King Charles II
1630 – 1685 · Generation XXVII · King of England, Scotland and Ireland (r. 1660–1685) · House of Stuart
Charles II Stuart (1630–1685). King of England, Scotland and Ireland (r. 1660–1685). Married Catherine of Braganza in 1662. Restored in 1660; the Merry Monarch left a dozen acknowledged children, none of them by his queen. Proclaimed king by the Parliament of Scotland days after his father’s execution, he was defeated by Cromwell at Worcester in 1651 and passed nine years in continental exile before England called him home. He accepted the Clarendon Code, which entrenched the restored Church of England, though he privately favoured tolerance, and by the secret Treaty of Dover took a French pension and promised — someday — to turn Catholic. The invented Popish Plot and the crisis over excluding his Catholic brother from the succession gave birth to the Whig and Tory parties; Charles sided with the Tories, dissolved Parliament in 1681, and ruled without one for the rest of his life. He was, besides, a patron of the arts and sciences.
One of 14 people of House of Stuart (from 1371) in this archive. Scotland’s royal house for three centuries before James VI inherited England and wore both crowns.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → King Charles I → King Charles II.
Parents
- King Charles I (1600 – 1649)
- Henrietta Maria of France (1609 – 1669)
Siblings
- Mary Princess Royal (1631 – 1660)
- King James II (1633 – 1701)
Partners
- Married Catherine of Braganza (1638 – 1705) in 1662
Life
- 1630 — Born
- 1660 — Charles II returns to England from Holland and is restored to the throne.
- 1662 — Married Catherine of Braganza
- 1670 — Secret Treaty of Dover, by which Charles agrees to declare himself a Catholic and restore Catholicism in England in return for secret subsidies from Louis XIV of France.
- 1678 — The Popish Plot is fabricated by Titus Oates. He alleges a Catholic plot to murder the King and restore Catholicism. The Government over-reacts, and many Catholic subjects are persecuted.
- 1679 — Exclusion Bill attempts to exclude James, Charles’s Catholic brother, from the succession.
- 1683 — The Rye House Plot a conspiracy to kill Charles and his brother James and return to parliamentary rule is uncovered.
- 1685 — Died
- 1685 — Charles is received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed.