Charles II ended up in exile in Breda in the Low Countries after the battle of Worcester while his mother remained in Paris with Henry Jermyn. Henrietta Maria convinced her son to create him Earl of St Albans amidst rumours he had secretly married her. There were other rumours that Jermyn may have fathered at least one of her children. A report circulating in August 1660 stated that ‘all the royal children were Jermyn’s bastards’. Jermyn was appointed Lord Chamberlain, despite a reputation for compulsive gambling.
The king was accompanied by several of his supporters in exile, including Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, and Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, served as his Lord Chancellor. Charles was also accompanied by his favourite, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, and his mistress Barbara Palmer.
Charles spent his nine years moving from France to the Dutch Republic to the Spanish Netherlands. Lieutenant General Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, was one of the king’s principal advisers during the king’s exile and he would visit Emperor Ferdinand III, Nicholas II, the Duke of Lorraine, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, on behalf of the king. Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, also crossed Europe raising troops and chartering ships on behalf of the king.
James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, attended Charles and the Queen Mother in Paris. He signed the Treaty of Brussels, securing a Royalist alliance with Spain in 1656, and two years later he went to England in disguise to see if it was possible to organise a rebellion.
Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, and Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, were just two of the twelve members of parliament who met Charles in Breda. George Monck accepted the Declaration of Breda on 4 April 1660 under which Charles agreed an amnesty for all those who recognised him as the lawful king and a general pardon for any crimes committed during the Civil War. In return, Monck agreed to disband the New Model Army; he was created the Duke of Albemarle and the Earl of Torrington as a reward for his efforts.
Lionel Cranfield, 3rd Earl of Middlesex, George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley, and Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford, were just three of the six peers sent by the Convention Parliament to The Hague to petition for Charles’s return in May 1660. John Granville took part in the negotiations which led to the Restoration of the Monarchy; he was created the 1st Earl of Bath.
Edward Montagu had been a ‘diehard’ Cromwellian but he was one of the first to contact the exiled Charles. He then commanded the fleet of twenty ships which took the royal supporters to Dover; Montagu would be created Earl of Sandwich. Dover Castle’s guns fired a salute over the cheering crowds as Charles stepped ashore on 25 May 1660. Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset, then chaired the welcoming committee.
One of Charles II’s many lovers was the wife of Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby. In 1658 she gave birth to the king’s son George and he was raised by an artilleryman named Swan. Although Charles II recognised his son he did not ennoble him, like all his other illegitimate children, and stated, ‘I did not dare to make a duck of him, but I made a nobler bird.’
Mary, daughter of Lord Fairfax, jilted Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, and married George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Stanhope started an affair with Barbara Villiers, one of Charles II’s mistresses, so his wife flirted with the king’s brother James, the Duke of York. Meanwhile George Villiers chased Charles’s widowed sister Mary, Princess of Orange, irritating the king in the lewd world of the royal court.
The king’s brother James, Duke of York, had made his mistress Anne Hyde pregnant before they were married. Henrietta Maria wanted to declare the unborn child illegitimate, because his mother was not of royal blood but Charles II approved of the marriage in September. Charles, the Duke of Cambridge, was born in October 1660 but the issue of his legitimacy ended when he died young from smallpox.
While Charles was unable to have any legitimate offspring with his queen, he was having plenty of illegitimate children with his mistresses. James’s second son, also James, was born in 1661 and he was also created the Duke of Cambridge. He was treated as an heir to the throne until his death, at the age of 4, shocked the nation.
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, had instructions to accompany Princess Henrietta to Paris to marry the Duke of Orléans in 1661. But Villiers made the mistake of making advances to the princess and was recalled to England in disgrace.
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, helped organise Charles’s marriage to the Portuguese Catherine of Braganza in 1661. But not everyone was happy with the match, particularly George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol. The ambassador to Portugal, Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, escorted the Queen to England the following year and he became her Master of the Horse. Charles later sacked him for ‘showing attention to the queen of too ardent a nature’; she immediately appointed his brother Ralph.
