Posted on 08/10/2023 10:32:32 AM PDT by ebb tide
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Charles Stuart was, however, a paradox. Despite being so drawn to Catholicism, he was also the ruler who looked the other way when the last Catholic martyr, the then-archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn for his alleged part in the fabricated “Popish Plot.” Nevertheless, as Charles’ own end drew near and his courtiers stood in his bedchamber and watched, his brother, the duke of York (later King James II) leaned over the dying monarch and whispered, asking if he should send for a priest. The reply was vigorous: “For God’s sake do!”
All were ordered from the bedchamber, except for a privileged few, as a familiar face returned: Father John Huddleston. Now, many years previously, it was this same priest who had helped save the young king’s life after the Battle of Worcester. Doubtless it was with this in mind that the duke informed his brother: “Sire, this good man once saved your life. He comes now to save your soul.” The king whispered faintly: “He is welcome.”
In a short treatise entitled: A briefe account of Particulars occurring at the happy Death of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles II, Father Huddleston would leave a firsthand account of what transpired next.
“Upon Thursday, the 5th of February, 1685, between seven and eight o’clock in the evening, I was sent for in haste … And desired to bring with me all things necessary for a dying person. … Soon after, I was called into the King’s bedchamber, where, approaching to the bedside, and kneeling down. … The King then declared, himself, that he desired to die in the faith and communion of the ...
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
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I never knew about this!
That is a link to an article about the missal itself, with pictures. The style of Catholic books remained similar for over 400 years longer—amazing!
Indeed ... highly recognizable; would be right at home at any Latin Mass today.
Charles II was an adulterer, who had no surviving children from his marriage to his Catholic Portuguese wife, Catherine of Breganza, but had multiple illegitimate children with various women, the oldest, being the Duke of Monmouth, who led a rebellion against his uncle James II, to take the throne. Monmouth was defeated and captured at the Battle of Sedgemoor, tried, and beheaded. And James II, being a Catholic was driven from the throne into exile in France for the rest of his life, replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary, and her husband William of Orange. And all this crap started because Henry VIII couldn’t get the Pope in Rome, to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, as well as the fact that Elizabeth I would never produce an heir.
I have a portrait of Charles in my dining room. You’ll be happy to know that it was looking on last night when we had a trad priest over for dinner.
He (Charles, not the priest) had much privilege, but also much privation and danger. In life, he had to navigate a treacherous course to recover his crown and to retain it without suffering his father’s fate. I’m sure he was acting in his own interest (as he had a right to do), but also in the interest of his country.
Charles was a habitual fornicator and while he must have possessed much courage, it was not the sort that moralists call “heroic”. As the article notes, he let a martyr go the the scaffold, when he might have prevented it. But God’s ways are not the ways of men, so who knows if it wasn’t all for the best? Thanks to Charles, instead of dying comfortably in bed, being forgotten by history, St. Oliver wears a martyr’s crown. Charles did die in bed, not a martyr like his father, but a repentant sinner, reconciled to God and His Church. While no one will ever give him credit for miraculous intercession, many men have done worse.
I treasure his portrait, an antique copy of a historic original, painted from life, that is now lost. I’m thinking of leaving it to the Diocese of Charleston when I die. I wonder if they want it. Probably not.
Thank-you for the link.
I noticed the opening page of his Missal Romanum twice references the Council of Trent.
All that matters in the “conciliar church”, however, is VC II.
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