Charles II of England
Biography
Restored 1660 after the Interregnum, Charles forgave most enemies, executing the regicides only. Theatres reopened, wit and mistresses, Nell Gwyn, the Merry Monarch. Plague 1665, Great Fire 1666, Dutch wars. Secretly Catholic, converted on deathbed. No legitimate heirs, the throne passed to his brother James, crisis ahead. Habeas Corpus Act 1679 defined liberty against arbitrary arrest.
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