so hello and welcome to another episode of biographics I'm your interim host Carl Smallwood and today we're talking about Charles II the merry Monarch and since we're talking about that Oso British thing of a member of royalty have a lovely cup of tea that was very hot and burned my tongue and I should mention that like all our videos this one is based on an original script submitted by a member of our stable of writers this one being Larry holsworth you can follow them on their social media links if they provided them below alongside my own but let's get to it on May 6 2023 Charles II's coronation ceremony was held in London I didn't watch it um I was asleep following this celebration of his Ascension to the throne which actually occurred upon the death of Elizabeth II the preceding September the king prominently displayed two objects from the crown jewels The Sovereign orb which represents the power of the Monarch and it sat as a gift of God and The Sovereign scepter which represents his worldly Authority both of which were important symbols in the role of the Monarch and yeah just the fact that like our King as to we like a million pound hat and carried the holy hand grenade from worms and a big gold stick is endlessly hilarious to me both the orb and the scepter had originally been made for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661 Charles II returned a monarch to Britain after the period known in British history as the internum while however Cromwell had ruled Britain as an alleged Republic though in truth it had been a dictatorship Mar with religious tolerance and persecution like he literally banned Christmas football and drinking three things that I hope everyone knows are very important to British culture so Charles II's father oddly named Charles the first had been convicted of treason treason like big AES there and beheaded for his many crimes his followers commonly called the Cavaliers had endured persecution at home and many fled to Europe or North America in Exile and that's where we get the uh King Charles Spaniel the long hair of the Cavaliers I like that I like that with has got a dog named after a member of our royal family the new crown jewels were necessary in 1661 because cromwell's followers had melted down the crown and ornaments worn by previous monarchs certain that such objects would never be needed again the restoration of the monarchy proved otherwise and though the Royal house has changed since the return of the Stewarts the throne has remained the orb and the scepter have been displayed by every British monarch since Charles II held them at the culmination of a youth which have been harrowing at best his Reign his impact on Britain and thus the world remains sensive here is just a small part of his story starting of course at the beginning so Charles II was born on May 29th 1630 in St James's Palace in the city of Westminster London his father was of course Charles I and his mother was Henrietta Maria the sister of King Louis I 13th of France Henrietta was a Catholic as was her mother Marie deadish and Catholicism was at the time held in deep suspicion by br British Protestants for its perceived loyalty to the pope but also for its connections to the courts of France and Spain and if you know anything about Britain it's that we just don't like our neighbors even other neighbors with within Britain even other neighbors who live in the same town if they happen to be on the other side of it I went to a high school and there was another High School less than a mile away and every day there be fist fights between the members of those high schools because they went to the other High School we're are very contentious people is what I'm saying so moving on the connection between Charles II and France were not merely religious though one French King was his uncle subsequent French Kings were cousins and Charles like most European Royals could count relatives among the courts throughout Continental Europe so young Charles was about 12 years of age when religious and political disputes in Britain devolved into what was known as the first English Civil War in 1642 Britain split into two factions deemed The royalists Who unsurprisingly support the Royals and were known as the Cavaliers and the parliamentarians known as The Roundheads for the shape of their helmets worn by their troops and not as some say like the really bad haircuts they had and I say this with a bad haircut I will get it caught soon but I I've been busy recording these videos The Roundheads claimed to be the true Britains while the Cavaliers were derided as traitors to Britain mere Servants of the Catholic monarchs in Spain and France and ultimately the pope by 1646 the declining military situation of the royalist dictated that Charles who would until then serve with his father's troops flee to safety he found sanctuary in France where he lived under the protection of his cousin Louis the 14th then all of 8 years age his father Charles I first surrendered to the Scottish Presbyterian Army that supported Cromwell in May 1646 the following January the King was handed over to Parliament and held under house arrest like we had a big