Editing Charles II of England (section)

===Absolute monarch===
Fearing that the Exclusion Bill would be passed, and bolstered by some acquittals in the continuing Plot trials, which seemed to him to indicate a more favourable public mood towards Catholicism, Charles dissolved the English Parliament, for a second time that year, in mid-1679. Charles's hopes for a more moderate Parliament were not fulfilled; within a few months he had dissolved Parliament yet again, after it sought to pass the Exclusion Bill. When a new Parliament assembled at Oxford in March 1681, Charles dissolved it for a fourth time after just a few days.<ref>{{harvnb|Hutton|1989|pp=376–401}}; {{harvnb|Miller|1991|pp=314–345}}.</ref> During the 1680s, however, popular support for the Exclusion Bill ebbed, and Charles experienced a nationwide surge of loyalty. Lord Shaftesbury was prosecuted (albeit unsuccessfully) for treason in 1681 and later fled to Holland, where he died. For the remainder of his reign, Charles ruled without Parliament.{{sfn|Hutton|1989|pp=430–441}}
[[File:Charles II touching the scrofulous (crop).jpeg|thumb|Charles performing the [[royal touch]]; engraving by [[Robert White (engraver)|Robert White]], 1684]]
Charles's opposition to the Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants. Protestant conspirators formulated the [[Rye House Plot]], a plan to murder him and the Duke of York as they returned to London after horse races in [[Newmarket, Suffolk|Newmarket]]. A great fire, however, destroyed Charles's lodgings at Newmarket, which forced him to leave the races early, thus inadvertently avoiding the planned attack. News of the failed plot was leaked.{{sfn|Fraser|1979|p=426}} Protestant politicians such as the [[Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex|Earl of Essex]], [[Algernon Sydney]], [[William Russell, Lord Russell|Lord Russell]] and the Duke of Monmouth were implicated in the plot. Essex slit his own throat while imprisoned in the Tower of London; Sydney and Russell were executed for high treason on very flimsy evidence; and the Duke of Monmouth went into exile at the court of William of Orange. Lord Danby and the surviving Catholic lords held in the Tower were released and the king's Catholic brother, James, acquired greater influence at court.<ref>{{harvnb|Hutton|1989|pp=420–423}}; {{harvnb|Miller|1991|pp=366–368}}.</ref> Titus Oates was convicted and imprisoned for defamation.{{sfn|Fraser|1979|p=437}}

Thus through the last years of Charles's reign, his approach towards his opponents changed, and he was compared by Whigs to the contemporary Louis XIV of France, with his form of government in those years termed "slavery". Many of them were prosecuted and their estates seized, with Charles replacing judges and sheriffs at will and packing juries to achieve conviction. To destroy opposition in London, Charles first disenfranchised many Whigs in the 1682 municipal elections, and in 1683 the [[Ancient borough#Charters of incorporation|London charter]] was forfeited. In retrospect, the use of the judicial system by Charles (and later his brother and heir James) as a tool against opposition helped establish the idea of [[separation of powers]] between the judiciary and the Crown in Whig thought.<ref>Marshall J. (2013). Whig Thought and the Revolution of 1688–91. In: Harris, T., & Taylor, S. (Eds.). (2015). ''The final crisis of the Stuart monarchy: the revolutions of 1688–91 in their British, Atlantic and European contexts'' (Vol. 16), Chapter 3. Boydell & Brewer.</ref>