Charles II Crown
Charles was born on 29 May 1630, the
eldest surviving son of Charles I.
In 1650, Charles did a deal with the
Scots and was proclaimed King. With a Scottish army he
invaded England but was defeated by Cromwell at the Battle
of Worcester in 1651. In 1660 he was invited back to
England to reclaim his throne.
The early years of Charles's reign saw an
appalling plague (1665) and the Great Fire in 1666 which led
to the substantial rebuilding of the city of London. Between
1665 and 1667 England was at war with the Dutch (the Second
Anglo-Dutch War), ending in a Dutch victory.
In 1677 Charles married his niece Mary to
the Protestant William of Orange, partly to re-establish his
own Protestant credentials. Although Charles had a number of
illegitimate children with various mistresses, he had none
with his wife, Catherine of Braganza.