house it was okay he later escaped fled to the aisle of white and was again held in custody at carisbrook Castle in 1647 from there he negotiated an alliance with Scottish leaders who promised to invade England on his behalf Charles I first agreed to the terms which included the establishment of presbyterianism as the state religion of England once the Scots prevailed in their Invasion during the ensuing War the second English Civil War the English army prevailed over the Scots adversaries following the conflict Charles the first attempted to continue to negotiate with all parties but Cromwell by then had decided to establish a military government with himself as its head Charles the first was placed in custody of cromwell's army to be tried for treason during this period his son the future child II remained in Europe attempting to negotiate support for his father's cause he lived with no income other than that from the charity of relatives and supporters which as mentioned were Kings and other Royals so he was doing okay he failed to gain much support on the continent Financial or military and he was forced to watch helplessly from Exile as events in England unfolded on January 30th 1649 Charles the first was beheaded in London the following day they took his head reattached it to his body embed it and then interred it at Windsor Castle the actor reggis Drew should we say harsh reactions from royalists would you believe it in Europe and in Scotland the Covenant of parliament named Charles II then at the hag King of Scotland England and Ireland they then Bann the king from entering his new dominions until he agreed to establish presbyterianism as the state religion in all three Charles II at first envisioned the idea of entering his dominions with an army invading Scotland and removing the parliament he had Lord montose take a small army to the orany islands where he was to threaten Scotland with an invasion as means of strengthening his negotiating position with Scottish leaders montro decided to heroically ignore this and invade Scotland instead he was defeated and executed for his troubles always listen to the guy with the best hair at that point Charles II agreed to Scottish terms including Presbyterian government in all of his domains and entered Scotland in June 1650 his agreement made popular in Scotland but less so in England it also led to another War the anglo-scottish war of 1650 to 1652 it was just there was all else to do in that war which the primary English army called the new Model Army was again led by Oliver Cromwell fate did not spile on Charles and his supporters military defeats leding to flee causing one of the better known Adventures of his life Charles fled from the decisive royalist defeat at the Battle of wer wer Worster even I someone who lives here mispronounce um uh British town and city name sometimes for any Americans out there who would like a challenge um hopefully the editor can figure this out if we leave this in but here's the city of um B Chester B Chester yes it is pronounced that way despite being spelled like that Charles fled from the decisive royalist defeat at the Battle of wer on September 3rd 1651 accompanied by a small party of supporters as he flared Cromwell announced a bounty for information as to Charles's whereabouts as well as threats of arrest and execution for anyone who aided the future king during his flight he stayed in the houses and ins of royalist supporters many of them Catholics several times he was forced to dupart rapidly literally sometime just ahead of cromwell's men searching for him he initially attempted to reach perceive safety among supporters was in London he reached the white L's Priory late on September 4th the following day his party attempted and failed to cross the river 7 returning to the prior he was forced to leave and hide in a nearby wood hiding in of all things the branches of a nearby oak tree and while it sounds like you know a fun story you'd maybe tell kids like Charles II was very fond of his time in the tree as we're about to get to so Charles spent a full day hiding in this tree which became known to posterity as the Royal Oak he later enjoyed telling this story of his stay in the oak tree and the story became part of the celebrations of Royal Oak day in Britain like he loved it he stayed in a tree following his stay in the white ladies prior and other safe houses and a tree Charles eventually made it safer to Shor room before sailing to France arriving there on October 16th 1651 during the course of his Escape he disguised himself as a farmer cropped his forly long hair adopted the language and accents expected of a commoner he also adopted the habit of appearing stooped in an attempt to mask his considerably taller of an average height for the time he also endured several close calls he was nonetheless recognized he was royalty frequently escaping roundhead Soldiers by mere moments numerous supporters he made contact with along the way paid for their failures to report him with their very lives and this is just like I might not have a chance to tell this story on this channel so presumably there's been a biographics about the queen