CHARLES II. (1630-85). King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1649 (reigned from 1660) to 1685. Ile was the second, but eldest sur viving son, of Charles 1., and was Prinec of Wales from his birth. He was born at Saint ,Tamer's London, Nay 29, 1630, and bap tized by Bishop Laud on July 7, Louis N111. of France being one of his sponsors. At eight years of age all •a, provided for him as heir apparent, with William Cavendish. Earl of NeWen,th. (q.v.), as governor. and Dr. Brian Duppit as tutor. The following year he broke his arm, :Ind his life was endangered by a severe Ile took his scat in the lIonse of Lords in 1640. and his first public act was to carry his father's letter in favor of Strafford to the peers. Ile held a nominal command in the early cam paigns of the Civil War. and was present at Edgehill in 1642, where he narrowly escaped capture. Appointed general of the western forces, he paited from his father at Oxford, March 4, 1645, and remained in safety in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall; after Naseby, he escaped by way of Scilly and Jersey and joined his mother in Paris. where he remained for two years, to his moral disadvantage. In July. 164S, he sailed from Helvoctsluis with nineteen ships, for the Thames. where lie took several prizes. 11e issued a pnwlaination of conciliation to the Londoners and Scots, and returned to The Hague. where, during his father's trial. he did his utmost to save him, forwarding a blank charter with his signature attached for Parliament to inscribe its own tennis of clemency. At his father's death he assumed the title of King, and was pro claimed in Ireland, the Channel Islands, and one or two places in England. After va•illating between Holland. France. and Jersey, with the intention of invading Ireland, he returned to Holland, and, embarking at Ter heyden for Scotland, arrived in Cromarty Firth June 16. 1650, despite an attempt to intercept him. On September :3 a Scottish force fighting for him was defeated at Dunbar. and this has tened his coronation at Scone, January 1, 1651, after an acknowledgment of his father's faults and various declarations and concessions of a feeble character. Tie suddenly invaded England the following Au!rust. with 10,000 men, and was proclaimed King at Carlisle and other places on his advance. Cromwell hastened to meet and surround him. and, after two encounters, routed his army at Worcester. September 3, 1651. Charles Was hunted and a price was put his head, hut after hiding. at Boseobel (q.v.) and other places. through the loyalty of friends and his I Own courage and address, lie safely em liarked at Shoreham on October 15, and landed at Normandy, the next day. Eight years of impecunious and profligate exile were variously spent in France and at Cologne and Bruges. until not long after Cromwell's death. when, the country being, threatened with military despotism, the popular wish throughout England for the restoration of royalty was consummated by General Monk (q.v.), after Charles's coned iatiwy Breda declaration, and lie was proelaimed Ring at Westminster. May S. 1660. lle landed at Dover on the 26th. and was welcomed, at Whitehall, by the two houses of Parliament on May 29. 1660, after an enthusiastic aeela mation by thousands on his progress through London. lie was crowned on April 2:3, 11411. Ili: first Parliament, distinguished by abase ment and insistence on 'royal prerogative.' gave him an untrammeled course. Clarendon, his dignified companion in exile. was appointed chief minister. Episcopacy was restAired, and English and Scotch Nonconformists and l'reshy terians subjected to persecution. ]le extended an indemnifying art, dating from January 1. 1637, to June 24. 1660. to all political offend ers. excluding the regicides, of whom thirteen were exeented, while the bodies of Cromwell and Ireton were hung in chains, and the remains of Blake, Bradshaw, and others cast out of Westminster Abbey into potter's field:.
Extravagant, and always in want of money, Charles gladly assented to the abolition of the feudal rights of knight service. wardship. and purveyance 111 consideration of an annuity of i1,200.000. On May 20, 1(362, he married Cath arine of Braganza (q.v.) for her large dowry. He shamefully sold Dunkirk and Mardiek to the French, and for a pecuniary consideration made war against the Netherlands, in opposition to English commercial interests and the popular feeling. In 1667 De Ruyter, commanding the Dutch fleet, sailed up the Medway and burned several war-ships at Chatham, and Charles was compelled to conclude the ignominious Peace of Breda. This precipitated Clarendon's downfall, which was followed by the appointment of the unpopular Cabal Ministry (q.v.). who sought to restore Catholicism and absolution. Charles sought to conciliate the people by the Triple Alliance, in May. 166S, with Sweden and States-General; hut the French Court persuaded Lim to make war against the United Provinces. lle basely accepted a pension from the French Government; and, as even this, with all that he could get from his Parliament. was insuf ficient for his expenses, lie resorted to illegal means to raise money. The dubious 'popish plot' (see OA•Es) against the King's life caused great excitement among the people, and Lord Stafford and other persons were unjustly executed. The Parliament of 1679. against the will of the Court, enacted the celebrated Habeas Corpus Act (q.v.) • and a bill was mooted to exclude the King's brother, the Duke of York, triall the succession on account of his Roman Catholicism. The King had, however. crushed the Presbyterians of Scotland, and, more absolute than any of his predecessors, adopted most arbitrary measures. The •itx of London was deprived of its privileges, because of the eleetion of a sheriff disagreeable to the Court. The Rye House plot (q.v.), a widely extended conspiracy, was discovered in 1683, and cost the lives of a number of persons, among whom were Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney. Charles had begun to recognize the ne cessity of a more liberal policy, when an attack of apoplexy caused his death, I m February 6, 1685. In his dying, hours lie received absolution from a Roman Catholic priest, although lie had not previously avowed his attachment to that religion. His reign was full of events dishonor able to his country, of which he himself was gen erally the cause. llis life was dissolute, the num ber of his mistresses and the imilligacy of his Court heing scarcely paralleled in British history. His affability. however. won him popularity, which was familiarly expressed by the nicknames of "The Merry and 11.0wley." Consult: Pppys. Diary, ed. Wheatley (London, 1899) : Evelyn. Diary (new ed.. London. 1854) ; Clarendon, History of the Reb•llbm and the Ci•il Wars in England (last ed.. Oxford. 1849) ; Bur net. History of the Reformation of the Church of England (last ed., London, 1873) : Hallam, Constitutional History of England (Stb ed., Lon don. 1855) : Mae:inlay, History of England (Sth ed., London, 1852) : Somers. Tracts. Vols. VII., VIAL (London. 1809-15) : Caiendar of State Pa yers of the Reign of Charles 11. (ed. Green. 21 vols., London, 1860-871; "Harris. Life of Charles (1-mildon. 1760) : lloskyns, cha•les II. in the Channel Islands (London. 1854) ; Cunningham, Story of Nell Gwynn (new ed.. London. 189:3) ; floya/ty Restored (London. 1885) : For neron, Louise de Kftonalle (Paris, 1856) ; "Charles 11.." in Stephen, Dictionary National Biogra ph y, Vol. X. York, 1887) : Jesse, M emoirs, Vol. III. (new. ed., London. 1876) ; Sins son, Life of Milton (London, 1873-94). For favor able estimates of Charles. consult: Guiney. Enquirendo into the Wit and Other Good Parts of his Late Majesty King Charles the Second," in Patrius (Boston.11S971; and Street, "An Eulogy of Charles the Second," in Quales Ego (London, 1896 1.