CHARLES. 



157 



doubtless have been regarded as a very accomplished 

 sovereign. 



With respect to his political character, as exhibit- 

 ed in the great struggle between himself and the 

 parliament, it is impossible not to perceive that he 

 strove to maintain a portion of prerogative that had 

 become incompatible with any theory of civil and re- 

 ligious liberty ; but it is equally certain that he only 

 sought to retain what his predecessors had possessed, 

 and what power never concedes willingly. There 

 are periods, possibly, in the history of every people, 

 in which old and new opinions conflict, and a concus- 

 sion becomes unavoidable ; and it was the misfortune 

 of Charles to occupy the throne at a time when the 

 developement of the representative system necessari- 

 ly encountered the claims of prerogative. If the par- 

 liament had acquiesced in the kingly pretensions, as 

 usually explained by Laud and the high-churclunen 

 of the day, it would have dwindled into a mere regis- 

 try of royal edicts, like those of France. On the 

 other hand, Charles acted a part which every monarch 

 in his situation, may be expected to act ; for a philo- 

 sophical appreciation of the true nature of a political 

 crisis is scarcely to be expected from one who sits 

 upon a throne. The most forcible accusation against 

 Charles is on the score of insincerity. It is asserted, 

 that he never intended to fulfill the conditions impos- 

 ed upon him. This can scarcely be denied ; but it 

 is equally certain that some of them might justly be 

 deemed questionable, if not demanded with a direct 

 view to produce that conduct in the king which so 

 naturally followed. On the whole, thougfi many may 

 demur to his title of martyr, few will hesitate to re- 

 gard him as a victim to a crisis which the growing 

 power of the commons, and the unsettled nature ot 

 the prerogative, rendered sooner or later inevitable. 

 His fate, Tike that of the house of Stuart generally, 

 exhibits the danger and absurdity of those nigh theo- 

 retical notions of kingly prerogative, which, while 

 they add very little to the real power of those whom 

 they are intended to favour, too frequently seduce 

 them into encounters with currents of principle and 

 action, a resistance to which is always futile, and ge- 

 nerally destructive. 



CHARLES II., king of England, Ireland, and Scot- 

 land, son of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria of France, 

 was born in 1630. He was a refugee at the Hague on 

 the death of his father, on which he immediately assum- 

 ed the royal title. He first intended to proceed to Ire- 

 land, but was prevented by the progress of Cromwell. 

 He therefore listened to an invitation from the Scots, 

 who had proclaimed him their king ; and, being ob- 

 liged to throw himself into the hands of the rigid 

 Presbyterians, they subjected him to many severities 

 and mortifications, which caused him to regard that 

 sect ever after with extreme aversion. In 1651, he 

 was crowned at Scone ; but the approach of Crom- 

 well, with his conquering army, soon rendered his 

 abode in Scotland unsafe. Hoping to be joined by 

 the English royalists, he took the spirited resolution 

 of passing Cromwell, and entering England. He was 

 immediately pursued by that active commander, who, 

 with a superior army, gained the battle of Worcester ; 

 and Charles, after a variety of imminent hazards, in 

 one of wliich he was sheltered for twenty-four hours 

 in the branches of a spreading oak, reached Shore- 

 ham, in Sussex, and effected a passage to France. 

 He passed some years in Paris, little regarded by the 

 court, which was awed by the power of the English 

 commonwealth ; and this indignity induced him to re- 

 tire to Cologne. 



It is the province of history to state the circum- 

 stances that produced the restoration, wliich general 

 Monk so conducted, that Charles, without a strug- 



gle, succeeded at once to all those dangerous prero 

 gatives, which it had cost the nation so much blood 

 and treasure, first to abridge and then to abolish. 

 This unrestrictive return was not more injurious to 

 the nation than fatal to the family of the Stuarts, 

 which, had a more rational policy prevailed-, might 

 have occupied the throne at this moment. On the 

 29th of -May, 1660, Charles entered his capital amidst 

 universal and almost frantic acclamations ; and the 

 different civil and religious parties vied with each 

 other in loyalty and submission. His first measures 

 were prudent and conciliatory. Hyde, lord Claren- 

 don, was made chancellor and prime-minister ; and 

 an act of indemnity was passed, from which . those 

 alone were excepted who were immediately concern 

 ed in the late king's death. A settled revenue was 

 accepted in lieu of wardship and purveyance, and the 

 army was reduced. In respect to religion, there was 

 less indulgence ; for not only were prelacy and the 

 parliamentary rights of bishops restored, which was 

 to be expected, but an act of uniformity was passed, 

 by the conditions of which nearly all the Presbyterian 

 clergy were driven to a resignation of their livings. 

 In 1662, he married the infanta of Portugal, a pru- 

 dent and virtuous princess, but in no way calculated 

 to acquire the affection of a man like Charles. The 

 indolence of his temper, and the expenses of his li- 

 centious way of life, soon involved him in pecuniary 

 difficulties; and the unpopular sale of Dunkirk to 

 the French was one of his most early expedients to 

 relieve himself. In 1663, a rupture took place with 

 Holland, which, as it proceeded from commercial ri- 

 valry, was willingly supported by parliament. It was 

 attended, in the first instance, by various naval suc- 

 cesses ; but, France and Denmark entering into the 

 war, as allies of the Dutch, the English were over- 

 matched, and a Dutch fleet entered the Thames, and, 

 proceeding up the Medway, burned and destroy- 

 ed ships as high as Chatham. Such was the naval 

 disgrace of a reign, which, on many other accounts, 

 is probably the most nationally discreditable one in 

 the English annals. The domestic calamities of a 

 dreadful plague, in 1665, and of the great fire of 

 London, in 1666, added to the disasters of the period. 

 Soon after, Clarendon, who had become very un- 

 popular, and was personally disagreeable to Charles, 

 was dismissed, and sought shelter from his enemies 

 by a voluntary exile. A triple alliance between 

 England, Holland, and Sweden, for the purpose of 

 checking the ambition of Louis XIV., followed. It 

 did honour to the political talents of Sir William 

 Temple, and was one of the few public measures of 

 the reign which deserve approbation. The thought- 

 less profusion of Charles, however, soon brought 

 him into a condition which rendered him the mere 

 pensioner of Louis', by whose secret aid he was sup- 

 ported in all his attempts to abridge the freedom of 

 his people. In 1670, he threw himself into the hands 

 of the five unprincipled ministers, collectively deno- 

 minated the cabal, who supported him in every at- 

 tempt to make himself independent of parliament. 

 A visit which Charles received from his sister, the 

 duchess of Orleans, was rendered subservient to 

 French policy, by means of one of her attendant 

 ladies, a beautiful Frenchwoman. This female made, 

 as was intended, a conquest of Charles, who created 

 her duchess of Portsmouth ; and, amidst all his other 

 attachments, she retained an influence over him which 

 kept him steadily attached to France. 



The party troubles of this reign commenced, about 

 this time, by the open declaration of the duke of 

 York, presumptive heir to the crown, that he was a 

 convert to the Roman Catholic religion. Soon after, 

 the ministry broke the triple alliance, and planned a 