like Queen Elizabeth II she's called the queen here um she took to wearing um very like bright loud um single color pastel dresses and a matching hat later in her life and it became like a symbol of her and the reason she did that is because she wanted to be like picked out in crowds CU she knew that people would queue up for hours and days to see her so she thought if I wear the biggest most garish hats and dress combo possible people pick me out of a crowd and when she was asked like think do people really struggle to pick you out of a crowd your majesty you are the queen you're literally on our money she responded it happens more than you'd think and she told the story of when she she was uh walking around the place she owns in Scotland or she did before she died and um she was out for a walk and met some American tourists and they were talking to the queen being quite polite say oh so I understand the queen lives around here so yeah I've heard that too like have you ever met her and the queen thought for a moment responded no but he has in motion to her bodyguard and the American Tourist took a photo with her bodyguard U which she took she held the camera and took the photo because they wanted to take a pict with someone who'd been near the queen and I just love that story like she the queen was so adorable oh Charles arrived in Paris in late 1651 and took up residence in a luxurious Palace at St Germaine paid for with an allowance granted to him by his cousin there he entered into numerous Palace intrigues as well as attempts to gain support against the government established by Oliver Cromwell in England despite familial and religious Connections in France and the low countries Charles was largely unable to generate support for his restoration to the throne his situation worsened when both France and the Dutch Republic entered into military alliances with cromwell's government France's alliance with England made his presence less than welcome to put it diplomatically and cromwell's agents pressured the French to retain Charles and returning to England cut his head off like they did with his dad Charles turned to Spain which included the southern Netherlands as part of his Empire an alliance between Charles II who styled himself as the King of Scotland Ireland and England and Spain took place in 1656 by the Treaty of Brussels in 1658 Charles a small army of royalist supporters and Spanish troops fought at the Battle of Dunes Against The Joint angl French army Charles's troops were led by his brother James until the failure at the Battle of the Dooms Charles had planed to lead his troops in invasion of England via Scotland the loss of the channel ports necessary to launch such an invasion as well as the loss of men from the battle put an end to those plans he remained in Exile while his enemy Oliver Cromwell died in the government he had managed with an iron-handed deficiency began to crumble under the unep guidance of his successor Richard Cromwell in 1659 Richard resigned as Lord protector the defacto head of government and across Britain chaos and lawlessness reigned the first general election in Britain in almost two decades took place in 1660 and led to a more balanced House of Commons roughly equally divided between royalists and parliamentarians Charles took advantage of this situation by issuing the Declaration of braer on April 4th 1660 named for the city in the United Netherlands where Charles resided the Declaration promised a paron for all crimes committed during the Civil Wars and interum religious tolerance protection of property rights and the return of control of the army to the crown in return for the restoration of the monarchy so pretty sweet deal all things considered in truth Charles had been residing in Brussels in the Spanish Netherlands then still at war with England supporters in England had advised Charles to relocate to brada as to appear to be no longer allied with one of England's enemies Charles also had no intention of extending his pardon to those of the parliamentarians who had supported the Reger side of his dad for obvious reasons as for religious tolerance Charles had never really exhibited any dogmatism regarding any faith and he remained largely indifferent to the issue even during his Reign on May 2nd 1660 parliament passed the resolution defining the government as king Lords and Commons Charles moved to the ha shortly thereafter and from there returned to England on May 25th 1660 he arrived in London on May 29th thereafter celebrated as Oak apple day or more abely the Royal Oak day in Britain well wasn't that an interesting fact or anecdote about a famous person or persons I'm just kidding I know the video is about Charles II we are at least vaguely organized behind the scenes here for anyone out there who has seen me pop up in the occasional video and is wondering who I am I'm Brad I work with Carl and before anyone in the comment section starts saying it no I do not live in his basement I'm just popping in today to talk to you about the sponsor of today's video nordvpn now I know that I'm probably going to sound like a broken record when I say this but the internet is not the safest