Charles II was restored to the throne in AD 1660 after almost ten years of exile in France and Holland. His French host, Louis XIV, an absolutist Catholic ruler with a glittering court, had a strong influence on him. Charles was a tolerant and pragmatic ruler, but he inherited some of his father’s belief in the divine right of kings and was drawn to Roman Catholicism. He negotiated secretly with Louis at several points in his reign and accepted money from him.

Charles brought many Continental ideas with him on his return. He appointed Sir Peter Lely (1618-80), born in Holland of German parents, his Principal Painter in 1661. Lely’s portraits of the Restoration court, painted in an ‘International Baroque’ style, helped to establish its glamorous and sophisticated image.

The fashionable informality of court dress, the loose drapery and soft silks and satins of the women’s low-cut dresses followed French fashion. In his Diary, Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) refers to his wife putting on ‘her French gown called a Sac [sacque].’ Charles also brought French dances to England. The Coranto, a favourite of Louis XIV, which involved many bows and curtseys, was, Pepys said ‘useful for any gentleman’ to learn.