When Charles II finally regained the English throne in 1660, he publicly promised to forgive his enemies. Behind the scenes, however, he had not forgotten the men who beheaded his father, and he was prepared to go to brutal lengths to settle the score. The king’s path back to power had been long and dangerous. Born in 1630, he was the second son of Charles I, with his older brother having died shortly after birth.
From an early age, he was thrust into the turmoil that would define his life. His father’s belief in the divine right of kings clashed with Parliament, culminating in the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642. The young prince witnessed bloody battles and was made commander of Royalist forces in the West Country at just 14 years old. As the Royalist cause collapsed, Charles I made the difficult decision to send his heir to France for safety.
It was a decision that would haunt his son, as Charles II never saw his father again. The king was captured, put on trial for treason, and on January 30, 1649, he became the first English monarch to be executed. In his final moments, he warned his younger son, Henry, not to let the government turn him into a puppet king. Charles II spent the following decade in exile, largely abandoned by the European powers who offered little more than half-hearted sympathy.
His fortunes briefly improved when the Scots proclaimed him king, but they demanded he impose Presbyterianism across Britain. When he hesitated, they executed his best general, forcing him to capitulate. Even then, he was crowned in Scotland only after being captured and coerced, and he faced a devastating defeat at the hands of Oliver Cromwell’s forces. After the defeat, Charles II was forced into a harrowing six-week escape through England, narrowly avoiding capture on several occasions.
He eventually made his way to France and later sought support from Spain, but every alliance seemed to end in disaster. His luck finally changed in 1658 when Cromwell died, leaving his inexperienced son Richard to inherit power, which he held for barely a year before resigning. Parliament soon invited Charles II back to England, declaring that he had been the rightful king since his father’s execution. While his political fortunes were recovering, his personal life was creating a different kind of upheaval.
As a young man in exile, he had begun an affair with Lucy Walter, who bore him a son. When the relationship ended, she spread rumors that they had secretly married in an attempt to claim the throne for her child. The king ignored her claims and went on to have numerous affairs, fathering as many as 14 illegitimate children. His subjects expected him to marry, and in 1662 he wed Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess whose dowry brought valuable territories and wealth to England.
The marriage did little to curb his behavior. At the time of their honeymoon, his mistress Barbara Palmer gave birth to a son, and the king rewarded her with a title that placed her directly in his wife’s household. The queen fainted when she learned what the position meant. Despite pressure from advisers who wanted him to divorce his childless Catholic wife, Charles II refused, although he continued to flaunt his mistresses openly and humiliate her repeatedly.
His reign was also tested by catastrophe. In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, claiming up to 7,000 lives per week. The court fled the city, leaving behind only those too poor to escape. As the disease subsided, life slowly returned to normal, but the city was soon hit by an even greater disaster.
In September 1666, a fire broke out in a bakery and spread rapidly through London. The lord mayor refused Charles II’s offer of assistance, and the fire raged far worse than it should have. The later years of his reign were dominated by political turmoil. After his wife’s pregnancies ended in miscarriage, the question of succession became urgent.
His brother James was the official heir, but he was openly Catholic, a fact that alarmed the Protestant public. A conspiracy theory known as the Popish Plot falsely alleged that Catholics planned to assassinate the king. Parliament was swept up in the hysteria and pushed for war with France, which Charles II quietly worked to prevent. In 1683, a group of Protestants who had once feared a fake plot hatched a real one.
They planned to ambush the king and his Catholic brother as they returned from horse racing at Newmarket. The assassination only failed because a fire destroyed the town and the races were cancelled. Charles II had survived by pure luck. His life came to an end in February 1685, after he suffered a seizure.
For four days, doctors subjected him to painful treatments including bloodletting and cupping, none of which helped. Realizing the end was near, he made peace with his family and apologised to his wife for his treatment of her. In his final moments, he stunned those around him by converting to the Roman Catholic faith and receiving last rites. He died at the age of 54.
Even in death, the king’s need for revenge was not satisfied. Oliver Cromwell, the man most responsible for his father’s execution, had died years before Charles II took power. That did not stop the king from taking his revenge. On the anniversary of Charles I’s execution in 1661, Cromwell’s body was exhumed and subjected to a posthumous execution.
His corpse was hanged in chains in London and then buried in a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall for nearly 25 years.
