CHARLES II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France: b. London, 29 May 1630; d. there, 6 Feb. 1685. He was a refugee at The Hague on the death of his father, on which he immedi ately assumed the royal title. He listened to an invitation from the Scots, who had him their king 5 Feb. 1649, and arrived in the Cromarty Firth 16 June 1650. Being obliged to throw himself into the hands of rigid Pres byterians, they subjected him to many humilia tions and mortifications, which caused him to regard them ever after with extreme aversion. On 3 Sept. 1650 the Covenanting army was de feated by Cromwell at Dunbar. In 1651 Charles was crowned at Scone; but the ap proach of Cromwell soon rendered his abode in Scotland unsafe. Hoping to be joined by the English royalists, he took the spirited reso lution of passing Cromwell and entering Eng land, Carlisle readily throwing open its gates to receive him. He was immediately pursued by that active commander, who, with a superior army, gained the battle of Worcester (3 Sept. 1651) and Charles, after a variety of imminent hazards, being on one occasion sheltered for 24 hours in the branches of the famous Bos cobel oak, reached Shoreham, in Sussex, and from thence, France (16 October).
It is the province of history to state the circumstances that produced the Restoration, which General Monk so conducted that Charles, without a struggle, succeeded without hazard to all those dangerous prerogatives which had cost the nation so much blood and treasure, first to abridge ant then to abolish. On 29 May 1660, _Charles entered his capital amid uni versal and almost frantic acclamations; and the different civil and religious parties vied with each other in loyalty and submission. His first measures were prudent and conciliatory. Hyde, Lord Clarendon, was made Chancellor; and an act of indemnity was passed, from which those alone were excepted who were im mediately concerned in the late King's death. A settled revenue was accepted in lieu of ward ship and purveyance and the army was reduced. In respect to religion, there was less indulgence; for not only were prelacy and the parliament ary rights of bishops restored, which was to be expected, but an act of uniformity (1662) was passed, by the conditions of which nearly all the Presbyterian clergy were driven to a resignation of their livings. In 1662 he mar ried Catherine of Braganza, a prudent and vir tuous princess, but in no way calculated to ac quire the affection of a man like Charles. The indolence of his temper and the expenses of his licentious way of life soon involved him in pecuniarydifficulties; and the unpopular sale of i Dunkirk in 1662 to the French was one of his earliest expedients to relieve himself.
In 1666 a rupture took place with Holland. It was attended, in the first instance, by various naval successes; but France and Denmark en tering into the war, as allies of the Dutch, the English were overmatched, and a Dutch fleet entered the Thames, and, proceeding up the Medway, burned and destroyed ships as high as Chatham (13 June 1667). The domestic calamities of a dreadful plague in 1665, and of the great fire in London in 1666, were among the disasters of the period. Soon after, Clar
endon, who had become very unpopular and was personally distasteful to Charles, was dis missed, and sought shelter from his enemies by a voluntary exile. A triple alliance between England, Holland and Sweden, for the pur pose of checking the ambition of Louis XIV, followed (January 1668). It did honor to the political talents of Sir William Temple and was one of the few public measures of the reign which deserve approbation. In 1670 Charles threw himself into the hands of the five unprincipled ministers, collectively denomi nated the cabal, who supported him in every attempt to make himself independent of Par liament. The party troubles of this reign com menced about this time by the open declaration of the Duke of York, heir presumptive to the crown, that he was a convert to the Roman Catholic religion. Soon after the ministry broke the triple alliance and planned a rupture with the Dutch. On 20 May 1670 was signed the secret Treaty of Dover, under which the English King agreed to become a party to French aggression in the Netherlands and to favor the restoration of the Catholic religion in England. As the price of this astounding betrayal, Charles, always in financial straits, received subsidies from France and thus be came a pensioner of Louis XIV. As the King did not choose to apply to Parliament for money to carry on the projected war, he caused the exchequer to be shut up in January 1672. The naval operations (1672) against the Dutch were by no means successful, and a new Par liament being called, which strongly expressed the discontent of the nation, the cabal was dis solved and a separate peace made with Hol land in 1674. Divisions in the Cabinet, fluctu ations in the King's measures and parliamentary contests followed and occupied the next three years, till, in 1677, Charles performed a popu lar act, by marrying his niece, the Princess Mary, to the Prince of Orange. By taking some decided steps in favor of the Dutch he also forwarded the Peace of Nimeguen in 1678. The same year was distinguished by the pre tended discovery of the Popish plot for the as sassination of the King and the introduction of the Roman Catholic faith. Notwithstanding the infamous characters of Oates and Bedloe, and the improbable nature of their disclosures, their tale, supported by the general suspicions of the secret influence of a Catholic faction, met with universal belief, Parliament exhibit ing nearly as much credulity and heat as the masses. Many Catholic lords were committed, Coleman, the Duke of York's secretary, and several priests hanged; and a venerable noble man, the Earl of Stafford, beheaded. The Duke of York thought fit to retire to Brussels, and a bill for his exclusion from the throne passed the House of Commons. Such was the state of the country that Charles was obliged to give way to some popular measures, and the great palladium of civil liberty, the habeas corpus bill, passed during this session. The temper of the Parliament was so much excited that the King first prorogued and then dis solved it. The court now sought to establish a balance of parties; to distinguish which the terms Whig and Tory were about this time brought into use.