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Counting Objects Using One-to-One Correspondence

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Explore our monarchy toolkit of resources and fun activities to create your own cyphers, crowns and coats of arms to display what sort of queen or king that you would be.

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The eldest surviving son of Charles I, Charles had been eight years old when Civil War broke out. He was with his father at the Battle of Edgehill and in Oxford, until ordered by him to seek the safety of France.

The Scots were horrified when Charles I was executed in 1649, and while England became a republic, they proclaimed his son king, and invited him to come to Scotland. Agreeing to Presbyterian demands that he sign the National Covenant, he did so.

Cromwell then marched north, defeated the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650, captured part of southern Scotland and seized and removed the nation's public records, although he did not manage to take the Honours of Scotland (the Scottish regalia).

On 1 January 1651, the Scots crowned Charles II at Scone (this turned out to be the last such Coronation at Scone). In July, the English army marched into Fife and then captured Perth, while the Scottish forces headed south into England, where they were defeated at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.

Charles II escaped, and fled to France once more. The English, meanwhile, moved on to take Stirling and Dundee.

By 1 October, Scottish resistance was effectively at an end, and the English government announced that England and Scotland were henceforth to be one commonwealth. This union took effect from 1652, although the acts of union did not become law until 1657.

Scotland was inadequately represented in Parliament and a council of state set up in 1655 included only two Scots. The resulting administrative and legal system was efficient, but financial ruin was widespread, legislation was designed to suit the English but not the Scottish economy, and the long-standing ecclesiastical divisions continued.

Charles II spent the next nine years in exile, until in 1660 he was invited back to London and restored to his father's throne. He always recalled with distaste his time in Scotland. The Presbyterians had lectured him constantly about morality and told him that kings were merely the vassals of God, like everyone else, and so he had no desire to go north again. Instead, Charles II left his Secretary of State, John, Duke of Lauderdale, to enforce his policies of royal absolutism in both church and state.

Objecting to the reintroduction of bishops into the Church of Scotland, the Covenanters rebelled in the Pentland Rising of 1666, but were defeated at the Battle of Rullion Green, not far from Edinburgh.

Lauderdale attempted a policy of conciliation, but a further Covenanting rising was put down by the king's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in Lanarkshire on 22 June 1679. Increasing opposition to Lauderdale's corrupt government led to his fall from power the following year.

The final phase of Charles II's reign was taken up mainly with attempts to settle religious dissension.

The king had no legitimate children, and he was well aware that the Scots viewed with alarm the prospect of his Roman Catholic brother James succeeding him.

Charles died after a stroke in 1685 with the problem still unresolved.

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The eldest surviving son of Charles I, Charles had been eight years old when Civil War broke out. He was with his father at the Battle of Edgehill and in Oxford, until ordered by him to seek the safety of France.

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King Charles II - National Portrait Gallery

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Reigned 1660-85 When civil war broke out in 1642, the heir to the throne Prince Charles was only twelve. He courageously engaged in the fighting for the next four years and, on one occasion when advised to retreat, cried 'I fear them not'. He was eventually sent abroad for safety in 1646.

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King Charles II | The public and personal life of a British monarch

He was certainly mercurial and brilliant, and quite possibly lustful and in the grip of dark and foreign powers. King Charles II was however, one of the nation's most interesting and beguiling rulers.

As a teen, his golden childhood was ripped away from him by the Civil War. Fight and flight marked these years with the execution of his beloved father shattering his world. His twenties were spent hopping around continental courts, begging favours and finances.

A time to celebrate

On his thirtieth birthday, he left all that behind and triumphantly returned to London as King. In the end, the national experiment with republicanism had collapsed and the dour days of Cromwell and the Commonwealth were swept away with festivities and mirth.

Charles II was tall, handsome, sharp of mind, impeccably attired and charming. But he would need all his guile to manoeuvre and survive the tempestuous times in which he ruled.

Charles II's coronation

After the death of Oliver Cromwell, his son Richard became Lord Protector. However Richard lacked the leadership qualities of his father, and he was quickly resigned.

It was decided that Charles' son should return to his rightful role, and become king. He would rule closely with parliament, and returned to popular acclaim.

New regalia was made (the previous crown had been melted down when Charles I was executed) and the coronation took place on 23 April 1661.

Affairs of the heart: Charles II's mistresses

The young King's heart was soon taken by the married beauty Barbara Villiers who Charles would show off publicly. Villiers came to symbolise the excess and promiscuity of the Restoration court. His brother's secret marriage to a commoner also added an air of scandal to the crown.

The early years of his reign were marked by a flair for public spectacle, winning over nobility and commoner alike. There was also private tragedy with the death of two of his closest family members.

Despite having fathered a child by his mistress, Charles was keen to marry. Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal, was chosen. Her dowry was generous indeed: two million crowns and the cities of Bombay and Tangiers thrown in for good measure.

Catherine of Braganza, the Royal Collection

The marriage was to be courteous rather than passionate. The couple spoke no common language and the Portuguese Catherine was considered to measure up poorly next to the beauty of the King's mistress. Worse, the King insisted on openly carrying on his affair and fathering a second child with Barbara.

Charles II and religion

Just as Charles negotiated the conflicts of marriage and mistresses, the nation was an irreconcilable tangle of religious conflicts. Puritanical Protestants still had great sway in England and even more so in Scotland. The King was personally close to many Catholics and their sympathisers. Somewhere in the middle lay the established Church of England, itself wracked by similar tensions.

To show favouritism to one side or even tolerance was potentially fatal. Although Charles managed to please no one in this respect he somehow managed to avert open rebellion. Nevertheless, Charles was to be frustrated constantly by warring factions in Parliament divided along religious lines.

Because Charles had no legitimate children, there was a widespread fear that his Roman Catholic brother James would inherit the throne.

Plague, Fire, War and Peace

Although it would be remembered as a time of great scientific advances with Charles' Royal Society at the forefront, the 1660s were still dominated by superstition. What could speak more strongly of divine displeasure than pestilence and disaster? The Great Plague of London came a mere five years into his rule. Followed by the Great Fire of London the following year should surely have seen off the King but with guile Charles survived these events. As well as this the English lost the Second Anglo-Dutch war in 1667.

Just as the City seemed to spring anew from the ashes of the Great Fire of London, science and commerce offered hope of a better future. The misery of the recent past was perhaps enough to discourage the discontent from rebellion. Charles sued for peace abroad with the Dutch and signed the Treaty of Breda. Soon after, a formal alliance with Holland and Sweden was created.

Peace seemed to unleash the King's loins and now he would be linked with a long list of women, presumably overlapping. Countesses, singers and, famously, the orange seller turned actress Nell Gwyn graced the royal bed. Barbara was pensioned off.

Charles II and the founding of the Royal Observatory

Improving navigation at sea was a major challenge for 17th century merchants and their sailors. Thanks to Charles II's French mistress, Louise de Kéroualle, rumours started to circulate at court that French astronomer, Sieur de St. Pierre, had devised a means of determining longitude at sea by using observations of the Moon's position in relation to the background stars.

On 4 March 1675, the King signed a Royal Warrant appointing John Flamsteed as 'astronomical observator..[..]..so as to find out the so much-desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art of navigation'. It was the founding of Britain's first state-funded scientific research institution.
Find out more about the history of the Royal Observatory

Charles II by Peter Lely (1630-1685)

Brinksmanship

Charles had survived so far, and wisely kept his distance from his competing ministers and mistresses. Somehow he managed to keep them all in play but none ascendant.

Charles II signed a secret treaty with King Louis XIV of France in which England offered aid in a war against the Dutch in return for the French stalling their naval expansion.

Sensationally, he also offered to declare himself a Catholic in return for money. Although the funds began to flow, (freeing Charles of some of the influence of Parliament) the conversion never seemed to happen, at least not publicly.

His brother James was forced to resign as Lord Admiral, despite noted service, when he refused to renounce his own new-found Catholicism. At once this explosive secret about the heir to the throne became public news.

How did Charles II die?

Charles was caught between support for his brother and a hysterical reaction to 'Popish' plotting. Parliament tried to cut James out of the succession and Charles looked to marry off James' daughter to Protestant Prince William of Orange in Holland.

In 1681 with Parliament poised to declare itself in charge of the royal succession, the King dissolved it to sit no more in his reign. At the very edge of the precipice, somehow Charles clung on. His final years were spent settling scores and concentrating power.

On his deathbed, he finally converted to Catholicism and on 6 February 1685 he passed away peacefully. His brother James fared less well and ruled for only three years before fleeing the country to make way for William of Orange.

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King Charles II | The public and personal life of a British monarch

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He was certainly mercurial and brilliant, and quite possibly lustful and in the grip of dark and foreign powers. King Charles II was however, one of the nation's most interesting and beguiling rulers. As a teen, his golden childhood was ripped away from him by the Civil War.

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The Execution of Charles I: Killing a King

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Charles I was the second son of James I and was born on 19th November 1600. He was crowned in Westminster Abbey in February 1626.

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Tried and sentenced to death for high treason

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Henry III, King John's son, was only nine when he became king. By 1227, when he assumed power from his regent, order had been restored, based on his acceptance of Magna Carta.

However, the king's failed campaigns in France (1230 and 1242), his choice of friends and advisers, together with the cost of his scheme to make one of his younger sons, Edmund, King of Sicily and help the Pope against the Holy Roman Emperor, led to further disputes with the barons and united opposition in Church and State.

Although Henry was extravagant and his tax demands were resented, the king's accounts show a list of many charitable donations and payments for building works (including the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey which began in 1245).

The Provisions of Oxford (1258) and the Provisions of Westminster (1259) were attempts by the nobles to define common law in the spirit of Magna Carta, control appointments and set up an aristocratic council.

Henry tried to defeat them by obtaining papal absolution from his oaths, and enlisting King Louis IX's help. Henry renounced the Provisions in 1262 and war broke out. The barons, under their leader, Simon de Montfort, were initially successful and even captured Henry.

However, Henry escaped, joined forces with the lords of the Marches (on the Welsh border), and finally defeated and killed de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. Royal authority was restored by the Statute of Marlborough (1267), in which the king also promised to uphold Magna Carta and some of the Provisions of Westminster.

Henry died in 1272 and his tomb is in Westminster Abbey, in front of the Church's High Altar, the former resting place of Edward the Confessor - who his son Edward I was named after.

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Henry III, King John's son, was only nine when he became king. By 1227, when he assumed power from his regent, order had been restored, based on his acceptance of Magna Carta.

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King Charles III's coronation will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey in London.

During the ceremony, the King will be crowned alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort.

Here is what we know about the plans, code-named Operation Golden Orb.

What is a coronation?

A coronation is both the symbolic religious ceremony during which a sovereign is crowned and the physical act of placing a crown on a monarch's head.

It formalises the monarch's role as the head of the Church of England and marks the transfer of their title and powers.

However, it is not actually necessary for the monarch to be crowned to become King.

Edward VIII reigned without a coronation - and Charles automatically became King the moment Queen Elizabeth II died.

People are also being encouraged to hold Celebration Big Lunch street parties.

It features a rose, a thistle, a daffodil and a shamrock - emblems from nations across the United Kingdom.

What happens at a coronation?

Coronations have remained much the same for more than 1,000 years. The British ceremony is the only remaining event of its type in Europe.

However, Buckingham Palace has said that although the coronation will be "rooted in long-standing traditions", it will also "reflect the monarch's role today and look towards the future".

It is likely to be shorter and smaller in scale than Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation, with a wider range of religions represented.

The coronation procession is also expected to be more modest. Queen Elizabeth's procession had 16,000 participants, and took 45 minutes to pass any stationary point on the 7km (4.3 miles) route.

