Page 254 - Cousins - Celebrities, Saints & Sinners

exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the
discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were
executed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681 and ruled alone until his
death in 1685. He was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed.

Charles was one of the most popular and beloved kings of England, known as the Merry Monarch, in
reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to
normality after over a decade of rule by Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of
Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by
various mistresses.
In 1665, Charles was faced with a great health crisis: the Great Plague of London. The death toll reached
a peak of 7,000 per week in the week of 17 September. Charles, with his family and court, fled London in
July to Salisbury; Parliament met in Oxford. Plague cases ebbed over the winter, and Charles returned to
London in February 1666.
After a long spell of hot and dry weather through mid-1666, what later became known as the Great Fire
of London started on 2 September 1666 in a bakehouse on Pudding Lane. Fanned by a strong easterly
wind and fed by stockpiles of wood and fuel that had been prepared for the coming colder months, the
fire eventually consumed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St Paul's Cathedral. Charles
and his brother James joined and directed the fire-fighting effort. The public blamed Catholic
conspirators for the fire, and one Frenchman, Robert Hubert, was hanged on the basis of a false
confession even though he had no hand in starting the fire.

Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of 2 February 1685, and died aged 54 at
11:45 am four days later at Whitehall Palace. The suddenness of his illness and death led to suspicion of
poison in the minds of many, including one of the royal doctors; however, a more modern medical
analysis has held that the symptoms of his final illness are similar to those of uraemia (a clinical
syndrome due to kidney dysfunction). Charles had a laboratory among his many interests, where prior
to his illness he had been experimenting with mercury. Mercuric poisoning can produce irreversible
kidney damage; however, the case for this being a cause of his death is unproven. In the days between
his collapse and his death, Charles endured a variety of torturous treatments including bloodletting,
purging and cupping in hopes of effecting a recovery.

On his deathbed Charles asked his brother, James, to look after his mistresses: "be well to Portsmouth,
and let not poor Nelly starve". He told his courtiers, "I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-
dying", and expressed regret at his treatment of his wife. On the last evening of his life he was received
into the Catholic Church in the presence of Father John Huddleston, though the extent to which he was
fully conscious or committed, and with whom the idea originated, is unclear. He was buried
in Westminster Abbey "without any manner of pomp" on 14 February.
Charles was succeeded by his brother, who became James II of England and Ireland and James VII of
Scotland.

References:
1. Relative Finder, associated with FamilySearch, and the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS)
2. Wikipedia.org
3. Learn more – The Restoration of Charles II
4. LDS Family Tree attached

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