Charles II (1660–1685) – The Merry Monarch, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London

Who Was Charles II?

Charles II was the son of Charles I, the king who had been defeated in the Civil War and publicly executed outside Banqueting House. When his father died, Charles was only 18 and suddenly found himself a king without a kingdom.

Charles II

He spent much of the next decade in exile while England experimented with life without a monarch under Oliver Cromwell. After Cromwell died, the republican government began to fall apart and Parliament eventually invited Charles to return. In 1660 he rode triumphantly into London on his 30th birthday to enormous celebrations. The monarchy was back.

Charles was tall, dark-haired, charming, witty and considerably more fun than his father. After years of Puritan rule, theatres reopened, fashionable society came back to life and the royal court became famous for parties, gambling and sexual intrigue. Charles became known as the Merry Monarch, although the nickname makes his reign sound rather more carefree than it actually was. Within a few years of his return, London would suffer two of the greatest disasters in its history.

The King Who Hid in an Oak Tree

Charles had already had an extraordinary adventure before he became king of England. In 1651, while attempting to regain his father's kingdoms, he was defeated by Cromwell's forces at the Battle of Worcester and suddenly became one of the most wanted men in the country.

Charles spent six weeks on the run, travelling in disguise and relying on loyal supporters while soldiers searched for him. The most famous story concerns his hiding in an oak tree at Boscobel while Parliamentary soldiers were nearby. The episode became legendary after the Restoration, which is why you will still find countless British pubs called The Royal Oak.

Eventually Charles reached the coast and escaped to France. Nine years later he returned to England in triumph. It is quite a turnaround: one moment you're hiding in a tree from the government; a few years later you're the government.

Why Was Charles Called the Merry Monarch?

Charles's court was a dramatic contrast to the Puritan years that followed the Civil War. Theatres had been closed under the Puritan regime; Charles allowed them to reopen, and for the first time women were officially permitted to appear as professional actresses on the English public stage.

Charles loved theatre, horse racing, gambling, parties and women. He married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, but their marriage produced no children. That certainly wasn't because Charles lacked children altogether. Westminster Abbey records that he fathered 13 children by various mistresses.

His mistresses included aristocratic women and actresses, but the most famous was Nell Gwyn, an actress who had supposedly started out selling oranges at the theatre. Charles acknowledged several of his illegitimate children and gave titles to some of them, which means a surprising number of British aristocratic families can trace their ancestry back to the Merry Monarch. The great problem was that Charles had plenty of children—but no legitimate heir.

The Great Plague of London

In 1665, disaster arrived.

The Great Plague swept through London, killing tens of thousands of people. The disease was bubonic plague, spread primarily through infected fleas associated with rats, although seventeenth-century Londoners had no understanding of bacteria or how the disease was really transmitted.

'Bring out yer dead'

Those who could afford to leave London did so, including the royal court. Houses containing plague victims could be shut up, with the inhabitants confined inside, and watchmen stationed outside. Red crosses were painted on infected houses along with the words “Lord have mercy upon us.”

Imagine the fear. Someone in your household develops a fever and painful swellings. Soon your house may be sealed, your neighbours avoid you and carts move through the streets collecting the dead. Samuel Pepys, whose wonderful diary gives us an eyewitness account of Restoration London, recorded seeing increasingly empty streets and the terrible effects of the epidemic.

By the following year the worst was passing. Then London caught fire.

The Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London

In the early hours of 2 September 1666, a fire began at the bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane. In a city packed with timber buildings, narrow streets and highly combustible materials, the flames spread with terrifying speed.

Strong winds drove the fire across London. Houses were pulled down in desperate attempts to create firebreaks, while terrified residents fled towards the river carrying whatever possessions they could save. Charles II became personally involved in the response, encouraging efforts to stop the flames and supporting the destruction of buildings to prevent the fire spreading further.

The fire burned for several days and devastated the old medieval City of London. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, including the old St Paul's Cathedral.

Yet the number of officially recorded deaths was remarkably small. Historians are cautious about treating that figure as the true death toll, particularly because poorer victims may have gone unrecorded and the intensity of the fire could have destroyed remains.

London had survived the plague. Now much of it had disappeared in smoke.

Did the Great Fire End the Plague?

This is one of those historical stories that sounds wonderful but isn't quite true.

You will sometimes hear that the Great Fire destroyed London's rats and therefore ended the Great Plague. Unfortunately, the story is far too neat. The fire mainly devastated the City of London, while plague had affected a much wider area, and plague deaths were already declining.

So although the Great Plague and Great Fire happened one after another, we shouldn't simply say that the fire ended the plague. What the fire certainly did was create an enormous opportunity to rebuild London.

Christopher Wren Rebuilds London

After the Great Fire there were ambitious proposals to completely redesign London with grand boulevards and carefully planned streets. In reality, property ownership and the urgent need to rebuild meant that much of the old street pattern survived. But London's skyline was transformed.

Sir Christopher Wren became the great architectural name associated with the rebuilding. He designed the new St Paul's Cathedral and dozens of City churches, while Robert Hooke and others also played important roles in rebuilding the devastated capital.

The London we explore today still carries the fingerprints of that extraordinary rebuilding programme. When you stand beneath the dome of St Paul's, you are looking at one of the greatest consequences of the disaster Charles II witnessed.

Charles II and Science

There was much more to Charles than parties and mistresses. He had a genuine interest in science and experimentation and became an important patron of the new scientific world emerging in seventeenth-century England.

The Royal Society received its royal charter during his reign, bringing together brilliant scientific minds including Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle and, later, Isaac Newton. Charles himself enjoyed scientific demonstrations and experiments.

