DEATH OF CHARLES Il. 243 
in the Tower, to avoid Attainder and the forfeiture of his 
family estates. Monmouth made a confession of his 
misdeeds, and having received his father's pardon, was 
allowed to withdraw into honourable exile in Holland, 
9. 
Death of Charles II., 1685. The discovery of the Rye 
House Plot, and the punishment of the conspirators rendered 
Charles’s political position so strong, that he was little less 
than an absolute king. For three years he adopted the 
unconstitutional course of dispensing with a Parliament, 
although the Triennial Bill stated that a Parliament ought 
to be summoned every three years, He chose and dismissed 
his own ministers, just as he thought fit, and removed the 
judges when they did not please him, and filled their places 
with his own creatures, He largely increased the standing 
army as a protection against popular insurrections, and 
appointed all its officers. He set at defiance the Test Act 
by allowing the Duke of York to take his seat in the Council, 
and resume his office as High Admiral, and upon his own 
responsibility released Danby from imprisonment. 
Just at the time when Charles was at the height of his 
power, he was struck down by a fit of apoplexy. In 
his last moments Archbishop Sancroft came to his bedside 
and spoke to him in an unreserved manner about his hope of 
a future state, “Its time,” said the Archbishop, ‘“ %0 speak 
out, for, sir, yow are about to appear before a Judge who is no 
respecter of persons.” But the King took no heed of the 
Archbishop’s warning, and calling for his brother expressed 
a wish to be admitted into the Church of Rome. When the 
Bishops and courtiers had left the room, a priest named 
Huddleson, who had aided him in his escape from Worcester, 
came to his bedside, and received his confession, and having 
pronounced his absolution, administered the sacraments of 
the Roman Catholic Church, 
Charles retained his unaffected politeness to the very last, 
Although racked with intense pain he lingered on for some 
time in full possession of his faculties, and only the day 
before he died, apologized to those who stood round him 
all night for the trouble he had caused them, * He had 
been,” he said, “a most unconscionable time dying, but he