The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1912-12-02

u
at the Mortified CHAR Les N
courtiers and passed on. Another
man might have taken offense
at being thus lampooned. But
Charles had two remarkable traits
that saved him much bother: He
never carried a grudge and he never
felt gratitude.
He knew well enough that this par
ticulaT doggerel was the work of the
graceless earl Of Rochester, the man
who in another poem. alluded to
Charles as "A merry monarch, scan
dalous and poor" Yet he did not
trouble himself to punish or even to
snub the earl. Nor would he have
rewarded Rochester for saving the
whole royal family from death. That
was the sort of man the Merry Mon
arch" was.
When Charles II. was a mere boy
his father, Charles T., had been over
thrown and beheaded by England's
Parliamentary Party" The young
fellow had not stayed in England to
fight to the death in his fathers cause.
Instead he had slipped over to Hol-
land. where he was living in jolly
security. But on hearing Of the kings
execution he promptly proclaimed
himself King Charles II" The proc
iamation did him little good. For the
parliamentary party with Oliver
Cromwell at its head) had for the
time made England an impossible
place for kings.
Still. the Scotch, ever restless land
probably forgetting they had betrayed
and sold his fugitive father to the
English). offered to make Charles
their king II he would give them GER
tain promises. These promises
seemed to him disgraceful. Yet q
promise was one thing that Charles
was Away willing to give, knowing
he could readily break his word later.
He went to Scotland and In 1851 was
crowned. Then he invaded England.
Cromwell quickly routed him out of
both England and Scotland and sent
him scuttling to France for safety.
But when Cromwell died, England
grew tired of Puritanism and the
parliament's rule and the people
gladly welcomed Charles home as
their king. 1t was the beginning OF
modern England, and of a reign whose
profiigacy and scandals set the whole
world agog. Charles embarked at
once on a life of pleasure. He turned
deaf ear to the pleas of those who
had beggared themselves in behalf of
his father and himself. He said he
had no Money to spend on such peo-
pie. Buzz he squandered fortunes at
the gambling table and in heaping
wealth and rank upon such women
as he CHANGED to fancy.
He neglected and ill-treated his
homely little wife, broke state pledges
at will, layished money on low favor
ties and mismanaged the nation.
Rochester in calling him "a merry
monarch, scandalous and poor" had
but spoken the truth. He was merry
at the country's expense. His life
was one long scandal. He was for
ever poor, because he was a spend /
thrift.
Charles's chief advisers we're five
noblemen (Clifford, Ashley. Bucking-
nam, Arlington and Lauderdale). who /
aided him to defy parliament and +
cheat the people. The first letters of I
these mems names in order spelled T
'Cabal," and the oddly coined word /
has ever since been used to describe I
any conspiracy against the state. To
get money for his own purposes
Charles sold two English towns to
France. He also accepted a large
yearly sum Of money from the French
king (Louis XIV to act in that mon
arch's interests. All this did not add
to his popularity with his own people.
who hated France.
In 1868 war broke out between
England and Holland. A Dutch fleet
invaded England, sailed up the Med
way river as far as Chatham, destroy
ng everything in its path. London in
1868 was swept by the plague and in
1866 by ire. Plots, religious disturb
ances, national discontent-au sorts
IF mtsfortunes piled up. Through it
Ill the Merry Monarch pursued his
'alm, blackguardly way: seriously
disturbed by nothing; enricning vice
md allowing virtue to starve; his life
md his court the scandal of the civ
lied world. He would probably have
'een assassinated were it not that
lis brother James-duke of York, the
most unpopular man in England
would have succeeded him as king.
COR Charles and the queen had no
In February. 1885, Charles II. died.
70 the last he was the Merry Mon
rich, whimsically begging his cour-
iers' pardon "for being such a long
ime In dying" Courage, wit ana
oily nature were his only good quail
ties. There were perhaps still fewer