Charles II 1660-1685
1658-60 Years of chaos: why did the Interregnum fail?
- The Interregnum regime finally collapsed when General Monck invited all
those excluded by Pride’s Purge of 1648 to return to Parliament.
- But the Long Parliament, feared by many because of its associations with
the civil war, dissolved itself and a Convention Parliament was elected.
- April 1659: Richard Cromwell was overthrown, and parliament dismissed
by the army.
- May-October 1659: the Rump.
- July-August 1659: Royalist uprisings in the North-west and the Midlands.
- December 1659: a revival of the Left and fears over religious radicals
encourages Monck to demand the return of the Rump.
- January 1660: Monck marches on England, brushing aside the forces of
Lambert.
- February 1660: Monck takes London and re-forms the Long Parliament; it
dissolves itself in March.
- April-May 1660: The Convention parliament meets and calls for a return of
the monarchy.
- Cromwell’s death in September 1658 exposed the weaknesses of the
regime.
- Majority of the country had been horrified by the regicide, but powerless
to resist the radical minority who were enabled by the army.
- The army were united in regicide but divided by 1658.
- By 1657 the regimes were taking on the appearance of the monarchy, but
without authority.
From anarchy to order
- There was chaos following the death of Cromwell (the Rump formed twice,
the army attempted to take over, and the Long Parliament was reformed
in Feb 1660).
- The army was divided: Lambert v. Monck.
- The Long Parliament dissolved itself on 16th March 1660.
- April 1660 elections were organised for a Convention Parliament (and ran
until 29th Dec 1660). A ‘convention parliament’ is one not called by a
monarch. It was Monck who set the date for the new elections.
England at the Restoration
- People wanted the monarchy to return from a position of desperation.
- In early 1660 the Republic collapsed because it no longer, unlike the
regimes of the Rump (1649-53) and Oliver Cromwell (1653-58), provided
some semblance of stability and security.
- The kingdom was chaotic, even anarchic in early 1660.
- The panic and fear of religious sects like the Quakers, that drove the
propertied classes of England into the arms of the Stuarts again, was
shared by many others.
April-December 1660: Convention Parliament
,- Within a week of its first meeting in April 1660 the Convention Parliament
resolved that government ought to be in the hands of King, Lords, and
Commons, and agreed to bring Charles Stuart back to England.
- It was, however, clear – and Monck conveyed this to Charles – that people
in England needed to be reassured that he didn’t want to establish an
absolutist regime.
- 1st May 1660: the two Houses voted to restore the king.
- 29th May 1660: Charles arrived back in London.
The power of the Crown after 1660
- Veto legislation.
- Dispense individuals from parliamentary statutes, especially from penal
laws.
- Suspend statutes completely.
- Call and dissolve parliaments (Triennial Act 1664 – gave Charles II greater
control over this).
- Make foreign policy.
- Control the army and militia.
- Appoint ministers, privy councillors, state officials, key church and local
government posts.
Would the monarchy be weaker?
It would be weaker:
- Civil Wars and regicide.
- Kings were no longer divine, only mere mortals.
- Parliament had been asserting their rights
- Political and religious divisions in the country.
- The army were divided.
- Charles had been in France.
- Charles’s father was Charles I.
It would be stronger:
- The political nation had asked for the Restoration.
- England was a larger and more powerful state.
- The navy was three times larger in 1662 than it had been in 1642.
- There was a standing army, and Monck supported the Restoration.
- A more efficient tax system.
- Taxes now based on imports and exports (the excise) rather than feudal
impositions. Taxes ALL had to be voted on in Parliament.
The Stuart monarchs
- James I and Charles II knew how to compromise, and did not seek to force
their beliefs onto others (unlike Charles I).
- They were also both financially extravagant.
- James I had been particularly adept at dealing with religious policy, unlike
Charles I.
- Charles I married a French princess and pursued Arminianism; Charles II
forged a close alliance with France’s hegemonic Catholic-Absolutist
regime, and he ‘converted’ to Catholicism on his deathbed.
- James II was openly Catholic from 1673 (Test Act).
