1.
Philip IV of Spain
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Philip IV of Spain was King of Spain and Portugal as Philip III. He ascended the thrones in 1621 and reigned in Spain until his death, Philip is remembered for his patronage of the arts, including such artists as Diego Velázquez, and his rule over Spain during the challenging period of the Thirty Years War. Philip IV was born in Valladolid, and was the eldest son of Philip III and his wife, Philip had seven children by Elisabeth, with only one being a son, Balthasar Charles, who died at the age of sixteen in 1646. The death of his son deeply shocked the king, who appears to have been a father by the standards of the day. Philip remarried in 1646, following the deaths of both Elisabeth and his legitimate heir. Perceptions of Philips personality have altered considerably over time, victorian authors were inclined to portray him as a weak individual, delegating excessively to his ministers, and ruling over a debauched Baroque court. Victorian historians even attributed the death of Baltasar to debauchery. The doctors who treated the Prince at that time in fact diagnosed smallpox, Philip was idealised by his contemporaries as the model of Baroque kingship. Philip was a horseman, a keen hunter and a devotee of bull-fighting. Privately, Philip appears to have had a lighter persona, when he was younger, he was said to have a keen sense of humour and a great sense of fun. He privately attended academies in Madrid throughout his reign — these were lighthearted literary salons, aiming to analyse contemporary literature, a keen theatre-goer, he was sometimes criticised by contemporaries for his love of these frivolous entertainments. Others have captured his private personality as naturally kind, gentle and affable and those close to him claimed he was academically competent, with a good grasp of Latin and geography, and could speak French, Portuguese and Italian well. Like many of his contemporaries, including Olivares, he had a keen interest in astrology and his handwritten translation of Francesco Guicciardinis texts on political history still exists. Although Philips Catholic beliefs no longer attract criticism from English language writers, notably, from the 1640s onwards he sought the advice of a noted cloistered abbess, Sor María de Ágreda, exchanging many letters with her. By the end of the reign, and with the health of Carlos José in doubt, there was a possibility of Juan Josés making a claim on the throne. Philip IV came to power as the influence of the Sandovals was being undermined by a new noble coalition, over the course of at least a year, however, the relationship became very close, with Philips tendency towards underconfidence and diffidence counteracted by Olivares drive and determination. Philip retained Olivares as his confidant and chief minister for the twenty years. Philip himself argued that it was appropriate for the king himself to go house to house amongst his ministers to see if his instructions were being carried out
2.
Restoration (England)
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The term Restoration is used to describe both the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and the period of several years afterwards in which a new political settlement was established. It is very used to cover the whole reign of Charles II. Richard Cromwells main weakness was that he did not have the confidence of the army, after seven months, an army faction known as the Wallingford House party removed him on 6 May 1659 and reinstalled the Rump Parliament. Charles Fleetwood was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State, on 9 June 1659, he was nominated lord-general of the army. However, his leadership was undermined in Parliament, which chose to disregard the armys authority in a fashion to the post-First Civil War Parliament. A royalist uprising was planned for 1 August 1659, but it was foiled, however, Sir George Booth gained control of Cheshire, Charles II hoped that with Spanish support he could effect a landing, but none was forthcoming. Booth held Cheshire until the end of August when he was defeated by General Lambert, the Commons, on 12 October 1659, cashiered General John Lambert and other officers, and installed Fleetwood as chief of a military council under the authority of the Speaker. The next day Lambert ordered that the doors of the House be shut, on 26 October a Committee of Safety was appointed, of which Fleetwood and Lambert were members. Lambert was appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland, the Committee of Safety sent Lambert with a large force to meet George Monck, who was in command of the English forces in Scotland, and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms. It was into this atmosphere that Monck, the governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, lamberts army began to desert him, and he returned to London almost alone. The Presbyterian members, excluded in Prides Purge of 1648, were recalled, Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before Parliament to answer for his conduct. On 3 March 1660, Lambert was sent to the Tower of London, Lambert was incarcerated and died in custody on Guernsey in 1694, Ingoldsby was indeed pardoned. On 4 April 1660, Charles II issued the Declaration of Breda, Monck organised the Convention Parliament, which met for the first time on 25 April. On 8 May it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the monarch since the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. Constitutionally, it was as if the last nineteen years had never happened, Charles returned from exile, leaving the Hague on 23 May and landing at Dover on 25 May. He entered London on 29 May, his birthday, to celebrate his Majestys Return to his Parliament,29 May was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661, some contemporaries described the Restoration as a divinely ordained miracle. The sudden and unexpected deliverance from usurpation and tyranny was interpreted as a restoration of the natural, the Cavalier Parliament convened for the first time on 8 May 1661, and it would endure for over 17 years, finally being dissolved on 24 January 1679
3.