While the king did not allow any man to pay attention to his wife, he had a string of mistresses. Hyde disapproved of the king’s behaviour and Charles resented the interference, especially when Catherine failed to bear children. Meanwhile, Charles was busy having illegitimate ones, acknowledging at least twelve of them. But the lack of a legitimate heir to the throne was causing problems because the king’s brother was a covert Catholic whose sons were dying young.
Charles was desperate to divorce but he wanted to do it legally, so he attended the parliamentary hearing of John Manners, heir to the Earldom of Rutland, and his wife Anne in 1667. She was accused of adultery and a Private Act of Parliament declared her children illegitimate and granted John permission to remarry. The king found it useful to attend debates in the House of Lords to learn about public opinion. But he only observed rather than contributing to the discussions, and the Lords said they were ‘speaking to the fireside’ when they were speaking to their king.
Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, was the keeper of the Privy Purse, and responsible for procuring and managing the royal mistresses. He was always kept busy. Roger Palmer’s father correctly predicted his wife Barbara would make him one of the most miserable men in the world. They separated following the birth of her first illegitimate son, leaving her short of money. Barbara became Charles’s mistress in exile in 1660 and the king created her husband the Earl of Castlemaine to keep him quiet. Barbara was appointed Lady of the Bedchamber, against the Queen’s wishes, and she soon had more influence at the court than Catherine, causing arguments. When she converted to Catholicism in 1663, he said he was only interested in ladies’ bodies, not their souls. Both the king and Barbara took other lovers but Charles created her Duchess of Cleveland and ennobled five of her six children.
Most members of court ignored the king’s decadent lifestyle but some disapproved and advised him to stay faithful. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, had played a key role in Charles’s marriage to Catherine and the king resented his interference, especially when she failed to bear children. George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, even went so far as to accuse Hyde of arranging a royal marriage to a barren woman.
King Charles did not have any legitimate children with his Queen, Catherine, but he had plenty of children with many of his lovers and he gave titles to most of them. Lucy Walter had given birth to James Scott in 1649, when Prince Charles was only 19. There were rumours that Charles and Lucy had married secretly but they were untrue. In March 1658 Charles had young James kidnapped and taken to Paris when it was clear the Cromwell Protectorate was in trouble. He returned to England in 1663 and was created Duke of Monmouth at the age of 14. He married the heiress Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch, and adopted her surname.
Roger Palmer, 1st Earl of Castlemaine, divorced his wife Barbara when she gave birth to her first illegitimate son with Charles II in 1662. The baby was baptised a Catholic but the king had him rechristened into the Church of England a few days later. Young Charles was betrothed to Henry Wood’s daughter Mary when he was only 8 but Barbara abducted her after her father died; he was created the Duke of Southampton at the age of 13. Charlotte Fitzroy was another of the six children the king had with Barbara Palmer. Ten-year-old Edward Lee was created Earl of Lichfield in 1674 when he was betrothed to Charlotte but she went on to marry William Paston instead.
Edward Hyde was Charles II’s chief advisor during his nine years in exile and he was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1658. He was created Earl of Clarendon following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and continued to advise the king. Hyde opposed the marriage of his daughter Anne to James, Duke of York, because he disliked her husband, upsetting the king. James and Anne would have two daughters, the future Queen Mary II and Queen Anne.
Hyde detested democracy but his autocratic style of government brought him many enemies. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, opposed the imposition of the Clarendon Code, which was designed to overhaul the Church of England. Charles agreed, even though he favoured religious tolerance, and Hyde in turn supported the king’s Declaration of Indulgence. While it promoted religious freedom for Catholic and Protestant dissenters, Parliament forced it to be withdrawn.
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, was one of those excluded from office because of his religion, and his accusations of high treason against Hyde were dismissed in 1663. Digby spent two years in hiding before he renounced Catholicism and declared himself a Protestant. But he still wanted the Lord Chancellor arrested and he accused the Lords of stirring up a rebellion when they refused to.