, Charles’ character
- Aged 12 when the English Civil War broke out, 18 when his father was
executed, and 21 when his attempts to regain the throne were crushed
and he fled for his life, he had then spent the rest of the Interregnum in
France and (from 1656) the Spanish Netherlands.
- Tall, athletically built, he took exercise every day and enthusiastically
pursued a variety of sports.
- He assiduously attended meetings of the Privy Council and was always
highly accessible to his subjects.
Was England finally ‘healed and settled’?
- A hereditary monarchy, the House of Lords, an established Church of
England.
- The kingdoms simply went back to pre-1649 and tried to erase the Civil
Wars, the Revolution and the Interregnum from recent memory.
- Coward argues ‘much was restored but very little was settled’.
The character of the Restoration
- Pros: Political skill/ability to compromise, ‘strong’ pro-monarchist feeling
stemming from the Restoration.
- Cons: Too close to France, financial extravagance, corrupt and devoted to
pleasure (and a preference for ‘Catholic’ policies).
- The chaos of the last years of the Interregnum added to the ‘popularity’ of
the new king.
- The monarchist sentiment that made the Restoration happen in the first
place benefited Charles and he gained support.
- The hatred for the Interregnum regimes meant Charles got automatic
support, as he was perceived to be the only viable alternative.
- Many who welcomed the restoration were eager to reverse what Cromwell
had done, and suppress the things associated with it, such as
Independency and the radical religious sects.
King by what right?
- In one sense, the Cavalier parliament of 1661-79 was a regime of revenge
– and went far further than Charles wanted it to.
- It acted to punish the remaining regicides of 1649, return the estates
which had been confiscated from royalists in the 1640s to their old
owners, and to crush both Presbyterianism and Puritanism.
- But in a very real sense the new order was precisely that: a confirmation,
rather than a refutation, of the changes wrought since the 1640s.
Religion and the Monarchy
- The political nation not only sought to destroy Puritanism, but also
detested Catholicism, too. It was this that prevented Charles II from
embracing the Catholic faith until he was close to death.
, - During the exclusion crisis (1679-81) three Exclusion bills sought to
exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York,
from the thrones of the three kingdoms because he was Roman Catholic.
- None became law – so James became James II in 1685.
- James would be the last Catholic king of England.
- A botched attempt at removing him with a military coup to place his
illegitimate Protestant nephew on the throne was made in 1685.
- But Parliament was to succeed in overthrowing him in 1688 in favour of a
Dutch-born, Protestant Prince who was married to James’ daughter, Mary.
1st May 1660: Declaration of Breda
- Charles moved to Breda (a city in the Netherlands). This distanced him
from the association of Catholicism.
- It was away from the Catholic absolutist residence of Louis XIV. Holland
was Protestant.
- The Declaration of Breda was sent to England and read to the Convention
Parliament on 1st May 1660:
- “Harmony and reconciliation… in partnership with Parliament… Liberty to
tender consciences”
What was the significance of the Declaration?
- All of those things promised – no harsh punishment of Parliamentarians
and Cromwellians, a partnership with Parliament, religious tolerance –
were pursued by Charles. He was sincere.
- ‘Liberty to tender consciences’: Charles was keen to win over his enemies,
so using Cromwellian language was clever to emphasise ‘healing and
settling’.
- This indicated that religious toleration would continue.
- 2nd May 1660: Parliament passed a resolution that ‘government ought to
be by King, Lords and Commons’.
- 8th May 1660: Charles was proclaimed King (insofar as he had been the
lawful king since 30th Jan 1649).
Charles II ruled from 29th May 1660 and was crowned on 23rd April 1661
Charles needed to reassure people in England that he didn’t want to
establish an absolutist regime.
To reassure England, he offered:
- A guarantee of a ‘free and general pardon’ to any old enemies of Charles I
and Charles II who recognised Charles II as their lawful monarch.
- The promise of a free parliament.
- Religious toleration.
29th August 1660: Act of Indemnity and Oblivion
- The Convention Parliament continued to sit until the end of 1660.
- It passed the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (1660), which was intended to
reunite the nation under the restored monarchy by pardoning the majority
of those who had opposed the Crown during the civil wars and
Interregnum.