Then in 1675 he founded something London visitors still know extremely well: the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Charles wanted astronomers to improve knowledge of the heavens partly to help sailors solve the enormous problem of determining their longitude at sea. John Flamsteed became the first Astronomer Royal, and the Observatory eventually became associated with Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian.

So if you've ever set your watch to GMT or stood with one foot on either side of the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, Charles II has a place in that story.

The King Who Knew How to Survive

Charles had learned an important lesson from his father's fate: don't push Parliament so far that they cut your head off.

That doesn't mean he enjoyed being told what to do. Charles repeatedly clashed with Parliament over religion, money and the succession, particularly when it became known that his younger brother James—the next in line to the throne—was Catholic.

Charles was also secretly dealing with Catholic France. Under the secret Treaty of Dover, Louis XIV provided him with money, helping Charles reduce his financial dependence on Parliament. Charles even promised to declare himself Catholic at an unspecified future point, although he never did so publicly during his reign.

Charles could be slippery, secretive and politically calculating, but unlike his father he had an extraordinary instinct for survival. When Parliament tried to exclude his Catholic brother from succeeding him, Charles outmanoeuvred his opponents and eventually ruled his final years without Parliament.

His father had lost the argument with Parliament—and his head. Charles II kept both.

Three Things to See

The Monument to the Great Fire of London

Monument to the Great Fire of London

If you're exploring the City of London, The Monument is one of the best places to connect directly with Charles II's reign. Designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, the enormous column commemorates the Great Fire and stands close to where it began in Pudding Lane.

Look at the height of the column—around 202 feet. If you could carefully lay it flat towards Pudding Lane, its top would reach roughly the site where Farriner's bakery stood.

And if you're feeling energetic, climb the spiral staircase to the viewing platform. After more than 300 steps, you'll have earned the view.

St Paul's Cathedral

The medieval St Paul's was destroyed during the Great Fire, although it was already in poor condition. Its replacement became Christopher Wren's masterpiece and one of the defining buildings of London.

When you look at that enormous dome today, remember that it rose from the destruction of Charles II's London. The Great Fire was a catastrophe, but it also created the opportunity for one of the world's great cathedrals.

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Royal Observatory Greenwich

Walk up the hill in Greenwich Park and you're visiting an institution founded by Charles II in 1675. Its original purpose was extremely practical: better astronomical observations could help sailors determine their position at sea and make navigation safer.

Today you can stand astride the Prime Meridian, with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one in the western. The Greenwich Meridian wasn't established as the world's international Prime Meridian until long after Charles's death, but the scientific institution that made Greenwich synonymous with longitude and time began with him.

Did You Know? – Charles II Had at Least 13 Illegitimate Children

Charles's marriage to Catherine of Braganza produced no children, but his relationships with his mistresses certainly did. Westminster Abbey records that Charles fathered 13 children by various mistresses, although none could legally inherit the throne.

Charles acknowledged a number of them and showered titles on several of his sons. His descendants spread through the British aristocracy, and among the modern people descended from Charles II is Diana, Princess of Wales—which means Prince William and Prince Harry are descendants of Charles II too.

So although Charles left no legitimate child to inherit his crown, his family tree certainly didn't come to an end.

Historical Highlights

1630 – Charles is born at St James's Palace.

1649 – His father Charles I is executed.

1651 – Charles is defeated at Worcester and famously hides during his escape.

1660 – The monarchy is restored and Charles returns to London.

1662 – Charles marries Catherine of Braganza.

1665 – The Great Plague devastates London.

1666 – The Great Fire of London destroys much of the old City.

1675 – Charles founds the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

1685 – Charles dies at Whitehall and his brother James becomes king.

Imagine This...

It's September 1666 and you're standing beside the Thames watching London burn. Flames are racing through narrow streets packed with wooden houses, people are carrying furniture and possessions towards the river, boats are overloaded with families trying to escape and the sky is glowing orange with smoke and fire. Somewhere in the chaos is Charles II, the Merry Monarch usually associated with parties, actresses and an extravagant royal court, now trying to help save his capital as buildings are deliberately demolished to stop the flames spreading. The medieval city that Londoners had known for generations is disappearing before their eyes, including the old St Paul's Cathedral. When the smoke finally clears, much of the City lies in ruins—but from those ruins will eventually rise Christopher Wren's magnificent new St Paul's and the London skyline we recognise today.

Guide's Insider Tip

When you're exploring the City, start at Pudding Lane, where you'll find a small plaque marking the area where the Great Fire began. Then walk the short distance to The Monument and look straight up—the column was deliberately designed to connect the memorial physically with the site of the bakery where the disaster started.

From there, walk towards St Paul's Cathedral. You're effectively following the story from the destruction of old London to the creation of the new. When you reach St Paul's, don't just admire Wren's magnificent dome; remember that the medieval cathedral which stood here was consumed by the same fire that began in that little bakery near Pudding Lane.

And if you have time for Greenwich during your stay, make the climb through Greenwich Park to the Royal Observatory. Stand on the Prime Meridian and remember that the institution began under Charles II because seventeenth-century sailors desperately needed a better way to work out where they were at sea. It gives the Merry Monarch a rather more serious legacy than his mistresses and parties.

What Happened Next?

Charles II died in 1685 without a legitimate child, so the crown passed to his younger brother James II. Charles himself had converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, but James was already openly Catholic—and in overwhelmingly Protestant England that was going to cause an enormous political problem.

James would last only three years.

Parliament would turn against him, a foreign prince would arrive in England with an army, and James would eventually flee the country. England would then do something extraordinary: effectively replace its king with his own daughter and her husband.