Whigs and Tories

 

Charles II had spent twelve years abroad, while England was a republic. For the rest of his life, his main aim was to remain king of England. He said, 'I do not want to go on my travels again.'

 

To be secure, he had to stay on good terms with the most important of his subjects, the nobles and gentry. They forced Charles to share his power with Parliament. They had good reason, for the nobles controlled the House of Lords, and the gentry controlled the House of Commons.

 

Charles II was an Anglican - a member of the Church of England. (Secretly, he may have been a Catholic.) Most of the nobles and gentry were Anglicans. They disliked both Catholics and Dissenters - Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England. They got Parliament to pass acts which kept Catholics and Dissenters out of all the top jobs.

 

Charles II had no children. His heir was his brother James, who was a Catholic. None of the nobles and gentry liked the idea that the next king would be a Catholic. One group (called the Whigs) wanted to pass a bill saying that James could not be king. But the others (called the Tories) said that James was the heir, and had a right to be king.

 

Charles took his brother's side. With the help of the Tories, he made the Whigs give in. And when Charles died in 1685, his brother took the throne as James II.

 

Walter Robson: Crown, Parliament and People; Oxford University Press, 1992/2002, page 51