The Return of the King
General Monck acts:
After Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 his son, Richard tried to govern as Lord Protector but he possessed none of the force of will of his father nor his support in the army and he was deposed. The Rump parliament tried to rule but itself was dismissed by one of Cromwell’s officers, Lambert. Lambert tried to impose a military rule but his days in power were limited.
General Monck, Cromwell’s trusted lieutenant in Scotland marched south in late 1659 with his army aiming to restore order and parliament. Lambert went out to meet him but his army deserted him and the Rump Parliament was restored.
Monck arrived in London in February 1660 and finding the Rump Parliament obstructive set about recalling the Long Parliament (the last full parliament originally summoned by Charles I many years before.) Lambert was sent to the Tower, escaped and tried to cause a republican uprising by summoning supporters to Edgehill but he was captured and this time did not escape. The Long Parliament, under Monck’s guidance passed legislation designed to summon a Convention Parliament, whose role was to decide about the future of the nation, and then dissolved itself.
Monck, on behalf of the Convention Parliament began putting out feelers to Charles II, exploring the possibility of a restoration but seeking reassurances over reprisals. Charles, taking a pragmatic approach issued the Declaration of Breda in March 1660. This laid out conditions for his return which promised there would be NO reprisals against individuals for fighting against his father, nor against parliament with one exception. Anyone who had signed the execution order for Charles I was to be put to death themselves.
Party time in London: Charles returns!
The Convention parliament passed an act which stated that Charles II had been king since his father’s execution in 1649 – in effect wiping the years of the Commonwealth away. Charles arrived in London on May 29th 1660 and entered the city under scenes of ecstatic excitement as if the country had been holding its breath during the dreary years of puritan goverment and now, all that drabness swept away, they let it all out in one huge celebration.
Regicides
Of the 59 judges who had signed Charles I’s death warrant, 31 still lived. 8 of these along with three captains who had commanded the guards at the execution and the prosecuting lawyer were all executed at Tyburn by the grizzly method of hanging, drawing and quartering. Cromwell and two other senior republicans were exhumated and their corpses hung. Cromwell’s head was then mounted on a spike on Westminster Hall.
Early Reign 1661 to 1664
In the early years, Charles appointed as chancellor Edward Hyde. At the same time, Anne Hyde, Hyde’s daughter, revealed that she was pregnant by Charles’s brother, James, whom she had secretly married. Edward Hyde, was created Earl of Clarendon and his position as Charles’s favourite minister was strengthened.
Charles’s coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. Shortly after the coronation, the ‘Cavalier Parliament’ was summoned and was, not surprisingly , it was overwhelmingly Royalist and Anglican.
The Cavalier Parliaments main aim was to discourage non-conformity to the Church of England, and so it passed several acts to secure this. Municipal office holders in the city were obliged to swear alliegance to the established church  in The Corporation Act 1661. The Act of Uniformity 1662 made the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer compulsory. The Conventicle Act 1664 prohibited religious assemblies of more than five people, except under the auspices of the Church of England – in effect preventing ANY Catholic gatherings. The Five Mile Act 1665 prohibited clergymen from being inside five miles of a parish from which they had been banished. Much of these acts were known collectively as the Clarendon Code although Clarendon had little to do with them.
The Restoration lead to many changes in society. Puritanism – so dominant in the Commonwealth and the 40’s lost its momentum. Theatres were once again opened and bawdy “Restoration comedy” became popular.
Alliance with Portugal 1661 Â and War with Holland starts again 1665
Soon after Charles’s restoration, Queen Lusa of Portugal, agreed an alliance with England which lead in May 1662 to Charles marrying Catherine of Braganza in Portsmouth. Under the alliance the territories of Tangier and Bombay were transferred to British control which would in the case of Bombay have a large effect on the development of the British Empire in India.
Charles also sold Dunkirk – England’s last enclave in France because it was too costly to maintain.
The Second Dutch War was started as a result of England trying to take control of Dutch colonies. The first year or two of the war went well for the English, with the capture of New Amsterdam (renamed New York ) and a victory at the Battle of Lowestoft.
The Great Plague 1665
London – and indeed all of Europe were familiar with intermittent plagues throughout history with the 14th Century Black Death killing for around 1 in 3 in England. Plagues in the 17th century were not as dramatic as that but the Great Plague of 1665 would kill 100,000 Londoners (and thousands more around the country) and was the last large scale plague in England.
In April 1665 the first case of bubonic plague occurred – thought to be carried in Dutch ships (before the war started). Soon it began to spread with numbers increasing rapidly. By September 1665 7000 people a week were dying and the city was digging great pits to bury the dead in. Those that were able to fled – the Kind going to Salisbury and later Oxford where Parliament also removed itself to. Finally as Autumn turned to winter the death rate slowed and the King and parliament felt safe to return to London early in 1666. Although on a much smaller scale the plague was still going on in the summer of 1666 when something dramatic and terrifying occurred – something which would wipe out the plague once and for all but at a terrible cost.
Next week: By Permission of Heaven – the Great Fire of London
This article is one of a series connected with the release in August of the new paperback of The Last Seal my historical fantasy set during the Great Fire of 1666. The book is also available on Kindle
Related Articles
No user responded in this post