One of the main political aspects of the Restoration era was the revival of High Church Anglicanism, which had been in retreat ever since the outbreak of the English Civil War. This revival was an inevitable development, given that the High Church wing of Anglicanism had long provided a spiritual buttress to the English monarchy. High Church Anglicans believed in the divine right of kings and proved tireless propagandists on behalf of absolute rule—the kind of absolute rule to which King Charles II, like his father before him, aspired.
When Charles II came to the throne in 1660, High Church Anglicanism once more became the order of the day. In practice, this meant the persecution of Puritans within the Church of England, many of whom fled to the Netherlands and America in order to practice their religion in peace. It also meant a reconstruction of church government, with a revitalized hierarchy of bishops replacing the more democratic Presbyterian system introduced under Cromwell.
The biggest political issue during the Restoration period was the Restoration itself. This occurred in 1660 when a group of English nobles invited Charles II, exiled son of King Charles I, to take the crown of England. Charles II had fled into exile after his father was executed by Parliamentarians and Puritans during the English Civil War.
The return of Charles II reestablished the Stuart line that had begun with James I at the beginning of the century. His brother succeeded him as James II but was himself overthrown during the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. James II was deemed too friendly to Catholicism and was resented as an autocratic ruler (a charge made of all the Stuart monarchs).
Socially, the period is often regarded as one of economic well-being. Great Britain continued to expand as a global power, and the standard of living rose. It is also remembered as a period when British society turned away from the stern Puritanism that characterized the Commonwealth period, which was dominated by Oliver Cromwell. The art and architecture of the period is full of sensualism and is generally secular in nature. Yet there was also considerable resistance to the continued emergence of capitalism in the countryside and among the urban poor as lands were enclosed, food prices were subject to the market, and more and more people were driven into a landless working class.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/james_ii.shtml
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-english-restoration
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