On This Day April 23

After Charles II returned from exile in Europe he was received in London on his 30th birthday to public acclaim. He marked his Restoration to the English  throne by riding over London Bridge with 300 gentlemen, brandishing swords and wearing ‘cloth-of-silver’ doublets. Charles was crowned at Westminster Abbey on April 23, 1661. He was the last sovereign to make the traditional procession from the Tower of London to Westminster Abbey the day before the coronation.

Coronation portrait by John Michael Wright, c. 1661

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