The life of Charles II Stuart is like an adventure novel. On the one hand, he is remembered as a carefree but brave young man who opposed Cromwell, and on the other, as a king who defamed the monarchy with numerous love affairs.
Short childhood
Charles II was born in 1630 on May 29 at St. James's Palace (London). As a second child, he actually became the heir to the throne, as his older brother died, barely born, the year before. In total, Henrietta of France and Charles I had 9 children.
Due to his status as the eldest son, Karl already in infancy received the title of Duke of Cornwall (as heir to the English monarch) and Duke of Rothsey (as heir to the throne of Scotland), and a little later, the Prince of Wales.
His father, the closed and cold Charles I, professed Protestantism, adhering to the idea of strict order and hierarchy. It was he who inspired his son with the idea of the divinity of royal power. Nevertheless, the mother was closer to the boy - the Catholic Henrietta Maria French. This internal conflict will accompany Karl all his life. Protestantism will mean power to him, and Catholicism will mean inner peace.
It would seem that Carla had a bright future, not foreshadowing any upheavals. However, his childhood ended unexpectedly quickly. When he was only 10 years old, a political conflict broke out in England between the king and parliament, which eventually grew into a civil war and revolution.
In exile
In October 1642, the king led his loyal troops at the Battle of Edgill. In this campaign he was accompanied by a 12-year-old heir. Then the royalists won, although they could not regain control of the capital. However, three years later they were defeated by a parliamentary army led by O. Cromwell.
From that moment, Karl began a long period of exile. The next 18 years, the Stuarts wandered from one European court to another. For security reasons, the 15-year-old heir was sent first to Paris, where his mother was from, and then to The Hague, where he settled with his sister Mary, who married the Prince of Orange. Here he became interested in Lucy Walter, and from this connection his first illegitimate son was born.
Already at this time, the tendency of the future English king Charles 2 to frivolous life was clearly manifested. His interests were limited to balls, games, hunting, outfits and women. All this, of course, negatively affected his reputation at European courts.
England becomes a republic
While Karl had fun in exile, a trial was held in London over his father, who was accused of high treason. True, he made an attempt to save his father, but his intervention reminded the republican government of the existence of an heir. As a result, Parliament immediately issued a document forbidding anyone to host Charles, Prince of Wales.
After the execution of the king in January 1649, England became a republic. So, Charles II was actually deprived of his home, power and position in society. However, soon the Scots, indignant at the execution of the monarch, sent a delegation to him to Holland. The ambassadors invited Karl to sign the abdication of Catholicism in exchange for supporting his claims to the English throne, and he agreed.
Crown of scotland
First, Charles II went to Ireland, and then in the summer of 1650 landed on the shores of Scotland. Here he had to follow the Puritan customs, so alien to his nature. For example, he could not leave the palace on Sundays. This day should be devoted exclusively to sermons. Karl sometimes had to listen to 6 sermons in a row. This could not lead him to a new faith, although it provided him with a path to power.
Meanwhile, Cromwell, who declared himself Lord Protector, was forming an army. She had to once and for all destroy the threat posed to the republic by a legitimate candidate for the throne. In early September of that year, near Edinburgh, royalist troops met with an army of Republicans.
The battle by the Scots was lost, and Carl was accused of defeat. He was forced to write a letter in which he admitted that the rout of the army was God's punishment for the sins of his family. For him, this was the only way to get the Scottish throne.
The coronation took place on January 1 of the following 1651, and in early August Karl crossed the border with the Scottish army.
Rout and flight abroad
Cromwell's troops exceeded the Scots twice. Despite Karl’s courage, his army suffered a crushing defeat at Worcester in early September 1651. A reward of £ 1,000 was awarded for his capture. The legal heir to the throne of England was valued at such an amount.
Charles II was saved by a simple farmer, hiding him in a mill under the guise of a laborer. But since the soldiers of Cromwell carefully searched all the village buildings, Karl decided on a bold act: he hid in the branches of a large oak, while his savior pretended to collect brushwood underneath. Since that time, the oak has been called royal.
The royalists later transported him to central England, where he took refuge in the priest’s cell, which remained after the persecution of Catholics during the Tudors. Finally, in the middle of autumn 1651, he managed to escape to France.
New wanderings
At the French court he was greeted with all the honors appropriate to the monarch. Karl initially began to look for allies. But Denmark and Holland refused to support him, and Portugal, Sweden and Spain have already signed trade agreements with the English Republic. Disappointment prompted Carl to turn to entertainment. He so eagerly began to look after the ladies, that one of his advisers wrote:
The king is inexorably losing his reputation; he is so devoted to pleasures that he will ruin the whole thing if he stays here.