Charles II of England
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Charles II was king of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, Charles IIs father, Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, Cromwell became virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Charles spent the next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands. A political crisis followed the death of Cromwell in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim, after 1660, all legal documents were dated as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charless English parliament enacted laws known as the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, Charles acquiesced to the Clarendon Code even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance. The major foreign policy issue of his reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1670, he entered into the treaty of Dover. Louis agreed to aid him in the Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence, but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oatess revelations of a supposed Popish Plot sparked the Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charless brother, the crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories, and, following the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, Charles dissolved the English Parliament in 1681, and ruled alone until his death on 6 February 1685. He was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed, Charless wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children, but Charles acknowledged at least twelve illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James, Charles II was born in St Jamess Palace on 29 May 1630. His parents were Charles I and Henrietta Maria, Charles was their second son and child. Their first son was born about a year before Charles but died within a day, England, Scotland and Ireland were respectively predominantly Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, at or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales, though he was never formally invested. During the 1640s, when Charles was still young, his father fought Parliamentary, by spring 1646, his father was losing the war, and Charles left England due to fears for his safety. Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646, at The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter, who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married
4.
Peter Lely
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Sir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch parents in Soest in Westphalia, Lely studied painting in Haarlem, where he may have been apprenticed to Pieter de Grebber. He became a master of the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem in 1637 and he is reputed to have adopted the surname Lely from a heraldic lily on the gable of the house where his father was born in The Hague. He arrived in London in around 1641, which was marked by the death of Anthony van Dyck in December and his early English paintings, mainly mythological or religious scenes, or portraits set in a pastoral landscape, show influences from Anthony van Dyck and the Dutch baroque. Lelys portraits were well received, and he succeeded Anthony van Dyck as the most fashionable portrait artist in England and he became a freeman of the Painter-Stainers Company in 1647 and was portrait artist to Charles I. His talent ensured that his career was not interrupted by Charless execution, and he served Oliver Cromwell, whom he painted warts and all, in the years around 1650 the poet Sir Richard Lovelace wrote two poems about Lely – Peinture and See what a clouded majesty. After the English Restoration in 1660, Lely was appointed as Charles IIs Principal Painter in Ordinary in 1661, with a stipend of £200 per year, Lely became a naturalised English subject in 1662. The young Robert Hooke came to London to follow an apprenticeship with Lely before being given a place at Westminster School by Richard Busby, demand was high, and Lely and his large workshop were prolific. After Lely painted a head, Lelys pupils would often complete the portrait in one of a series of numbered poses. As a result, Lely is the first English painter who has left a mass of work. On Lely’s death in 1680 his executors employed a dozen such slaves to complete for sale the many unfinished canvases stacked about his studio and his most famous non-portrait work is probably Nymphs by a fountain in Dulwich Picture Gallery. Lely played a significant role in introducing the mezzotint to Britain and he encouraged Dutch mezzotinters to come to Britain to copy his work, laying the foundations for the English mezzotint tradition. He died soon afterwards at his easel in Covent Garden, while painting a portrait of the Duchess of Somerset, and was buried at St Pauls Church, Covent Garden. Some items in it which had acquired by Lely from the Commonwealth dispersal of Charles Is art collections. He was replaced as court portraitist by Sir Godfrey Kneller, also a German-born Dutchman, whose style drew from Lelys, between them they established the basic English portrait style followed by less fashionable painters for decades. Amongst Lelys pupils were John Greenhill and Willem Wissing, a horse was also named after him, finishing fourth in the 1996 Grand National. Peter Lelys works Millar, Oliver Lely, Sir Peter Grove Dictionary of Art,19, pp. 119–125 Millar, Oliver Sir Peter Lely 1618-80, National Portrait Gallery,1978. Painting in Britain 1530 to 1790, fourth Edition, New York, Viking Penguin,1978
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