Charles II: the people’s prince
Jenny Uglow considers how Charles II used charm, spin and some good old-fashioned pomp and circumstance to woo the nation after the Restoration
This article was first published in the April 2010 issue of BBC History Magazine
Three hundred and fifty years ago, in the spring of 1660, the 29-year-old Charles II and his court were virtually in rags with – wrote Samuel Pepys – not a coat among them worth more than 40 shillings. All this was soon to change. On 4 April 1660, Charles was in Breda in Holland, at the court of his sister Mary, the widow of William II of Orange. From here he issued the Declaration of Breda, a document that the parliament at Westminster would seize upon as offering the terms for his return.
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