This time, the King and Queen Consort will travel to Westminster Abbey in the King's procession, and return to Buckingham Palace in a larger coronation procession, where they will be joined by other members of the Royal Family.

The palace has not yet said who will subsequently appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

There are several stages to the service:

The recognition: While standing beside the Coronation Chair, the monarch is presented to those gathered in the Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The congregation shouts "God Save the King!" and trumpets sound

The oath: The sovereign swears to uphold the law and the Church of England

The anointing: The King's ceremonial robe is removed and he sits in the Coronation Chair. A gold cloth is held over the chair to conceal the King from view. The Archbishop of Canterbury anoints the King's hands, breast and head with holy oil made according to a secret recipe, but known to contain ambergris, orange flowers, roses, jasmine and cinnamon

The investiture: The sovereign is presented with items including the Royal Orb, representing religious and moral authority; the Sceptre, representing power; and the Sovereign's Sceptre, a rod of gold topped with a white enamelled dove, a symbol of justice and mercy. Finally, the Archbishop places St Edward's Crown on the King's head

The enthronement and homage: The King leaves the Coronation Chair and moves to the throne. Peers kneel before the monarch to pay homage

The Queen Consort will then be anointed in the same way and crowned.

Part of the service will be sung in Welsh, and soloists will include world-famous Welsh opera singer Sir Bryn Terfel.

There will be Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King's father, Prince Philip, who was born in Greece.

A gospel choir will also perform, as will choristers from Westminster School.

The coronation is a state occasion, which means the government controls the guest list.

In addition to the Royal Family, those attending will include the prime minister, representatives from the Houses of Parliament, heads of state, and other royals from around the world.

More than 8,000 guests attended Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, but Westminster Abbey had to be closed for five months to allow extra seating to be built.

Its normal capacity is about 2,200 and it seems likely that this will be the maximum number on this occasion.

The ceremony is likely to be broadcast live, as was Queen Elizabeth II's.

A worldwide audience of hundreds of millions is expected to watch.

The King will be crowned with the solid gold 17th Century St Edward's Crown. It is exceptionally heavy and only used at the moment of coronation.

The Queen's death reignited the debate about the way some royal gemstones were obtained by the British empire.

Much of the controversy centres around diamonds found in two other crowns.

One is the Imperial State Crown, which the monarch will put on towards the end of the coronation ceremony, and which he will also wear when he appears on the Buckingham Palace balcony.

That contains the Cullinan II diamond, sometimes called the Second Star of Africa. It was given to Edward VII on his 66th birthday by the government of the Transvaal - a former British crown colony - in what is now South Africa.

The other controversial stone is the Koh-i-Noor, which is part of the Queen Mother's coronation crown. It is one of the largest-cut diamonds in the world, and India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have all made claims to it.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, will instead be crowned with Queen Mary's Crown, which has been taken out of the Tower of London to be re-sized ahead of the ceremony.

It is thought to be the first time in recent history that an existing crown will be "recycled" for a coronation.

As a state occasion, the coronation will be paid for by the UK government.

While it is likely to come under pressure to show sensitivity during the current cost-of-living crisis, the government is expected to use the ceremony as an important diplomatic opportunity to present the UK to the world.

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King Charles: What we know about the coronation

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King Charles III's coronation will take place on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey in London. During the ceremony, the King will be crowned alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort. Here is what we know about the plans, code-named Operation Golden Orb. What is a coronation?

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King Charles coronation plans revealed including route and break from tradition | ITV News

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A much shorter procession route and a break from tradition have been revealed by Buckingham Palace ahead of King Charles' coronation, ITV News' Lizzie Robinson reports Play Brightcove video Ceremonial celebrations for the King's coronation have been revealed, including the procession route, the carriages and the priceless Crown Jewels chosen to play a starring role.

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Royal updates about the Coronation of Charles III

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Royal updates about the Coronation of Charles III

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