Even the French court, famous for its free morals, was shocked by his behavior. Cardinal Mazarini offered Stuart a small amount of cash if he left the country. In the summer of 1654, Karl left for Holland, where he lived in great need.
Bar to the portrait
Many researchers note a striking fact: despite the blows of fate, experienced personal tragedies, humiliation and forced 20-year exile, Karl was not hardened. On the contrary, retained a cheerful and carefree disposition. This feature of his character was so obvious that he went down in history under the nickname the Jolly King.
Long live the king!
The year 1658 brought changes - Cromwell died in London, and the people were already tired of the misfortunes of the revolution, so the proposal of General J. Monk to restore the monarchy, calling the rightful heir to the throne, was welcomed by the British with approval. Thus, in 1660, Parliament proclaimed Charles II king of England, Scotland and Ireland. On the day of his 30th birthday, to the ecstatic cries of the crowd, he entered London.
According to the Delusional Declaration, published in the same year, the new monarch promised amnesty to the participants of the revolution and the dominant position of the Church of England.
Obviously, many years spent in poverty became the reason that Karl after accession to the throne sought to receive all the pleasures available to the monarch. On his orders, St. James's Palace was transformed into the likeness of Versailles. He constantly changed the favorite, showered with good deeds of the courtiers, invited musicians and singers from Italy and France.
Of course, such a lifestyle very soon affected the state of the treasury. Karl simply decided the question of the missing funds - he married Catherine of Bragan, the Portuguese princess. True, he squandered his wife’s dowry very quickly, so in search of new money he sold France, located on the continent, the English fortress Dunkirk.
Failures in foreign policy of Charles II
In 1667, England, which waged war with the Netherlands for maritime trade, was terribly humiliated. The Dutch fleet burned 4 ships and captured the English flagship. Advisers forced the king to make peace with the Netherlands, which caused a storm of indignation in the country. However, for the king it was just an annoying hindrance, because it distracted him from love affairs.
State affairs meanwhile came to a standstill: the church demanded the adoption of laws prohibiting any religion other than the Anglican one, the war with the Netherlands devastated the treasury, and the parliament denied funds.
In the hope of independent rule, Charles dissolved the intractable parliament, after which he entered into secret negotiations with the French king. Louis XIV agreed to an alliance against Holland, but demanded to alleviate the fate of Catholics in England. Karl promised that at the right moment he would declare himself a supporter of the Roman Church.
The result of this secret treaty was a large-scale battle of the combined forces of France and England off the coast of Suffolk in 1672. But luck was on the side of the Dutch. Karl had no choice but to reconcile with parliament, which forced him to tighten laws against Catholics.
Tea and more
If Karl Stewart did not succeed in the affairs of the government, then he undoubtedly left a mark in culture.
On his orders, the Greenwich Observatory was founded, as well as the Royal Society of England. It was he who, after decades of the revolutionary ban, again allowed to open theaters in the country. In the West End, the first of them was built in 1663 (preserved to this day). On its stage, Nelly Gwin, the favorite of the king, performed. There is an opinion that it was she who asked Karl to allow women to play in the theater.
After the marriage of Charles II of England to Catherine of Bragan Britain, it was allowed to use Portuguese ports in the colonies. Thus, tea came to England, in addition, Catherine loved this drink, so tea parties soon became popular throughout the kingdom. Then the first coffee houses appeared in Britain. In 1667, with the approval of the monarch, pubs began to open in England. The first one, Old Cheshire Cheese, serves customers today.
These are the main cultural innovations of that era, if we talk about them briefly. The English king Charles II, however, remained in the memory of his descendants as a monarch, who was exclusively interested in orgies, his own pleasures and dwarf cocker spaniels.
Last hours
Carl Stuart died unexpectedly on February 6, 1685. According to the conclusion of the doctors treating him, the cause of his death was an apoplexy stroke (stroke). But a later reassessment of the symptoms described in the documents allowed researchers to conclude that the cause of the king's death could be renal failure caused by gout.
Charles II professed Protestantism for the sake of gaining and maintaining power, but deep down he remained faithful to the Catholic faith, which became apparent on his deathbed. It is known that a Catholic priest secretly made his way to the dying king, who 30 years earlier had helped him escape from Cromwell's soldiers. So, in the last hours of his life, Karl again adopted Catholicism.
He was buried on February 14 at Westminster Abbey.