of places all it takes is for one harmful website pausing as something harmless or one wrong click and someone somewhere out there will know exactly how much pizza you just ordered for you and your friends and also email addresses and passwords and you know other less important stuff if your Online safety 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nordvpn.com sbio it's risk-free with nord's 30-day money back guarantee a big thank you to nordvpn for sponsoring this video now let's get back to the king and Charles II see what I did there I compliment in my friend let's go despite the promises of the Declaration of Brad one of the earliest acts of parliament following Charles II's return to the throne was the indemnity and Oblivion Act of 1660 which of course sounds perfectly reasonable and nothing can go wrong with that written by Edward Hyde soon to be titled the Earl of Clarendon the Act issued a general pardon of crimes committed during the Civil Wars in interna though it Exempted crimes such as murder rape or the sexual assaults piracy and of all things witchcraft we are talking about like 500 years ago here remember it also named specific individuals who would not be considered pardoned and thus liable for trial and yes execution after weeks of debate 50 individuals were named in the act as ineligible for pardon eventually nine of them identified as regicide were tried convicted and executed by hanging which sounds bad but we're not done yet because they were taken down just before they died and then drawn quartered which means um having their stomach lit open their guts pulled out and having horse pull apart their limbs there wasn't all else to do the body of Oliver Cromwell on the other hand was exed and then beheaded to see how he liked it Richard Cromwell fled to France leaving behind a wife he never saw again the remainder of those named in the indemnity and Oblivion act were deprived of Liberty as he said so in there by imprisonment on or deportation their properties confiscated the lands formerly owned by the crown were restored to the Monarch and other properties purchased or confiscated during the internum were left to the judgments of local courts and magistrates the inter egum itself was stricken from all records of the monarchy with the reign of Charles II recognized of having begun legally upon the death of his father Charles I Charles II's coronation took place in Westminster on April 23rd 1661 the following year his majesty married in an arranged match with Katherine of branza daughter of King John the fourth of Portugal Katherine presented a doy which included the city of Tangier in North Africa seven islands in Bombay India he also delivered some trading rights with the Portuguese colonies as well as a considerable sum of cash just you know just styling on all of us with a wedding gift like that like some islands a city a big pile of cash and trading rights with Portugal Charles and Katherine had no children during their marriage though Katherine did suffer at least fourn miscarriages yet Charles did not lack progeny over the course of his lifetime he acknowledged no fewer than 13 illegitimate children bestowing upon many of them titles of nobility including earldoms and dukedoms at least two of his Mistresses were actress of no including Nel Gwinn and Maul Davis his favorite mistress appears to have been Barbara vilers Who Bore him five children um it's worth noting that she was actually married at the time to a guy called Roger Palmer who Charles decides to just give two Irish peages to in compensation for his wife's shall we say services to the crown although Palmer never seated himself in Lords he did accept both titles along with the obvious humiliation that accompanied them Charles added to the Shame by bestowing the titles as hereditary only to his own children with Barbara should Palma have children by a subsequent marriage to another woman the titles would not be bestowed because of his what's the Diplomatic way to put this Bon spree he's actually the ancestor of several prominent persons in more recent British history for example Prince William the heir of parent to King Charles III is a descendant of Charles II through his mother Princess Diana ironically though so is Queen Camila and four prominent Dukes in British nobility the Duke of St albums the Duke of Grafton the Duke of bleck and the Duke of Richmond all have descended from duke DS created by Charles II for his illegitimate Offspring and all I can think now is just the generic like crazy person in front of a corkboard with like wires everywhere like where does it lead it why does it all lead by just Charles I second in the middle anyway Charles was also a patron of the Arts and a devotee of theater and music he enjoyed the Hunts horse racing festivals and other forms of entertainment he also enjoyed being the center of attention regaling visitors to his court with Tales of his adventures during his escapes from Cromwell and subsequent Exile on the continent still while some celebrated in has the merry King the guy brought back Christmas football and drinking for the majority of Britain that's going to get you a lot of um like