Anniversary of the Death of Charles II

Three hundred and thirty-five years ago today Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, passed away from the combined efforts of what seems to have been a stroke and the primitive medical attempts to alleviate it.
 
The Stuart monarch lived what must be considered an interesting life by any measure. 

The son of King Charles I and his wife, Henrietta Maria, daughter of French king Henry IV and his wife, Marie de Medici, his father was beheaded in 1649 during the War of the Three Kingdoms that culminated in Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. After Cromwell's victory in the Battle of Worcester, Charles escaped, at one point hiding from his pursuers in the famous Boscobel Oak, eventually going into exile in France. 

Englishmen were unhappy with the draconian and joyless administration of Puritan Cromwell and shortly after his death in 1658 Charles was welcomed back in a restoration of the monarchy. His arrival at Dover on May 25, 1660 produced the most enthusiastic celebration in England before or since.

Lucky as he may have been to escape the fate of his father, surviving a vicious civil war and returning to England to assume his hereditary duties, the years of his reign were not as fortunate. His marriage to Catherine of Braganza may have been childless but he had at least a dozen recognized children through various mistresses and probably more. A plague epidemic struck London in 1665 and anyone who could left the city. The next year the city was consumed by the Great Fire of London.

The UK was also embroiled in the shifting international conflicts of Europe in that era. The rising  Dutch Republic, the decaying Spanish empire and the ever-more powerful French were all at times either adversaries or allies. In 1667 the Dutch sailed up the Thames estuary and burned the English fleet at Medway, capturing and towing away the British flagship, the Royal Charles in the greatest naval defeat in English history.

Even so, the intelligent Charles was instrumental in the reconstruction of London and one of the founders of the scientific Royal Society. Isaac Newton was a member.

On Feb. 2, 1665 the "Merry Monarch" suffered what seems to have been a stroke and after four days of the torture that was medical treatment at that time succumbed. 

As three hundred+ years have passed since the reign of Charles II, he and it have become a footnote in history. However, even a casual glance at the story of this unique individual shows how banal and uninteresting the current English royal family is. Imagine how much more exciting supermarket tabloids would be if a person like Royal Charles was in action today.