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 discredited the monarchy with numerous love affairs.
Short childhood
Charles II was born in 1630 on May 29 at St. James's Palace (London). As the second child, he actually became the heir to the throne, as his older brother died, barely born, a year before. In total, Henrietta of France and Charles I had 9 children.
Due to his status as the eldest son, Charles already in infancy received the title of Duke of Cornwall (as heir to the English monarch) and Duke of Rothesay (as heir to the throne of Scotland), and a little later Prince of Wales.
His father, the introverted and cold Charles I, professed Protestantism, adhering to the idea of strict order and hierarchy. It was he who instilled in his son the idea of the divinity of roy alty. However, the boy was closer to his mother, the Catholic Henrietta Maria of France. This internal conflict will accompany Karl all his life. Protestantism will mean power for him, and Catholicism will mean inner peace.
It would seem that Carl was waiting for a cloudless future that did not portend any shocks. However, his childhood ended unexpectedly quickly. When he was only 10 years old in England, a political conflict broke out between the king and parliament, which eventually developed into a civil war and revolution.
In exile
In October 1642, the King led his loyal troops at the Battle of Edgehill. On this campaign, he was accompanied by a 12-year-old heir. Then the royalists were victorious, although they could not regain control of the capital. However, three years later they were defeated by the parliamentary army led by O. Cromwell.
From that moment on, Karl began a long period of exile. For the next 18 years, the Stuarts wandered from one European court to another. For security purposes, 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 W alter, and from this connection his first illegitimate son was born.
Already at that time, the tendency of the future English king Charles 2 to a frivolous life was clearly manifested. The circle of his interests was limited to balls, games, hunting, dresses and women. All this, of course, negatively affected his reputation at European courts.
England becomes a republic
While Karl was having fun in exile, his trial was taking place in Londonfather, who was accused of 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, outraged by the execution of the monarch, sent a delegation to Holland to visit him. The ambassadors suggested that Charles sign a renunciation of Catholicism in exchange for support for 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 puritanical customs, so alien to his nature. For example, he could not leave the palace on Sundays. This day should have been devoted exclusively to sermons. Karl sometimes had to listen to 6 sermons in a row. This could not endear him to the new faith, although it provided him with a path to power.
Meanwhile, Cromwell, who had declared himself Lord Protector, was forming an army. It was supposed to destroy once and for all the threat posed to the republic by a legitimate pretender to the throne. In early September of the same year, Royalist troops met with the Republican army near Edinburgh.
The battle was lost by the Scots, and Charles was blamed for the defeat. He was forced to writea letter in which he admitted that the defeat of the army was God's punishment for the sins of his family. It was the only way for him to take the Scottish throne.
The coronation took place on January 1 next year 1651, and in early August, Charles, along with the Scottish army, crossed the border.
Defeat and flight abroad
Cromwell's troops outnumbered the Scots twice. Despite the courage of Charles, his army suffered a crushing defeat at Worcester in early September 1651. A reward of 1,000 pounds sterling was set for his capture. The legitimate heir to the throne of England was valued at this amount.
Charles II was saved by a simple farmer who hid him in a mill under the guise of a laborer. But since Cromwell's soldiers carefully searched all the village buildings, Charles decided on a bold act: he hid in the branches of a large oak tree, while his savior pretended to collect brushwood under it. Since that time, the oak has been called the royal oak.
Later, the Royalists transported him to central England, where he took refuge in a priest's cell, left over from 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 befitting a monarch. Karl at first began to look for allies. But Denmark and Holland refused to support him, and Portugal, Sweden and Spain had already signed trade agreements with the English Republic. Disappointments prompted Carl to turn to entertainment. He began courting the ladies so zealously that one of hisadvisors wrote:
The king is inexorably losing his reputation, he is so given to pleasure that he will ruin the whole thing if he stays here.
Even the free-spirited French court was shocked by his behavior. Cardinal Mazarin offered Stewart a small allowance if he left the country. In the summer of 1654, Charles left for Holland, where he lived in great need.
Portrait stroke
Many researchers note a striking fact: despite the blows of fate, experienced personal tragedies, humiliations and a forced 20-year exile, Karl did not harden. On the contrary, he retained a cheerful and carefree disposition. This trait of his character was so obvious that he went down in history under the nickname of the Jolly King.
Long live the king
1658 brought changes - Cromwell died in London, and the people were already tired of the disasters of the revolution, so the proposal of General J. Monk to restore the monarchy by calling the rightful heir to the throne was met with approval by the British. Thus, in 1660, Parliament proclaimed Charles II King of England, Scotland and Ireland. On the day of his 30th birthday, to the enthusiastic cries of the crowd, he entered London.
According to the Breda Declaration, promulgated in the same year, the new monarch promised amnesty to the participants in the revolution and the dominant position of the Anglican Church.
Obviously, many years spent in poverty became the reason that Charles, after accession to the throne, sought to receive all the pleasures available to the monarch. By his commandSt. James Palace was transformed into the likeness of Versailles. He constantly changed favorites, showered favors on courtiers, invited musicians and singers from Italy and France.
Of course, such a way of life very soon affected the state of the treasury. Karl solved the issue with the missing funds simply - he married Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. True, he squandered his wife's dowry very quickly, so in search of new money, he sold the English fortress of Dunkirk to France, located on the continent.
Failures in the foreign policy of Charles II
In 1667, England, which was at war with Holland for maritime trade, was terribly humiliated. The Dutch fleet burned 4 ships and captured the English flagship. The advisers forced the king to make peace with the Netherlands, which caused a storm of indignation in the country. However, for the king, this was just an annoying hindrance, because it distracted him from love entertainment.
State affairs, meanwhile, reached an impasse: the church demanded the adoption of laws prohibiting any religion other than the Anglican one, the war with the Netherlands devastated the treasury, and 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 that the plight of Catholics in England be alleviated. Charles promised that at the right moment he would declare himself an adherent 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 go to reconciliation with Parliament, which forced him to tighten laws against Catholics.
Tea and more
If Karl Stewart did not succeed in the affairs of government, then he undoubtedly left a mark on culture.
On his orders, an observatory was founded in Greenwich, as well as the English Royal Society. It was he who, after decades of revolutionary prohibition, again allowed theaters to be opened in the country. In the West End, the first of them was built in 1663 (still preserved). Nellie Gwyn, the king's favorite, performed on its stage. There is an opinion that it was she who begged Carl to allow women to play in the theater.
After the marriage of Charles II of England to Catherine of Braganza, Britain was allowed to use Portuguese ports in the colonies. Thus, tea came to England, in addition, Catherine loved this drink, so tea drinking soon became popular throughout the kingdom. At the same time, the first coffee houses appeared in Britain. In 1667, with the approval of the monarch, pubs began to open in England. The first of them - "Old Cheshire Cheese" - serves customers today.
These are the main cultural innovations of that era, in a nutshell. The English king Charles II, however, remained in the memory of his descendants as a monarch who was only interested in orgies, his own pleasures and dwarfcocker spaniels.
Last Hours
Karl Stuart died unexpectedly on February 6, 1685. According to the conclusion of the doctors who treated him, the cause of his death was an apoplexy (stroke). But a later reassessment of the symptoms described in the documents led the researchers to conclude that the cause of death of the king could be kidney failure caused by gout.
Charles II professed Protestantism in order to gain and maintain 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 helped him escape from Cromwell's soldiers. So, in the last hours of his life, Karl again converted to Catholicism.
He was buried at Westminster Abbey on February 14.