leeway with the majority of people others resented the extravagances of of his courts and those of his offspring paid for by taxes which fed the Royal coffers the Britain that Charles II reigned over as king underwent numerous changes and difficulties in the areas of religion tolerance Wars calamities and epidemics his courts regardless of which Royal Palace he occupied became a symbol of self-indulgence and shall we say moral laxity the guy had 13 illegitimate children which most Britain at the time didn't really care about because the same thing happened for them and across Britain there was a general easing of the puritanical attitudes present under Cromwell for example the theaters presented more boy plays songs reflected less restrained lyrics and poems and Pros presented a more and I hope I can pronounce this word correctly because they wrote it in the script and it's a fun word to say lenti justness which offended some sensibilities while delighting the less prudish and as mentioned you know drinking Football Christmas all those came back you couldn't even go to church on Christmas Day under Cromwell like what an idiot the era marks the beginnings of the British Global Empire bills on trade Charles personally expanded the British East India Company in five separate Royal Charters he granted the company the rights to raise its own Army and Navy acquire territory Min money and create treaties of alliance in areas making it a global power in its own right he granted similar authority to the Hudson Bay Company in North America giving the company control over all the lands drained by Waters which eventually flowed into the Hudson Bay the 1670 creation of the Hudson Bay Company LED Charles to rename the area of what became Canada as Rupert's land they should still call it that the name came from another of his cousins Prince rert of the Ry who served as the company's and territory's first governor in 1665 the second Anglo Dutch War began as English colonist and Mercantile interest encroached on Dutch possessions in Africa the Indies and North America it was during this that the English captured the Dutch colony in North America known as New Amsterdam he was later renamed New York in honor of Charles's brother James the Duke of York they didn't know that one Americans Dutch's victories include an attack on the river temps when the Dutch ships destroyed a sizable amount of the British Navy Charles responded by suing for peace he publicly blamed the war on his once most trusted Minister Edward Hyde the Earl of Clarendon and charged him with treason Clarendon for his part fled to France where he remained in exile for the rest of his life in 1668 Charles went to war with his cousin Louis the 14th of France after aling England with Sweden and the Dutch as for that war it ended with a treaty agreed to in 1670 in which Louie agreed to an annual indemnity to be paid to Charles II's Royal treasury which have been severely depleted by Charles's military adventures and you know all the boozing and banging of Mistresses during all these military and Mercantile activities London was beset by two major disasters the first came in the form of the Great Plague of London in the summer of 1665 at its height in the late summer up to 7,000 people per day died of the plague and mornings brought the call of bring out your dead throughout the city bring out J for anyone Furious Charles his court took Refuge from the horror of the plague in Salsbury remaining out of the city until February 1666 when cold weather brought about decrease in the death rate caused by the plague as for the second disaster that occurred on September 2nd 1666 when a small fire began in the quaintly named pudding Lane in one of the streets several bakeries hence the name the preceding summer had been dry and fat roofs and timbered houses made up much of London proved eminently burnable The Great Fire of London as it came to be nown burned for five straight days destroyed over 13,000 houses 86 churches including St Paul's Cathedral and rendered over 200,000 people homeless surprisingly the death count was relatively low though disputed modern historians consider the count of the time to have been inaccurate given the overall destruction of the city in his youth the tutors of the Future King did not consider the Sciences as a suitable subject for a royal education while in Exile though probably due to boredom Charles acquainting himself with mathematics Anatomy astronomy boty and gardening and for the rest of his life he was a devotee of science owning several telescopes allowing him to observe the stars and planets as well as Converse knowledgeably regarding them he was also fascinated by clock mechanisms his Royal palaces featured scores of clock scattered throughout and at one time up to seven ticked away in his Royal bed chamber which to me sounds like a nightmare I don't know about anyone else but I cannot stand the sound of a ticking clock while you're trying to sleep the only thing louder at night than a ticking clock in a hallway um which I discovered much to my Peril waking up my mom when she was on nights is when I dropped an electric toothbrush into a sink Basin it's