Hyde also dismissed George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, from office in 1666 so he plotted his revenge. Villiers and Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, were sent to the Tower for fighting in the House of Lords later in the year and although they were both released after apologising, Villiers’ troubles were far from over. He was accused of intrigues and of forecasting the king’s horoscope. After several months in hiding he gave himself up and was sent back to the Tower.
Plague swept through London in 1665 killing thousands and most of the nobility left the city and headed for the safety of their country homes. George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, was one of the few exceptions and he remained in charge of the government during the disaster. He also stayed in the city during the Great Fire the following year, maintaining order in the wake of the tragedy. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, was the ambassador to Spain when news of the fire reached Spain. He downplayed the damage to London to the Spanish government, claiming it had only destroyed the city’s slums.
The infant Charles II inherited a huge empire when he came to the Spanish throne in 1665. He also inherited a war with Portugal and soon became involved in another war with France. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, took the opportunity to secure the Anglo-Spanish Commercial Treaty of 1667 which began a century of successful trading between the two countries. Montagu was also a mediator of the Treaty of Lisbon which ended the war between Spain and Portugal.
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Sandwich, was betrothed to the rich heiress Elizabeth Malet but she found him ‘unexciting’. She found the impoverished but roguish John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, more exciting; even more so when he abducted her. Wilmot was imprisoned until he apologised and he then joined the navy and served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. John and Elizabeth eloped on his return but she had to endure his infidelities, his drunkenness, rudeness and ‘extravagant frolics’ as he partied with the infamous ‘Merry Gang’.
Edward Rich, Earl of Warwick and Holland, won a duel only to be tried for the murder of his opponent Richard Coote. He was found guilty of manslaughter but escaped punishment after pleading the privilege of peerage to evade justice.
James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton, and Baron Charles Mohun both claimed they were heirs to Fitton Gerard, 3rd Earl Macclesfield. However, Macclesfield preferred Mohun because Hamilton had Tory sympathies and they spent a decade arguing over the inheritance in court. They finally settled their differences in a duel in which both men died of their injuries.
Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, had the misfortune of being married to the ‘notorious’ Anna Maria. He duelled with the equally infamous George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, in 1668 while a disguised Anna Maria held Villiers’ horse. Talbot’s second son, John, was also killed in a duel after exchanging ‘very unhandsome and provoking language’ with Charles II’s illegitimate son Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton.
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, headed the admiralty when James, Duke of York, commanded the fleet and both James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, served under him. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, was victorious at the battle of Lowestoft on 13 June 1665 but Charles Berkeley, 1st Earl of Falmouth, and James Ley, 3rd Earl of Marlborough, were killed. Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, was defeated at the battle of Vågen in Norway in 1665, but he was sacked for allowing his sailors to plunder captured ships in the ‘Prize Goods Scandal’. While crews were allowed to take anything on a captured ship’s deck, Montagu let them clear the holds and it was rumoured he had helped himself to a fortune. James, Duke of York, exploited the scandal but the king pardoned Montagu.
The Dutch made alliances with France and Denmark but the Dutch shipyards were making ships much faster than the English ones. Monck showed his skills at sea during the Four Days Battle in June 1666 and there was another English victory in the St James’s Day battle in August. A raid by the Dutch which destroyed the English fleet anchored in the River Medway in June 1667 ended the career of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, after he had agreed peace terms. Barbara Villiers shouted abuse as he left his office so he replied, ‘Madam, pray remember that if you live, you will also be old.’ He would be impeached for holding prisoners without trial and had to flee to France.
Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, had mediated between the king and his sister Henrietta Anne in 1668, paving the way for Charles to reject his Dutch allies in return for money from Louis XIV of France. Two years later Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, escorted Henrietta back to England to negotiate the Treaty of Dover between the English and French kings. The treaty was unpopular with some, including Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, and it would have been more unpopular if the secret clause, under which Charles II pledged to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, had been made public. Godolphin reassured Louis of Charles’s allegiance before the French attacked the Dutch in 1672. He accompanied the French army into the field but was unimpressed by King Louis’ skills as a general.
