CARLO II, king of ENGLAND. — Born in London on 29 May 1630, died there on 6 February 1685. Son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles II succeeded his father on the throne after the restoration of the Stuarts in 1660. In foreign policy, Charles inherited from Cromwell the anti-Spanish stance, which proved advantageous to Louis XIV. More successful was his colonial policy, which expanded English possessions especially in North America. The condition of Catholics during Charles’s reign, though the king himself was personally well disposed toward them, did not improve, owing to parliamentary opposition. Charles himself was secretly Catholic and several times initiated negotiations with Rome to reconcile England with the Holy See; yet he also showed weakness by signing decrees against Catholic priests and death sentences for the victims of the fabricated Titus Oates plot. On his deathbed Charles converted to the Catholic faith.
CARLO II, RE D'INGHILTERRA
BIBL.: A. W. Ward, s.V. in Dictionary of National Biography, IV, pp. 84 ff. and the bibliography cited there. On Catholicism in England under Charles’s reign, cf. bibliography under the entry Carlo I. Also: G. Boero, Conversion alla fede cattolica di C. II, re d’Inghilterra... da docum. autentici e originali, Modena 1874, pp. 103–201; Pastor, XIV, V. index. Silvio Furlani