 1666) consumed 13,200 houses, St Paul's, and 86 churches. Sir John Coventry, for plain speaking, got his nose slit by Charles's bullies (1670); the 'stop of the Exchequer' (1672) plunged the chief city bankers in bankruptcy; and Charles's two Declarations of Indulgence (1662-72) were met by the Conventicle and Test Acts, the Dissenters themselves declining to share toleration with the Catholics, for whom such toleration was designed. Clarendon's foes had cause to dread Clarendon's son-in-law, the king's brother, James, Duke of York; and his open profession of Catholicism (1672) gave a pretext for Shaftesbury's Exclusion Bill, and colour to Oates's trumped-up 'Popish Plot' (August 1678 to December 1680), which Shaftesbury fostered, and which cost the lives of fifteen Catholic victims. Himself, if anything, at heart a Catholic, Charles sacrificed them basely to his fears; still, honour, brotherly affection, or French gold, would not let him acknowledge Monmouth for his heir. But the tide had already turned. Men's shame at that shameful panic, and disgust at the thought of a bastard on the throne, caused a Tory reaction; and the Tory reaction drove the Whigs on to open resistance—the Rye-house Plot (1683). Shaftesbury died beyond seas, Lord Essex by his own hand in the Tower, and Russell and Sidney by the headman's axe.
What English king so absolute as Charles, that Sunday evening, when Evelyn saw him 'toying with his concubines in the glorious gallery' of Whitehall? But on the morrow he was struck with apoplexy, and for three days lay in a stupor. When he came to himself on the Thursday, he would not receive the communion from Bishop Ken; but, thanks to the Duchess of Portsmouth, a priest who had aided him in his escape from Worcester was brought to his bed-side, and by him he was reconciled to the Catholic Church. Then he blessed his children; blessed, too, the Protestant bishops; and at last passed away on Friday the 6th of February 1685. On the night of the 14th he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
So ended the worst reign in English history, whose sole great measure was the Habeas Corpus Act (1679), and whose tortuous politics are generally referable to one or other of the following motives: Charles's fear of again being sent on his travels, the nation's fear of a second great civil war, its hatred of Popery and hatred of the French, the littleness of men's aims and greatness of their greed, and 'backstairs' influence, omnipresent, omnipotent. Such as the reign was, such was Charles himself. With a taste for the arts and for science, he was able, shrewd, affable, easy-going, active of habit, physically brave. His talents serve but to enhance his vices of utter selfishness and abject sensualism. And yet with his subjects he was always popular; the nicknames 'Old Rowley' and 'The Merry Monarch' attest even now the liking that they bore him.
On 22d May 1662 Charles had married poor plain Catharine of Braganza (1638-1705). The marriage was childless, and her influence on English politics was slight as compared with that of his numberless mistresses. Of these, before the Restoration, two only call for notice—'brown, beautiful, bold, but insipid' Lucy Walter (1630-58), the mother of James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch (1649-85); and Catherine Peg, the mother of Charles Fitzcharles, Earl of Plymouth (1657-80). Then came the splendid termagant, Barbara Villiers or Palmer (1640-1709), whom Charles made Countess of Castlemaine in 1661, Duchess of Cleveland in 1670, and who was mother of the three Fitzroy Dukes of Southampton and Cleveland (1662-1730), Grafton (1663-90), and Northumberland (1665-1716). By 'pretty, witty' Nell Gwynn (1650-87) Charles was father of Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans (1670-1726); almost his last words were 'Let not poor Nelly starve.' There were, besides, 'la belle Stewart' (Duchess of Richmond), the Duchess of Mazarin, and many more, with, last but not least, the hated 'Madam Carwell,' i.e. Louise de Keroualle (1649-1734), the subtle, 'baby-faced' Breton. She was made Duchess of Portsmouth in 1672, French Duchesse d'Aubigny in 1684; and she was the mother of Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond (1672-1723).
See the articles ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, MONK, LAUDERDALE, LEEDS (Danby), HALIFAX, &c.; the Histories of Clarendon, Burnet, Hallam, Macaulay, Ranke, and Green; the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn; Grammont's Memoirs; Masson's Life of Milton; the Calendars of State Papers, 1649-67 (21 vols. 1860-87); Harris's Life of Charles II. (2 vols. 1766); Jesse's Court of England under the Stuarts (4 vols. 1840); Hoskyn's Charles II. in the Channel Islands (2 vols. 1854); P. Cunningham's Story of Nell Gwynn (1852; new ed. 1893); Molloy's Royalty Restored (1885); Forneron's Louise de Keroualle (trans. 1887); Allan Fea, The Flight of the King (1897).