There would be a Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672 and John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and Normanby, fought a weakened Dutch fleet at the battle of Solebay off the Suffolk coast in June 1672.
Charles II’s anti-French Parliament forced England to withdraw from the Franco-Dutch War in 1674 and Godolphin arranged the marriage between William and Mary without Louis knowing in 1677. There was a new alliance with the Dutch and John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, joined Godolphin as they negotiated the deployment of an English army in Flanders in April 1678. Churchill met William, Prince of Orange, unaware the king was dealing with Louis XIV behind his back. Instead he sued for peace under the Treaty of Nijmegen.
James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, recovered his confiscated Irish estates and Charles compensated him for the money he had spent on royal service. He was once again appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1661 but he soon fell foul of the king’s favourite, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. He was sacked in 1669 and Thomas Blood tried to assassinate FitzThomas Butler on Villiers’ orders the following year.
Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, was the next Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and was against using Irish taxes to entertain the court. He challenged the donation of forfeited estates to the king’s favourites and mistresses so he was recalled after his opponents disputed his accounts in 1675.
Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton, was Lord High Treasurer but he had to work hard to balance the books of Charles II’s economy. He was ‘remarkable for his freedom from any taint of corruption and for his efforts in the interests of economy and financial order’. But declaration of a third war against the Dutch in 1672 was a step too far. Wriothesley had to announce a ‘Stop of the Exchequer’ before the country was bankrupted.
Thomas Osborne was created Earl of Danby when he was appointed Lord Treasurer in 1673. He was soon running the government and he brought an end to the war with the Dutch Republic. But Osborne soon became known as ‘the most hated minister that had ever been about the king’ because of his corrupt and greedy administration. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, led the opposition to Osborne’s policies and while they both resisted the growth of ‘popery and arbitrary government’, Cooper did not want England transforming into an absolute monarchy.
Osborne was against appointing Catholics to government posts but he often promoted friends ahead of able men, including appointing William Temple the Secretary of State ahead of Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu. Eventually no one supported his ‘weak, discredited, unpopular and unsuccessful’ administration. Montagu was dismissed for arguing with the king’s mistress Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, so he joined the opposition.
Osborne arranged the marriage between William and Mary behind the back of the French King in 1677, so an angry Louis XIV financed Montagu’s plan to ruin Osborne. He was soon charged with assuming royal powers because he had been making decisions without the council’s knowledge. But Charles Dormer, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, warned everyone to ‘mark the man who first dares to run down Lord Danby [Osbourne] and see what becomes of him.’
Osbourne was eventually forced to resign as Lord Treasurer after he was accused of murdering Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, the man who had prosecuted the ‘infamous’ Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke. Osborne retaliated by revealing the Popish Plot to parliament only to be accused of having ‘traitorously concealed the plot’. He would be pardoned by the king but he still spent five years in the Tower.
Barbara Villiers used money from the Privy Purse and took bribes from the Spanish and the French to finance her lavish lifestyle. She was not afraid of standing up to anyone and threatened to get Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, sacked when he challenged her. Charles created Barbara the Duchess of Cleveland in 1670 but her influence was waning because he was obsessed with a new woman. The king eventually advised Barbara to stop causing scandals and live a quiet life.
Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, had lured Eleanor Gwyn from the theatre and he introduced her into court in 1668 where she became one of the king’s most notorious mistresses. Nell, as Eleanor was known, had two sons with the king, Charles and James Beauclerk.
Charles’s attention soon drifted again, this time to Louise de Kérouaille. The French ambassador, Colbert de Croissy, and the secretary of state, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, encouraged the romance. The king’s lovers could not have been more different: Louise was a sophisticated French noblewoman while Nell had been a street seller and actress with a dubious background.
Most people in court hated the promiscuous Louise because she was French and Nell Gwyn would call her ‘Squintabella’. But Charles was fond of her and nicknamed her ‘Fubbs’, referring to her plumpness. Louise in turn understood Charles and her tact was rewarded when she was created the Duchess of Portsmouth and Aubigny.
Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine, was mother to Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton, and George FitzRoy, who was elevated from Earl to Duke of Northumberland in 1683. Catherine Pegge was the mother of Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth, and Louise de Kérouaille was the mother of Charles Lennox who was given a string of titles including the Dukedoms of Richmond and Lennox and the Earldoms of March and Darnley; he was also appointed Lord High Admiral of Scotland.
Charles Beauclerk was Nell Gwyn’s eldest illegitimate son. One story states that his mother said, ‘come here, you little bastard, and greet your father,’ and the king reprimanded her. So she replied, ‘your Majesty has given me no other name to call him by,’ and so he was created Earl of Burford. Another version says she threatened to drop him out of a window unless he was given a peerage and Charles shouted out, ‘God save the Earl of Burford!’ Beauclerk was elevated to the Duke of St Albans when he turned 14.
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was a friend of Nell Gwyn and he became influential at court when she became one of the king’s mistresses. He was also part of the notorious Merry Gang which included Henry Jermyn, Charles Sackville, the Earl of Dorset, John Sheffield, the Earl of Mulgrave, and George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
Wilmot was famous for drunkenness, rudeness and ‘extravagant frolics’, until he was banned from court for punching Thomas Killigrew in front of the king in 1669. He was expelled a second time after correctly telling the king he was more interested in sex than the kingdom. The final straw came in 1675 when he made an outspoken rant about the king’s behaviour. Wilmot ended up as a street hawker on Tower Hill, posing as a gynaecology expert named Doctor Bendo. He also dressed as a woman, calling himself Mrs Bendo, presumably so that he could inspect women in private. He died from venereal disease and alcoholism at the age of 33.
Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, was known as ‘the infamous Earl of Pembroke’ because he was a violent drunk. He was imprisoned in the Tower after seriously injuring a man in a duel in 1677 but the Lords petitioned for his release. He assaulted a man after only a few days of freedom and then murdered a man in a pub brawl. Although he was found guilty of manslaughter, he was discharged because he was granted the privilege of peerage.
Herbert attacked Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, because he had brought a lawsuit against him and Herbert’s prosecutor, Edmund Godfrey, was then found murdered. The wave of anti-Catholic feeling that followed led to the uncovering of the Popish Plot, a fabricated plan to kill the king.
But Herbert refused to calm down and was again found guilty of murder in 1680 after murdering an officer of the watch in a drunken rage. Although he could not claim the privilege of peerage a second time, remarkably some felt that he had been unfairly treated and petitioned the king until he granted a royal pardon.
Titus Oates sent a message to Thomas Hickman-Windsor, 1st Earl of Plymouth, warning of a plot to assassinate the king in 1678. The so-called Popish Plot was blamed on five Catholics but it was a fake scheme designed to rouse anti-Catholic resentment. Charles did not believe the allegations but he still ordered his chief minister Thomas Osbourne, Earl of Danby, to investigate. Danby was also sceptical but he was accused of having ‘traitorously concealed the plot’ when he finally told parliament about it. He resigned as Lord and was imprisoned in the Tower for five years.
The Cavalier Parliament took the threat seriously and anti-Catholic hysteria swept the kingdom. Henry Howard, Earl of Norfolk, turned his back on his Catholic faith to save his family estates from confiscation. He even served on the jury of his cousin William Howard along with Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk. William was found guilty and executed.
William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, spent six years in the Tower of London awaiting trial and his wife was nearly convicted after failing to set him free. She was also involved in the ‘Meal-Tub Plot’ another fake plan to assassinate the king, so called because the plans were found in a tub of meal (ground cereal grains). Charles Howard, 2nd Earl of Berkshire, fled to Paris and he died in exile while charges were brought against Thomas Savage, 3rd Earl Rivers.