1658-60 Years of chaos: why did the Interregnum fail?
- The Interregnum regime finally collapsed when General Monck invited all
those excluded by Pride’s Purge of 1648 to return to Parliament.
- But the Long Parliament, feared by many because of its associations with
the civil war, dissolved itself and a Convention Parliament was elected.
- April 1659: Richard Cromwell was overthrown, and parliament dismissed
by the army.
- May-October 1659: the Rump.
- July-August 1659: Royalist uprisings in the North-west and the Midlands.
- December 1659: a revival of the Left and fears over religious radicals
encourages Monck to demand the return of the Rump.
- January 1660: Monck marches on England, brushing aside the forces of
Lambert.
- February 1660: Monck takes London and re-forms the Long Parliament; it
dissolves itself in March.
- April-May 1660: The Convention parliament meets and calls for a return of
the monarchy.
- Cromwell’s death in September 1658 exposed the weaknesses of the
regime.
- Majority of the country had been horrified by the regicide, but powerless
to resist the radical minority who were enabled by the army.
- The army were united in regicide but divided by 1658.
- By 1657 the regimes were taking on the appearance of the monarchy, but
without authority.
From anarchy to order
- There was chaos following the death of Cromwell (the Rump formed twice,
the army attempted to take over, and the Long Parliament was reformed
in Feb 1660).
- The army was divided: Lambert v. Monck.
- The Long Parliament dissolved itself on 16th March 1660.
- April 1660 elections were organised for a Convention Parliament (and ran
until 29th Dec 1660). A ‘convention parliament’ is one not called by a
monarch. It was Monck who set the date for the new elections.
England at the Restoration
- People wanted the monarchy to return from a position of desperation.
- In early 1660 the Republic collapsed because it no longer, unlike the
regimes of the Rump (1649-53) and Oliver Cromwell (1653-58), provided
some semblance of stability and security.
- The kingdom was chaotic, even anarchic in early 1660.
- The panic and fear of religious sects like the Quakers, that drove the
propertied classes of England into the arms of the Stuarts again, was
shared by many others.
April-December 1660: Convention Parliament
,- Within a week of its first meeting in April 1660 the Convention Parliament
resolved that government ought to be in the hands of King, Lords, and
Commons, and agreed to bring Charles Stuart back to England.
- It was, however, clear – and Monck conveyed this to Charles – that people
in England needed to be reassured that he didn’t want to establish an
absolutist regime.
- 1st May 1660: the two Houses voted to restore the king.
- 29th May 1660: Charles arrived back in London.
The power of the Crown after 1660
- Veto legislation.
- Dispense individuals from parliamentary statutes, especially from penal
laws.
- Suspend statutes completely.
- Call and dissolve parliaments (Triennial Act 1664 – gave Charles II greater
control over this).
- Make foreign policy.
- Control the army and militia.
- Appoint ministers, privy councillors, state officials, key church and local
government posts.
Would the monarchy be weaker?
It would be weaker:
- Civil Wars and regicide.
- Kings were no longer divine, only mere mortals.
- Parliament had been asserting their rights
- Political and religious divisions in the country.
- The army were divided.
- Charles had been in France.
- Charles’s father was Charles I.
It would be stronger:
- The political nation had asked for the Restoration.
- England was a larger and more powerful state.
- The navy was three times larger in 1662 than it had been in 1642.
- There was a standing army, and Monck supported the Restoration.
- A more efficient tax system.
- Taxes now based on imports and exports (the excise) rather than feudal
impositions. Taxes ALL had to be voted on in Parliament.
The Stuart monarchs
- James I and Charles II knew how to compromise, and did not seek to force
their beliefs onto others (unlike Charles I).
- They were also both financially extravagant.
- James I had been particularly adept at dealing with religious policy, unlike
Charles I.
- Charles I married a French princess and pursued Arminianism; Charles II
forged a close alliance with France’s hegemonic Catholic-Absolutist
regime, and he ‘converted’ to Catholicism on his deathbed.
- James II was openly Catholic from 1673 (Test Act).
