Biographical Sketch of Charles II

Charles II was the second son of King Charles I and Henrietta Marie of France. Charles II was pronounced the Prince of Wales from birth. In 1641 Charles II took his seat in the House of Lords where he attained an insignificant military command in the early campaigns of the first civil war of the English Revolution. As a teenager he fought Parliament’s Roundhead forces until his father’s execution in 1649. Upon his father’s execution Charles II assumed the title of king in Scotland, parts of Ireland, and England, then ruled by Oliver Cromwell. Shortly after he accepted t

Charles II was both a good and bad ruler of England because he established stability in England and also created confusion and disarray. His reign helped England to restore the monarch of old England. It is because of his reign that this era of England is known as the time of “Merry Olde England.”

The first decade of Charles II reign as an English monarch was beleaguered by several issues. The monetary agreement made between Louis XVI of France and Charles II plunged England into a war with the Netherlands. The Great Plague of 1665 left the country in disarray and the Fire of London in 1666 devastated many of the cities. In 1667 five battleships were sunk by the Dutch in the Medway. The second decade of his reign however was not much better. The 1670s were marked by more wars, political power struggles, and religious di

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