The investigation into the Popish Plot revealed that Charles’s brother and heir James, Duke of York, was a Catholic. James was exiled for three years and was accompanied by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Charles then faced a political storm led by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, over who would succeed to the throne of England. The Exclusion Bill was introduced to exclude James from the line of succession and some wanted to make Charles’s illegitimate Protestant son James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, heir to the throne. But opinion in parliament was split. The Abhorrers opposed the bill and were called Tories (a name for dispossessed Irish Catholic bandits). The Petitioners supported the bill and were called Whigs (a name for rebellious Scottish Presbyterians).
Charles dissolved the parliament several times to stop the bill being passed and Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, was dismissed as Lord Privy Seal after writing a protest about the ‘true state of Your Majesty’s Government and Kingdom’. But public opinion eventually swung in the king’s favour. Lord Shaftesbury was prosecuted for treason so he fled to Holland, where he died. James would return in 1682, while Charles ruled until he died without a parliament.
Many favoured the king’s son James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, after the Popish Plot revealed the king’s brother James, Duke of York, was Catholic but he was illegitimate and ineligible for the throne. So he had concentrated on soldiering and gained a good reputation at the Siege of Maastricht in June 1673. He took command of the Anglo-Dutch brigade, fighting for the United Provinces against the French in 1678, and improved his status at the battle of St Denis in August. He then took on the Scottish Covenanters, defeating them at the battle of Bothwell Bridge on 22 June 1679.
Monmouth went into exile in the Dutch United Provinces following the introduction of the Exclusion Bill. Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, was sent to arrest him but he joined Monmouth’s band of conspirators instead and even suggested murdering James, Duke of York, to terrorise the king. Monmouth was later identified as a conspirator in the Rye House Plot in 1683.
England had acquired Bombay in India and Tangier in Morocco as part of the Portuguese dowry which came with Queen Catherine of Braganza. James Ley, 3rd Earl of Marlborough, took a squadron of ships to claim Bombay but the Portuguese stalled the handover and Marlborough was forced to land the garrison troops on tiny Anjadip Island, 200 miles to the south, and return home.
Tangier would have been a profitable Mediterranean trade centre but was under constant attack. The king was displeased with John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham, because he was too friendly with Princess Anne. So he was put in charge of an expedition sent to relieve Tangier in 1680, accompanied by Charles FitzCharles, 1st Earl of Plymouth and illegitimate son of Charles II. Some believe they were given a rotten ship in the hope that it would sink and drown them but they completed the voyage to North Africa. Charles died of dysentery and the English withdrew from the port soon afterwards, ending a twenty-year presence in Morocco.
William Russell, Earl of Bedford, James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex, and others met at Rye House in Hertfordshire, the home of Richard Rumbold in October 1682. They planned to kidnap Charles and James as they returned from the Newmarket races to London. But they missed their targets because a fire which destroyed the royal lodgings meant that they returned to London early. The plotters dispersed but the plan was uncovered in June 1683 and some of the conspirators, including Scott, escaped to Holland.
The rest were imprisoned. Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, was sentenced to death only to be pardoned by Charles II. Capell cut his throat, hoping his family could keep their inheritance, only for a regretful King to say he would have spared him ‘for I owe him a life’. Ford Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, escaped from the Tower and headed to France.
It left Russell to be condemned to death for plotting to execute the king. He pleaded he knew nothing of the plot but was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. The sentence was later commuted to beheading and he was executed on 21 July. Algernon Sydney was also executed.
Laurence Hyde was appointed First Lord of the Treasury in 1679 and was then created Earl of Rochester. He was dismissed when Lord Halifax found that £40,000 was missing from the treasury in 1684. But to Halifax’s disgust, Hyde was appointed Lord President of the Council, a more dignified but less lucrative office. Halifax’s response to the promotion was ‘I have seen people kicked downstairs but my Lord Rochester is the first person that I ever saw kicked upstairs’.
Charles II suffered a fit on 2 February 1685 and died four days later, aged 54. His sudden death led many to believe he had been poisoned. His mistress Louise de Kérouaille was by his side as he lay dying. The Lord of the Bedchamber, Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham, was also present during the king’s deathbed conversion to Catholicism but it is doubtful if Charles was fully conscious at the time.