town or village. This was done because most of the Dissenters lived in the towns and villages. Soon the prisons were filled with men who refused to stop preaching and ministering to their flocks. Among others who thus suffered was John Bunyan, the famous author of “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Bunyan spent twelve years in Bedford jail, earning a living for himself and family by making metal tags for laces, and employing his spare moments in writing books. It was in this reign, when old, poor, and blind, that John Milton, the great Puritan poet, wrote his “Paradise Lost.”
Bunyan and Milton are among the greatest writers of the 17th century, and both truly represent the best types of Puritanism. The fierce persecution of this time drove many to America, and among other colonies founded was that by William Penn, the Quaker, who bought from the Indians the right to settle in Pennsylvania.
5. Dutch War.—At the beginning of his reign Charles married Katharine of Portugal, and received as her dowry Bombay in India, and the fortress of Tangier in Morocco. This marriage displeased the English, as the queen was a Roman Catholic. In another way Charles angered his people: he sold the fortress of Dunkirk, which Cromwell had gained, to Louis XIV of France for money to spend on his low pleasures.
Not long after this, in 1665, a war broke out between England and Holland. These two nations were keen rivals for the supremacy of the sea, and Charles disliked the Dutch because they had driven him from their capital when he was in exile. One dispute led to another, until the vessels of the two nations came into conflict. A battle was fought off Lowestoft in Suffolk, in which the English won a victory; but they gained little by it, for the victory was not followed up by the Admiral, the Duke of York. The fleet _ was not kept in good condition for war; much of the money voted by Parliament being spent by Charles on unworthy favourites.
6. The Plague and the Fire of London.—And now a terrible calamity came upon London. The summer of 1665 was very hot, and the streets of London were very narrow and filthy. So when the plague travelled from the Hast to England, it found in London plenty of material on which to work. It broke out in May and raged till winter, during which time more than 100,000 people
