The death of the king was not with the consent of the Covenanters; to them it was a poignant grief.  With all his faults they loved him still as their king.  Had he accepted the Solemn League and Covenant when a prisoner in their hands, they would have been at his service to restore his power and kingdom.  They still hoped for his reformation, entreated him to take the Covenant, and pointed him to a triumphal entry into Edinburgh.  They pleaded with the English Parliament to spare his life, and sent commissioners to prevent his execution.  Through his obstinacy they failed.  But that obstinacy he accounted kingly dignity and inviolable honor.  The Covenanters upon hearing of his tragic death hastened to proclaim his eldest son king in his stead, granting him the throne on condition of accepting the Solemn League and Covenant, and ruling the kingdom according to its terms.  He was a young man of nineteen years; “a prince of a comely presence; of a sweet, but melancholy aspect.  His face was regular, handsome, and well-complexioned; his body strong, healthy, and justly proportioned; and, being of a middle stature, he was capable of enduring the greatest fatigue.”

Charles II. while emerging from his teens faced a golden future.  The providence of God spread before him prospects of greatness, honor, and success, which the most exalted on earth might have envied.  His heart in its highest aspirations had not yet dreamed of the moral grandeur and kingly possibilities, that were granted him when the Covenanters called him to rule their kingdom.  Even Solomon, accepting a crown at the same age, was not more highly favored.  Scotland at this time was exalted into close relation with heaven; the National Covenant had lifted the kingdom into alliance with God; the people had been emancipated from darkness, Papacy, and Prelacy; the Gospel of Jesus Christ had overspread the land with light.  The Covenanted Church had flourished marvelously during the last decade, notwithstanding the storms that swept her borders; her branches veiled the mountains, and her fruit overhung the valleys; every parish was adorned with a schoolhouse, and the cities with colleges.  What sublime possibilities for a king at the head of such a nation!  Oh, that the young prince might have a dream in the slumbers of the night and see God!  Oh, for a vision, a prayer, and a gift, that will fit him for the glory-crested heights of privilege and power to which he has been advanced!  Charles II. failed, and fell from these heavens like Lucifer.

The young king was crowned by the Covenanters January 1, 1651.  The Crown of Scotland, sparkling with precious stones deeply set in purest gold, was his splendid New Year’s gift.  But the gift was more than a crown of gold and precious stones; it was a symbol of the nation’s power, wealth, people, Covenant, honor, and high relation to God, entrusted to his keeping.

The coronation took place in the dead of winter.  The country was gowned like a bride in white.  But the white on this occasion was not the emblem of purity; rather was it the pallor of icy death.  The rigorous storms seemed to prophesy of trouble; the very winds were rehearsing a dirge to be plaintively sung over mountains and moors in the coming years.