Charles II: A Man Caught Between Tradition and Science

Carvalho, Cristina

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/7191

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Authors

Carvalho, Cristina

Abstract(s)

Charles II was a man torn between cultural tradition and scientific progress. The son of England’s only absolutist King went down in History as the nation’s “Merry Monarch”, while his support to Science and progress tends to be overlooked by the country’s historians. Although he was brought up believing in the divine right of ruling, reality soon took its toll on his life as he suffered with Charles I’s beheading and his own exile in mainland Europe. Later on, invited to return and appease England’s political turmoil, Charles II would hold on to the roots of ancestry by reviving religious rites like Maundy Thursday, the King’s Touch, and the Coronation trail. Charles II also recovered his parents’ sponsorship over the Arts and Sciences, taking the latter into another level of achievements and acknowledgement. Indeed, not only did he found the Royal Society, as he did attend meetings, yearning to learn more about the latest breakthroughs. Thus, in spite of the Stuarts’ defeat at the Glorious Revolution, time proved its kindness towards Charles II and though restrained in his actions by Parliament’s opposition, Charles II’s reign granted London Flamsteed’s Greenwich Observatory, Hooke’s “The Monument”, and Wren’s Cathedral, securing the way to a greater understanding of Nature and building the foundations to a Scientific Revolution.