Charles II of England: A Monarchical Study

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Eric Graham Mr. Herzog History Semester 1 January 8 Charles II of England England, a country apart of the United Kingdom, has had an organized government for hundreds of years. The current type has been the same for more than four-hundred years and has been mostly successful. The system is called a monarchy. It consists of a monarch, or king, that is chosen from the king’s close family. For example, if a man is the king, his firstborn son may become the king, and then his son may become the next king, and so on. This is what happens in most cases, but there are always exceptions and weak kings. Parliament was formed to assist the king and check his power. It can both work with the king and against him. An example of parliament working against …show more content…

Charles I was ‘forced’ to fight the Scots then, and needed money from parliament to fight them. At the same time, there was a revolt in Ireland. Parliament had the money but wanted to control the army, which started a civil war between them and Charles I over who had the right to rule. Both of them fought for years until 1645, when the battle of Naseby was won by parliament. Charles II and his family was forced to move and the war continued. “He spent the next five years [1645-1650] as a royal refugee in Jersey, France and the Netherlands” (historyearningsite.co.uk). According to BBC, “In 1646, Charles [I] surrendered to the Scots, who handed him over to parliament. He escaped to the Isle of Wight in 1647 and encouraged discontented Scots to invade.” Of course, another war began, which parliament won again, in 1647. Charles I got a trial for treason and lost; he was executed in …show more content…

The second Dutch war began and England was on its own against them. A year later in 1666, a huge fire started and burned down a lot of the buildings. The Dutch also got help in the war from Denmark and France. They attacked the Thames and a treaty was worked out. Afterwards, the group turned against the Dutch: “In 1670, Charles signed the secret treaty of Dover under which Charles would declare himself a Catholic and England would side with France against the Dutch” (royal.gov.uk). The English did not want a Catholic king, so agreeing to the treaty was a large risk because the king of France could have blackmailed Charles into anything. Charles did benefit from the treaty though as he got support from the French and had one less enemy. The extra support allowed him to keep parliament at

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