Charles II

Spent nine years in exile after his father's execution and his own defeat at Worcester in 1651 — famously hiding in an oak tree before escaping to France. Restored in 1660 to nearly universal welcome, he proved a witty, cynical, pleasure-loving king who preserved his throne by avoiding the doctrinaire mistakes of his father. The reign saw plague, the Great Fire of London, the founding of the Royal Society, and a politically suicidal flirtation with Catholicism that he was forced to disguise until his deathbed conversion. He died without legitimate issue, leaving the throne to his openly Catholic brother.