the loudest noise I've ever heard in 1662 Charles granted a royal Charter to a group of scientists that had formed 2 years earlier Charles's Grant established the Royal Society though Charles never attended a meeting of the society his members were his frequent guests and he enjoyed discussing new scientific discoveries and evolving methods in the scientific World his fascination with clock's timekeeping and the Stars led him to establish the Royal Observatory in grenwich in 1675 the original building now a museum is the site of 0 degrees of longitude aka the prime meridian used across the globe when calculating time and distances on Earth The Observatory and Royal Society together are Charles II's most enduring Legacy and I've been to the grenwich mood it's just a line I was just a plaque because it's like the equator if anyone's ever been there it's just a line and like you know like a little tourist trap thing the difficulties experienced during the reign of Charles II were almost uniformally blamed in one way or another on religious differences so the Catholics blame the war on the Protestants and the Protestants blame the war on the Catholics but then you've got the episcopalians who blame the war on the Presbyterians and the Catholics and then you have the Protestants who suspect that the Great Fire of London has been started by the Catholics deliberately working for the French and so on and so forth until just everybody involved went mad so religion was a dominant force in politics as well and Charles attempt to ease the religious tensions with the Royal Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 in the ACT he cancelled penalties against Catholics and de centers that had been enacted by Parliament to support the Church of England Parliament were non too pleased and forced him to withdraw this the same year a third Anglo Dutch War also weakened Charles in the House of Commons and when it became known that his Heir James the Duke of York was a Catholic movements began in Parliament to alter the succession anti- Catholic demonstrations devolved into riots and throughout Britain Catholics were denounced tried in kangaroo courts and imprisoned or Worse executed in 1679 to forgo Parliament from trying to minister a subject to anti-catholic hysteria Charles dissolved Parliament which is just a thing the the crown can do like just at any point they could just dissolve all of Parliament and make a new one like I I wrote a script for today I found out about this and just the more and more research I did like the the powers that the queen had the queen was the monar at the time was a stound that she could just just just dissolve parliament and if the new parli that came up wasn't to their liking just dissolve it again and do you know who did that Charles II because four more parliaments were formed that year and he dissolved them all in something I think we could all describe as a pretty big mood Charles II became kind of annoyed with the theater of politics and just declared himself the absolute monarch political enemies and religious opponents often found themselves as residents of the Tower of London many of these were executed with imia pretense of a trial all those went into exile later in his Reign his brother James gained considerable influence in the court creating further eminy among Catholics and Protestants Charles's influence on this though was limited by virtue of him being dead and he died following a brief illness on February 6th 1685 likely from the effects of renal disease he was 54 years of age some scholars believe he converted to Catholicism on his deathbed and others dispute his contention he did ask his brother Jane to provide support to his Mistresses and even mentioned n Gwyn by name when he uttered let not poor nelli starve apparently his Mistresses weighed more heavily on his mind than his faith as they had done throughout his life he was interred in westmin Abby in a somewhat subdued funeral for such an extravagant man attended by relatively few suspicion of his conversion to Catholicism is believed to have been the reason for the low attendance which was held at night on February 14th St Valentine's Day seemingly religious controversy follow the man to the Grave so I hope everybody enjoyed this video I certainly enjoyed making it and shout outs to script or Larry holsworth for writing this one again follow them at the social media links below if they provided them I've been your host Carl Smallwood um you can find me over at fa Fe with KL Smallwood and Wiki weekends where we have an allog together more relaxed style than this but nonetheless we try and cover things of a factual nature with a humorous um personal slant and just yeah if you enjoyed the video leave a like if you have any comments in particular about my presentation and hosting style which I'm hoping has been refined since my first appearance on this channel and and uh yeah subscribe if you want to see more videos like this and also check out the uh the sister channels to biographics Geographics and top 10s where I'm also acting as the interim host and as always I'd like to wish everybody out there the day that they deserve cheers