What's covered
Key facts
Charles II managed Parliament more successfully than his father — he generally avoided open confrontation, but secretly relied on French subsidies (notably from the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover) so he could rule without Parliament when he wished.
The Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652–54, 1665–67, 1672–74) were fought because Dutch and English merchants directly competed for the same trade routes and colonial markets.
Coffeehouses became key Restoration London venues — cheap coffee, newspapers, and political/scientific/trade debate between men of different ranks, earning the nickname "penny universities".
The Clarendon Code (1661–65) was a series of four Acts that re-established the Church of England's supremacy and excluded Nonconformists (dissenting Protestants) from local government office.
Charles II's 1662 marriage to Catherine of Braganza expanded English overseas territory: her Portuguese dowry brought Bombay (India) and Tangier (North Africa) under English control, alongside a large cash payment.
The Great Fire of London destroyed much of the city in September 1666 — ~13,000 houses lost, but only a handful of direct deaths.
In the Declaration of Breda (1660) Charles II promised religious toleration ("liberty to tender consciences"), pay for the army, recognition of land sales made during the Interregnum, and a free Parliament — promises he kept selectively.
Bristol grew rapidly under Charles II as a trading hub based on the Atlantic slave trade, supplying goods to West Africa and shipping enslaved people to American colonies.
The Great Fire of London occurred in 1666.
Parliament blocked Charles II's Declarations of Indulgence (1662 and 1672) — which would have suspended penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters — because MPs feared toleration was a cover for advancing Catholicism, and used control of finance to force their withdrawal.
Sample questions
A taste of the 40 questions in this topic — answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
How successfully did Charles II manage the relationship between Crown and Parliament?
- •Charles and Parliament worked in perfect harmony throughout the Restoration
- •Charles failed completely — Parliament was more powerful at his death than when he came
- •Charles was so successful that Parliament simply approved all his decisions
- ✓More successfully than his father — he avoided confrontation but used secret French subsidies
What were the Navigation Acts of the 1660s designed to do?
- •They banned all colonial exports of sugar and tobacco except to ports inside the Mediterranean and the Baltic
- •They handed English shipping rights in the Caribbean to the Dutch East India Company under a treaty with The Hague
- •They opened all English colonial ports to ships of any nation in return for a small customs duty paid at landing
- ✓They required goods imported into English colonies to travel in English ships, aiming to lock the Dutch out of England's growing colonial trade
Why did coffeehouses become so important in Restoration London?
- •They acted as branches of the Bank of England where ordinary Londoners could deposit savings and exchange foreign coin
- ✓They offered cheap coffee, newspapers and a space where men of different ranks debated politics, trade and science — earning the nickname "penny universities"
- •They served as official meeting places of the Royal Society, replacing Gresham College as its main venue throughout the 1660s
- •They were the only legal venues in which Dissenting Protestants could worship after the 1664 Conventicle Act came into force
How was Charles II restored to the English throne in 1660?
- •Charles II led a French-backed invasion that defeated a New Model Army force at Dover
- •Charles was restored by popular rebellion after Parliament was locked out of Westminster
- ✓Parliament invited him back after the failure of the Commonwealth governments that followed Cromwell's death
- •The Army Council voted to restore the monarchy because Charles bribed its officers with Dutch gold
What happened to England's government when Charles II died in 1685?
- •England returned to a republic
- ✓His Catholic brother became James II
- •Monmouth seized the throne in a successful coup
- •Parliament chose William of Orange immediately
How did Charles II's 1662 marriage to Catherine of Braganza expand English overseas territory?
- ✓Her Portuguese dowry brought Bombay in India and Tangier in North Africa under English control, opening new trade routes
- •It gave England formal sovereignty over the Spanish-held port of Cadiz and the Atlantic island of Madeira
- •It granted England exclusive trading rights over the entire Brazilian coastline as the price of the alliance
- •It transferred the French sugar colonies of Saint-Domingue and Martinique permanently into English ownership
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