CHARLES II.,
The Restoration Settlement—The king's chief adviser was Edward Hyde, lord chancellor and earl of Clarendon, who had been his father's ablest councillor in the Civil War. The Conven tion Parliament passed a bill of indemnity excepting only the regi cides. It raised funds to pay off the army which was disbanded, although the king was allowed to keep a couple of regiments for his protection, the germ of the later standing army. The lands, whether of the Crown, of the Church, or of private persons, con fiscated by the revolutionary government, were restored to their former owners. The royal right of purveyance and the military tenures with the burdensome incidents of wardship and marriage were suppressed in exchange for an hereditary excise settled on the Crown. Nothing was done for religious toleration. Scotland became once more an independent kingdom. All the legislation of Scottish parliaments after 1633 was declared invalid. Ireland returned to its former status. But the enormous confiscation of land under the Commonwealth was for the most part confirmed by the Act of Settlement. Soon the king and Clarendon began to diverge. A Catholic at heart, the king hoped to benefit the Catholics by linking their cause with that of the Puritans, and therefore favoured a policy of toleration. For himself he wanted absolute power. Clarendon and the Royalists wished neither for toleration nor for despotism. The new parliament elected in 1661 passed the Act of Uniformity, which drove all Puritan ministers out of the Church, and laid the foundation of modern dissent. It passed other persecuting statutes, the Corporation Act, the Con venticle Act, the Five Mile Act. Claiming a power to dispense with the law, Charles held out the hope of relief to the persecuted, but the parliament forced him to desist. Clarendon, however, be came generally unpopular. The outbreak of a new war with Hol land, commercial and colonial like the former, added to his em barrassments. The king deprived him of the Great Seal. A parlia mentary impeachment followed. Clarendon fled to France and was condemned in absence to perpetual banishment.
The king then gave his confidence to a group of men which became known as the Cabal. The ablest was Antony Ashley Cooper, later lord chancellor and earl of Shaftesbury. They helped Charles to carry out a policy of virtual toleration. After making peace with the Dutch in 1667, he con cluded in 1668 with them and with Sweden the Triple Alliance, designed to hinder Louis XIV. from conquering the Spanish Neth erlands. But his real aims were far different. In 1670 he concluded with Louis the secret Treaty of Dover for the conquest and parti tion of Holland and the restoration of Catholicism in England, a stipulation concealed from all but the Catholic members of the Cabal. Pursuant to this treaty, he began the third war with Hol land in 1672. About the same time he issued a Declaration of In dulgence, suspending all penal laws in matters of religion. But the French alliance and the Dutch war were unpopular. Most Church men detested the Indulgence, and all friends of liberty resented the suspension of statutes by the mere will of the sovereign. The king had to withdraw his declaration and to accept the Test Act imposing the sacramental test upon all officeholders. Soon after wards he had to make peace with Holland, while the Cabal broke up. Shaftesbury, who had discovered the stipulation relating to catholicism in the Treaty of Dover, became the leader of opposi tion to the king's policy. For by this time an opposition professing to defend the Protestant religion and the liberties of England, the germ of the later Whig party, had become manifest. The king took for his chief adviser Sir Thomas Osborne, whom he ap pointed treasurer and created earl of Danby (see LEEDS,
DUKE OF). Danby was at once a zealous upholder of royal pre rogative and a staunch adherent of the Church. Meantime the public became more and more afraid of Catholic encroachment. The king's brother James, duke of York, the heir to the throne, avowed himself a Catholic and married as his second wife a Catholic princess, Mary of Modena. The strongest Continental ruler, Louis XIV., showed himself an implacable enemy of Prot estantism.
These fears were raised almost to frenzy by the alleged discovery of a popish plot to kill the king, to over throw the Church and to restore the domination of Rome. In the main the plot was an invention of Titus Oates (q.v.), although the intrigues of rash Catholics helped to make it more plausible. The opposition led by Shaftesbury, whether they believed in the plot or no, saw their advantage in it and did their utmost to inflame Protestant fanaticism. In consequence, a number of innocent per sons suffered as traitors. A parliamentary Test Act was passed. On the ground of certain letters written by the king's command, the Commons impeached Danby of treason. To save Danby the king dissolved the parliament which had lasted 17 years. In the ensuing election the opposition gained many seats. Its leaders brought in a bill to exclude James from the succession. To save his brother's right, Charles offered to accept severe restrictions upon the powers of a Catholic sovereign. He also dismissed his old privy council and formed a new one on a plan devised by Sir William Temple, half servants of the Crown and half influential members of either House (see PRIVY COUNCIL, CABINET). As these concessions were fruitless, he dissolved the parliament, but not before it had passed the Habeas Corpus Act. In the next par liament the Exclusion bill was brought in again, passed by the Commons and thrown out by the Lords. Charles let the new privy council drop and dissolved the parliament. It was during this period of intense conflict that the two political parties which had been growing since the Restoration took definite shape, and became known as Whigs and Tories.
opposition had injured their cause by adopting the claim of the duke of Monmouth to be right ful heir to the Crown as a legitimate son of the king. Signs that belief in the plot was waning emboldened the king to summon a new parliament. It was to meet at Oxford so that his adversaries should not have the support of the Londoners. As they would ac cept no alternative, but brought in a third Exclusion bill, Charles hardened himself in resistance and dissolved the parliament after it had sat a week. He determined not to call another until he could count on its submission. He published a declaration justify ing what he had done, which evoked the enthusiasm of the clergy and gentry. He caused proceedings to be taken against the city of London and other corporate towns for having exceeded their lawful powers. Their charters having been adjudged forfeit into the king's hand, he granted new charters securing his control over their administration and the election of their members. At the same time the persecuting laws against the Nonconformists were sharply enforced. The opposition began to conspire, but all was detected. Two of their chiefs, William Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney, and several persons of less consequence, were executed. At his death (Feb. 6, 1685) Charles was more nearly absolute than any other Stuart king. He owed his success mainly to a close alliance with the Church of England.