, Charles’ character
- Aged 12 when the English Civil War broke out, 18 when his father was
executed, and 21 when his attempts to regain the throne were crushed
and he fled for his life, he had then spent the rest of the Interregnum in
France and (from 1656) the Spanish Netherlands.
- Tall, athletically built, he took exercise every day and enthusiastically
pursued a variety of sports.
- He assiduously attended meetings of the Privy Council and was always
highly accessible to his subjects.
Was England finally ‘healed and settled’?
- A hereditary monarchy, the House of Lords, an established Church of
England.
- The kingdoms simply went back to pre-1649 and tried to erase the Civil
Wars, the Revolution and the Interregnum from recent memory.
- Coward argues ‘much was restored but very little was settled’.
The character of the Restoration
- Pros: Political skill/ability to compromise, ‘strong’ pro-monarchist feeling
stemming from the Restoration.
- Cons: Too close to France, financial extravagance, corrupt and devoted to
pleasure (and a preference for ‘Catholic’ policies).
- The chaos of the last years of the Interregnum added to the ‘popularity’ of
the new king.
- The monarchist sentiment that made the Restoration happen in the first
place benefited Charles and he gained support.
- The hatred for the Interregnum regimes meant Charles got automatic
support, as he was perceived to be the only viable alternative.
- Many who welcomed the restoration were eager to reverse what Cromwell
had done, and suppress the things associated with it, such as
Independency and the radical religious sects.
King by what right?
- In one sense, the Cavalier parliament of 1661-79 was a regime of revenge
– and went far further than Charles wanted it to.
- It acted to punish the remaining regicides of 1649, return the estates
which had been confiscated from royalists in the 1640s to their old
owners, and to crush both Presbyterianism and Puritanism.
- But in a very real sense the new order was precisely that: a confirmation,
rather than a refutation, of the changes wrought since the 1640s.
Religion and the Monarchy
- The political nation not only sought to destroy Puritanism, but also
detested Catholicism, too. It was this that prevented Charles II from
embracing the Catholic faith until he was close to death.
, - During the exclusion crisis (1679-81) three Exclusion bills sought to
exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York,
from the thrones of the three kingdoms because he was Roman Catholic.
- None became law – so James became James II in 1685.
- James would be the last Catholic king of England.
- A botched attempt at removing him with a military coup to place his
illegitimate Protestant nephew on the throne was made in 1685.
- But Parliament was to succeed in overthrowing him in 1688 in favour of a
Dutch-born, Protestant Prince who was married to James’ daughter, Mary.
1st May 1660: Declaration of Breda
- Charles moved to Breda (a city in the Netherlands). This distanced him
from the association of Catholicism.
- It was away from the Catholic absolutist residence of Louis XIV. Holland
was Protestant.
- The Declaration of Breda was sent to England and read to the Convention
Parliament on 1st May 1660:
- “Harmony and reconciliation… in partnership with Parliament… Liberty to
tender consciences”
What was the significance of the Declaration?
- All of those things promised – no harsh punishment of Parliamentarians
and Cromwellians, a partnership with Parliament, religious tolerance –
were pursued by Charles. He was sincere.
- ‘Liberty to tender consciences’: Charles was keen to win over his enemies,
so using Cromwellian language was clever to emphasise ‘healing and
settling’.
- This indicated that religious toleration would continue.
- 2nd May 1660: Parliament passed a resolution that ‘government ought to
be by King, Lords and Commons’.
- 8th May 1660: Charles was proclaimed King (insofar as he had been the
lawful king since 30th Jan 1649).
Charles II ruled from 29th May 1660 and was crowned on 23rd April 1661
Charles needed to reassure people in England that he didn’t want to
establish an absolutist regime.
To reassure England, he offered:
- A guarantee of a ‘free and general pardon’ to any old enemies of Charles I
and Charles II who recognised Charles II as their lawful monarch.
- The promise of a free parliament.
- Religious toleration.
29th August 1660: Act of Indemnity and Oblivion
- The Convention Parliament continued to sit until the end of 1660.
- It passed the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion (1660), which was intended to
reunite the nation under the restored monarchy by pardoning the majority
of those who had opposed the Crown during the civil wars and
Interregnum.
