On February 6, 1649, a week after Charles I was executed in London, the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed his son Charles King of Great Britain and Ireland in Edinburgh. The English Parliament passed a statute that made any such proclamation unlawful and outlawed the monarchy. Charles II's formal accession to the English throne would have to wait until 1660, when General Monck, who controlled the army, engineered Charles's Restoration.
Charles died on February 6, 1685. Almost his last words, to his brother James the Duke of York, soon to succeed him as James II, were "Let not poor Nelly starve." He knew that of all his mistresses, Nell Gwynn was the one who truly relied on his support for survival.
Monday, February 6, 2012
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